The Beginning

The Indian American community in the United States is over a million and a half strong, but this large number has grown from small beginnings and an expansion of immigration within the last thirty years.

The first Indian immigrant entered the United States in 1790 as a maritime worker, as part of the early commerce connections between India and the U.S. After that, the next noticeable groups of Indians came to the west- coast of the United States, in the state of Washington, entering from Canada. These early twentieth century immigrants were largely agricultural workers. In the early 1920s only about five thousand Indians resided in the Unites States. During that time Indians were denied citizenship and the right to own land in many states. After World War II, the U.S. desire for more professionals, particularly doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs, facilitated the immigration of Indians. In 1946, the Indian Citizenship Bill, co-sponsored in a bipartisan effort of Congressmen Emmanuel Celler and Clare Booth Luce, legalized the ability of Indian immigrants to seek naturalization and granted India a token quota of one hundred immigrants annually.

When the Immigration Act of 1965 lifted immigrant quotas that had been in place for more than fifty years, the entry of Indians into the United States increased during the late 1960s and ‘70s. In 1960, estimates showed only five thousand Indians were in the United States, but by 1970, this population had grown to approximately three hundred and fifty thousand. The 1990 U.S. Census records the number of Indian-Americans at 815, 447, and between the 1980 and 1990 Census, the annual growth rate of the community was 8.5 percent.

» Read more: Indians in American Administration: Emerging Dimensions