South Asian Invisibility in the Asian American Narrative

Apr 13, 2021

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, hate crimes against Asian Americans have been on the rise. From the non-responsiveness of government institutions to white supremacist terrorist attacks, many have rightfully taken to the streets to protest. Over the past few months, social media timelines have been flooded with mutual aid and GoFundMe links, education resources, and overall outrage.

As an Indian American woman, though, I sense an overlooking of hate crimes against brown-skinned Asians—specifically the hate that has been targeted against those from South Asia. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an Asian person is one who has origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent. Yet, the term “anti-Asian” is predominantly used in reference to attacks on those with origins in East Asia.

So why don’t I see my face in Asian American media? Where are my aunties and uncles who have been assaulted or brutally murdered? After all, we are Asian too... aren’t we?

While ignorance runs rampant in certain Asian communities, it is important to recognize that East Asians are not to blame for this exclusion; the fault lies in imperialism. Before the term “Asian American” was coined, East Asian people were generally referred to as the derogatory term: “Orientals.” The word “Orient” was originally adopted to describe nations in the Eastern world, relative to Europe. However, the scope of the term has changed several times throughout history. During the 1800s, “the Orient” described a region encompassing anywhere from Moscow to Egypt to China, and later shifted to describe the Asian continent. By the mid-20th century, however, the term was predominantly used by Western scholars to address anyone with East Asian heritage. It was not until the 1960s and 1970s that “Oriental” was used by white Americans to marginalize and alienate East Asian Americans during the Cold War.

Since the late 20th century, the derogatory term has maintained a racist and objectifying intent. While it is politically correct to use “Oriental” to discuss objects with an East Asian background, the most common example being rugs, this term is loaded with racist intent and perpetuates an inaccurate association of Asianness with solely East Asians.

In response to derogatory terms like “Oriental,” the “Asian American” identity was birthed by Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka in 1968. They sought to increase the visibility of activists of Asian descent through a student organization which they named the Asian American Political Alliance, drawing inspiration from the Black Power Movement. While they intended to be inclusive to all Asians, the “Asian American Movement” was referred to as the “Yellow Power Movement.” As a result, East Asian Americans were centered as the dominant voice in the movement, and later, in Asian American studies. And while Southeast and South Asians vocally opposed the exclusivity of the Asian American movement, Southeast Asian American issues have been considerably more recognized today than those of South Asian Americans.

Pan-Asianism, or the Asian solidarity movement which aims to create a united defense against Western imperialism, was solidified in Asia in the early 1900s. Organizations like the Asiatic Humanitarian Brotherhood were formed by anarchists and socialists with the intent of promoting collective liberation through published writings. Despite efforts at pan-Asian unity, though, it’s impossible to rewrite our fractured history; as Japan’s imperial empire grew, the pan-Asian movement was manipulated to fuel the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere that legitimized the Japanese empire’s expansion.

Pan-Asian Gathering in Tokyo in the late 1930s. Source: The Asia-Pacific Journal

And so, the movement was lost in a narrative enhanced by Western scholars and politicians that pitted East Asian and South Asian ethnic groups against each other. The pan-Asianism movement was often compared to the pan-Germanism movement which was used to advance Nazism. As a result, the American perception of South Asian identities formed in separate spheres than those of East Asians, dating back to the mass immigration movements of the early 1900s.

The Indian subcontinent was under British colonial rule from 1858 to 1947, and many of the first South Asian immigrants were Punjabi farmworkers escaping British exploitation and university students seeking an education in America. Following the onset of the 1900s, though, British exploitation worsened as farmers were forced to grow cash crops like indigo instead of food crops, causing a severe famine. As an increasing number of farmworkers emigrating in hopes of supporting their family’s physical and financial needs, university students began rallying for the Indian freedom struggle, which threatened Britain’s colonial government. In 1904, Theodore Roosevelt legitimized the British colonial rule of India by comparing it to American rule in the Philippines, and the U.S. government followed British demands to enforce restrictions on the “Asiatic Barred Zone.” In 1923, South Asians were deemed ineligible for naturalization in the Supreme Court case the United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind. On top of their dehumanization from Western institutions, South Asians were confronted by violent, racially motivated riots from American and European labor unions, forcing South Asians to work only in agriculture.

Despite this history of oppression, the U.S. Census Bureau classified Indian Americans as white because they were not considered a “discriminated minority group.” It was not until 1980 that “Asian Indian” was created as a category on the census, and by 2000, the term “South Asian” was coined to include Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, and Nepalese Americans.

Graphic: Kaitlyn He, *Social Media Strategist*

What the experiences of South and East Asians have in common though (aside from geographical location), is white imperial domination. South Asians, like those from the East, have suffered under the same oppressive white imperialist regimes. We have all been bombed, brutally murdered, degraded, and dehumanized. With this shared history of violence in mind, I can’t help but wonder where South Asians fit into the Asian American Movement today.

The fact of the matter is, we don’t. While #StopAsianHate was born from Sinophobia and specifically targets people who are perceived to be Chinese, the term “Asian” has long been used in reference to a subgroup that negates the Asianness of non-East Asian ethnic groups. Thus, the issue is in the exclusivity of what is perceived as “Asian” itself. “South Asian” hate exists outside of the Asian narrative despite their inherent Asianness, and the hyper-focusing of East Asians in the Asian American community perpetuates this exclusion.

Countless Asian lives have been lost without acknowledgment because they were not perceived to be Asian. Movements like #StopAsianHate were nonexistent when 71-year-old Sahib Singh Natt was attacked by the son of a Manteca Police Department chief. There was no solidarity or outrage, no vigils, or Twitter threads when four Indians were violently attacked within two weeks in 2017. Granted, the increasing use of social media attributes to a rise in community support that did not exist prior to the late 2010s. But following the frequent hate crimes against South Asian Americans in 2017, the FBI reported that anti-Sikh crimes rose by 200% in 2019, making Sikhs the third most commonly targeted religious group in America. And still, this threat towards a population of hundreds of thousands of Indian Americans has garnered little attention.

The same can be said about anti-Asian hate crimes targeted towards South Asian Americans within the past few months. On March 21, a 68-year-old Sri Lankan immigrant, Narayange Bodhi, was attacked on a Manhattan train and suffered from severe head injuries and even memory loss. I found it astounding that this incident did not provoke outrage the way attacks against East Asian Americans have. I, myself, had not heard about tragedy until recently.

Artwork by Sahana Arun. Source: South Asian Today

East Asians did not segregate the Asian identity, but South Asian feelings of invisibility in the general Asian American community have not been addressed. Nevertheless, it’s important not to point fingers at East Asians for a narrative written by white people. South Asians have been imputed to denigrating terms like “terrorists,” “dirty,” and “greedy,” but East Asians are also stranded in the political narrative of the model minority myth. East and South Asians have been cherry-picked to fulfill a stereotype prescribed by white culture and adopted by their own. We all have struggled with the imposter syndrome imposed on us for not meeting intangible expectations of academic and financial success. While attacks against East and South Asians vary in objective, they share the same roots in white supremacy.

And so, it is not the responsibility of Asian Americans to remedy whiteness and desegregate the Asian narrative, nor is it possible. There simply is no way to “undo” imperialism. No amount of Instagram posts or Snapchat stories will pull India out of a state of perpetual poverty, just like no amount of letters to Congress will stop the US government from using the Philippines as a dumping ground for foreign waste. East and South Asian groups must unite, not to create a homogeneous Asian American community, but to collectively confront their unique issues.

“In order for Asian Americans to further advance as a political voice in the United States, it is imperative to address historical hierarchies, community dynamics, and inter-ethnic conflicts.”
— Kevin L Nadal
Author, Activist, and Professor

The only way to bridge this gap is by decolonizing our minds through active self-education.

Authors like Eri Hotta, who explores the relationship between pan-Asianism and Japanese imperialism, or Arundhati Roy, who analyzes the effects of global capitalism on South Asia, are great resources for learning about the distinct and collective struggles of Asians. Book recommendations can be found here.

Coalitions and organizations to consider joining or supporting include the Sikh Coalition, DRUM: Desis Rising Up and Moving, SAQTC: South Asian Queer + Trans Collective, and API Chaya.

And finally, here’s a video just for laughs.

I’d love to hear from you all! How did you previously define “Asian American?” Where else do you see an underrepresentation of South Asian Americans? Leave a comment below. Thank you!

Politically Invisible Asians

Discussion about this post