Processed by
Emily Castle
January 2006
Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269
|
VOLUME OF |
1 manuscript box |
|
COLLECTION |
1999–2003 |
|
PROVENANCE: |
Clio Grant funded project, transferred from the Public Programs Department, 8 December 2003 |
|
RESTRICTIONS: |
None |
|
COPYRIGHT: |
|
|
REPRODUCTION |
Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained from the Indiana Historical Society. |
|
ALTERNATE |
|
|
RELATED |
|
|
ACCESSION |
2004.0061 |
|
NOTES: |
|
India in Indiana: the Asian Indian Diaspora in the Hoosier State was an oral history project exploring the history and cultural diversity of Indiana’s burgeoning Asian Indian ethnic communities. The project was funded by a Clio Grant and was under the co-direction of Professor John Bodnar at Indiana University-Bloomington and Professor Gail Hickey at Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne, principal investigators at the Indiana Universi ty Center for the Study of History and Memory.
They conducted twenty-two life history interviews in communities around the state with first- and second-generation Indian Americans. The methods used for collecting the data were to find a public association or institution that served the Indian-American community to provide first contact or they would get references from someone who had already been interviewed. They first tried communities in southern Indiana, but were unable to gain access to an active community of Indian-Americans.
Instead they turned their attention on northwest Indiana, choosing to collect interviews from the active communities in that area, many of which maintain strong ties with the Chicago Indian-American community. The number of interviews they ended with was not as many as originally hoped for, but they were pleased with the diversity and depth of the interviews they did collect. The primary data in the interviews provides insights not otherwise available into the lives and concerns of this group of immigrants to the state.
Sources:
Materials in collection
This collection consists of typescripts of interviews that were conducted as part of the India in Indiana: the Asian Indian Diaspora in the Hoosier State oral history project. The twenty-two interviews in this collection are arranged by date and represent a variety of age groups, professions, Indian states of origin, men and women, and both first- and second-generation Indian-Americans.
For the first-generation Indian-Americans questions of assimilation were paramount: what traditions of their homeland to maintain, and what traditions of their adopted country to practice. Of equal or greater importance was the maintenance of familial and social ties to those who were left behind. Long visits by parents, in-laws, and extended family members seemed to be a common feature of life in the first-generations families interviewed, as were regular visits back to India.
In the second generation, questions of assimilation were more challenging, for these children do not share the same memories of another homeland that their parents have, even though parents stressed the importance of continuity of their cultural tradition in raising their children. As the children become older, they question Indian cultural traditions that clash with American traditions.
|
CONTENTS |
CONTAINER |
|
Final Report, 2003 |
Box 1, Folder 1 |
|
List of Interviewees, n.d. |
Box 1, Folder 2 |
|
Puja Gupta, 23 Nov. 1999 |
Box 1, Folder 3 |
|
Swapan K. Ghosh, 16 Apr. 2000 |
Box 1, Folder 4 |
|
Ravi Korrapati, 2 May 2000 |
Box 1, Folder 5 |
|
Tamil Maran, 4 May 2000 |
Box 1, Folder 6 |
|
Girdhari Lal, 6 May 2000 |
Box 1, Folder 7 |
|
Raj Menon, 8 May 2000 |
Box 1, Folder 8 |
|
Toban J. Emmanuel, 9 May 2000 |
Box 1, Folder 9 |
|
Manjula Ranganath, 19 May 2000 |
Box 1, Folder 10 |
|
Narsi Patel, 28 June 2000 |
Box 1, Folder 11 |
|
Rita Ghosh, 16 Sept. 2000 |
Box 1, Folder 12 |
|
Moninder Singh, 30 Mar. 2001 |
Box 1, Folder 13 |
|
Harpal Singh, 2 Apr. 2001 |
Box 1, Folder 14 |
|
Mitoholi Suu, 27 Apr. 2001 |
Box 1, Folder 15 |
|
Dr. Amitava Dutt, 11 Mar. 2002 |
Box 1, Folder 16 |
|
Samir and Sudesh Bose, 11 Mar. 2002 |
Box 1, Folder 17 |
|
Jaishankar Raman, 13 July 2002 |
Box 1, Folder 18 |
|
Aman Alagh, 13 July 2002 |
Box 1, Folder 19 |
|
Bharat and Panna Barai, 2 Nov. 2002 |
Box 1, Folder 20 |
For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:
1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog: http://opac.indianahistory.org/
2. Click on the "Basic Search" icon.
3. Select "Call Number" from the "Search In:" box.
4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, M 0864).
5. When you find the collection, go to the "Full Record" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.