Desis Divided
The Political Lives of South Asian Americans
Sangay K. Mishra
Focusing on Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi American communities, Sangay K. Mishra analyzes internal characteristics that lead to multiple paths of political inclusion. This exploration is critical to understanding the changing nature of the politics of immigrant inclusion—and difference—in America.
Sangay K. Mishra’s book is the first of its kind involving the politics of South Asians in the United States. Desis Divided fills an important gap in the study of Asian American politics and speaks to a larger literature on minority political incorporation, showing both the strengths and limitations of Desi political involvement.
Karthick Ramakrishnan, University of California, Riverside
For immigrants to America, from Europeans in the early twentieth century through later Latinos, Asians, and Caribbeans, gaining social and political ground has generally been considered an exercise in ethnic and racial solidarity. The experience of South Asian Americans, one of the fastest-growing immigrant populations in recent years, tells a different story of inclusion—one in which distinctions within a group play a significant role.
Focusing on Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi American communities, Sangay K. Mishra analyzes features such as class, religion, nation of origin, language, caste, gender, and sexuality in mobilization. He shows how these internal characteristics lead to multiple paths of political inclusion, defying a unified group experience. How, for instance, has religion shaped the fractured political response to intensified discrimination against South Asians—Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs—in the post-9/11 period? How have class and home country concerns played into various strategies for achieving political power? And how do the political engagements of professional and entrepreneurial segments of the community challenge the idea of a unified diaspora? Pursuing answers, Mishra argues that, while ethnoracial mobilization remains an important component of South Asian American experience, ethnoracial identity is deployed differently by particular sectors of the South Asian population to produce very specific kinds of mobilizing and organizational infrastructures. And exploring these distinctions is critical to understanding the changing nature of the politics of immigrant inclusion—and difference itself—in America.
Awards
2017 Book Award on Asian America from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Asia & Asian America
$27.00 paper ISBN 978-0-8166-8116-7
$94.50 cloth ISBN 978-0-8166-8115-0
288 pages, 2 b&w photos, 12 tables, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, 2016
Sangay K. Mishra is assistant professor of political science at Drew University in Madison New Jersey.
Sangay K. Mishra’s book is the first of its kind involving the politics of South Asians in the United States. Desis Divided fills an important gap in the study of Asian American politics and speaks to a larger literature on minority political incorporation, showing both the strengths and limitations of Desi political involvement.
Karthick Ramakrishnan, University of California, Riverside
Mishra paints a picture of a community whose heterogeneity has manifested itself in remarkable ways. There was so much about the South Asian American political experience that I did not truly appreciate until I read Desis Divided.
The Aerogram
Recommended.
CHOICE
Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction: Situating Desis in U.S. Ethnoracial Politics
1. South Asian Americans and Immigration Regimes: Exclusion, Ghadar Rebellion, and Silicon Valley
2. Political Incorporation and New Immigrants: Beyond Racial Solidarity
3. Race, Religion, and Communities: South Asians in the Post-9/11 United States
4. Mapping the Modes of Mobilization
5. Transnationalism and Political Participation: The Challenges of “In-Between” Americans
6. Diasporic Nationalism and Fragments Within
Conclusion: Negotiating Identities and Crafting Solidarities
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About This Book
Related Publications
Related News & Events
NBn podcast: Desis Divided by Sangay Mishra
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NBn podcast: Desis Divided by Sangay Mishra
While the number of South Asian Americans living in the U.S. has been growing rapidly over the last several decades, many still ignore their politics. Instead, the model-minority myth leads many to assume the community is a homogenous and largely economically successful group. Mishra dispels this dominant myth with his nuanced account of how the desi community has been shaped by recent political events, especially September 11th, 2001, and has begun to itself shape politics. His book draws attention to the trans-national dimensions of this community and the ways links to home country continue to link those living in the U.S. to political events elsewhere.
The Wire: Deepening Fault Lines Within the Indian-American Community
The diasporic narratives, both in US and India, often paint the Indian-American community with a broad brush, suggesting a unified community. A closer look, however, suggests this narrative to be only partially true.
Raiot: Muslim Racialization and US Law Enforcement Agencies
Excerpt of Sangay Mishra's DESIS DIVIDED.
Muslim Racialization and US Law Enforcement Agencies
Desis Divided: The Political Lives of South Asian Americans by Sangay K. Mishra (University of Minnesota Press, 2016) is the first of its kind involving the politics of South Asians in the United States. Desis Divided fills an important gap in the study of Asian American politics and speaks to a larger literature on minority political incorporation, showing both the strengths and limitations of Desi political involvement.
The Aerogram: Desis Divided looks at South Asian American politics through an intersectional lens
How can two words possibly encapsulate the breadth of the experience?