Black Book Project

Get into a sari and come into the scene.

American Shastra A Brief History

Indians and How They Shaped America

By Radha Rench Inspired by Toni Morrison’s Black Book

American Literature 2023

Shastra: A sacred Hindu scripture.

From the Sanskrit śāstra - instruction.

PREFACE

This project isn’t a comprehensive history of Indian Americans and their space in America. I begin from the early 19th-century, when there was an influx of Indian migration to the United States. I didn’t focus on the modern history; my interest was in whether there were any records of Indian-Americans in this country, and whether they did more than survive.

There are, and they did.

Angel Island

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Indian immigrants entered the U.S. through Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, CA.

(Above) Sant and Tulsi Ram, two Punjab brothers who landed in Angel Island via the S.S. Mongolia April 13, 1913. Sant Ram might have been deported due to his hookworm infection, had he not been able to buy medical treatment. Hookworm infections were a common reason for American immigration officials to discriminate South Asian immigrants and deport them. Hookworm was referred to as the “germ of laziness.” This perpetuated the misconception that Indians would drain resources and be unproductive members of society.

the picturesque Hindoo Excerpt from “The Picturesque Immigrant from India’s Coral Strand” by Saint Nihal Singh, 1909.

Essay featured in Out West magazine.

On February 19, 1923, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Indians could not become U.S. citizens.

Additionally, they revoked citizenship from many who had attained it.

In 1929, Vaishno Das Bagai rented a room in San Jose, California, turned on the gas, and killed himself. The Court’s ruling had stripped Bagai of his home, his business, and his citizenship, which he’d received in 1921.

This is his suicide letter that was published in the March 17, 1928 edition of the San

Francisco Examiner.

They will not permit me to buy my home and, lo, they even shall not issue me a passport to go back to india. now what am I? what have i made of myself and my children? we cannot exercise our rights, we cannot leave this country. is life worth living in a guilded cage? obstacles this way, blockades that way, and the bridges burnt behind. yes, you can call me coward in one respect, that i did not try to break the mountain with my naked head and fists.

Right: Actress Merle Oberon, whose mother was of Sinhalese and Maori descent.

Left top: Persis Khambatta, who played Lieutenant Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Left bottom: Kamala Devi, known for her roles in The Brass Bottle (1964), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and Branded (1965).

ON THE SCREEN Before Priyanka Chopra, there were these leading ladies.

BEHOLD! BEHOLD!A A PICTURESQUE PICTURESQUE HINDOO! HINDOO!

Swami Vivekananda

The Parliament of Religions was a panel held in Chicago’s 1893 World Fair. Though the World Fair aimed to show off technological inventions, the Parliament stole the show. Among them was Swami Vivekananda, a renowned disciple of the Hindu sage Ramakrishna.

“ SOME CAME TO FEEL THAT A PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS WAS THE NECESSITY OF THE AGE.” -- PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER JOHN HENRY BARROWS, EVENT CHAIRMAN.

Virchand Gandhi, Anagarika Dharmapala, and Swami Vivekananda at the World’s Parliament of Religions, 1893

VIVEKANANDA IS UNDOUBTEDLY THE GREATEST FIGURE IN THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. AFTER HEARING HIM WE FEEL HOW FOOLISH IT IS TO SEND MISSIONARIES TO THIS LEARNED NATION. - NEW YORK HERALD

Ruth St. Denis was a pioneer of the modern dance movement. She was not Indian. However, she was inspired by Indian culture and Hindu spirituality, she played Radha in a production titled Radha. She is pictured here in Hampton Broadway Magazine in 1908. Though the production wasn’t culturally accurate, St. Denis’ attempts to integrate the culture into Western production are noteworthy.

DANCE DANCE DANCE

Ruth St. Denis in 1932 performing an Indian Naucht or Noche dance.

[CLICK TO PLAY]

Get into a sari and come into the scene.

Top and first middle: Bardu Ali and Ella Fitzgerald.

Second middle: Ornette Coleman and Badal Roy. Bottom: Ravi Shankar’s album Improvisations.

Right page: Asha Puthli.

“To India, I come as a pilgrim.”

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta upon their arrival in New Delhi in 1959.

“There is no room in the United States of America for second-class Citizenship.”

--Dalip Singh Saund, first Indian elected to United States Congress.

Where the mind

is without fear

and the head

is held high

Yogi Bhajan, creator of Kundalini yoga

Bikram Choudhury, creator of Bikram Yoga

Cat Marjaryasana

Frog Mandukasana

“The lotus position has been rebranded "criss-cross apple sauce,” the Surya namaskar has become the "opening sequence" and the organisers insist that it is all just a form of physical exercise.”