By: Pramod Thomas
A GROUP of Indian Americans have come together to write an anthology, inspired by the historic election of Kamala Harris as the vice president of the US, about the rise of Indian Americans.
Compiled and edited by veteran editor Tarun Basu, the ‘Kamala Harris and the rise of Indian Americans’ anthology explores the story of advancements of Indian diaspora through 16 essays.
“The story of Harris ascending to the vice presidency is one of public service, and of struggle, hard work and the diaspora’s potential to succeed. She embodies the promise that so many first- and second-generation Indian Americans are aspiring to-whether in public service or an increasing array of different fields-as this book attests to,” said venture capitalist M R Rangaswami, founder of Indiaspora which plays an advisory role in the book.
“We have grown from a community that largely had numbers in a few professions to one that now has both breadth and depth, with influence in several different areas. From academia to tech, from business to medicine, from hospitality to government, we are actively shaping industries in the US and globally, and our rise to political power, especially within this last decade, has been incredible to behold.”
He added: “This anthology maybe the first of its kind, and much needed in terms of highlighting our diaspora’s history in the US and its progress. I hope our children and their children will read it so that they are inspired to serve in whichever field or arena they feel compelled.”
Harris, 56, is the first woman, the first black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected the vice president in the US.
Indian Americans now number more than four million in the US with 1.8 million as eligible voters.
Authors in the anthology include former Indian Ambassador to the US Arun K Singh, Shashi Tharoor MP, former diplomat T P Sreenivasan, former India Abroad editor Aziz Haniffa, chancellor of University of California San Diego Pradeep K Khosla, chairman of Pratham USA Deepak Raj, chief strategy officer for the Battered Women’s Justice project Sujata Warrier, co-founder of Manavi Shamita Das Dasgupta, chief operating officer of Global Press Laxmi Parthasarathy, scholar and professor Maina Chawla Singh, and veteran journalists Mayank Chhaya, Arun Kumar and Suman Guha Majumder.
