28th and Lex.: Little India's Language and
Culture
Chandrika Jayant and Michael Saltzman
The purpose of this report is to investigate
the use of languages other than English in the Indian community known as
Little India, centered around the intersection of 28th Street and
Lexington Avenue in Lower Manhattan. Although we are aware that there
exist larger communities of Indian language speakers in the outer boroughs
of New York, we felt that the area we chose is more integrated with other
ethnic groups. The focus of our study was oriented towards Indian
language speakers, but we were equally interested in recognizing the
symbiotic relationship between Indians and their neighbors. As we
discovered, the Indian community in the area, while definite and vital, is
not especially large (as compared to the Queens/Jackson Heights area,
where the Indian population is now almost 110,000, the area we studied is
the home of only about 2,000 or less). Therefore, it lacks a strong and
centralized sense of identity. Also, in terms of government organizations
such as schools, hospitals, and law enforcement, Little India is but a
slight portion of their jurisdictions and its languages are not of primary
concern to such institutions. In our report, we will present the fruits
of our research scouting the neighborhood for evidence of Indian language
and culture by examining census information, our personal knowledge and
observations, the school district, city government services, religion and
community organizations, and the preservation of Indian culture through
the media and commerce.
CENSUS
To start, we looked up census data on Indian
immigrants and residents of New York City in order to get some background
information for our report. According to the 2000 census, the Asian
Indian population in New York City grew by 81 % in the last 10 years,
making it 170,899. Indians are the second largest Asian group after the
Chinese. As we were aware, the greatest number of Indians in New York
City live in Queens, with a population of 109,114. Asian Americans
comprise over 10 % of the New York City population and are the fastest
growing national minority. Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi immigrants
have also doubled over the past 10 years. With this vital information
under our belt, we headed to Little India.
ENTERING LITTLE INDIA
The first time we walked through Little
India (this is what many locals and New Yorkers call it), we were shocked
that after merely a few blocks, it was completely gone and replaced by
French bistros and Mexican eateries. We walked into a saree store
(traditional Indian dress) and found out from a clerk that many of the
Indians in the community were recent immigrants. She asked her boss some
questions for us, and had to translate the answers from Hindi. This act
of translation in Indian run businesses became a common occurrence for us
during our investigation. Usually, at least one employee (often older
members of the staff) did not speak English at all. However, according to
the owner of the saree store, about 90 percent of the local Indians
understand or speak English, though to what degree she could not clarify.
A young employee in a grocery store next door backed this up; he explained
to us that while most of the local Indian residents are recent immigrants,
the vast majority speak English and conduct their business in English as
well, having learned English to varying degrees in their native country.
He also told us that most of the Indian residents speak Hindi. We spoke
with a local librarian who said that in the Little India area, Gujarat and
Punjabi are also common Indian languages. Other ethnic languages spoken
nearby include Bengali, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, and Hebrew. We saw
proof of this mix when we walked by a Mexican restaurant (staffed by
Chinese employees) right beside Indian groceries and buffet restaurants.
We did see at least three or four signs for restaurants with Indian,
Pakistani, and Bangladeshi cuisine. We also saw a few Middle Eastern
restaurants and various signs in Arabic script. We did not notice much
visible tension between cultures-North and South Indians shared
restaurants and stores, and the mentioned ethnic groups above intermingled
freely. However, we did notice slight tension between Pakistanis and
Indians. For example, when we mistakenly asked for Indian newspapers at a
Pakistani newsstand, the clerk was cold in his response. But this was not
the norm. On the central corner of Little India, we saw a Hasidic Jew
engaged in conversation with what appeared to be an orthodox Hindu, as
Latinos schlepped by. Only in New York!
SCHOOL DISTRICT
Our next stop was P.S. 116 on 33rd Street
between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. While this is the local primary public
school covering Little India, it takes students from a very large area and
thus not a large percentage of the school is of Indian descent. We
arrived just as school was letting out and talked to an Indian woman
picking up her children. She spoke broken English and was only able to
tell us that she did not know of many Indian children that attended P.S.
116. She told us that she had just recently immigrated with her three
children from Bombay. Interestingly, she commented that her children were
learning English very quickly and had not needed to attend English
language classes at school. She joked that if she had her children's
skill with the English language, she would be a famous writer or
journalist. We spoke to Judith G. Marlowe, the English as a Second
Language (ESL) teacher for grades three through five. She told us that
she had only a few Indian language speakers as students and that they
speak Urdu, a standardized form of Hindi written in Arabic script, and
that there were very few, if any, Indian students in the lower grades of
ESL. This led us to believe that of the already few Indian students
attending the school, most are already fluent or semi-fluent in English
and did not require the help of an ESL class when they came to P.S. 116.
The languages spoken by the other students in Ms. Marlowe's ESL classes
include: Azerbaijani, Chinese, Spanish, Sindi (Pakistani), Turkish,
Vietnamese, and Russian.
CITY GOVERNMENT SERVICES
As we stated previously in the report,
because of the small size of the Indian community we researched, there are
not specialized government agencies or programs available solely for
Indian language speakers. For example, the nearest police station, the
13th precinct, has only minimal translation services available for Indian
languages and it is clearly not a common concern of the police there.
When we called the station, the officer we spoke with was not even
initially certain of the specific translation services available although
he did insist that they existed. Similarly, the hospital in the area, the
Beth Israel Medical Center on 16th Street and 1st Avenue, told us that
there were interpreters for their patients but did not put much weight on
the issue. The secretary seemed offended that we assumed the Indian
patients would need translation, as she informed us that there were
multiple Indian doctors at the hospital. Also, we saw at least two local
Indian doctor's offices in the central Little India area.
RELIGION AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
There are no Hindu temples in the Little
India community due to its limited size. Many of the Indians we talked to
said that they went to temple in Queens. We found out that the only main
Hindu temples in Manhattan are the Sri Nitai Gauranga Mandir temple on 3rd
Avenue and the Vedanta Society on 71st Street. We felt that the presence
of a temple in Little India itself would create more unity that seems to
be lacking in the area especially among newer immigrants. However, we
thought that many of the people we spoke to were more concerned with
getting their lives started in America economically rather than
spiritually. The 2000 census did mention, however, that in the past 10
years, the temple going population has increased proportionally 50%.
There do seem to be a number of smaller Indian organizations in the Little
India community, as we saw advertised on numerous flyers on the streets.
Many of the flyers had to do with Indian classical dance (Bharatanatyam)
and music, taught, it seemed, in the native language to preserve ethnic
identity.
PRESERVATION
While we noticed that most Indians had
learned English, and that the community was not tied together in a united
religious center, we did see much Indian culture preserved in other terms.
The dance and music classes that we already discussed were one example,
while the extensive selection of Indian imported foods and decorative
products on sale in the area were another. Many of these products had no
English written on them anywhere. There were plenty of Indian magazines
and newspapers available in Little India, some in English covering
primarily Indian concerns, others written in Hindi. Currently, the
English language Indian newspapers like desiTalk and India
Post, are still focused on the September 11 tragedy in relation to
Indian communities in the United States and the affect it will have on
U.S.- Indian relations. More preservation of the Indian language was seen
through the local availability of Indian made films and cd's. The Indian
language movies were available for sale in many stores and also in the
local public library. Interestingly, the library had a limited selection
of Indian language books available, and we did not see any book stores in
the area either. There were also multiple Indian clothing stores,
preserving Indian ethnic dress, although we did notice that the largest of
these stores featured clearly Caucasian mannequins in its display.
After spending time in Little India and
learning about the area, its people, and its relationship with other
neighboring regions, we recognized a fast linguistic assimilation coupled
with a slower cultural one. Many recent immigrants have learned English
successfully but are reluctant to dive into "American" society.
Curiously, most of the Indian population seems to have forgone much
traditional Indian culture as well. We felt that the reason for this may
be that in this particular Indian population, which is composed largely of
recent immigrants, the residents have to work extra hard just to support
themselves in their competitive new environment, especially as inherently
disadvantaged foreign language speakers. This may not allow for excess
time to enjoy cultural activities. Also, the lack of a centralized
meeting-place or a temple makes it harder to have a sense of community.
New York City seems to assume that these Indian immigrants are fluent
English speakers and thereby does not provide many services for linguistic
accommodation. While the residents of Little India have not embraced
American culture and have given up some of their own, they seem to have
filled in the gaps with other ethnic groups' traditions, foods, and pop
culture. The linguistic state of Little India is very much one of
transition, and nearly everyone we met was a part of this process.
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