Category: MEDIA

By Gouri Dange

I have a question. The Indian diaspora in the US amounts to some… wait, let me Wiki it… ok, here it is: “According to the 2010 US Census, the Asian Indian population in the United States was 1,678,765 in 2000 and grew to 2,843,391 in 2010, a growth rate of 69.37 percent, the highest for any Asian American community, and among the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States.” (Now ‘fastest growing’ meaning the existing ones are having babies all over the place, or more of our compatriots are joining the hordes there? My statistics-challenged mind is not able to figure that one out. But I digress.)

The point that is noteworthy is that in spite of this sizable presence, Indians are rarely seen as part of the script in most sitcoms, romcoms, detective serials, and courtroom or hospital dramas. Now why is that?

Before Indian readers instantly start getting all grumpy about this fact and talk about poor representation and discrimination and all of that, I think we Indians have a hand in this invisibility too. It’s because of the way most Indians are seen to live in the US. Indians by and large (and getting larger) stick to their own kind, work hard, and are not seen as people who hang around coffee shops named Central Perk or shoot baskets with colleagues or sit at the bar after a long day in the courtroom.

The overall impression (partly right, partly wrong) is that they work long hours (take a look at ‘Asok’ from the Dilbert comic strip), scurry home or to an Indian restaurant or to a theatre showing a Bollywood movie or to an Indian wedding (synonymous with a Bollywood movie most times). This is why Indians perhaps simply do not form part of the script or landscape of American TV shows. And I rarely or never see an Indian name in the crew credits either.

The only famous Indian who appeared once on Oprah pouted and neighed her way through the whole show in a hilariously wannabe accent, in a forgettable appearance some years ago. And of course she showed Oprah how to wear a sari. Now if that isn’t typecasting ourselves…

As for fiction characters, there is Apu on The Simpsons. He is predictably the owner of a grocery store and has eight children. (Again, I’m not COMPLAINING here, I am just pointing out how we are perceived.) Hilariously, one scene particularly sticks in my mind: When everyone is making sand castles or other fun stuff on the beach, Apu is industriously making a replica of – what else – The Taj Mahal. And when someone knocks it down inadvertently, he takes great umbrage and cries out in bitter outrage: “You have desecrated our National Monument, you fat American!”

Only recently has an Indian girl called Priya been worked into the Big Bang Theory (Z Café). But already we know that her mother would kill her if she knew she was seeing this boy.

In the hospital comedy Scrubs (FX, Star World, Z Café) too, very few Indians are visible, though we know for sure that in real life, US hospitals are stacked high with Indian doctors. All you see in Scrubs, at the most, is a frightened looking sort of Indian-sub-continent intern as part of the backdrop. I also recently spotted what was supposed to be a Sikh doctor sitting with senior doctors Kelso and Perry on an episode of Scrubs, but he was wearing something like a maroon lacquer box with a thin border of tinsel on his head, which they were trying to pass off as a turban. Strange.

The series Becker had the Ted Danson character in New York refer to an Indian only once – when he returns home and hears – what else – a blaring radio with a Hindi song, and shouts out down the stairwell: “hey Asian guy, turn it down, or I’ll call Immigration.”

Friends has never had an Indian in it (someone correct me if I am wrong) in spite of the fact that it is set in New York, and none of the six friends could possibly live in that city without tripping over one of us Indians.

Knowing the American propensity to be oh-so-fair-and-inclusive (the latest is the so very PC thing of saying Happy Holidays and not Merry Christmas, because in a racially mixed society someone may burst into tears for being included in a Christian greeting, apparently), I’m surprised that there aren’t more Indians on American TV and films, even as incidental characters. However, perhaps they steer clear of it all, given that they don’t really know the Indian in their midst at all.

Naming no Names is the mid-week column where novelist, columnist and counsellor Gouri Dange presents her tongue-in-cheek view of our world.