Home About us Products Services Contact us Bookmark
:: wikimiki.org ::
Indian

Indian

Indian or Indians can refer to:
- Anything from or related to the country of India, including:
  - The people of India, also referred to as Bharatiyas
  - People born in India
  - The many languages of India
  - The Indian subcontinent or the adjoining Indian Ocean
  - The Asian American subgroup, Indian Americans
  - The Asian Australian subgroup, Australian Indians
  - Indian Airlines branded as Indian
- Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the aboriginal people of the Americas and their descendants, also known as American Indians
  - People from the West Indies, mainly descended from African slaves and indentured servants from India, are called West Indians.
  - The people of the East Indies are called East Indians
  - Indigenous people of Brazil
- (archaic) aboriginal people in general
- A classic U.S. motorcycle: see Indian (motorcycle).
- The Cleveland Indians baseball team in the United States
- Indians, a Chicago monument created by Ivan Meštrović.
- The constellation called Indus.
- Indian ink is a carbon based ink.
- Indians is the title of a play by Arthur Kopit
- Indian is a 1996 Tamil movie by S. Shankar starring Kamal Haasan and music composed by A.R. Rahman. ja:インディアン simple:Indian

India

The Republic of India is a country in South Asia which comprises of the majority of the Indian subcontinent. India has a coastline which stretches over seven thousand kilometres, and shares its borders with Pakistan to the west, the People's Republic of China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, and Bangladesh and Myanmar on the east. On the Indian Ocean, it is adjacent to the island nations of the Maldives on the southwest, Sri Lanka on the south, and Indonesia on the southeast. India also claims a border with Afghanistan to the northwest. India is the fourth largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity. It is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of over one billion, and is the seventh largest country by geographical area. It is home to some of the most ancient civilizations, and a centre of important historic trade routes. Four major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism have originated from India. Formerly a major part of the British Empire as the British Raj before gaining independence in 1947, during the past twenty years the country has grown significantly, especially in its economic and military spheres, regionally as well as globally. The name India , is derived from the Old Persian version of Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the river Indus; see Origin of India's name. The Constitution of India and general usage also recognises Bharat ( ), which is derived from the Sanskrit name of an ancient Hindu king, whose story is to be found in the Mahabharata, as an official name of equal status. A third name, Hindustan ( ) , or Land of the Hindus in Persian, has been used since the twelfth century, though its contemporary use is unevenly applied due to domestic disputes over its representiveness as a national signifier.

History

Stone Age rock shelters with paintings at Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of human life in India. The first known permanent settlements appeared 9,000 years ago and developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, which peaked between 2600 BC and 1900 BC. It was followed by the Vedic Civilisation. From around 550 BC onwards, many independent kingdoms came into being. In the north, the Maurya dynasty, which included Ashoka, contributed greatly to India's cultural landscape. From 180 BC, a series of invasions from Central Asia followed, with the successive establishment in the northern Indian Subcontinent of the Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian kingdoms, and finally the Kushan Empire. From the 3rd century AD onwards the Gupta dynasty oversaw the period referred to as ancient India's "Golden Age". Gupta dynasty built by emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BC]] In the south, several dynasties including the Chalukyas, Cheras, Cholas, Kadambas, Pallavas and Pandyas prevailed during different periods. Science, art, literature, mathematics, astronomy, engineering, religion and philosophy flourished under the patronage of these kings. Following the Islamic invasions in the beginning of the second millennium, much of north and central India came to be ruled by the Delhi Sultanate, and later, much of the entire subcontinent by the Mughal dynasty. Nevertheless, several indigenous kingdoms remained or rose to power, especially in the relatively sheltered south. Vijayanagara Empire was notable among such kingdoms. During the middle of the second millennium, several European countries, including the Portuguese, Dutch, French and British, who were initially interested in trade with India, took advantage of fractured kingdoms fighting each other to establish colonies in the country. After a failed insurrection in 1857 against the British East India Company, popularly known in India as the First War of Indian Independence and most commonly known in the West as the Indian Mutiny, most of India came under the direct administrative control of the crown of the British Empire. British Empire, Orissa built in the 13th century, is one of the most famous monuments of stone sculpture in the world.]] sculpture in the 10th century AD.]] In the early part of the 20th century, a prolonged and largely non-violent struggle for independence, the Indian independence movement, followed, to be eventually led by Mahatma Gandhi, regarded officially as the Father Of The Nation. The culmination of this path-breaking struggle was reached on 1947-08-15 when India gained full independence from British rule, later becoming a republic on 1950-01-26. As a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, India has had its share of sectarian violence and insurgencies in different parts of the country. Nonetheless, it has held itself together as a secular, liberal democracy barring a brief period from 1975 to 1977 during which the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a "state of emergency" with the suspension of civil rights. India has unresolved border disputes with China, which escalated into a brief war in 1962, and Pakistan which resulted in wars in 1947, 1965, and 1971, and a border altercation in the northern state of Kashmir in 1999. India was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations. In 1974, India conducted an underground nuclear test, making it an unofficial member of the "nuclear club", which was followed up with a series of five more tests in 1998. Significant economic reforms beginning in 1991 have transformed India into one of the fastest growing economies in the world and added to its global clout.

Government

The Constitution of India states India to be a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. India is a federal republic, with a bicameral parliament operating under a Westminster-style parliamentary system. It has a three branch system of governance consisting of the legislature, executive and judiciary. The President, who is the head of state, has a largely ceremonial role. His roles include interpreting the constitution, signing laws into action, and issuing pardons. He is also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. The President and Vice-President are elected indirectly by an electoral college for five-year terms. The Prime Minister is the head of government and most executive powers are vested in this office. He (or she) is elected by legislators of the political party, or coalition, commanding a parliamentary majority, and serves a five-year term incumbent upon enjoying this majority. The constitution does not provide for a post of Deputy Prime Minister, but this option has been exercised from time to time. The legislature of India is the bicameral Parliament which consists of the upper house known as the Rajya Sabha, or Council of States, the lower house known as the Lok Sabha, or House of the People, and the President. The 245-member Rajya Sabha is chosen indirectly through an electoral college and has a staggered six year term. The 545-member Lok Sabha is directly elected for a five year term, and is the determinative constituent of political power and government formation. All Indian citizens above the age of eighteen are eligible to vote. The executive arm consists of the President, Vice-President and the Council of Ministers (the Cabinet) headed by the Prime Minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of either house of parliament. In India's parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to the legislature. India's independent judiciary consists of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India. The Supreme Court has both original jurisdiction over disputes between states and the Centre, and appellate jurisdiction over the High Courts of India. There are eighteen appellate High Courts, having jurisdiction over a large state or a group of states. Each of these states has a tiered system of lower courts. A conflict between the legislature and the judiciary is referred to the President.

Politics

Chief Justice of India For most of its independent history, India's national government has been controlled by the Indian National Congress Party. Following its position as the largest political organisation in pre-independence India, Congress, usually led by a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family, dominated national politics for over forty years. In 1977, a united opposition, under the banner of the Janata Party, won the election and formed a non-Congress government for a short period after the unpopular 'emergency rule' imposed by Indira Gandhi in the previous Congress regime. In 1996, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a political party with a right wing nationalist ideology, became the largest single party, and established for the first time a serious opposition to the largely centre-left Congress. But power was held by two successive coalition governments, who stayed on with the support of the Congress. In 1998, the BJP formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) along with smaller parties and became the first non-Congress government to sustain the full five year term after it returned to power in 1999. The decade prior to 1999 was marked by short-lasting governments, with seven separate governments formed within that period. One however, a Congress government formed in 1991, lasted the full five years and initiated significant economic reforms. In the 2004 Indian elections the Congress party returned to power after winning the largest number of seats, by a narrow margin. Congress formed a government in alliance with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and with several mostly-regional parties called the United Progressive Alliance. The NDA, led by the BJP, currently forms the main opposition. All governments formed since 1996 have required party coalitions, with no single majority party, due to the steady rise of regional parties at the national level.

States and union territories

India is divided into twenty-eight states (which are further subdivided into districts), six Union Territories and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. States have their own elected government, whereas Union Territories are governed by an administrator appointed by the union government, though some have elected governments. India has had two scientific bases in Antarctica – the Dakshin Gangotri and Maitri, but has made no territorial claims so far.

Geography

Maitri in the north to Arunachal Pradesh in the far east making up most of India's eastern borders]] India's entire north and northeast states are made up of the Himalayan Range. The rest of northern, central and eastern India consists of the fertile Indo-Gangetic plain. Towards western India, bordering southeast Pakistan, lies the Thar Desert. The southern Indian peninsula is almost entirely composed of the Deccan plateau. The plateau is flanked by two hilly coastal ranges, the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats. India is home to several major rivers such as the Ganga (Ganges), the Brahmaputra, the Yamuna, the Godavari, and the Krishna. The rivers are responsible for the fertile plains in northern India which are conducive to farming. The Indian climate varies from a tropical climate in the south to a more temperate climate in the north. Parts of India which lie in the Himalaya have a tundra climate. India gets most of its rains through the monsoons.

Economy

monsoon India has an economy ranked as the tenth largest in the world in terms of currency conversion and fourth largest in terms of purchasing power parity. It recorded one of the fastest annual growth rates of 6.9% for the year ending March 2005. India's per-capita income by purchasing power parity is US$ 3,262, ranked 125th by the World Bank. India's foreign exchange reserves amount to over US$ 143 billion. Mumbai serves as the nation's financial capital and is also home to both the headquarters of the Reserve Bank of India and the pre-eminent Bombay Stock Exchange. While a quarter of Indians still live below the poverty line, a large middle class has now emerged along with the rapid growth of the IT industry. The Indian economy has shed much of its historical dependence on agriculture, which now contributes to less than 25 % of GDP. Other important industries are mining, petroleum, diamond polishing, films, textiles, information technology services, and handicrafts. Most of India's industrial regions are centred around major cities. In recent years, India has emerged as one of the largest players in software and business process outsourcing services, with revenues of US$ 17.2 billion in 2004 to 2005. Many small-scale industries provide steady employment to workers in small towns and villages. business process outsourcing While India receives only around three million foreign visitors a year, tourism is still an important but under-developed source of national income. Tourism contributes 5.3 % of India's GDP. The actual employment generation, both direct and indirect, is estimated to be 42 million, or about 10 % of India's work force. In monetary terms, it contributes about US$4 billion in foreign exchange. India's major trading partners are the United States, Japan, China and the United Arab Emirates. India's main exports items include agricultural products, textile goods, gems and jewellry, software services and technology, engineering goods, chemicals and leather products while its main import commodities are crude oil, machinery, gems, fertiliser, chemicals. For the year 2004, India's total exports stood at US$ 69.18 billion while the imports were worth at US $89.33 billion.

Demographics

India is the second most populous country in the world, with only China having a larger population. By 2030, India is expected to surpass China with the world's largest population, estimated at 1.6 billion. Language, religion, and caste are major determinants of social and political organisation within the highly diverse Indian population today. Its biggest metropolitan agglomerations are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and Chennai (formerly Madras). Chennai]] India's literacy rate is 64.8 % with 53.7 % of females and 75.3 % of males being literate. The sex ratio is 933 females for every 1000 males. Work Participation Rate (WPR) (the percentage of workers to total population) stands at 39.1 % with male WPR at 51.7 % and female WPR at 25.6 % inote|eu{inote|demostats{inote|religion{ref|languages{inote|tongues{see2|Christianity in India|Jews in India{seealso3|List of Indian languages by total speakers|List of cities in India|Religion in India{main|Culture of India{seealso4|List of World Heritage sites in India|Indian architecture|Indian family name|Cuisine of India{main|Sports in India{main|Holidays in India{Official Holidays of India{Topics related to India{portal{sisterlinks|India{wikitravel{wikicities|india|India{explain-inote{Web reference | title=India facts and figures | work=Embassy of India| URL= http://www.indianembassy.org/dydemo/indiaprofile/profile.htm | date=August 14 | year=2005{Web reference | title= Forex reserves up by $1bn | work=Economic Times| URL= http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1093864.cms | date=August 14 | year=2005{Web reference | title= India Economy | work=Travel Document Systems |URL= http://www.traveldocs.com/in/economy.htm | date=August 14 | year=2005{Web reference | title= Services | work=India in Business| URL= http://www.indiainbusiness.nic.in/india-profile/ser-infotech.htm | date=August 14 | year=2005{Web reference | title= Destination India: An Unpolished Diamond | work=Times of India | URL= http://timesfoundation.indiatimes.com/articleshow/819309.cms | date=August 14 | year=2005{Web reference | title= US, UAE, UK, China, Japan among India's top trade partners | work=Indian Express| URL= http://www.indianexpress.com/news/business/20050102-0.html | date=August 14 | year=2005{Web reference | title= CIA Factbook : India | work=CIA Factbook | URL= http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/in.html | date=August 14 | year=2005{Web reference | title= Provisional Population Totals 2001 Census| work=Census of India| URL=http://www.censusindia.net/results/resultsmain.html | date=August 14 | year=2005{Web reference | title= Debating India & India's literacy rate | work=Debating India | URL= http://india.eu.org/1963.html | date=August 14 | year=2005{Web reference | title= India – Country profiles | work=indexmundi.com | URL= http://www.indexmundi.com/India/ India | date=August 14 | year=2005{Web reference | title= Census of India 2001, Data on Religion | work=Census of India | URL= http://www.censusindia.net/results/religion_main.html | date=August 14 | year=2005{Web reference | title= Languages of India | work=India image | URL= http://indiaimage.nic.in/languages.htm| date=August 14 | year=2005{Book reference | Author=K.M. Matthew | Title=Manorama Yearbook 2003 | Publisher= Malaya Manorama | Year=2003 | ID=ISBN 8190046187{mnb|afgh|1{mnb|LoC|2{South Asia{Asia{Commonwealth of Nations{SAARC{Life in India{Link FA|sv{Link FA|sv

Demographics of India

Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 15% of the world's population. Only China has a larger population. Almost 40% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age. More than 70% of the people live in more than 550,000 villages, and the remainder in more than 200 towns and cities. Over thousands of years of its history, India has had invasions from the the Middle East, Central Asia, and the West; Indian people and culture have absorbed and changed these influences to produce a remarkable racial and cultural synthesis. Religion, caste, and language are major determinants of social and political organization in India today. The government has recognized 22 languages as official; Hindi is the most widely spoken. India also has the second largest number of English speakers in the world with over 150 million people speaking English in India. Although more than 80% of the people are Hindu, India also is the home of more than 130 million Muslims—one of the world's largest Muslim populations. The population also includes Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, Ayyavazhi, Bahá'ís, and Jews. The caste system reflects Indian occupational and socio-religiously defined hierarchies. Traditionally, there are four broad categories of castes (varnas), including a category of outcastes, earlier called "untouchables" but now commonly referred to as "dalits." Within these broad categories there are thousands of castes and subcastes, called jatis, whose relative status varies from region to region. Despite economic modernization and laws countering discrimination against the lower end of the class structure, the caste system remains an important source of social identification for most Hindus and many non-Hindus as well, thus making it a potent factor in the political life of the country. Population: 1,080,264,388 (July 2005 est.) Age structure:
0-14 years: 31.2%(male 173,634,432/female 163,932,475)
15-64 years: 63.9% (male 356,932,082/female 333,283,590)
65 years and over: 4.9% (male 26,542,025/female 25,939,784) (2005 est.) The average age of Indians is 26 years. Population growth rate: 1.4% (2005 est.) Birth rate: 22.32 births/1,000 population (2005 est.) Death rate: 8.28 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.) Net migration rate: -0.07 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.) Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.07 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 1.03 male(s)/female
total population: 1.07 male(s)/female (2000 est.) Infant mortality rate: total: 56.29 deaths/1,000 live births female: 55.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.) male: 56.86 deaths/1,000 live births Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 64.35 years
male: 63.57 years
female: 65.16 years (2005 est.)
Total fertility rate: 2.78 children born/woman (2005 est.)
Nationality:
noun: Indian(s)
adjective: Indian Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan(Caucasoid) 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% Religions: Hindu 81.8%, Muslim 12.1%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, Others 1.9% (2001) Languages: English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication, Hindi is the primary Official language of the Indian government and primary tongue of 30% of the people. Among the other major languages, Telugu (second highest spoken language in India), Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Tamil all have about 50 million or more speakers within the boundaries of India (with more living in other countries). There are 22 languages recognised by the Indian Constitution - Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

Religion-wise breakdown

India's census was conducted since ancient times. Kautilya's Arthashastra describes the collection of population statistics for taxation. The British were the first to conduct one in modern times conducting it in 1871. As per the India Census Commission's recently released 2001 census figures give a breakdown of various parameters according to religion. # All figures in %. # Sex Ratio
- : no of females/1000 males. # Others includes Jews, Parsis and Bahá'ís
- Jews number about 4,000. 2,000 reside in Bombay.
- Parsis number about 65,000, down from 71,000

Ethnic Groups in India

The people of India belong to different Ethnic groups. These ethnic groups are as follows.

Negritos: The Negritos or the Brachycephalic (broad headed) people from Africa were the earliest people to inhabit India. They have survived in their original inhabitat in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese, and the Great Andamanese are some of the examples. Some hill tribes like Irulas, Kodars, Paniyans, and Kurumbas are found in some patches in Southern part of mainland India.

Pro-Australoids or Austrics: These groups were next to come to India after the Negritos. They are now found in some parts of India, Myanmar and the islands of South-East Asia. Their languages have survived in Central and Eastern India.

Mongoloids: These people are found in the North eastern part of India in the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Tripura. They are also found in Northern parts of West Bengal, Sikkim, and Ladakh.

Dravidians: These are the people of South India. They have been believed to come before the Aryans. They have different sub-groups like the Paleo-Mediterranean, the true Mediterranean, and the Oriental Mediterranean.

Western Bracycephals: These include the Alpinoids, Dinarics and Armenoids. The Parsis (who came long after the Indo-Aryans) and Kodavas also fall in this category.

Indo-Aryans: This group were the last ones to immigrate to India. They came to India somewhere between 2000 and 1500 B.C. They are now mainly found in the northern and central parts of India. Most of this information was collected from [http://www.culturopedia.com/Tribes/tribesintro.html]

External link


- [http://www.censusindia.net/ Census of India]; Govt. site with detailed data from 2001 census
- [http://www.censusindiamaps.net/ Census of India map generator]; generates maps based on 2001 census figures
- [http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/cesmg/peopling.html Peopling of India]

Languages of India

:The article describes the languages spoken in the Republic of India. For information on languages spoken by the native peoples of North America, see Native American languages. India is rich in languages, boasting not only the indigenous sprouting of Dravidian and Indo-Aryan tongues, but of the absorption of Middle-Eastern and European influences as well. Distinct, often ancient, and rich literary traditions are to be found in several languages, among them Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Telugu, and Urdu, and not to mention two Classical languages of the world, Tamil and Sanskrit.

The languages of India

While 22 major languages are recognized as "Official Languages" by the Constitution of India, Hindi, in the Devanagari script, is the only national language of the federal government of India. Hindi is the mother tongue of 18% of the people, though it is said to be spoken well by about 30% of the population and understood sufficiently by perhaps an even greater number. While English, due to India's colonial past, is safely embedded in educated Indian circles and enjoys associate official status in the government system, it is not largely spoken by the vast preponderance of the country. It is worth mentioning in this context that in the 1991 census, over 90 million people (about 11% of those polled) claimed that English was their first, second or third language. Individual states, whose borders are mostly drawn on socio-linguistic lines, are free to decide their own language for internal administration and education, so there are 22 official languages spoken throughout the country. Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri and Sindhi, are among the official languages which are widely spoken. Urdu is the official language of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir while Bangla or Bengali is the official language of West Bengal, Tripura (and the neighboring nation of Bangladesh). Linguistically, Hindi and Urdu are the same language (often referred to as Hindustani), the difference being that Hindi is written in the Devanagari script and derives much of its vocabulary from Sanskrit and Prakrit, while Urdu is written in the Arabic script and derives much of its vocabulary from the Persian and Arabic languages. Sanskrit and Tamil are the classical languages of India. Telugu (తెలుగు), also known as 'Italian of the East', is another language with a notably ancient history and body of literature, and is widely used in Carnatic music. Though an official language, and the main language of Hindu liturgy, Sanskrit is no longer a living language. It is mainly used in rituals and ceremonies or as part of daily prayers in Hinduism. Tamil is spoken by 74 million people around the world, most of them in South India and Northern Sri Lanka. Tamil is also one of the national languages of Singapore. In all, there are 24 languages which are spoken by a million or more people, in addition to thousands of smaller languages. Besides the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages, there are many Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic languages spoken in India, among others. The Andamanese languages, spoken on the Andaman Islands, are apparently not related to any other language family.

Alphabets of Indian languages

Indian languages have corresponding distinct alphabets. The two major families are those of the Dravidian languages and those of the Indo-Aryan languages, the former largely confined to the south and the latter to the north. With the exception of Urdu the alphabets of all these languages are native to India. There are those scholars who believe the scripts of the Northern languages (like Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindi and Punjabi) to be distant derivations of the Aramaic alphabet, though this is a disputed theory primarily because the number and grouping of sounds and letters are so radically different.

Phonetic alphabet

A remarkable feature of the alphabets of India is the manner in which they are organised. It is organised according to phonetic principle, unlike the Roman alphabet, which has a random sequence of letters. The classification is as follows
unvoiced consonants voiced consonants nasals
unaspirated aspirated unaspirated aspirated
velar plosives k kh g gh ng
palatal affricates ch chh j jh ny
retroflex plosives t th d dh nn
dental plosives t th d dh n
bilabial plosives p ph b bh m
glides and approximants y r l w
fricatives sh sh s h
This classification is observed in all the languages under discussion. Additionally each language has a few special letters signifying sounds specific to that language, as also a few symbols representing composite sounds. Finally, the list of vowels is separately specified, as follows :a, aa, i, ii, u, uu, e, ai, o, au, um, (a)h Additionally in Vedic Sanskrit: rr, rrr, lrr, lrrr Note that the list read as pairs represents shorter and longer versions of same vowel. Here the first a is like u in bus. (a)h is special to Sanskritised words, occurring in word endings as in duhkh(a)h, meaning pain or suffering. It is impossible to say any of the consonants without the associated vowel and the default way of saying a consonant attaches the neutral a sound to it. In languages of Eastern India like Bangla, Oriya and Assamese, a is spoken almost o. The classification of these sounds is universal. Every language in India has a corresponding symbol, and also, with some modifications, the corresponding sound. In fact we may be tempted to think that all languages at least of the Indo-European family have the corresponding alphabets, give or take a few, and sometimes give or take a row or column. For instance, English has morphemes similar to the t, th, d, and dh of the third row, but they manifest as only two phonemes, t and d. In French on the other hand, the third row is absent, but morphemes similar t and d of the fourth row are used. For nasals, Sanskrit imposes considerable systematics. The above scheme records that the nasal occurring in conjunction with any given row has a sound characteristic that row. For instance the nasalisation occurring in the word "Ganga" is that of the first row, while the nasalisation occurring in the words "India" or "integral" are character- istically front palatals. Speakers of any language have to necessarily speak in this manner though they never realise it. The classification of the "vowel generated" may seem rather curious. The belief here is that y sound arises from conjunction of ii with a, w sound arises from trying to say u (as in put) or uu in conjunction with a. Old Sanskrit of the Hindu Rig Veda has two more vowels, rr and lrr, as also their corresponding longer versions. It is likely that the rr was guttural like the French r, more akin to a vowel than a consonant. The lrr remains a mystery for being classified a vowel. But this classification then explains r (as in run) and l (as in long) simply as conjunction of these vowels with the a sound. The economy of this classification in the fact that effectively each of the five main rows is generated by one letter, the others are systmeatic modifications of the same. In Tamil, a great simplification of alphabet has been achieved by having only one symbol for each of the five consonants, the specific hardening and aspiration understood from context while reading. Tamil script indeed spells kathai (story) and gadhai (weapon of Bhima) the same.

Phonetic classification in Tamil

Tamil language drastically differs in phonetics from other Indian languages. There are many distintinctive sounds unique to Tamil language. Tamil consonants are classified into three categories with 6 alphabets each: Hard - k ch t th p R (plosives mentioned in the above table with addition to "R") Nasal - ng ny nn n m N (Nasals mentioned in the above table with additional "N") Mid - y r l v zh L (glides and approximants mentioned in the above table with 2 additional "L" and "zh") Vowels - a, aa, i, ii, u, uu, e, ee, ai, o, oo, au, akh Note that um and uh is not in Tamil and e, o and akh are unique to Tamil. The 2 short vowels e and o are not in Sanskrit and almost all other Indian languages. It should also be noted one of the young Indian Language Malayalam is a perfect blend of 2 classifical languages - Tamil and Sanskrit. It combines all the phonetics in Tamil and Sanskrit.

Urdu alphabet

Urdu is unique among Indian languages. It is derived from Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and some Sanksrit. Most of Urdu's grammar, however, is 'genetically' linked to that of older Prakrits. Much of Urdu's vocabulary derives its sources from Persian and Arabic. The word Urdu, in Turkish, means "camp", "tent", or "military encampment". Presumably these cantonments were where Mughal armies, mostly Muslim speakers of Persian (and hence intimately aware of Arabic), and natives interacted, soon forming a new mixed language. For this reason, the Persian script, in turn derived from Arabic script, was adopted and molded to fit with the Indian sound-system. For this reason, while the Urdu language itself has only six additional letters with unique sounds different from that of Hindi, its script has no connection to native Indian alphabets.

List of Indian Languages

There are a large number of languages in India; 216 of them are spoken by a group of 10,000 persons or more.
- List of national languages of India
- List of Indian languages by total speakers

See also


- Languages of Pakistan

External links


- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=India List of Languages of India]
- [http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/scripts.html Languages and Scripts of India]
-

Indian subcontinent

:Southern Asia sometimes refers to all of Asia that was not part of the Soviet Union. Soviet Union Soviet Union as the international border between India and Pakistan, a position that neither party considers acceptable.)]] The term South Asia is considered often as synonymous with the term Indian subcontinent, and includes the following neighboring states:
- India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; constituting the bulk of the subcontinent proper
- the Himalayan States: Nepal and Bhutan
- the Indian Ocean Island States: Sri Lanka, the Maldives All of these countries are members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The US State Department’s South Asia Bureau is currently planning to include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in its definition of South Asia. These countries, however, are historically considered to belong to the category of Central Asia, along with Chinese Turkestan and Mongolia are not, strictly speaking, a part of South Asia. Geographically, the Indian subcontinent would additionally include some disputed territory currently controlled by China, and Myanmar and exclude most of western and northern Pakistan and Kashmir where the Indian plate and Eurasian plate meet and collide. Politically (as in the SAARC member-states), the region covers about 4,480,000 km² (1,729,738 sq. mi.), or 10% of the Asian continent. However, its population accounts for about 40% of Asia. Some or all of Afghanistan is sometimes considered part of the region of South Asia since, due to its geographic proximity, it has shared many historical currents with the region. Recently, Afghanistan has been admitted to the SAARC as a member.

Nomenclature

The term "South Asia"' is a common contemporary term for what in times before 1947, the end of the British Raj and the beginning of the First Indo-Pakistani War, was simply known as "India" and has subsequently been referred to as "British India," though prior to Independence that term referred to those portions of the country that were directly administered by the British, as opposed to the princely states. Historically, South Asia and South-East Asia together constitute what is known as the East Indies, with the first being defined as Hither India or India Citerior and Further India or India Ulterior. These terms, however, have ceased to be current and have become arcane and largely used, if at all, by academics, with only the "East Indies" still retaining some current usage.

Geography

India Ulterior Geographically, the region is bound by the Himalaya to the north and east, and the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal to the south. The Hindu Kush mountains that run through Afghanistan and northern Pakistan are usually considered the northwestern edge of the subcontinent. Geologically, most of this region is a subcontinent because it rests on a tectonic plate of its own, the India Plate, separate from the rest of Eurasia and was once a small continent before colliding with the Eurasian Plate and giving birth to the Himalayan range and the Tibetan plateau. Even now the India Plate continues to move northward with the result that the Himalaya are growing taller by a few centimetres each decade. In addition, is also home to an astounding variety of geographical features that are typical of much larger continents, such as glaciers, rainforests, valleys, deserts, and grasslands in an area about half the size of the United States. Further, the peoples of the region possess several distinguishing features that set them apart anthropologically from the rest of Asia; the dominant peoples and cultures are Indo-European and Dravidian, and have a greater affinity with Europe than with most other regions of Asia, excepting the Middle East and the Caucasus. South Asia ranks among the world's most densely-populated regions. About 1.6 billion people live there — about a quarter of all the people in the world. The region's population density of 305 persons per square kilometre is more than seven times the world average. The region has a long history. Ancient civilisations developed in the Indus River Valley. The region was at its most prosperous before the 18th century, when the Mughal Empire held sway in the north; European colonialism led to a new conquering of the region, by Portugal and Holland, and later Britain and to a lesser degree France. Most of the region gained independence from Europe in the late 1940s.

Other subregions of Asia


- East Asia
- Southeast Asia
- Central Asia
- Southwest Asia or West Asia (One definition of the Middle East is synonymous with Southwest Asia)
- North Asia (Siberia)
- Northern Eurasia (Extends into Europe)
- Central Eurasia (Extends into Europe)

External links


- [http://www.saarc-sec.org/ SAARC Secretariat]
- [http://www.slbc.lk Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation]
- [http://www.vernoncorea.info Vernon Corea South Asian Broadcaster] Category:Asia South Asia Category:South Asia. zh-min-nan:Lâm-a ko:남아시아 ms:Asia Selatan ja:南アジア th:เอเชียใต้

Indian Ocean

:This article is about the water body. For the Indian fusion music band, see Indian Ocean (band). The Indian Ocean is the third-largest body of water in the world, covering about 20% of the Earth's water surface. It is bounded on the north by southern Asia (the Indian subcontinent); on the west by the Arabian Peninsula and Africa; on the east by the Malay Peninsula, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean. It is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the 20°east meridian south of Africa, and from the Pacific by the 147°east meridian. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30°north latitude in the Persian Gulf. This ocean is nearly 10,000 km (6,200 mi) wide at the southern tips of Africa and Australia; its area is 73,556,000 km² (28,400,000 mi²), including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The ocean's volume is estimated to be 292,131,000 km³ (70,086,000 mi³). Small islands dot the continental rims. Island nations within the ocean are Madagascar (formerly Malagasy Republic), the world's fourth largest island; Comoros; Seychelles; Maldives; Mauritius; and Sri Lanka. Indonesia borders it. The ocean's importance as a transit route between Asia and Africa has made it a scene of conflict. Because of its size, however, no one nation had successfully dominated until the early 1800s when Britain controlled much of the surrounding land. right

Environment

The African, Indian, and Antarctic crustal plates converge in the Indian Ocean. Their junctures are marked by branches of the Mid-Oceanic Ridge forming an inverted Y, with the stem running south from the edge of the continental shelf near Mumbai, India. The eastern, western, and southern basins thus formed are subdivided into smaller basins by ridges. The ocean's continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 km (125 mi) in width. An exception is found off Australia's western coast, where the shelf width exceeds 1,000 km (600 mi). The average depth of the ocean is 3,890 m (12,760 ft). Its deepest point, in the Java Trench, is estimated to be 7,450 m (24,442 ft). North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the main basin is covered by pelagic sediments, of which more than one-half is globigerina ooze. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments. Glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes.

Climate

The climate north of the equator is affected by a Monsoon wind system. Strong northeast winds blow from October until April; from May until October south and west winds prevail. In the Arabian Sea the violent monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere the winds generally are milder, but summer storms near Mauritius can be severe. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

Hydrology

Bay of Bengal Among the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Arvandrud/Shatt-al-Arab, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Irrawaddy. Currents are largely controlled by the monsoon. Two large circular currents, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving counterclockwise, constitute the dominant flow pattern. During the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed. Deepwater circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, and Antarctic currents. North of 20°south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22°C (72°F), exceeding 28°C (82°F) to the east. Southward of 40°south latitude, temperatures drop quickly. Surface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1,000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and southwestern Australia. Pack ice and icebergs are found throughout the year south of about 65°south latitude. The average northern limit of icebergs is 45°south latitude.

Economy

The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas. It carries a particularly heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum products from the oilfields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia. Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, and western Australia. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean. Beach sands rich in heavy minerals and offshore placer deposits are actively exploited by bordering countries, particularly India, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The warmth of the Indian Ocean keeps phytoplankton production low, except along the northern fringes and in a few scattered spots elsewhere; life in the ocean is thus limited. Fishing is confined to subsistence levels. Its fish are of great and growing importance to the bordering countries for domestic consumption and export. Fishing fleets from Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan also exploit the Indian Ocean, mainly for shrimp and tuna.

History

The earliest known civilizations, in the valleys of the Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, and Indus rivers and in Southeast Asia, have developed near the Indian Ocean. During Egypt's 1st dynasty (c. 3000 BCE), sailors were sent out onto its waters, journeying to Punt, thought to be part of present-day Somalia. Returning ships brought gold and Myrrh. Phoenicians of the 3rd millennium BCE may have entered the area, but no settlements resulted. The Indian Ocean is far calmer and thus open to trade earlier than the Atlantic or Pacific. The powerful monsoons also meant ships could easily sail them west early in the season, then wait a few months and return eastwards. This allowed Indonesian peoples to cross the Indian Ocean to settle in Madagascar. In the second or first century BCE Eudoxus of Cyzicus was the first Greek to cross the Indian Ocean. Hippalus is said to have discovered the direct route from Arabia to India around this time. During the first and second century CE intensive trade relations developed between Roman Egypt and the Tamil kingdoms of the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas in Southern India. Like the Indonesian people above, the western sailors used the monsoon to cross the Ocean. The unknown author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes this route and the ports and trade goods along the coasts of Africa and India around 70 CE. In 1497 Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and sailed to India, the first European to do so. The European ships, armed with heavy cannon, quickly came to dominate the trade. Portugal at first attempted to achieve pre-eminence setting up forts an the important straits and ports. But the small nation was unable to support such a vast project and they were replaced in the mid-1600s by other European powers. The Dutch East India Company (1602-1798) sought control of trade with the East across the Indian Ocean. France and Britain established trade companies for the area. Eventually Britain became the principal power and by 1815 dominated the area. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 revived European interest in the East, but no nation was successful in establishing trade dominance. Since World War II the United Kingdom has withdrawn from the area, to be only partially replaced by India, the USSR, and the United States. The last two have tried to establish hegemony by negotiating for naval base sites. Developing countries bordering the ocean, however, seek to have it made a "zone of peace" so that they may use its shipping lanes freely. Though the United States did manage to salvage a naval base for itself at Deigo Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean. On December 26 2004 the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean were hit by tsunamis caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The waves resulted in more than 226,000 deaths and over 1 million homeless.

Data

Southern Ocean: A spring 2000 decision by the International Hydrographic Organization delimited a fifth world ocean, stripping the southern portions of the Indian Ocean. The new ocean extends from the coast of Antarctica north to 60°south latitude which coincides with the Antarctic Treaty Limit. The Indian Ocean remains the third-largest of the world's five oceans. Area:
- total: 68.556 million km²
- seas: includes Andaman Sea, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Great Australian Bight, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Laccadive Sea, Mozambique Channel, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Strait of Malacca, and other tributary water bodies Coastline: 66,526 km Climate: northeast monsoon (December to April), southwest monsoon (June to October); tropical cyclones occur during May/June and October/November in the northern Indian Ocean and January/February in the southern Indian Ocean Terrain: surface dominated by counterclockwise gyre (broad, circular system of currents) in the southern Indian Ocean; unique reversal of surface currents in the northern Indian Ocean; low atmospheric pressure over southwest Asia from hot, rising, summer air results in the southwest monsoon and southwest-to-northeast winds and currents, while high pressure over northern Asia from cold, falling, winter air results in the northeast monsoon and northeast-to-southwest winds and currents; ocean floor is dominated by the Mid-Indian Ocean Ridge and subdivided by the Southeast Indian Ocean Ridge, Southwest Indian Ocean Ridge, and Ninetyeast Ridge Graphics of the seabed terrain produced by the Royal Navy & British Geological Survey in 2005 can be found here. Elevation extremes:
- lowest point: Java Trench -7,258 m
- highest point: sea level 0 m Natural resources: oil and gas fields, fish, shrimp, sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules Environment - current issues: endangered marine species include the dugong, seals, turtles, and whales; oil pollution in the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea Geography - note: major chokepoints include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Malacca, southern access to the Suez Canal, and the Lombok Strait Ports and harbors: Calcutta (India), Chennai (Madras; India), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Durban (South Africa), Jakarta (Indonesia), Karachi (Pakistan), Fremantle (Australia), Mumbai (Bombay; India), Richards Bay (South Africa), Visakhapatnam (India),Kochi(India)

References


- Braun, D., The Indian Ocean (1983)
- Chandra, S., ed., The Indian Ocean (1987);
- Chaudhuri, K. N., Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean (1985);
- Cousteau, Jacques-Yves, and Diole, Philippe, Life and Death in a Coral Sea (1971);
- Cubitt, Gerald, Islands of the Indian Ocean (1975);
- Das Gupta, A., and Pearson, M.N., India and the Indian Ocean (1987);
- Dowdy, W. L., and Trood, R., eds., The Indian Ocean (1985);
- Kerr, A., ed., Resources and Development in the Indian Ocean Region (1981);
- Nairn, A. E., and Stehli, F. G., eds., The Ocean Basins and Margins, Vol. 6: The Indian Ocean (1982);
- Ostheimer, John M., ed., The Politics of the Western Indian Ocean Islands (1975);
- Toussaint, Auguste, The History of the Indian Ocean, trans. by June Guicharnaud (1966). Much of this text is based on public domain text by US Naval Oceanographer at: http://oceanographer.navy.mil/indian.html

External links


- [http://dapper.pmel.noaa.gov/dchart/ NOAA In-situ Ocean Data Viewer] Plot and download ocean observations Category:Oceans Category:Indian Ocean zh-min-nan:Ìn-tō·-iûⁿ ko:인도양 ja:インド洋 simple:Indian Ocean th:มหาสมุทรอินเดีย

Asian American

An Asian American can be generally defined as a person of Asian ancestry or origin who was born in or is an immigrant to the United States.

The term Asian

Usage

The term "Asian American" is credited to the historian Yuji Ichioka who, in the late 1960s, used it to describe members of a new pan-ethnic radical political identity who shared common histories, experiences, and goals. In the United States, this term has widely supplanted the term "oriental" which was popularly used before the 1990s to describe East Asian peoples regardless of nationality, upbringing, or origin. Some have argued "oriental" is politically loaded and referenced a colonial "other" (see orientalism). To many people, the term "oriental" is often seen as an unfriendly usage; thus "Asian" has replaced the use "Oriental." A similar analogy would be the transition of "Negro" to "black" or "African American." Even though "Asian" is now a very widely used term in the United States, the term is still used mostly by the younger generation American-born citizens of "Asian" ancestry. Though not as controversial, a simple analogy would be a comparison of the terms "Chicano" and "Latino" when referring to persons of Hispanic origin. Like the term Asian, first-generation Hispanics generally would not call themselves "Chicano" or "Latino" in day-to-day conversation. Instead, they would refer to themselves by national or ethnic, not racial, origin, such as "Mexican" or "Puerto Rican," while the new generation of young Hispanics display more pride in their racial background. Likewise, many younger Asians would call themselves "Asian" and have "Asian Pride". Not many first-generation Asians would exhibit pride in being "Asian," but rather, they would be more comfortable using the terms "Chinese," "Korean," "Vietnamese," and so on. This is mainly because first-generation Asians are much more conscious of their Asian sub-group backgrounds and cultures and tend to avoid generalizations. However, "Asian" is almost never considered an unfriendly word, and is still currently widely used in many English-speaking countries.

Definition

"Asian American", like "Hispanic American", can not be defined as a similar group of people sharing similar cultures or physical features. For example, Indian Americans, Filipino Americans, and Japanese Americans are very different from each other in both culture and physical features. Like the term "Hispanic American", saying that a person is "Asian" is not specifically referring to a certain lifetyle or culture and could refer to a wide range of different Asian ethnic sub-groups. In other words, "Asian" is not a very precise or accurate term, and some people prefer its being replaced by the use of separate terms for each Asian cultural or geographical group. Additionally, although the term "Asian" in the United States is most popularly used as a term to group peoples with physical or cultural characteristics resembling East Asian people, Asians from the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia (including the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia) are also included in the Asian American grouping for cultural studies and academic works, as well as for official government and census purposes. To a lesser extent, some government agencies also classify Middle Easterners as "West Asians." Until recent times, South Asians were previously categorized in the white racial category together with immigrants from the Middle East. Lobbying by South Asian business groups resulted in their placement into the "Asian" category. Malaysia While immigrants from the non-African parts of the "Middle East" (i.e Iran, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia) are all from the continent of Asia, they have generally neither been sufficiently visibly distinct as a group in America nor have they historically arrived in such large numbers to warrant attention as a major American racial or ethnic group until very recently (see September 11, 2001 attacks). As a result, they are not considered by most Americans to be typical Asians or Asian Americans, and are classified as "whites" for official racial purposes and popularly referred to as "Middle Eastern". For these same reasons, northern Asians such as Siberians and peoples from formerly Soviet Central Asian states are usually not spoken of as "Asian Americans" either and are part of Europe for the US Census racial purposes.

Demographics

The 2000 census recorded 10.2 million people who reported themselves as only Asian and 11.9 million people who reported themselves as Asian and at least one other race, 3.6% to 4.2% of the U.S. population. The largest ethnic subgroups were Chinese (2.4 million), Filipinos (1.9M), Asian Indians (1.6M), Vietnamese (1.1M), Koreans (1.1M), and Japanese (0.8M). Other sizable groups are Cambodians (172,000), Hmong (169,000), Laotians (169,000), Pakistanis (153,000), and Thais (112,000). The Asian American population is heavily urbanized, with nearly three-quarters of Asian Americans living in metropolitan areas with population greater than 2.5 million. Asian Americans are concentrated in the largest U.S. cities, with 40% of all Asian Americans living in the metropolitan areas around Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City. Half of all Asian Americans (5.4M) live in Hawai'i or the West Coast, mostly in California (4.2M). However, recently, strong populations of Asians have emerged elsewhere, with high Asian populations in the New York City, Washington, D.C./Baltimore, Chicago, Seattle, and Houston metropolitan areas.

Asian American history

Early history

A large amount of Chinese and Japanese began immigrating to the U.S. in the mid 19th century. Many of these immigrants worked as laborers on the transcontinental railroad. A surge in Asian immigration in the late 19th century gave rise to a fear from some, referred to as the "yellow peril."

Immigration trends

Immigration trends of recent decades have dramatically altered the statistical composition and popular understanding of who is an Asian American. The dramatic transformation of Asian America, and of America itself, is largely credited to the removal of over 75 years of discriminatory immigration laws that banned Chinese, then subsequent Asian ethnic groups, from becoming immigrants or citizens of the United States. Asian Americans have largely been perceived as members of the East Asian ethnic groups, specifically Chinese and Japanese, the two largest ethnic groups before 1965, as well as Filipinos who became colonial subjects of the US in 1898 due to the Spanish-American War and subsequent Philippine-American War. The Asian communities in the United States now include many Taiwanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Filipinos of different classes and educational achievements, and Southeast Asians. Asian America includes people from South Asia — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The term includes Thai, Burmese, Lao, Cambodians, Hmong, Tibetans, Nepalese, and other Southeast Asian immigrants to the US, and sometimes also Pacific Islanders such as Samoans, Tongans, Fijians, Guamanians (Chamorros). Ethnically native Hawai'ians are also sometimes included. This rapid change in Asian American demographics occurred after enactment of the 1965 immigration reforms. This act replaced exclusionary immigration rules of the Chinese Exclusion Act and its successors, such as the Reed-Johnson Act or 1924 immigration act, which effectively excluded "undesirable" immigrants, including Asians. The 1965 rules set across-the-board immigration quotas for each country, opening the borders to immigration from Asia for the first time in nearly half a century. Two other influences, however, have been equally worthy of attention. First, in the wake of World War II, immigration preferences favored family reunification. This may have helped attract highly skilled workers to meet American workforce deficiencies. Secondly, the end of the Korean War and Vietnam War or so-called "Secret Wars" in Southeast Asia brought a new wave of Asian American immigration as people from Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia arrived. Some of the new immigrants, as in the case of the Korean War, were war brides, who were soon joined by their families. Others, like the Southeast Asians, were either highly skilled and educated or part of subsequent waves of refugees seeking asylum. Japanese Americans and South Asians are emblematic of the recent trends. Japanese Americans are widely recognized as an Asian American sub-group. In 1970, there were nearly 600,000 Japanese Americans, making it the largest sub-group. Today, Japanese Americans are the sixth-largest group, with relatively low rates of births and immigration. In 2000, there were between 800,000 and 1.2 million Japanese Americans (depending on whether multi-ethnic responses are included). In 1990 there were slightly fewer South Asian in the US than Japanese Americans. By 2000, Indian Americans nearly doubled in population to become the third largest group. Some factors contributing to the growth of South Asians are higher family sizes, higher use of family-reunification visas, and higher numbers of technically skilled workers entering on H-1 and H-1b visas. High rates of immigration from across Asia will make Asian America increasingly representative of the continent itself. As of the later half of the twentieth century, Asian Americans have generally been educationally and financially successful. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, the average Asian American household earns a higher income than other U.S. ethnic groups and achieves higher levels of educational attainment. However, Asian Americans who tend to have larger families, earn per capita less than white populations. The proportion of Asian Americans at many selective educational institutions far exceeds the 3% national population rate. For example, several University of California campuses and New York City's Stuyvesant High School count over 50% of their student population as Asian American, J.P. Stevens High School in Edison, NJ where about 50% of the students are Asian Americans, Palisades Park High School in Palisades Park, NJ where over 50% of its students are Asian American, and Fort Lee High School in Fort Lee, NJ where about 50% of its students are Asian American. However, exceptions to this success story are often found, usually among first-generation immigrants, who sometimes lack documentation, cannot speak English, or have a hard time assimilating into American culture in general. Asian Americans have among the largest discrepencies among poor and wealthy families or any racial group. Such conditions are common among Asians emigrating to the United States from southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, among others; many of these immigrants can be considered refugees from Communist and totalitarian states and as such, often do not have the educational or socioeconomic advantages of other Asian Americans. Many immigrants are often forced to work in minimum wage or below-minimum wage jobs, including in menial sweatshop or restaurant labor, because they fear that mainstream employers will not hire them or, if they have entered the country illegally, will report them to the government. Due to popular labeling of Asian Americans as model minorities, the critical issues of poverty and low educational attainment among southeast Asian immigrants and their Asian American children do not receive the attention that such issues receive in the African American and Hispanic communities.

Attitudes towards Asian Americans

Attitudes towards Asian Americans vary greatly. Different ethnic groups and residents of different parts of the United States may have varying perceptions or attitudes towards Asians. The common misconception that Asian Americans have not faced as much racial discrimination as African Americans and Latin Americans is due to the culturally driven choice by many Asian Americans (most notably the first-generation immigrants) to not report such incidences. This choice to not report hate crimes and negative stereotyping has created much debate between first and second-generation Asian Americans. Even reported incidences do not receive adequate attention via news media or history textbooks. Examples of much ignored landmark events in American history include the murder of Vincent Chin and Wataru Misaka breaking the NBA color barrier the same year as Jackie Robinson's much acclaimed achievement. Much of the hate crime and stereotyping occurring in contemporary American society can be blamed on motion pictures, web sites, and other forms of mass media that negatively portray Asian Americans. Another concern is that the notion of Asian fetishism, which has gained more attention recently, is negatively portraying Asian females and has aroused some concerns and controversy.

See also


- East-Asian Americans
  - Chinese American
  - Japanese American
  - Korean American
  - Taiwanese American
  - Vietnamese American
- Southeast-Asian Americans
  - Burmese American
  - Cambodian American
  - Filipino American
  - Hmong American
  - Laotian American
  - Thai American
- South Asian Americans
  - Bangladeshi American
  - Bhutanese American
  - Indian American
  - Indo-Caribbean American
  - Maldivian American
  - Nepalese American
  - Pakistani American
  - Sri Lankan American
  - Tibetan American
- Pacific Islander
- Lists of Asian Americans - List of Chinese Americans, List of Filipino Americans, List of Indian Americans, List of Japanese Americans, List of Korean Americans, List of Vietnamese Americans, List of Asian American Writers
- :Category: Asian American-related topics, :Category:Ethnic groups of the United States
- Asian Canadian
- Asian Argentines
- Demographics of the United States
- Hapa - Hawaiian term commonly referring to Eurasians and Blasians
- Model Minority - Depiction of Asian Americans as a model success group
- Amerasian — a person fathered abroad by U.S. servicemen to women of Asian nationalities
- List of U.S. cities with Asian American majority populations
- Asian American art
- Asian Pride
- :Category: Asian American athletes

External links


- [http://manja.org/ Asian American Arts and Culture] - manja: News site promoting Asian American Artists in the community
- [http://www.asian-nation.org/ Asian-Nation: Asian American History, Demographics, & Issues] by C.N. Le, Ph.D.
- [http://www.selectiveasia.com/ Selective Asia: Private tours to Indochina and S.E Asia
- [http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/censr-17.pdf] - Income Disparity amongst ethnic asian populations in the United States
- [http://www.asiansinamerica.org/ The Asians in America Project] - A national clearinghouse for news and information on Asian America
- [http://www.asianracedefinition.zoomshare.com/ Asian-American Race Definition] Asian-American Race Definition and an argument for the religious body of Asia.
- [http://modelminority.com/ Model Minority] - A Guide to Asian American Empowerment
- [http://goldsea.com/AAD/Milestones/milestones.html 23 Big Milestones in Asian American History] (Goldsea)
- [http://www.iatv.tv/getiatv.php Asian American television network]

Further reading


- Frank H. Wu Yellow: Race in American Beyond Black and White New York: Basic Books, 2002. ISBN 0-465-00639-6
- Ronald Takaki Strangers From A Different Shore Boston: Back Bay Books, 1989. ISBN 0-316-83109-3 Category:Asian American-related topics Category:Ethnic groups of the United States

Asian

The term Asian in a geographical sense simply refers to something or someone from Asia. However the term has evolved in popular usage to often mean a person from a specific part of Asia rather than the continent as a whole. Its precise use varies depending on who is using it, where it is being used, and in which context it is being used in.

'Asian' in the UK and anglophone Africa

In the United Kingdom and Anglophone Africa, the term "Asian", though it can be used to refer to the continent of Asia as a whole, is more usually associated specifically with people and cultures whose origin lies in South Asia: that is, modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (see British Asian). Some Britons carelessly use "India" to refer to the whole of South Asia, while others make a clear distinction between the various countries that form the region. The British term of Asian is now making headway into Canadian English. Up until recently, Asians were seen from the perspective of England. The term "Far East" comes from the English. It is clearly not American, as Asia is directly West of America. The newer classifications of "Asia/Pacific" etc. are the American view of the world. Many Chinese South Africans dislike the label 'Asian', which they associate with being Indian or South Asian.

'Asian' in other English-speaking countries

In the United States, Canada, and Australasia, since approximately 1990, "Asian" has been used to refer to people from China, Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries. "Asian" is often considered a more polite (or, some would say, more politically correct) alternative to "Oriental". This is partially due to the perception amongst some in academia that the term "Orientalism" is now associated with the European colonial attitude toward the Ottoman East. To avoid the confusion that sometimes occurs, the term "East Asian" is sometimes used to distinguish people from South-East Asia, China, Japan, and Korea, and "South Asian" for Indians, Pakistanis and Bangaldeshis (or, more commonly, in North America, "Asian Indians" and "East Indians"). It should be noted that both of these clarifications are relatively formal, and are used only when it is necessary to make a distinction between the group concerned and other Asian peoples.

'Asian' in the US Census

In the US Census, the term Asian refers to all of these peoples, whether their racial origins are in the Far East (East Asia), Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent. However, respondents are allowed to indicate more precise racial groupings, such as "Asian Indian", "Chinese", "Filipino", "Korean", "Japanese", "Vietnamese", Burmese, Hmong, Pakistani, Laotian, Thai or "Other Asian". Far East (East-Asian American) : China/Chinese American, Japan/Japanese American, Mongolia/Mongolian American, South Korea/South-Korean American, and Taiwan/Taiwanese American. Southeast Asia (Southeast-Asian American): Brunei/Bruneian American, Burma/Burmese American, Cambodia/Cambodian American, East Timor/Timorese American, Indonesia/Indonesian American, Laos/Laotian American, Malaysia/Malaysian American, The Philippines/Filipino American, Singapore/Singaporean American, Thailand/Thai American, and Vietnam/Vietnamese American. Indian Subcontinent (South-Asian American) : Bangladesh/Bangladeshi American, Bhutan/Bhutanese American, India/Asian-Indian American,The Maldives/Maldivian American, Pakistan/Pakistani American. The US Census's definition of "Asian" does not, however include Arabs, or other peoples living in the Near East or Middle East.

When is an Asian not an Asian?

Despite the fact that these people are technically 'Asians' by geographical location on the map, they have generally have not been labelled as such in Western society.

'West Asians'

The term "West Asian" is now sometimes used to refer to people from Middle Eastern nations. This term is used mostly in Australasia where the "Middle East" is actually to the west, and so the term "Middle East" is geographically confusing. Though in Western society, Middle Easterners rarely evoke the term Asian, the original Greek name Asia referred to Asia Minor, where we would now consider as Middle East. An example of this is in Alexander the Great's title King of Asia.

Russians

Although some ethnic Russians hail from Asia (descendants of people shipped off to Siberia centuries ago, among other settlers), these people are not racially classified as "Asian" in most countries (including the United States) because their ancestors were Caucasian, rather than Mongoloid. However, Russian citizens who are Mongoloid, those who are descended from Siberian ethnic parentage, as well as the Russian geographical segment of the trans-continental Inuit population, the Yuit or Siberian Yupik - that is, Northeast Asians - also are not classified as "Asian," for no apparent reason, although this may related to Cold War classification of people in the former USSR as Soviets or Russians, to the exclusion of other ethnic labels.

Are Pacific Islanders Asian?

Sometimes, Pacific Islanders, such as Native Hawaiians or Samoans, who do not technically belong to the continent of Asia, may be classified or "clumped together" with the Asians as a group, often in censuses, surveys or studies. Thus, occasionally the term "Asians and Pacific Islanders" or "Asia/Pacific" may be used. However, in the 2000 US Census, many Pacific Islanders did not consider the