Author: Jesse Washington
Publication: Google.com
Date: November 8, 2009
URL: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g_RVkRyq5w3swuwmZ5xS1jk5M7dAD9BRHB7O2
To 12-year-old Suzannah Pabla, piercing her nose was a way to connect with
her roots in India. To Suzannah's school, it was a dress-code violation worthy
of a suspension.
To other Indians, the incident was emblematic
of how it can still be difficult for the American melting pot to absorb certain
aspects of their cultural and religious traditions.
Suzannah was briefly suspended last month
from her public school in Bountiful, Utah, for violating a body-piercing ban.
School officials - who noted that nose piercing is an Indian cultural choice,
not a religious requirement - compromised and said she could wear a clear,
unobtrusive stud in her nose, and Suzannah returned to her seventh-grade class.
"I wanted to feel more closer to my family
in India because I really love my family," said Suzannah, who was born
in Bountiful. Her father was born in India as a member of the Sikh religion.
"I just thought it would be OK to let
her embrace her heritage and her culture," said Suzannah's mother, Shirley
Pabla, a Mormon born in nearby Salt Lake City. "I didn't know it would
be such a big deal."
It shouldn't have been, said Suzannah's father,
Amardeep Singh, a Sikh who was raised in the United States and works as an
English professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.
"It's true that the nose ring is mainly
a cultural thing for most Indians," Singh said. "Even if it is just
culture, culture matters. And her right to express or explore it seems to
me at least as important as her right to express her religious identity."
Singh said people frequently ask him why he wears a turban. "Sometimes
it can be a burden to explain that," he said.
"Most people presume I'm an immigrant,
a foreigner," he continued. "As a child of immigrants, you often
don't feel fully American. The presumption is that you are somehow foreign
to a core American identity. You always feel a little bit of an outsider,
even in your own country."
About 2.6 million people of Indian ancestry
live in the United States, including immigrants and natives, according to
a 2007 U.S. Census estimate. The Indian population increased rapidly after
a 1965 change to immigration law, which ended preferences given to specific
European nations.
Sandhya Nankani, who moved to the United States
from India at age 12, said religion and culture in India are tightly intertwined,
but their expression varies widely in different regions of that country, "so
you can't make a blanket statement about what Indian culture is, or religion
or tradition."
Each morning, after Nankani bathes her 2-month-old
daughter, she makes a small ash mark called the "vibhuti" on the
baby's forehead, which for her signifies the "third eye" in her
Hindu religion.
"Sometimes people ask what is on her
forehead," said Nankani, a writer and editor who lives in Manhattan.
"I will probably not send her with the vibuthi to the playground soon.
I don't want her to be the center of attention in a way that makes her feel
like she doesn't belong."
Like Singh, Nankani is frequently asked questions
about her culture and religion - are Hindus really polytheistic? (Yes, but
all the Hindu gods are really one.) Does she eat meat? (No.) Does she celebrate
Thanksgiving? (Yes - she's an American citizen.)
"I've been to multiple dinners where
the entire two hours is us being asked all these questions," she said.
"It can get difficult ... it does feel like a load sometimes."
But Abhi Tripathi, an aerospace engineer in
Houston and co-founder of the Indian blog http://www.sepiamutiny.com, said
he gets fewer questions than he used to. "I feel like the general level
of knowledge of Indian culture has started to gradually rise," said Tripathi,
who was born in California to Indian immigrants.
Schandra Singh, an artist born in New York
to an Indian father and Austrian mother, says her experiences are in some
ways unusual because she does not appear to be Indian. Sometimes when she
walks unnoticed past an Indian family on the street, she thinks they would
acknowledge her if her features looked different.
"It's weird, because it's sort of like
living in a shell," Singh said.
But differences - like Savannah's pierced
nose - are part of what make the world interesting, she said.
"Are we all trying to look alike? Is
that what makes a better student, a better school?" Singh asked. "Or
a better country?"
"Those young people who invest in their
ethnic backgrounds," she said, "seem to actually do more with their
lives than less."
