Srinivas Kuchibhotla

New Film Puts Spotlight on a Hate Crime Against Indian American

Do We Belong? tells the story of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was shot by a Navy veteran, as Donald Trump’s administration continues to impose stringent restrictions on immigrants, especially those with H-1B visas.

On the evening of 22 February 2017, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an avionics engineer at Garmin, in Olathe, Kansas, was at his favourite haunt, Austins Bar and Grill. He was with his friend and colleague, Alok Madasani. They occupied their usual spot on the patio and ordered two beers; the bar was buzzing with people; the TV played a basketball game. It was, for Kuchibhotla and Madasani, a regular day after work — till they saw a man in a military outfit glowering at them. Seconds later, he was near their table, shouting, “Where are you from? Why are you in this country?”

“We are here legally,” Kuchibhotla replied. “We are on H-1B. We are from India.” The guy called them “sand niggers”, before saying, “We pay for your visas to be here. You need to get out of here! You don’t belong here!” His loud voice alarmed the other patrons. The man was first escorted out of the patio and then out of the bar. The bartender came out and apologised to Kuchibhotla and Madasani.

But that man, Adam Purinton – a retired US Navy veteran – entered the bar again. This time he had a gun. He stormed into the patio, shouting, “Get out of my country!” and opened fire at Kuchibhotla and Madasani. A bullet pierced Madasani’s leg; Kuchibhotla was shot at least thrice. Madasani survided, Kuchibhotla didn’t.

Less than a week later, on February 28, the same day when Kuchibhotla’s final rites were performed in his hometown, Hyderabad, his wife, Sunayana Dumala, posted a note on Facebook. “We were planning to expand our own family and had a doctor’s appointment just a few weeks ago,” it said. “I am writing this as it sinks in that this dream of ours is now shattered. I really wish we had a child of our own, in whom I could see Srinivas and make him like Srinu.” The note ended with a question, hanging precariously between an earnest appeal and indignant anger, “Do we belong here?”

That question still remains unresolved, with the Donald Trump administration imposing stringent restrictions on immigrants, especially those with H-1B visas, whose beneficiaries included Madasani and Kuchibhotla. That question is also the title of a new short documentary, featuring Dumala, detailing the aftermath of Kuchibhotla’s death.

Do We Belong?, directed by Sofian Khan, takes us to Dumala’s home in the suburbs of Olathe, where she talks about her husband, her newly married life and their hopes in America. “This house was his dream,” she says. “Srinu comes from a middle-class family. To be able to build our own house was a huge accomplishment for him.” For the next few minutes, the documentary isn’t about the tragedy but about memories, love, and, most importantly, Srinu. The engineer who cared for his job, the friend who enjoyed happy hours in bars, the blithe spirit who liked to dance — “he’s known as Amitabh Bachchan for his moves”. Even months after his death, when Dumala talks about Srinu, she sometimes slips into the present tense: “He’s into sports. He’s into politics. He’s a hardcore engineer — he’s everything.”

Khan, a documentary filmmaker, had been following the story closely. “I knew that it was big in India,” he told me over a Skype conversation. But he was surprised to find out that it hardly created any impact in the US. “I felt like, ‘this is crazy. This is such a big story and people have little awareness of it.’” Then, one day, he picked up a copy of Wired magazine at an airport. The magazine had a long affecting piece on Kuchibhotla’s life and death. “I remember reading it on the flight and trying hard to not break down amid people,” he says. “It was intense.”

That was when Khan felt a “personal connection with Srinivas’ history”, in the way “he sounded — his motives of coming to the US and just what a sweet person he was.” Like Kuchibhotla, Khan’s father was an immigrant and an engineer. Born in Pakistan, he came to the US in the early 1980s to work in financial software. So Kuchibhotla’s ambition and work ethic felt familiar. So did the “descriptions of Srinivas’ positive nature and playful humour”. There was a sense that Khan “somehow knew him”.

By the time Khan approached Dumala, he was working on a “longer documentary about hate crimes and Islamophobia,” he says. Khan was following a lot of stories – “mostly focused on Muslims” – but he felt it was also “important to include the stories of other groups who had been targeted”, especially those who were “mistaken, or perceived, to be Muslims”, like Kuchibhotla, who was mistaken for an Iranian.

But after talking to Dumala, Khan wanted to make a standalone film, one that felt personal and not overtly political. “Obviously people watch it and feel that it’s part of the movement,” he says, “where immigrants are being targeted and singled out, but at the same time, it’s also a really personal story.”

Do We Belong? changes track seamlessly – from portraying Kuchibhotla’s personal life to Dumala remembering about that evening. She had come home from work, was looking forward to making tea and drinking with Srinu, as always. She called him; it went to voicemail. She thought, “Ah, happy hours.” Then, while scrolling Facebook, she saw the news of shooting at Austins. “That’s when I started getting frantic and anxious and restless,” she says. “I was so scared to even read something about the incident, because I was afraid that they may have mentioned some names – and I was like, ‘Nothing should happen to Srinu; nothing should happen to Srinu.’”

Sunayana Dumala and Srinivas Kuchibhotla. Credit: Facebook.

The documentary gets under your skin in scenes like these, gently unfolding the effects of a brute crime. And then it soars further, taking a panoramic view of hate crimes in the US. “Many times these issues are only talked about for a few weeks,” the white text on the screen reads, as Dumala speaks in the background. “And people tend to forget about them afterwards. But the fight must go on … towards eradicating hatred from the minds of people. What is the government going to do about the hate crimes?”

As a Muslim, Khan is familiar with hate crimes or, broadly, Islamophobia. But growing up in New York, a relatively “progressive and tolerant” city, he didn’t have a strong sense of it, not till 9/11 happened. “Then it became a part of everyday life,” he says. While shooting a music video in 2005, in Queens, he was stopped by a construction worker who thought he was a terrorist. That incident – an overt case of Islamophobia – was an outlier. But since and before then, Khan has been all too familiar with its subtle versions. “It’s in the workplace,” he says. “I’d find myself working on a production and I’d be the Muslim guy and asked questions” – and elsewhere too, like other Muslim Americans who have “become the people to answer for Islam”.

Sofian Khan. Credit: Twitter: Sofian Khan/@capitalkpics

Living in such a “reactionary moment”, in times of Brexit and white supremacy, when calls for isolation have intensified, Khan has felt compelled to document this phase. He made An Act of Worship, a short documentary on travel ban, last year, a piece that got a lot of “negative comments from people”. Do We Belong? emerged from a similar urge.

Dumala’s response was not very different. A year after Kuchibhotla’s death, she partnered with her employer to create a non-profit, Forever Welcome, to combat hate crimes. On Kuchibhotla’s 34th birth anniversary, Dumala gave a speech on the campus of Garmin. “We miss having you here,” she says. “I’m thinking you’re with the Wright brothers, explaining them about the autopilot systems with a glass of scotch on the rocks.” The camera then cuts to Dumala walking with hundreds of people, some of them holding hands. Her voice appears in the background: “Me and Srinu believed this is our home, this is where we belong. And all of this was cut short because of one person’s ignorance. That’s what made me ask the question: Do we belong here? The way the community came forward – for so many of them to show so much of love for us. I think that’s what made me find my answer.”

Gunman Who Killed Indian Man in Kansas Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges

Purinton had already pleaded guilty to state charges for murder and attempted murder, and was earlier sentenced to life in prison.

Washington: A Kansas man who shot and killed an Indian software engineer and injured two others in February 2017 pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court to hate crime and firearm charges, the Justice Department said.

The shooting drew international attention as part of a wave of attacks nationwide against ethnic and religious minority groups following the 2016 election of US President Donald Trump, who has railed against illegal immigration.

The shooter, Adam Purinton, approached two Indian men, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, at a bar, demanding to know where they were from, calling one a terrorist and shouting, “Get out of my country!” Two other patrons escorted him out of the bar.

Purinton returned about a half-hour later and fired his semi-automatic pistol at the two men who he had harassed earlier. As he ran out, he shot another patron, Ian Grillot, who had chased him.

Kuchibhotla, a legal US resident, died of his injuries. Madasani and Grillot survived.

“While we cannot ameliorate the irreparable harm to the victims and their families, we hope that securing this guilty plea brings them some measure of closure,” said Jesse Panuccio, an acting associate attorney general, in a statement.

Purinton had already pleaded guilty to state charges for murder and attempted murder, and was sentenced earlier in May to life in prison. The local prosecutor said at the time that Purinton will not be eligible for parole for 50 years.

The sentencing is scheduled for July 2, the Justice Department said, and, despite the Kansas sentence, both federal prosecutors and the defense are seeking the maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

US Navy Veteran Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla

Adam Purinton would not be eligible for parole until after he turns 100.

Washington: A US Navy veteran today was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla in a racially motivated hate crime at a bar in Kansas City last year.

A federal judge in Kansas sentenced Adam Purinton, 52, to nearly 78 years in prison as part of a plea agreement reached in March. Purinton would not be eligible for parole until after he turns 100, KSHB reported.

The US Attorney’s Office in Kansas had filed hate crime charges against Purinton last June. Purinton had yelled, “Get out of my country,” before shooting Kuchibhotla, who later died from injuries sustained in the attack.

He pleaded guilty to the charges of murdering Kuchibhotla, in March this year.

He was charged with first-degree murder of Kuchibhotla (32) and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in the shootings of his friend, Alok Madasani, and a bystander, who chased Purinton after he fled the Austin’s Bar and Grill in Olathe city on February 22 last year.

In addition to the state charges, Purinton faces prosecution in federal court.

Kuchibhotla is survived by wife Sunayana Dumala, who welcomed the court’s decision. “Today’s sentencing in the murder of my husband will not bring back my Srinu, but it sends a strong message that hate is never acceptable,” Dumala said in a statement.

“I want to thank the District Attorney’s office and the Olathe police for their efforts to bring this man to justice,” she added.

Kuchibhotla hailed from Hyderabad. He had a master’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad.

(PTI)

‘Direct Correlation in Hate Crimes Surge Against South Asians and Trump’s Rise’

A new report suggests there’s no place for the ‘other’ in Donald Trump’s ‘Great America’.

Muslim places of worship have come under attack. Credit: Reuters

Houston: On February 1, 2017, in a Muslim-owned restaurant called Four Sisters in Chicago, Illinois, a patron left a $1 tip. On the bill – in bright red ink – were the words: “No Muslim immigrants in the USA.”

On the same day, in a separate incident in Nashville, Tennessee, a man named Christopher Beckham harassed two Muslim girls as they were alighting from a school bus, and threatened their father with a knife, asking them to “go back to your country.”

• On May 2, 2017, at the South Padre Island in Texas, a man named Alexander Downing was seen pounding his chest, screaming in the faces of a Muslim family on the beach: “Donald Trump will stop you. Donald Trump got you motherf*@#*^s. Watch, my country is the greatest country in the world.”

• On July 19, 2017, an unidentified man called a local mosque in Augusta, Georgia, at least eight times, leaving over 20 minutes of voicemail messages threatening to attack, shoot and bomb mosques and Muslims in the US.

• On September 21, 2017, a man named Matthew Dunn verbally and physically assaulted his Lyft driver in Houston, Texas, upon learning that he was a Muslim from Pakistan.

These incidents are only a handful of 302 instances of hate violence and xenophobic political rhetoric aimed at South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Middle Eastern and Arab communities in the first year of Trump’s presidency. The incidents have been documented in a report titled ‘Communities on Fire’, which was released last week by the non-profit organisation South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT).

The report, which covers the period from November 8, 2016 to November 7, 2017, shows a direct correlation between the surge in hate crimes against South Asians – a 45% increase from SAALT’s analysis of the previous year when Trump ran his presidential campaign peppered with odious rhetoric – and Trump’s subsequent rise to power.

Also read: Standing Up to Hate in Donald Trump’s America

One in five attackers invoked the name of Trump, or one of his harmful policies, or even his pet slogan ‘Make America Great Again’.

The report organises incidents of hate violence into three major categories: physical assaults (beatings, violent removal of religious clothing and the use of a weapon); verbal or written assaults (threats based on racial and religious appearance) and property damage (vandalism, arson and other forms of destruction).

When the 302 recorded incidents are broken down further, we see that 213 of them were the product of direct physical or verbal hate violence and 89 instances fell under the realm of xenophobic political rhetoric. Eighty two percent were motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment.

“Through its policies and rhetoric, the Trump administration’s incessant demonisation of Islam has created an environment of hate and fear-mongering for Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim. Deadly shootings, torched mosques, vandalised homes and businesses and young people harassed at school have animated an acutely violent post-election year. This administration must break eye contact with white supremacy if our nation is to live up to its highest ideals of religious freedom,” said Suman Raghunathan, executive director of SAALT.

The report underscores the fact that anti-Muslim discrimination in the US has long been a part of the history of oppression perpetrated against Black, Native and Latinx communities, even as the campaign and election of Trump is heralded as the primary factor associated with the growing violence and rhetoric nationally. Post 9/11, Islamophobic vitriol has trickled down to people who are presumed to be Muslim, affecting the South Asian community at large.

Post 9/11, Islamophobic vitriol has trickled down to people who are presumed to be Muslim, affecting the South Asian community at large. Credit: Reuters

“The heightened hate violence and xenophobic political rhetoric targeting our communities, accompanied by an increase in surveillance and racial profiling by law enforcement in 2017, points to a new normal of fear and violence,” reads the report, adding that the openly discriminatory government policies and practices enhance and underscore this impact.

The most pronounced case was the killing of Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla, which later came to be referred to as the 2017 Olathe, Kansas shooting. Trump remained silent for six days before condemning the killing.

The harmful effects of the Trump administration highlighted in this report, however, doesn’t seem to have detered a small group of about 200 Hindu Indian immigrants. On Saturday, the Hindu Republican Coalition held a rally outside the White House in support of his latest plan for “merit-based” immigration. Demonstrators marched while chanting slogans like “Indians love Trump” and “Clear green card backlog.”

SAALT prepared this report by poring over coverage of hate crimes in local press. They also created a database on the website which allows people to fill a form detailing the kind of abuse suffered. “This allows for people of the community to report their cases without fear. There is a growing distrust in law enforcement, so this form helps people to not suffer in silence. We also provide legal resources,” Raghunathan said.

The instigators and perpetrators of hate documented in the report are white supremacist groups, President Trump himself and his administration officials, other elected or public officials and the mainstream media. According to the report, hate violence seems to occur more frequently in states with a high South Asian population like California and New York, followed by Illinois, Ohio, Texas and Washington.

Also read: From the UK to the US, Lessons on How to Tackle Hate Crimes

The recent report also points to the intersectionality of the violence, putting at highest risk, say Black queer Muslim women.

Consequently, the highest number of hate incidents were against women (28%), followed by men, youth and Muslim places of worship. Those wearing hijabs or headscarves were most vulnerable, accounting for 63% of the hate crimes against women.

In May last year, a middle-aged white man followed a Black Muslim couple for 20 blocks in Portland, Oregon and yelled out threats at them. “Take off the f*&$ing burka, this is America; go back to your f*&$ing country.” He also made a gesture of pulling a trigger, while also threatening to mow them over with his car. The man later said he felt threatened by the couple, a common excuse used by those who attack Black people in the US.

“Hate violence often occurs at the intersection of anti-Muslim, xenophobic, racist, anti-women, anti-Black, homophobic and transphobic, classist and casteist systems,” the report reads. In response to these complexities, it is often Muslim, Dalit, Black, queer and immigrant women who are leading efforts to fight the onslaught of hate.”

Sukhada Tatke is a freelance writer. She tweets @ASuitableGirl.

Adam Purinton Charged With Hate Crime in Shooting of Srinivas Kuchibhotla

Adam Purinton had shot dead Srinivas Kuchibhotla and injured Alok Madasani in a Kansas City suburb in February 2017.

Adam Purinton, 51, accused of killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, and wounding Alok Madasani, 32, as well as an American who tried to intervene, appears via video conference from jail during his initial court appearance in Olathe, Kansas, U.S. on February 27, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Jill Toyoshiba/Pool/File Photo

A Kansas man, accused of shouting “get out of my country” as he shot dead one Indian man and injured another at a bar, faces federal hate crime and firearms charges, the US justice department said on Friday.

A US grand jury indicted Adam Purinton, 52, on charges of killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla and wounding Alok Madasani, both 32, because of their race, colour, religion and national origin.

Purinton was also charged with a federal firearms violation in the February 22 incident at Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, a Kansas City suburb. The shootings also injured an American, Ian Grillot, 24, who tried to intervene.

“The indictment alleges that Purinton committed the offences after substantial planning and premeditation, attempted to kill more than one person in a single criminal episode, and knowingly created a grave risk of death to others on the scene,” the justice department said in a news release.

An attorney for Purinton could not immediately be reached for comment. He also faces state murder and attempted murder charges.

Local media reported at the time that Purinton thought he had killed two Iranian men.

Purinton’s indictment comes amid growing concern about a wave of hateful actions across the US aimed at blacks, Jews, Muslims and other groups targeted by inflammatory rhetoric that gained prominence during the 2016 presidential election.

If convicted, Purinton could face capital punishment or life in prison. Justice officials said they had not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Declining Numbers Show Indian Students are Wary of Heading to Trump’s US

An anti-immigrant rhetoric and a possible lack of jobs, along with steeper visa fees are scaring off Indian students from applying to US universities.

Immigrant students graduate at a university in the US. Credit: Reuters/Files

New York/New Delhi: Like many other Indians, Ranjit Lal had originally planned to go to the US to study further. But then he changed his mind. “I chose Canada over the US because with Donald Trump in the White House there are too many uncertainties about US immigration policies. I can’t bet a future on winning a H-1B visa lottery versus good opportunities in Canada,” said Ranjit Lal, who has applied to McGill University in Montreal.

“I want to do my Master’s in engineering in McGill. Canada is an immigrant-friendly country. That’s what is most important to me,” added Lal.

Another student, a 22-year-old from Mumbai, said she scrapped her plans to apply to law schools in the US because she was concerned about getting an H1B visa after graduating – which would have made getting a job as a lawyer especially tricky since she would not have been able to practice in India.

International students, and not just from India, are backing out from applying to the US and looking at other alternatives, because the increasing anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies of the Trump administration are dampening enthusiasm among students for studying in the US.

A new survey reveals that four in ten US colleges have experienced a sharp decline in international applicants for the Fall 2017 term. Trump’s travel ban and hardline immigration policies have put off students from the Middle East and Muslim majority countries — that’s not surprising. But, initial findings of the survey also point to a decline in applicants from India and China, which together provide nearly half of the US’s international students.

More than three-quarters of institutions surveyed expressed concern about future enrollment. “Nearly 40% of responding US institutions are reporting a drop in international student applications, particularly from students in the Middle East,” showed the findings from a survey of 250 schools by six higher-education groups, including the Institute of International Education (IIE).

Indeed, the most telling decline in applicants came from the Middle East, with universities reporting a 39% decrease in undergraduate applications and a 31% decrease in graduate applications from the region.

Indian numbers dipping

But Indian students, who have been heading to the US in ever increasing numbers in recent years, are now wary of going to American institutions. According to the survey, 26% of universities reported a decline in undergraduate applications from India, in addition to a 15% decline in India’s graduate applications.

Malavika Bhatia, an education consultant at Ed Sanctuary in Delhi, is expecting a greater drop in undergraduate applicants for next year. Bhatia told The Wire, “It’s early in the season to compute right now but I would say two out of every, say, ten students have changed their mind over the past year.”

She has also gotten used to dealing with parents panicking about the recent racist attacks against Indians. Bhatia said, “Nearly every parent has this question [about safety]. Which is natural I think, but I just assure them that it’s not as much [of a concern] on the coasts and in liberal spaces.”

Wim Wiewel, president of Portland State University in Oregon, said his school saw a 37% reduction in applications from India for the new school year.

“I’d say the rhetoric and actual executive orders are definitely having a chilling effect,” said Wiewel, who travelled to Hyderabad to meet with ten students already admitted to his school’s graduate engineering programme.

People listen during a vigil in honour of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an Indian immigrant who was recently shot and killed in Kansas, at Crossroads Park in Bellevue, Washington, on Sunday. Credit: Reuters

Wiewel’s trip to Hyderabad came soon after residents of the city held funeral services for computer engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was killed by Adam W. Purinton, who yelled “get out of my country,” before opening fire on two Indians at Austin’s Bar and Grill in a Kansas City suburb. A second Indian engineer Alok Madasani was also injured in the Kansas hate crime along with a white man who tried to stop the gunman.

“I tried to reassure Indian students that the university’s environment is still very safe and very welcoming to international students,” said Wiewel.

It’s 2017, and not a month goes by in the US without reports of hate violence targeting Muslims, Arabs, Sikhs, South Asians, African Americans, Jews and Latinos. There is no question that Trump’s victory has brought the bigots out of the woodwork. In all, the Southern Poverty Law Center has documented a record 900 hate crimes, a lot of them in universities since the November election of Trump.

Aware of this, education professionals in the US are coming up with ways to woo Indians back to the US. Soon after the Kansas shooting, Marie Whalen from Whitworth University and Syed K. Jamal, CEO of Branta, a US-based company that provides support to Indian students, authored an ‘Open Letter from the United States to India’ telling students “#youbelonghere”.

Jamal told The Wire, “There was at least one story [about Indians experiencing racist or xenophobic] violence coming out in the Indian media every day… But that’s not how ALL of the US is.”

Countering negative media attention is just one part of Jamal’s plan for the coming months. He is also planning on releasing videos and conducting more media outreach to let Indian students know that the US is still a welcoming and safe place to study.

Jamal added that admissions officials who come to India to deliver informational talks are also rethinking how they pitch their colleges as they brace themselves for a greater drop in applications for the next academic year.

There are other concerns too. The Wire spoke to a number of Indian students – most of whom wanted to remain anonymous – who have cancelled or withdrawn their plans to apply to US colleges, and even declined offers of admission for the coming year. Graduate school applicants are especially concerned about their diminished chances of getting a job in the US after finishing their courses since the Trump administration has cracked down on H1B visas and also introduced legislation that will make it difficult for international students to stay on for long after getting their degree.

The H-1B visa issue was a political hot potato during the elections. It’s no surprise then that the issue is under fierce scrutiny under the Trump presidency. It’s not easy in any case for an immigrant working on an H-1B visa in the United States.

One student in Delhi backed out of applying to engineering masters programmes at the last minute – disregarding months of preparation, including the completed letters of recommendation that he’d requested to supplement his applications. In the past year, too many of his friends – some of them who had been working at software giants like Google and so could be considered to be competitive candidates for work visas – had failed to get H1Bs, leaving them with uncertain futures.

Trump’s new proposal to increase the salary requirement for H1B visas to $130,000 per annum had him especially worried. He told The Wire, “It’s going to be very difficult for people who don’t have high-paying engineering or finance jobs to meet that requirement.”

His father, who encouraged his son’s decision to apply to schools in other countries – Germany, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands seem to have gained the applicants the US has lost – cited “the increasing racism” and increasingly competitive requirements for H1B visas as the two primary reasons for the change of plans.

Dipping figures are a reversal of about a decade of steady increases in applications from international students, which pushed the number of international students studying in the US to over one million last year, according to the ‘Open Doors Report’ published by the IIE. International students brought about $36 billion last year to the US economy and universities have become increasingly dependent on that revenue.

In the last year alone, Indian students contributed $5 billion to the US economy, while Chinese students contributed another $11 billion.

On an average, international students pay much higher fees than locals and help US colleges plug the budget gaps caused by reductions in state funding. Public schools often charge international students two to three times what domestic students pay, thereby subsidising the cost of tuition for US students.

Worry about safety, stereotypes

The National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC), one of the institutions conducting the survey, cited Trump’s travel ban as a hard line anti-immigrant policy queering the pitch.

“For educational institutions in the United States, the negative effects of the ban will extend far beyond 90 days and well beyond the six countries involved,” said Nancy Beane, president of the NACAC.

While China and India are not directly influenced by the travel ban, foreign students are conscious that President Trump’s anti-immigrant policies are predicated on a hyper-territorial worldview in which immigrants are cast as job stealers. The political discourse surrounding foreign nationals under the Trump presidency has led to concerns about safety, stereotypes and cultural differences, among other issues. These concerns may deter international students from hopping on a plane and earning an American degree.

College counsellors in India are already feeling the impact of these concerns. A counsellor, who works for one of NCR’s elite schools but is not authorised to speak to the press, said parents’ concerns have driven up interest in countries like Canada, Germany and Australia.

In the meantime, liberal arts institutions in India are gaining in popularity. Bhatia said Ashoka University, with its liberal arts mandate, has become a popular option since it doesn’t come with as hefty a price-tag and promises to be safer than its US counterparts. But for those who have set their heart on studying abroad, the US is losing the charm it once had and there is no saying when the numbers will start increasing again.

Indian-Americans Honour Man Who Intervened in Kansas Shooting

Houston’s Indian-American community raised $100,000 to help Ian Grillot buy a house in his hometown, Kansas.

India’s ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna hands over to Ian Grillot a cheque of $100,000 raised by the Indian American community at the 14th annual gala of India House Houston on Sunday. Credit: PTI

Houston, US: A young American who took a bullet while trying to save two Indians has been honoured as ‘a true American hero’ by Houston’s Indian-American community, which raised $100,000 to help him buy a house in his hometown Kansas.

“On behalf of the Indian-American community in Houston, India House recognised this selfless act beyond the call of duty and has extended the community’s gratitude to Ian Grillot by helping him to buy a house,” said a statement posted on the India House Houston Facebook page.

India’s ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna handed over the cheque to Grillot, who was honoured at the 14th annual gala of India House Houston.

Grillot, 24, was injured when he tried to grab a Kansas gunman – 51-year-old navy veteran Adam Purinton – who shot at two Indians last month at a bar-cum-grill in Olathe, Kansas. Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed and his colleague Alok Madasani was critically injured in the shooting.

India House, a community centre built by Americans of Indian origin in the Greater Houston area, raised the $100,000 as part of an initiative supported by Anupam Ray, India’s consul-general in Houston, to help Grillot buy a house in his hometown, the Facebook statement said.

Grillot said it was a powerful message. “I don’t know if I could’ve lived with myself if I wouldn’t have stopped or attempted to stop the shooter because that would’ve been completely devastating,” he said.

“I do now have a very powerful message and if I can help empower people and spread hope and love, then why not? I am honoured to be at India House that serves so many families from so many communities in the Houston area.”

Sarna said it was a “great privilege” to meet Grillot and his parents. “I was keen to come here today because I was told that Ian Grillot will be honoured… He is a young man who has shown exceptional courage, strength of very fundamental human values. No amount of honour that India or the Indian Americans bestow on him will be enough for that moment of exceptional fortitude and character,” Sarna added.

Ray said the vibrant Indian diaspora in America has always contributed towards the society and economy of the US. “They are the ambassadors of Indian culture. They are playing a vital role in strengthening the ties between the two nations and cultures.”

Popular Indian chef Vikas Khanna, another guest of honour at the event, spoke about his experience as an immigrant and the struggles immigrants go through.

“When they give up everything familiar behind and come to a new land, like an alien, you come as a no person here, you have so much faith in this country that you give everything to it, but still you get bullied. But then there are people like Ian Grillot, who… give you hope and courage to follow your dream,” Khanna said.

“It is not every day that one meets a genuine hero – a person who risks his life for another, and takes a bullet for a complete stranger. Ian Grillot is a man who reminds us of the promise of America and its greatness,” said Jiten Agarwal, a prominent Houstonian and Chair of the annual gala.

Nisha D. Biswal, former assistant secretary of state for South/Central Asia, recalled the “very distinct honour of serving in the Obama administration”. Biswal said it was a “particularly wonderful experience” for someone who was “born in India and emigrated to US at the age of five. “I am living the American dream,” Biswal added.

Standing Up to Hate in Donald Trump’s America

Under Donald Trump, who used his campaign for hateful indoctrination, it is important for different racial and religious minorities in the US to come together.

Demonstrators march during the “Day Without Immigrants” protest in Washington, DC, US, February 16, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Aaron P. Bernstein

This week, a friend who lives 20 minutes from my home shared that she encountered a hate incident in the middle of a dark street. The incident occurred in California, an American state where one in every five persons is foreign born or an immigrant. Thankfully, the incident did not escalate into a physical fight or crime. But she called the local police anyway, just to inform them in case he were to reappear or threaten her. She could have easily been the Sikh man repairing his car on a driveway who was shot. But it got me thinking about a very important question: how are we going to deal with such encounters?

I arrived at the Justice Department’s website after an extensive online search on ‘reporting hate’. It said that if it is a hate crime, then I should contact the local FBI office. After a couple of operators, an FBI agent was finally on the line with me. I told him right at the start that I was not a victim of any crime but I was just wanted to be prepared about where to report it if a crime were to occur. The agent was quick to clarify that a black man robbing a white man would not necessarily be a hate crime and I told him I understood that part already. He also told me that only incidents involving bodily injury or vandalism with a racial/ethnic or a religious bias would be taken up by the FBI and for other incidents the local police would be my best bet.

But whom should we talk to about incidents like the kind my friend experienced? Do we have any community space to talk about this? For years, the Jewish, Muslim and Sikh communities have held workshops for members on how to deal with hate. The premise then was that hate was specifically targeted. This might be a great moment to expand it beyond specific communities to deal with the sudden ‘outsiderness’ gripping the immigrant communities across the country.

Back in November, a young woman in Fremont, California, went on a hike and by the time she returned to her car, the window was broken, her purse stolen and a hate note left on the seat.

Courtesy: CBS San Francisco

It turns out the woman is not even Muslim and was just wearing a scarf to protect her head due to a skin condition. When asked what she thought had caused the people to vandalised her car, she said, “Fear. I believe they’re being controlled by fear. I believe that fear has consumed them.”

She was absolutely right. US President Donald Trump’s biggest weapon was his ability to create fear and capitalise on fears that have been buried in many American hearts and minds. He associated rape with Mexicans, terror with Muslims, and unemployment with Indian and Chinese technology workers. Trump even got people to believe that all the country’s problems were in immigration control. They believed him because of their own social, financial and religious insecurities.

The US in the 1990s had around 19 million immigrants, a figure that now stands at over 40 million immigrants. Even as the US elected Trump as their president, five Indian-Americans – Kamala Harris, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Pramila Jayapal and Ami Bera – were elected to the US Congress. Before them, only one Indian-American had ever served in the US Congress at a time. The landscape of some regions has drastically changed; with immigrant communities came their vibrant extravagant cultures and irresistible cuisines, perhaps causing distress among some Americans who see this as a threat to everything that is American.

On February 22, 2017, 51-year-old Adam Purinton shot Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, two Indian aviation engineers in Olathe, southwest of Kansas City. Purinton even shot a young American who tried to stop his attack. The shooter was allegedly escorted out of the Bar & Grill after he was seen harassing Kuchibhotla and his co-worker with racial slurs. But 30 minutes later he returned with a gun, allegedly yelling, “Get out of my country”. Hours later, he told a bartender in another restaurant that he had shot two Iranian-looking men. Kuchibhotla died after sustaining bullet injuries.

A pattern

But did this start with Trump?

Three days after the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, 31-year old Mark Storman shot and killed Waqar Hasan, a Pakistani convenience store clerk in Texas. Six days later, he shot Rias Bhuyian, a Bangladeshi cash clerk at a mini-mart. On October 4, 2001, weeks after the previous shootings, he shot Vasudev Patel, an Indian clerk at another Texas gas station. Storman knew nothing about the men he shot. He had later confessed that he was looking for some Arab-looking men to take revenge for the 9/11 attacks.

The Kansas and Texas incidents are 16 years apart, but it seems like déjà vu. It is not hard to see parallels in the incidents. Purinton and Storman are white American men who were carrying guns as masculine duty – an answer to their social and religious insecurities. Both mistook South Asian men for Middle Eastern or Arab men. Both were racist, misinformed, Islamophobic and ignorant. Both acted in rage, which was constantly fed and reinforced with messages of hatred for people from specific national origins and religious communities as being responsible for terrorism, unemployment and crime. Both killed strangers in public places.

Unlike Storman, who seemed to have derived his motivation from anger post 9/11, Purinton’s anger seems to have stemmed from an election that constantly legitimised racial and religious discrimination, an election and a president that patronised white supremacy by his comments, actions and choice of staff.

Bhuyian, the sole survivor of Storman’s hate crime, said this in his December 2015 blog about Trump’s election campaign: “Your vitriolic, hate-filled rhetoric and ignorance is not only causing others to lose their civil and human rights and dignity, but in some cases, also inciting such abhorrence and violence that innocent people are losing their lives. Freedom of speech is one of the most cherished rights we enjoy, but was not fought for to be used as a blank check to ruin other peoples’ freedom.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit organisation that is known for its hate watch and civil rights work, reported 867 hate incidents between November 8 (election day) and November 18, 2016, through written online submissions and verified media accounts. They also reported that hate incidents were extremely common in two settings where strangers are likely to encounter one another – on the street and in retail establishments, and that schools and college settings were found most vulnerable locations for hate incidents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bwhBc7NYdg

Hate incidents against immigrants is not a new phenomenon nor is the constant rise of hate groups in the US. But now it feels apparent. It seems like there is a sense of entitlement in acts of hate. Trump’s campaign had the effect of an indoctrination hate camp where he propagated, replenished and reinforced the idea of intolerance. He brought the devil out of the closet, renewed its vigour, and gave new sense of blame and purpose to the miserable self. He marketed it as a group project, a project that would ‘make America great again’. And those who found their calling dawned a new group identity, an identity that would probably mask their helplessness and loneliness. And while he was finding like-minded partners, the immigrant community switched off their television sets and continued to obtain their degrees, save the hard-earned dollars and try hard to be as American as they can be with the brown skin and thick accents. Kuchibhotla could not be more American. He was sitting at a steakhouse bar watching a basketball game with a co-worker.

Finding unity

Not this time. Looking the other way will not help us this time. We need to recognise and organise. We need to stand up to hate. Our diversity in culture, religion, language and regions never seemed so much like a liability than it seems now. By our own divisions and boundaries, we are isolating each other instead of standing by each other. The other day I received a message about how wearing a bindi on my forehead will protect me from somebody mistaking me for a Muslim. What makes us think that a man with gun who is full of rage, blinded by hate and robbed of logic will see my bindi and abort his madness? When can we open our eyes and see that the Republican Hindu Coalition and Hindus Love Trump was nothing but an attempt to play us against each other and pave away to kill our collective power? I hope Trump’s desi manager Shalabh Kumar is watching that the first organisation to condemn the Kansas shooting was the Center for American-Islamic Relations. That attacking a Jewish cemetery, a woman in a hijab or a South Asian man in a bar is all the same. It kills them and death has no dominion.

It is time to build community groups beyond our faiths but rooted in our fears and dreams. It is time to create advocacy resources that educate and busts the myths about immigrant communities. We need to step in and take up local leadership roles beyond our Bollywood nights and Diwali parties. Remember, divide and rule is an old trump card. We can’t fall for it all over again in a different country.

Tejeswi Pratima Dodda is a digital communications specialist in the San Francisco Bay Area.

From Dadri To Kansas, Countering the Politics of Hate

The beginning to countering the politics of hate lies in self-reflection, in digging deep into the everyday discourses we participate in that mark the “other” and in recognising the “other” in the “us”.

The beginning to countering the politics of hate lies in self-reflection, in digging deep into the everyday discourses we participate in that mark the “other” and in recognising the “other” in the “us”.

The killing of Kuchibhotla – an Indian in the US – is a reminder of the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh. Credit (L-R): PTI/PTI/GoFundMe/Reuters

The killing of Kuchibhotla – an Indian in the US – is a reminder of the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh. Credit (L-R): PTI/PTI/GoFundMe/Reuters

On February 22, Srinivas Kuchibhotla was out having a beer with his friend at a bar in Olathe, Kansas, when he was shot dead. According to bystanders, the shooter, Adam Purinton, a white American, had hurled racial slurs at Kuchibhotla and his friend, Alok Madasani – who was injured in the incident – and yelled “get out of my country,” before opening fire on them.

Purinton managed to flee from the scene and was apprehended five hours later after a bartender in Montana called the police. Purinton had apparently told him that he had killed two Middle Eastern men.

The shooting, now being probed by the FBI as a hate crime, depicts the anti-Muslim sentiment that has seen a surge in public discourse in the US and made up the fabric of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. This sentiment has been further buoyed by the president’s temporary travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority countries.

This individual incident in Kansas is a reflection of the broader racist climate that has found new moral fuel in the US, although it has always been a part of the US story.

The rhetoric of “Make America great again” imagines a purity, marked by whiteness, and seeks to expunge all that threatens to contaminate this imagined sense of purity. In this imaginary, a great America is a White Christian America, cleansed from all that pollutes her and threatens her freedom.

A report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, noted a significant rise in hate crime after Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the US in the aftermath of the San Bernardino terror attack in December 2015. Noting that anti-Muslim hate crimes rose to the highest level in 2015 since the 9/11 attacks, the report went on to suggest that Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric could have contributed to this.

The irony of the attack, however, lies in the classic misidentification of a Hindu for a Muslim.

Having lived in the post-9/11 US, I am reminded of the racial profiling I often experienced because my brown skin led my interlocutors to the conclusion that I must be Muslim; I am reminded of the many times my first name ‘Mohan’ automatically became ‘Mohammed;’ I am reminded of the many instances of being pulled aside at passport checkpoints and I am reminded of the shootings targeting Sikhs after the 9/11 attacks.

The irony of this particular tragedy, however, is multiplied by the rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiments among Hindus in India and in the Hindu diaspora communities. The Kansas incident has occurred in the backdrop of the systematic attacks on Muslims in India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi rose to power in 2014.

The killing of Kuchibhotla – an Indian in the US – is a reminder of the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh. On September 28, 2015, Akhlaq was dragged out of his home and beaten by an angry mob following rumours of cow slaughter and beef consumption. Here too the moral basis serving the authorial voice of murder was his being a Muslim.

The anti-Muslim sentiment in the US has found strong footing among the Hindus in the US, whose narrative of the Islamic aggressors against a Hindu India gel well with Trump’s narrative of supposed Islamic aggressors against the US democracy.

These Hindus celebrate Trump’s “I love Hindu” rhetoric, feeling a sense of solidarity with Trump’s anti-Islamic exhortations, and the binaries in which he reduces the cultural lifeworld of the US. The same Hindus flock to the Indian prime minister as he promises the imaginary of a Hindu India, cleansed from the aggressions of Islamic invaders. Much like their Christian right-wing counterparts, they exert pressure on educational boards to construct specific cultural narratives that serve their reductionist agendas.

Cultural narratives are being re-written in India and in the Indian diaspora communities to foist the imaginary of a Hindu India. The fact that this imaginary operates on the foundations of “othering” must be the starting point for recognising and countering what Cherian George calls “hate spin”.

George draws our attention to the plurality and multivocality that make up religions and the ways in which these diversities are monolithically constructed into a strategic cultural narrative to mark the “insider” and the “outsider.” For instance, he points to the “Islamophobia industry” in the US that serves both economic and political agendas. The work of challenging hate crimes therefore lies in disrupting these monolithic cultural frames that serve racist hegemonic agendas, and in opening up public discursive spaces to narratives of inclusivity and social justice.

For many among the Indian diaspora that are feeling and sharing a deep sense of despair at the racialised violence in the US and its possible effects on their lives, the Kansas shooting is hopefully a humbling call to look within. For all those who rallied behind Modi’s anti-Muslim rhetoric, imagining a pure Hindu nation, the continuities from Dadri to Olathe offer a reason to pause. In this global climate of “hate spin,” interrupting the spin cycles of “othering” with an explicit call to openness is the only way toward social justice.

Seeing the connections between these events is an entry point to healing, to noting the continuities in forms of hate and the underlying principles of intolerance that feed hate. That hate is strategically catalysed to serve the goals of political actors ought to form the basis of critical vigilance of all such rhetoric. It is only with this recognition of the foundational principles of hate that we can as global communities move toward imagining other possibilities that are guided by spirits of dialogue, understanding and peace.

The fact that Kuchibhotla was wrongly identified as a Muslim is not the point. That Muslims are being singled out and targeted for attacks ought to be the broader basis of rallying against racism. Noting the rise in anti-Islamic sentiments globally ought to be the entry point for working in solidarity toward countering racism.

That the rhetoric of hate does not differentiate between its casualties ought to be a humbling moment to the recognition of the universality of vulnerability and the possibilities of dialogue across difference.

The beginning to countering the politics of hate lies in self-reflection, in digging deep into the everyday discourses we participate in that mark the “other”.

Xenophobia and religious bigotry reproduce themselves on the power of othering. Once the inside of the nation and its true citizens have been marked, boundaries are established for acting on the outsider. Strategies of identification, categorisation and segregation are deeply embedded in racialised imaginaries. Therefore, to counter these radicalised imaginaries, we must begin by recognising the humanity in the “other,” in recognising the “other” in the “us”.

Mohan J. Dutta is a professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Narendra Modi’s Silence on Kansas Shooting Speaks Volumes

Donald Trump has finally broken his silence on the incident, but Narendra Modi remains mum.

On the evening of February 22, two men of Indian origin, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, and Alok Madasani, 32, met at Austin’s Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas in Midwestern US for a customary drink after work. What followed was deeply tragic.

According to bystanders, 51-year-old Adam Purinton opened fire on the two men – who he mistook to be Middle Eastern – after yelling “Get out of my country”. Kuchibhotla was killed in the incident, while Madasani and Ian Grillot, an American who had attempted to intervene, sustained injuries.

The reactions to the incident, which is being viewed as a hate crime, have been perplexing. The White House labelled the attack as “disturbing,” however, press secretary Sean Spicer brushed aside any correlation between the incident and the Trump presidency’s rhetoric of Islamophobia and immigrant-phobia.

Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump had nothing to say in the days following the incident, finally breaking his silence after eight days in his address to the US Congress. His initial reticence is in stark contrast to that of his predecessor, Barack Obama, who, after the killing of six people at a gurudwara in Wisconsin in 2013, issued a statement saying, “As we mourn this loss which took place at a house of worship, we are reminded how much our country has been enriched by Sikhs, who are a part of our broader American family.”

Considering Trump ascended to the presidency with promises of white supremacy, it was not surprising that he did not immediately condemn the murder of a person of colour by a white person.

On the other hand, what is surprising is that the Narendra Modi-led Indian government, which has been pushing a particular brand of nationalism on everyone has had nothing to say about the attack.

One can only guess the reasons for the prime minister’s silence on the incident.

Modi was one of the first world leaders to receive a call from the White House after Trump’s inauguration, ahead of China’s Xi Jinping, Japan’s Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Modi has visited the US several times before the Trump presidency and has attempted to present India as an attractive site for investment, aid and US exports of clean energy and defence technology.

On its part, the US has endorsed India for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, much to the displeasure of China. One would surmise that Modi would like to maintain the upswing in US-India relations under Trump’s presidency. Modi is also possibly worried about Trump’s undeclared policy on H-1B visas, which may cause adjustment problems for India’s tech industry and put several young Indian professionals out of jobs.

Nonetheless, what good is the status of India-US relations, the tech companies, or even the visas of Indian professionals if persons of Indian origin are shot and killed in public spaces in the US?

Moreover, Trump is considerably popular among the Hindu rightwing within the Indian diaspora, a significant part of Modi’s support base.

Like Trump, Modi too has been pushing ‘alternate facts’ of his own. For example, during the ‘California textbook controversy,’ Hindutva activists insisted that it was the Muslim rulers who had introduced the caste system into India. Had it not been for the intervention of independent scholars and the Indian American Muslim Council, it is possible that a generation of school children in California would have grown up studying ‘alternate facts’ instead of South Asian history.

During Trump’s inauguration, a Hindu priest was among the spiritual leaders who conferred their blessings on him. The Hindutva support for Trump being “good for India” relies on the understanding that India is a ‘Hindu rashtra’, and that both Trump and the Hindu rashtra have Islamophobia in common.

What the Hindutva groups do not realise is that to a white supremacist, Islamophobia and xenophobia extend not just to Muslims but also to nearly any non-white person and anyone from West Asia, North Africa and even Latin America.

Tapan Ghosh of the Hindu Samhati may advise Hindu Indian-Americans to wear tilaks and bindis to distinguish themselves from Muslims, but white supremacists are equally suspicious of ‘dot Indians’.

In 1987, a group called Dotbusters in Jersey City, specifically attacked and even killed those wearing bindis. Till 1946, the US judicial system considered “Hindus too brunette to vote here”. US military veteran and Indian immigrant Bhagat Singh Thind had struggled for years during the 1920s to gain citizenship claiming to be of Aryan descent and therefore Caucasian and “white”. However, the US Supreme Court concluded in United States vs Bhagat Singh Thind, 1923, that the term “Aryan” indicated a “common linguistic root buried in remotely ancient soil”, therefore “inadequate to prove racial origin.”

Regardless of whether Hindus are white or not, more of interest to Hindutva supporters than to anyone else, for most white supremacists, indeed most white persons, all South Asians are non-white, regardless of their religion. In a way we are all united in that we were colonised by Europeans and have ever since been the subjects of hate of the white supremacists.

Finally, most Modi supporters in the Indian diaspora believe that they are the ‘good’ immigrants and that if they keep their heads down, work hard, maintain valid visas, pay taxes and vie for US citizenship, they will escape racial hate. However, the unprovoked shooting in Kansas shows that immigrants can no longer pit themselves as good vs bad.

Kuchibhotla was a model immigrant. According to his wife, he loved the US and believed that hard work would bring his acceptance into US society. Nonetheless, it made no difference to Purinton whether his victim was a good or a bad immigrant.

As of late, several other ‘good immigrants’ have faced racial discrimination. An elderly Indian gentleman, otherwise a low flight risk and TSA pre approved, was strip-searched at the Washington Dulles airport in January. During the presidential campaign, a young Ohio-based couple of Pakistani origin was asked to leave a plane simply because the woman was finishing a phone call to her parents in her own language. In May 2016, an Italian professor of economics was asked to leave a plane merely because he was solving a system of differential equations which his co-passenger mistook as Arabic. Clearly, even white persons can face discrimination arising from Islamophobia.

For the Indian community in Kansas, the issue is deeply personal regardless of religion. According to the Kansas City Star, hundreds of persons have attended condolence meetings. Crowdsourcing accounts have raised over $940,000 for Kuchibhotla’s funeral expenses and to meet the medical expenses of Madasani and Grillot.

Now that Trump has broken his silence on the issue, Modi must publicly pressurise him to ensure that the perpetrator should be brought to justice; condemn all racially motivated crimes and discrimination on the basis of race, religion or sex during his presidency; and express condolences and support to Kuchibhotla’s family as well as support to the families of Madasani and Grillot. But before that, Modi must acknowledge and condemn the Kansas shooting himself.