There is no shortage of advice about overthinking. Think differently. Calm the mind. Stay present. Shireen Chada’s Free Your Mind from Overthinking takes a different approach. What if the problem isn’t that we think too much, but that we are using thought to do a job it was never meant to do?

Chada argues that overthinking is an attempt to manufacture safety. We replay conversations, anticipate problems, manage other people’s reactions, and rehearse the future because somewhere beneath all that thinking is the hope that, if we think long enough, we can prevent things from going wrong. Her alternative is not positive thinking. It is trust.

What makes the book particularly compelling is how personally Chada tells this story. A meditation teacher with more than three decades of experience, she does not present herself as someone who has conquered the mind and is now dispensing answers. She writes candidly about her own anxiety, her need for control, financial worries while running a meditation center, disappointment, difficult relationships, and the uncomfortable moments when the principles she taught others had to work in her own life.

That vulnerability gives weight to the book’s central teaching. The Sacred Trust Code, ten practices developed gradually through the chapters, feels less like a system Chada invented than something she discovered by living it.

The book is explicitly spiritual. Chada writes about the soul, God, meditation, and divine love, drawing on her years of Raja Yoga practice. Yet she rarely asks readers simply to believe her. Instead, she asks them to experiment: try an idea, observe what happens, and decide from experience.

The final chapters bring the teachings together in a short Trust Drill designed for daily practice. This is an important distinction in Chada’s approach. Trust is not something to understand intellectually and then remember when life falls apart. It is something to practice before it is needed.

Ultimately, Free Your Mind from Overthinking is about more than quieting a busy mind. It asks a larger question: How do we live fully when we cannot know or control what happens next?

Chada’s answer is simple, but not easy: do what belongs to you, release what doesn’t, and learn to trust.

For anyone exhausted by trying to think their way into certainty, that is a compelling invitation.

Click Here to Buy the Book 

Shireen Chada

Shireen Chada, with over 20,000 hours of meditation experience spanning 30 years with the Brahma Kumaris, is a renowned spiritual teacher, retreat facilitator, and content creator. As the creator and presenter of the Release Your Wings YouTube channel and co-host of the Spiritual Sense podcast, Shireen shares her intelligent, refreshingly creative, and unmistakably authentic wisdom with a global audience. She has designed and facilitated transformative meditation retreats and workshops nationwide, developed comprehensive audio courses on spiritual development and created three popular meditation albums alongside a deck of spiritual power cards. Shireen’s five meditation books — God’s Blessing for You, Soul Fitness, Oh My Goodness!, True Hollywood Blockbuster, and Insperience the Divine — further showcase her ability to powerfully uplift the soul through accessible spiritual guidance.

For many Indian American families, life in America has centered on everyday responsibilities: finding work, educating children, starting businesses, and becoming part of a neighborhood. Politics often enters the conversation when a government decision reaches the household. A change in healthcare policy affects a parent’s treatment. A school board decision affects a child’s classroom. An immigration rule creates uncertainty for a colleague or relative.

In 2026, questions about belonging have become harder to overlook. Public hostility toward people of Indian and other South Asian backgrounds is receiving increased attention. Online abuse and racial stereotypes have brought uncomfortable conversations into homes where families once felt removed from arguments about who belongs in America.

The November midterms arrive against this background. Readers need accurate information about the hostility being reported and the candidates seeking office. They also deserve clear explanations of what those offices can accomplish.

Every eligible citizen is obligated to approach these elections with seriousness. Verify your registration. Examine the candidates. Make a plan to vote. Government decisions affect our lives long after campaign advertisements disappear.

What Recent Research Shows

Reports released this September document troubling patterns. The Center for the Study of Organized Hate examined online hostility toward South Asian Americans across several platforms. Its research describes racial insults and narratives portraying South Asians as demographic threats. The report covers people of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and other South Asian backgrounds.

A separate brief from Stop AAPI Hate found that anti-South Asian slurs increased by 109 percent between January 2023 and December 2025 in the online spaces it monitored. That figure measures activity in those spaces. It does not measure the views of the entire American population or the national incidence of hate crimes.

Those distinctions matter. A disturbing social media post may reach thousands of people, but its circulation alone cannot establish how widely its views are shared. Research about South Asians includes Indian Americans while also covering communities with different backgrounds and experiences.

Careful reporting should explain these limits while giving the documented hostility the attention it deserves. Racial insults have consequences for the people who encounter them, even when researchers cannot measure every effect.

Questions about immigration policy, visa programs, and employment deserve factual examination. People can disagree about those policies and ask the government to explain its decisions. Racial stereotypes distort the discussion by placing suspicion on individuals because of their ancestry, regardless of their actual circumstances.

The DHS “Mr. Singh” Post Deserves Scrutiny

A recent Department of Homeland Security post shows why the language used by public agencies deserves close examination.

On September 9, 2026, DHS shared a Transformers-style image that included the words, “Get off our roads; you don’t know how to drive, Mr. Singh.” It also carried the warning, “Self-deport or find out.” The wording differed from “Mr. Singh, go home,” although the post’s message prompted concerns about exclusion and racial stereotyping.

Sikh and Hindu advocacy groups criticized the post. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi also condemned it publicly. Subsequently, Krishnamoorthi, Shri Thanedar, Suhas Subramanyam, Pramila Jayapal, and Ami Bera criticized the now-deleted post for using Sikh identity to portray a dangerous, unwanted foreigner.

A federal agency has a responsibility to enforce the law and explain its actions accurately. Its public communications carry the authority of the government. When those communications use threatening language linked to a name from a recognizable community, it raises valid questions about the agency’s judgment.

A surname cannot establish someone’s immigration status or driving ability. Allegations against an individual require evidence and consideration under the applicable law. Government messaging should exercise the same care.

Indian Americans and other South Asian Americans have differing citizenship and immigration statuses. Many are U.S. citizens. Others live here lawfully under different arrangements. Their circumstances cannot be read from a name or appearance.

Criticism of the DHS post deserves a substantive response. Public agencies should explain how they will communicate about enforcement without encouraging suspicion toward people who share a surname, faith, or appearance with someone featured in a campaign.

What Is at Stake in November?

The general election takes place on November 3, 2026. All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for election. Candidates are contesting all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, along with Senate races and numerous state and local elections.

The offices on a ballot have different powers. Congress shapes federal legislation and spending. State governments oversee major areas of education and public administration. Local officials make decisions involving services, development, and community facilities.

These responsibilities affect ordinary households. They also help voters assess campaign promises. When a candidate proposes a change, ask whether the office has the authority to carry it out. How would the proposal be funded? Whose cooperation would be required?

A forceful speech can leave those questions unanswered.

Readers following several races should also examine whether candidates have addressed the concerns of their constituencies. National visibility does not establish how someone would perform the work of a particular office. Local interviews and public meetings can reveal whether a candidate understands the people seeking representation.

Register, Vote, and Expect Answers

Every eligible citizen should treat voting as a responsibility that requires preparation. Waiting until the last moment can create avoidable problems with registration, an outdated address, or uncertainty about where and how to vote.

Check your registration now. Confirm that your information is current. Learn your state’s deadlines and voting options, then make a plan you can follow. Vote.gov connects residents with official resources for registration, checking their status, early voting, and mail-in or absentee voting.

Anyone who can vote and faces no obstacle to participating should ask a direct question before sitting out: why am I leaving this decision to other people?

Complaining about elected officials while repeatedly choosing to avoid elections deserves scrutiny. Everyone retains the right to criticize the government and challenge discrimination, whether they vote or not. At the same time, eligible citizens who demand accountability from officials should be prepared to exercise their responsibility when an election arrives.

Anger expressed in a family conversation or on social media does not cast a ballot.

Some citizens face genuine barriers to participation. They deserve reliable information and practical assistance with the voting arrangements available to them. For those who can participate, the next step is straightforward: study the choices and vote.

Candidates should earn support through their records and proposals. Ask how candidates respond to racial stereotyping, what they plan to do about your concerns, and whether their promises align with the powers of the office. A familiar name should never replace that examination.

Participation Beyond the Ballot

Voting, campaign volunteering, and political contributions involve different requirements. Those differences are particularly relevant in immigrant households where family members may have different citizenship or residency statuses.

Voting eligibility and registration are governed by applicable state and federal rules. Registration deadlines and early voting arrangements vary by state. Residents should consult official election resources for requirements that apply to them.

Campaign volunteers may assist with events or administrative work. Election workers perform a separate function, helping election officials administer the voting process. Attending public meetings provides another way to learn about government decisions without joining a campaign.

Political donations carry additional legal requirements. Under federal election rules, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents may contribute, subject to applicable restrictions. Foreign nationals cannot make election contributions. Certain uncompensated volunteer activities are permitted, but foreign nationals cannot participate in election-related decision-making.

Indian ancestry does not establish voting eligibility. Eligibility to contribute does not necessarily establish eligibility to vote. Each person needs to understand the rules governing their status and the activity they are considering.

Indian American Candidates to Watch

Several Indian Americans are competing in prominent November races.

Bera, Khanna, Jayapal, and Subramanyam are incumbent representatives seeking reelection. Shah won Arizona’s Democratic primary and faces Republican Jay Feely. Dandiya secured her Democratic nomination in Florida, while Ramaswamy is Ohio’s Republican gubernatorial nominee against Democrat Amy Acton.

At the state level, Indian American Impact’s 2026 roster includes Arvind Venkat in Pennsylvania, Darshana Patel in California, Ranjeev Puri in Michigan, and Priya Sundareshan in Arizona. Nabeela Syed appears on the November candidate list for the Illinois Senate.

The roster covers the election cycle and should not be treated as proof that every listed candidate advanced through a primary. Readers following a particular contest should distinguish an election-cycle listing from a confirmed place on the November ballot.

Some well-known campaigns have ended. Raja Krishnamoorthi lost the Democratic Senate primary in Illinois. Shri Thanedar lost his congressional primary in Michigan. Saikat Chakrabarti and Jasmeet Bains did not advance to November in California.

Those outcomes belong in the coverage, too. Familiarity from an earlier campaign does not mean a candidate remains in the race.

Pia Dandiya’s Race Becomes More Competitive

For South Florida readers, Pia Dandiya’s campaign is particularly relevant. The Indian American educator won the Democratic primary for Florida’s 22nd Congressional District and faces Republican Casey Askar.

On September 25, Cook Political Report changed its assessment from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up.” Its race summary describes a close contest. The shift indicates increased competitiveness; it does not establish that Dandiya is ahead or predict a certain outcome.

The newly drawn district covers parts of Palm Beach, Broward, Hendry, and Collier counties. It includes Wellington and Parkland and extends west toward Marco Island, bringing together communities with differing priorities.

Both candidates are seeking to represent that constituency. Coverage should examine their proposals and records, including their responses to questions from residents across the district.

A changing race rating is a significant news development. Voters need to know what candidates plan to do in office and how they will address their concerns.

Reporting With Care

Indian Americans bring differing political opinions and experiences to public life. Community journalism serves readers best when it reflects those differences, verifies claims, and clearly separates reporting from endorsement.

The concerns surrounding hostility deserve sustained attention. So do the decisions that shape schools, businesses, and family budgets. Readers should receive enough information to assess both without an assumption that shared ancestry produces a single political viewpoint.

Public officials and candidates should anticipate a thorough examination of their words. When a government agency publishes imagery that draws accusations of racial stereotyping, the response belongs in the coverage. When candidates make promises, their authority to deliver them belongs there as well.

That scrutiny should continue after the votes are counted.

Closing Thought

Every eligible citizen reading this should check their registration and make a plan to vote. If you expect elected officials to answer for their decisions, take the time to examine who is asking for your support. Raise your questions before the election and follow what the winners do afterward. Everyone retains the right to speak against discrimination and criticize the government. Those who can cast a ballot also have a concrete opportunity to help choose the people exercising public authority, and they should take that opportunity seriously.

About the Author:

A software engineer by profession, Indian culture enthusiast, ardent promoter of  Hinduism, and a cancer survivor, Raj Shah is a managing editor of Desh-Videsh Magazine and co-founder of Desh Videsh Media Group. Promoting the rich culture and heritage of India and Hinduism has been his motto ever since he arrived in the US in 1969.
He has been instrumental in starting and promoting several community organizations such as the Indian Religious and Cultural Center and International Hindu University. Raj has written two books on Hinduism titled Chronology of Hinduism and Understanding Hinduism. He has also written several children books focusing on Hindu culture and religion.

In 1993, Desh-Videsh began sharing the stories, concerns, celebrations, and achievements of our community. Thirty-three years later, we are opening those early pages again.

With this issue, we introduce a new section, “Desh-Videsh 33 Years Ago.” Each month, we will select and reprint one article that appeared in Desh-Videsh during 1993. It is a chance to remember what mattered to our readers when the magazine was young and to see how our community has grown since then.

As we looked through those first issues, we expected to find a record of another time. We did. We also found articles that could speak to readers today. The details of daily life have changed, yet questions about raising children with a connection to Indian culture, keeping traditions meaningful, building community, and finding our place in America remain familiar. Some articles may even sound as though they were written for this year’s issue.

We begin this column with news of Dr. Mahesh Mehta, founder of the World Hindu Council of America, visiting South Florida in 1993. His views on preserving Hindu culture in the United States addressed a concern that remains close to many parents’ hearts: How do we help our children understand and value their heritage while growing up in America?

Dr. Mehta emphasized programs that gave children and families regular opportunities to experience their culture together. Bal Vihar introduced young children to Hindu stories, prayers, yoga, and languages. Youth camps combined cultural learning with games, shared activities, and friendships. Youth conferences allowed young people to discuss the challenges of growing up within two cultures. The Hindu Students Council helped college students maintain and deepen their connection to Hindu traditions through campus activities and discussions. Family enrichment programs brought generations together through religious gatherings, lectures, and community participation.

These approaches also find a place in my book, Hindu Parenting in the USA. Parents often ask how to encourage cultural involvement, especially as children grow older and begin making their own choices. Programs such as those Dr. Mehta advocated give families practical support. A child may look forward to seeing friends at Bal Vihar, a teenager may feel comfortable asking questions at camp, and a college student may find companionship through a Hindu student organization. Parents and grandparents can build on these experiences through conversations and shared practices at home. Revisiting his message reminds us that these efforts have been part of our community’s work for decades.

That is the surprise we hope you will enjoy. A story published 33 years ago can still start a conversation at home or remind us of people and efforts that helped shape the community we know today. At the same time, each reprinted article lets us see how our thinking has changed.

We invite you to read these pages with us, month by month. If an article brings back a memory or prompts a new thought, please share it with us. We would love to hear what Desh-Videsh meant to you then and what these stories mean to you now.

Raj Shah
Managing Editor

(33 years and with God’s Blessing and your support a few more years)

Desh-Videsh Media Group

The Second Generation – Our Best Hope 

By Raj Shah

During his recent visit to South Florida, Dr. Mahesh Mehta, President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, met with several groups in Dade, Broward and West Palm Beach counties and the Caribbean community. Based on his close contacts and experience of Indian communities throughout the USA, he said that major concerns of our community here in Florida and elsewhere are that: there is too much division in the community and how to raise and inculcate the value system, we cherish, in our children.

Addressing this issues he said that there is nothing wrong with our Dharam or its teachings. In fact our values are Universal and Eternal promoting individual growth while emphasizing on the harmony and peace within our environment. It is our ignorance of our Dharam and egos that is causing all these problems. Correct knowledge of our Dharam is therefore essential. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is working to bring the Hindu community together, instill in them devotion to the principles and practices of the Hindu way of life, cultivate in them a spirit of self-respect for themselves as well as respect for people of all color, creed, races and religions, and to bring awareness the conditions of Hindus all over the world. Thus, VHP has a universal vision but its starting focal point is a family unit. We believe that a well knit family makes children strong and equips them to cope with adverse social problems. Therefore a strong, moral, caring and ethical family unit is important for society.

The second generation is a concern for everyone. They are the torch bearers of our culture. It is, therefore, important to prepare them for this great responsibility. The large community back home provided the support system which we lack over here in the USA. Here, this responsibility falls upon the family and social organizations. VHP has given a serious thought to this problem and, therefore, for the last 20 years, in addition to other projects, has heavily focussed programs to children of all ages, and has met with tremendous success. VHP serves individuals, families and the society through the programs offered at local, state, national and international levels. Some of the programs are:

BAL VIHAR (Children’s Education Program) — For children 3–8 years. Activities include exercises, yoga, recital of scriptures, stories and learning of languages.

YOUTH CAMPS — Youth of ages 8–18 meet for 3–7 days at camp sites and the activities include community living with peers, games special projects, discussions on various subjects and cultural programs.

YOUTH CONFERENCES — The conferences held at different cities where youth discuss the issues which arise from their experience in a dual culture.

HINDU STUDENTS COUNCIL (HSC) — There are more than 25 HSC chapters at different universities. Their activities include: lectures, study groups, athletic and cultural events, contact with students at other campuses and a bimonthly newsletter.

FAMILY ENRICHMENT PROGRAMS — Include monthly local chapter meetings where religious performances and discussions are done, national and international conferences, lecture tours, exhibitions, literature and resource emporium, support for elderly, family counseling, etc.

OTHER PROJECTS — Hindu University of America and Support a Child Program, Vanvasi Seva and Financial Help to Charitable Organizations in India.

The strength of VHP lies in its network of dedicated volunteers in more than forty states of the USA. He urged the community members to join this network of volunteers and have not only self-enrichment, but also serve the community.

Riya sits across from her parents, laptop open, guest list on screen. She’s trying to hold the number under a hundred and fifty. Her mother studies the screen, then asks something that isn’t really a question: what will I tell your Chachi if she isn’t invited?

There’s no clean answer. There rarely is. That’s usually where the real fight starts—not over flowers or venues or seating charts, but in the silence that falls over an Indian family when a couple says they want something small. A hundred unspoken names live inside that silence: the cousin who visited once a decade ago, the family friend who attended the naming ceremony, and the neighbor who’s had a sari waiting since the couple was twelve. Beneath it all lies the fundamental question that no invitation ever articulates: whose wedding is this, truly?

Indian weddings are famous for scale—multi-day affairs, elaborate dinners, and guest lists like a small town’s census. So it’s fair to ask who all of it is actually for. The two people under the mandap, or the few hundred people watching them?

The honest answer is both. And that shared ownership is exactly where the trouble begins—usually the moment a couple opens a spreadsheet, their parents open a notebook, and the two lists don’t come close to matching.

The Wedding as a Family Resume

In many Indian households, a wedding has never been a purely private affair. It’s public—a chance for a family to show the community its taste, its generosity, and its standing. For a mother, a daughter’s wedding may fulfill a long-held dream. For a father, a son’s wedding can settle a lifetime of obligations quietly collected at other people’s functions.

This isn’t simple vanity. It reflects how many South Asian families understand kinship and reciprocity: attending someone’s wedding creates a kind of debt, and hosting your own repays it. A long guest list functions like a ledger—relationships tracked back generations, sometimes to a village no one in the family has lived in for fifty years. Cutting names doesn’t just shrink a party; for a parent, it can feel like erasing people who showed up and mattered.

Couples raised in the diaspora often struggle with this logic. Many were taught to see weddings as intimate personal milestones rather than events belonging to an entire extended network. So when parents propose three hundred guests, five outfit changes, and a sangeet with the production values of an awards show, the couple can feel like a supporting cast in someone else’s film.

Two Legitimate Truths in Tension

Both sides have a point here, and both are acting out of love.

A couple wanting a wedding that reflects who they actually are—smaller, more personal, and easier on the budget—isn’t being selfish. They’re asking for a voice in one of the most significant days of their lives.

A parent wanting to invite the community that raised them to honor decades of relationships and provide their child a send-off worthy of everything they sacrificed isn’t controlling for control’s sake. That’s love expressed the only way many parents know how: through hospitality, through a full house.

The trouble begins when each generation views the other’s perspective as merely wrong rather than understanding it as rooted in different experiences. Couples sometimes forget that for immigrant parents, a wedding can be the one moment when years of quiet struggle finally become visible and honored. Parents sometimes forget that their kids aren’t rejecting the community—they’re asking for space to exist within it on their own terms.

The Photographer Dilema

Skip the guest list and ask any family about the photographer, and the same dynamic shows up in miniature.

Parents typically picture formal group portraits—everyone lined up, groom’s side here, bride’s side there, some uncle wandering into frame at the last second. A traditional photographer can arrange forty relatives, get them looking at the camera at roughly the same time, and deliver a clean shot fit for framing. The list of people needing individual portraits can run long.

Couples usually want something else entirely. What catches their eye isn’t the stiff formal shot—it’s the documentary style, a photographer who blends into the room and captures moments as they happen rather than staging them: a father laughing mid-toast, a bride tearing up during mehndi.

A posed photo is proof—evidence that certain people were present. A candid photo is an attempt to preserve what the day actually felt like. Many photographers now build a short formal window early in the event and shoot the rest candidly. It works when both sides agree on the plan beforehand. It falls apart when nobody discusses it until the wedding morning.

Everything Else on the List

The guest list and the photographer are just the fights that surface first.

Alcohol comes up quickly—whether there’s a bar at all, and whether it’s visible to conservative relatives or tucked into a separate cocktail hour. Some parents prefer a completely dry event, while the couple’s friends often assume that alcohol will be available and are surprised to find nothing at the reception. when there’s nothing at the reception.

Venue and date create their own conflict. Parents often want a muhurat-approved time, even if that means a six a.m. ceremony on a weekday. Couples push for a weekend that’s easier on out-of-town guests—a preference that can directly clash with what the family priest or astrologer recommends.

Rituals get debated too—how many to keep, shorten, or drop, and how long the ceremony should run. Parents tend to treat each ritual as non-negotiable. Couples often want to trim the list, especially in interfaith or intercultural weddings that already have to accommodate more than one tradition.

Food has its own significant weight. For some families, the menu—whether it’s vegetarian-only or not, a single cuisine or fusion, live stations or a seated dinner—ties directly into religious observance, making negotiation more challenging than it appears on paper.

Outfits split along similar lines. Parents often envision heavier, traditional bridal wear across multiple changes. Brides sometimes want something lighter, more modern, or a single statement look instead of five.

Sangeet performances get surprisingly heated—a fully choreographed show with every relative taking a turn, versus something shorter and looser. Often it’s the parents’ generation that spent months rehearsing these routines in their youth, which is part of why they hold on so tightly now.

Interfaith or intercaste elements raise the stakes further—whose family’s rituals are included, who gets more stage time, and when the couple comes from different backgrounds. In this situation, a quiet negotiation can unfold over months before booking a single vendor. a quiet negotiation stretching over months before a single vendor is booked.
Social media has become its own battleground. Some parents don’t want candid or unflattering photos posted publicly or want approval before anything goes online. Couples often want to post freely and immediately.

And then there’s money. Beyond the overall budget, individual line items hold symbolic significance—who covers the venue versus the honeymoon, whether expenses adhere to traditional customs or are evenly divided between families, and what is anticipated in terms of jewelry or cash gifts for attending relatives.

What a Healthier Wedding Season Looks Like

Families who navigate this well are rarely the ones where one generation simply wins. They’re the ones who treat the wedding as a shared project with honestly divided ownership.

A wedding isn’t just two people starting a life together—it’s four sets of expectations entering unfamiliar territory at once. The bride is stepping into a new household, sometimes a new city. The groom is doing the same in reverse, even if tradition doesn’t always frame it that way. The bride’s parents are letting go of a role they’ve held since her birth. The groom’s parents are opening their home to someone they may barely know. No one at the table has lived this exact version of it before.

It’s easy to overlook this once the planning process becomes focused on menus, fittings, and seating charts. It helps to start with an early, unglamorous conversation — ideally before any venue is booked — about what each generation actually needs from the celebration, not just what they want. A mother might need the sangeet to include specific relatives whose presence signals respect. A couple might need one ceremony, even a small one, that belongs entirely to them, free of performance and protocol.

Budget clarity matters too. Parents footing the bill will reasonably expect a say. However, couples who cover even a portion of the cost often discover that they have gained significant negotiating power.

Many couples now land on hybrid solutions rather than choosing a side outright: a large traditional wedding for the extended community paired with a small private ceremony just for the two of them; a destination sangeet with old family friends followed by a mehndi limited to their chosen circle; a photographer’s list with a scheduled portrait window and the rest of the day left unstaged. These work because someone, at some point, asked what the other side actually needed instead of guessing.

The Deeper Question Underneath

A wedding doesn’t have to belong to one side or the other. It can be a couple’s personal milestone and a family’s communal celebration at once—two true things layered over the same few days. The friction lies not in the coexistence of both truths, but in families’ reluctance to express either one, leading each generation to assume its version is the sole correct one.

What often gets missed is that the bride’s parents and groom’s parents are also starting something new—building a relationship with each other, often from almost nothing, right as their children build a marriage. If the two families never sit down to ask what matters to the other side, the couple ends up doing that translation work alone, ferrying messages between two households still strangers to each other.

An Indian wedding typically involves multiple generations. The bride is learning a new family’s rhythms; the groom is doing the same. Two sets of parents are learning to sit at the same table for the decades ahead. The families who get furthest toward understanding what the day means to everyone involved are usually the ones who call that—imperfect as it is—good enough.

Raj Shah,
Managing Editor,
Deshvidesh Media Group.

Satire Is Not a Substitute for Truth

A Direct Response to Khabar Magazine’s “Om Namah Modi” so called Satire

By Raj Shah

This editorial is a direct response to “Om Namah Modi,” published in Atlanta-based Khabar Magazine. The article appears under the name “Shriman Chanakya Atichatur,” but its concluding disclaimer acknowledges: “Shriman Chanakya Atichatur is a fictional character whom editor Parthiv N. Parekh had to channel to pen this article.”

The use of a fictional character may provide a satirical voice, but the disclaimer does not separate the editor from the arguments, insinuations, and accusations expressed through that character. A pen name may be a literary device, but it cannot shield a writer or publication from responsibility for what is presented to readers. Satire deserves creative freedom, but when it addresses serious matters—including student suicides, constitutional freedoms, police conduct, unemployment, and India’s international standing—it should still be examined for accuracy, fairness, and intellectual honesty.

Satire is most effective when it exposes uncomfortable truths through wit. When it relies on selective information, unsupported assumptions, personal ridicule, and contempt for people with different political opinions, it stops illuminating public life and begins distorting it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not above criticism. No elected leader should be. India’s examination system, youth unemployment, policing of demonstrations, political communication, and foreign policy all deserve serious scrutiny. Citizens have every right to ask whether the government acted quickly enough, whether students were treated fairly, and whether major promises have produced the expected results.

Responsible criticism, however, requires context and consistency. “Om Namah Modi” takes legitimate concerns and buries them under so much sarcasm that facts become almost incidental.

The Examination Crisis Deserved Accountability

The examination paper leak was undeniably serious. Nearly two million students and their families faced anxiety, financial hardship, and uncertainty. For many Indian families, a competitive examination represents years of preparation, sacrifice, and hope. A paper leak is not a minor administrative error. It damages merit, destroys confidence in public institutions, and can change the course of young lives.

Students were justified in demanding answers, accountability, and meaningful reform. The government must answer why recurring irregularities were not prevented and whether the agencies responsible for conducting examinations had adequate safeguards.

But the article leaves readers with the impression that the Modi government did little more than lecture young people about their language. That is an incomplete account.

The examination was conducted again. The government announced plans for fast-track courts and stronger penalties for those involved in paper leaks. It accepted demands for broader reforms, and the education minister ultimately resigned. The protesters themselves ended their demonstrations after announcing that their demands had been accepted.

One may reasonably argue that these actions came too late or that the government moved only after sustained public pressure. That would be fair criticism. Public pressure is one of the ways democracy produces accountability. But suggesting that the government simply ignored the crisis is a half-truth.

The students’ anger was legitimate, but the political use of that anger also deserves scrutiny. Opposition parties attempted to transform the agitation into a broader campaign against the Modi government, while similar examination controversies in non-BJP-ruled Jharkhand, governed by the JMM-Congress alliance, and Punjab, governed by AAP, initially received far less national attention and parliamentary pressure.

Students protested in both states, and political parties demanded accountability. Yet national opposition leaders appeared to reserve their strongest criticism and most persistent resignation demands for central BJP officials. Examination integrity should never depend on which political party is in power. The same standards of media coverage, investigation, outrage, and accountability must apply in Delhi, Jharkhand, Punjab, and every other state.

The complete examination story is therefore more complicated than the article suggests. There was a serious administrative failure, justified student anger, political involvement, prolonged demonstrations, a government response, ministerial accountability, and a commitment to corrective measures. Leaving out most of that context produces more dramatic satire, but not a more honest account.

The Right to Protest Does Not Excuse Every Action

The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to democracy. Young Indians have every right to question the government, challenge elected leaders, and demand reforms. Police should not use excessive force against peaceful demonstrators, and every credible allegation of brutality should be independently investigated.

At the same time, describing every participant as peaceful and every police action as authoritarian is equally irresponsible. Available reports indicate that clashes took place and that police personnel were also injured. The Supreme Court appropriately protected minors and protesters without criminal histories while permitting an investigation into alleged police excesses and violence during the demonstrations.

That is how constitutional accountability should work: protect peaceful dissent, examine police conduct, and investigate violence regardless of who committed it.

The article, however, has already delivered its verdict. Every demonstrator is portrayed as innocent, every police action as brutality, and every government response as an assault on democracy. Such certainty may satisfy readers who already share the writer’s conclusions, but it does not encourage a fair examination of events.

Modi’s Supporters Are Citizens, Not “Andh Bhakts”

The article repeatedly mocks Modi’s supporters as “andh bhakts.” This dismissive label has become a convenient substitute for understanding why millions of Indians continue to vote for him.

Modi’s supporters are not a single, mindless group. They include urban professionals, rural women, small-business owners, farmers, members of historically disadvantaged communities, young entrepreneurs, religious Hindus, and former supporters of other political parties. Some support him enthusiastically; others support him while disagreeing with particular policies.

Many value improvements in infrastructure, digital governance, welfare delivery, national security, India’s global visibility, and the recognition of Hindu civilization. Others believe his administration has offered greater political stability or more decisive leadership than the alternatives.

Citizens may be right or wrong in these judgments, but they deserve to be treated as thinking participants in democracy. Reducing them to blind worshippers displays the same political intolerance the article claims to condemn.

A serious evaluation of the Modi years must acknowledge both achievements and failures. Expanded digital payments, financial inclusion, direct-benefit transfers, infrastructure construction, sanitation programs, renewable-energy development, and India’s digital public infrastructure are not imaginary. One may debate their implementation, reach, political marketing, or uneven results. But pretending that slogans are the government’s only legacy is not credible.

India’s Market Matters—But Diplomacy Matters Too

The article sarcastically concedes that nations are lining up to do business with India, only to dismiss this interest as the inevitable result of India’s enormous consumer base. It implies that Modi’s diplomatic efforts deserve no credit.

Yes, India’s massive market is a major reason countries want to do business with it. Nations are not doing business with Modi personally. But India’s market existed long before he became prime minister, while many potentially valuable relationships remained neglected or underdeveloped.

Under Modi, an Indian prime minister visited Israel, Rwanda, Bahrain, Croatia, Ukraine, and Slovakia for the first time. His administration also renewed prime-ministerial engagement with the United Arab Emirates after 34 years, Fiji after 31 years, Australia after 28 years, Poland after 45 years, Austria after 41 years, Norway after 43 years, and New Zealand after 40 years.

These visits involved more than ceremonial welcomes and red carpets. They reopened diplomatic channels and expanded discussions involving trade, investment, defense, energy, technology, agriculture, education, connectivity, and the Indian diaspora.

A large population creates economic potential, but potential does not automatically become investment, trade, or strategic cooperation. Government policy, diplomatic engagement, regulatory confidence, and sustained relationships help convert market size into actual partnerships.

The fair conclusion is not that Modi alone created international interest in India. Nor is it fair to say that his diplomatic outreach made no difference. India’s underlying economic importance and the Modi administration’s active diplomacy have worked together to expand the country’s global engagement.

Pakistan’s New Influence Deserves Closer Examination

The article ridicules India for supposedly being “overshadowed” by Pakistan during efforts to defuse a recent West Asian crisis. It mocks External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s statement that India is “not a dalal nation,” while presenting Pakistan’s intermediary role as proof of superior diplomatic influence.

That interpretation is far too convenient.

Pakistan’s sudden prominence in Washington should also be examined alongside its expanding commercial relationship with interests associated with President Donald Trump’s family. Pakistan signed a government-backed agreement with an affiliate of World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency venture connected to the Trump family, to explore using its USD1 stablecoin for cross-border payments. India did not enter into an equivalent arrangement.

This agreement was followed by visibly warmer engagement between Trump and Pakistan. The timing alone does not prove that the commercial arrangement caused the diplomatic shift, and it would be irresponsible to present such a connection as established fact without direct evidence. Nevertheless, the potential conflict of interest deserves scrutiny.

A fair-minded analysis cannot ridicule India for failing to secure Trump’s favor while ignoring the possibility that Pakistan’s growing access coincided with a business opportunity involving the American president’s family. India should not be blamed for refusing to combine national policy with commercial opportunities that could financially benefit the family or associates of a foreign head of state.

If experts wish to examine why Pakistan obtained greater access to the Trump administration, they should consider the complete context—geography, military relationships, Iran, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan’s leadership, and these unusual commercial ties. Selecting only the explanation most damaging to Modi is not serious foreign-policy analysis.

India Was Not Isolated During Operation Sindoor

The article also claims that “almost no country” supported India during Operation Sindoor and suggests that Pakistan found more international supporters than the world’s largest democracy. That assertion is factually misleading.

Israel explicitly supported India’s right to self-defense. France, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar condemned terrorism or expressed support for India’s security concerns and anti-terrorism position. The European Union and its 27 member states issued a unified statement condemning the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

Some of these governments also urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint. But calling for de-escalation between two nuclear-armed neighbors is not the same as supporting Pakistan. A country can condemn terrorism, recognize India’s security concerns, and still urge both sides to prevent a wider war.

Only a small number of countries—notably Turkey, Azerbaijan, and China—adopted positions broadly favorable to Pakistan. Therefore, portraying India as internationally abandoned may strengthen the article’s sarcasm, but it does not reflect the documented diplomatic response.

International support also does not always arrive in the form of a dramatic public declaration endorsing military action. Diplomatic backing may include condemnation of terrorism, recognition of a country’s right to defend itself, intelligence cooperation, private discussions, or a refusal to endorse the opposing side’s narrative. Measuring international support only by the loudest public statements is simplistic.

Foreign Policy Is Not a Popularity Contest

Countries are not chosen as mediators as rewards for good behavior. They are selected according to geography, access, security relationships, and the willingness of the conflicting parties to communicate through them.

Pakistan’s role in a particular diplomatic channel does not automatically make it more influential, prosperous, trusted, or internationally important than India. Nor does India’s decision not to serve as a broker prove that it was diplomatically “overshadowed.”

India may be criticized for missed diplomatic opportunities, inconsistent messaging, or relationships that did not deliver the expected support. Those are legitimate subjects for discussion. But one diplomatic episode cannot erase India’s role in the Quad and G20, its growing partnerships with the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia, Israel, and the Gulf nations, or its continuing engagement with Russia and the Global South.

The article’s reference to the 2019 “Howdy Modi” event also deserves context. Modi’s use of the phrase “Ab ki baar, Trump sarkar” was politically unwise because an Indian prime minister should avoid appearing to endorse a candidate in another country’s election.

But India–United States relations do not depend solely on the personal friendship between Modi and Trump. They are built on defense, trade, technology, education, energy, diaspora connections, and shared strategic interests. Leaders change, but national interests endure.

Personal relationships can support diplomacy, but they cannot guarantee that another leader will always place India’s interests ahead of his own political, commercial, or strategic calculations. Trump’s subsequent decisions should remind India that foreign policy must be founded on national interests, not personal friendship.

Promises Should Be Judged Fairly

The article lists “Make in India,” two crore jobs annually, 100 smart cities, the return of black money, and achhe din as if each can be dismissed through a sarcastic one-line verdict.

Some promises were clearly overstated or insufficiently fulfilled. India did not create two crore formal jobs every year in the simple way many voters understood the promise. Demonetization caused considerable hardship, and its long-term benefits remain contested. The Smart Cities Mission did not produce 100 entirely new futuristic cities. Farmers continue to face economic difficulties, and manufacturing has not reached every declared ambition.

These are valid grounds for criticism.

Fairness, however, also requires recognizing what did occur. The Smart Cities Mission funded thousands of urban-development projects rather than constructing 100 brand-new cities. Digital transactions and economic formalization expanded. Roads, railways, airports, public infrastructure, and renewable-energy capacity grew. India also remained one of the world’s major growing economies.

A promise may be partially fulfilled, delayed, poorly designed, or overtaken by unforeseen circumstances. Political reality cannot always be reduced to either a miracle or a fraud.

Criticism Should Inform, Not Merely Insult

The greatest weakness of “Om Namah Modi” is not that it criticizes Narendra Modi. Its weakness is that it repeatedly substitutes sneering for reasoned argument.

Expressions such as “56-inch chest,” “non-biological, divinely ordained one,” “Godi Media,” “Hugplomacy,” and “Om Namah Modi” are designed to humiliate rather than persuade. Hindu devotional expressions are repeatedly turned into political punchlines. Criticism of the political use of religion is legitimate, but using sacred language to ridicule believers is unnecessary and alienating.

India needs a strong opposition, an independent press, accountable police, courageous courts, and young citizens willing to question authority. It also needs journalists who distinguish facts from allegations and accountability from contempt.

Holding Modi accountable does not require dehumanizing his supporters. Defending Modi does not require denying the suffering of students. Condemning possible police excesses does not mean ignoring violence against police officers. Respecting young people does not require celebrating obscene abuse.

The examination crisis revealed genuine failures. The students who demanded reform performed an important democratic function, and the government was compelled to respond. That complete story includes administrative failure, public anger, political mobilization, possible police excesses, government concessions, ministerial accountability, and promised reforms.

Prime Minister Modi should be judged by his decisions, achievements, failures, and response to public criticism. Protesters should be treated fairly as citizens—not dismissed as troublemakers, but also not romanticized as incapable of wrongdoing. Police conduct should be investigated where force may have been excessive, while violence against officers should also be examined. A minor caught in a political storm should be protected rather than turned into a weapon by either side.

Satire can challenge power and expose hypocrisy. But when sarcasm replaces evidence, insinuation replaces context, and mockery replaces argument, satire becomes another form of propaganda—cleverly written, perhaps, but propaganda nevertheless.

India deserves criticism courageous enough to tell the whole truth, including the parts that do not fit the writer’s preferred political narrative.

Raj Shah,
Managing Editor,
Deshvidesh Media Group.

In the summer of 2026, two flags rise beneath the same sky.

On July 4, the United States celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Six weeks later, on August 15, India will observe its 80th Independence Day. One nation looks back on two and a half centuries of an extraordinary democratic experiment. The other celebrates eight decades since the end of British rule and the birth of a sovereign nation.

For Indian Americans, these are not two unrelated anniversaries marked on different pages of the calendar. They are chapters of one deeply personal story.

We sing “Jana Gana Mana” with affection for the land that gave us our roots and “The Star-Spangled Banner” with gratitude for the country that gave us room to grow. “We celebrate India not because we have failed to become Americans. We celebrate America not because we have forgotten India.”  We carry love for both because each has shaped a different part of who we are.

India is our mātrubhūmi—the motherland that gave us our traditions, languages, values, and spiritual inheritance. America is our karmabhūmi—the land of action where so many of us studied, worked, raised families, built businesses, and pursued opportunities that once seemed beyond reach.

Between these two homelands stands a community that has spent generations learning not merely how to live in two worlds but how to connect them.

Two Journeys Toward Freedom

The American and Indian struggles for independence were separated by nearly two centuries, yet both arose from a shared conviction: people should not be governed without a voice in their future.

On July 4, 1776, representatives of thirteen colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence. Its assertion that all people are created equal and possess certain unalienable rights became one of history’s most influential political declarations.

The new nation, however, did not immediately live up to those words. Slavery continued. Native peoples were displaced and dispossessed. Women were denied political equality. Generations of Black Americans had to struggle for freedoms that had been promised but withheld. Immigrants encountered prejudice, exclusion, and suspicion.

American democracy did not arrive completely in 1776. It became—and remains—a continuing debate over who is included in the word “all.”

That unfinished journey does not diminish the American ideal. It reminds us that freedom must be protected, widened, and renewed by every generation.

India’s path was different, but its moral foundation was equally powerful. On August 15, 1947, after a long and painful struggle against colonial rule, India awakened to independence.

Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of satyāgraha showed the world that disciplined nonviolence could challenge an empire. Countless freedom fighters—famous and unnamed, men and women, students, farmers, laborers, poets, reformers, and spiritual leaders—sacrificed their comfort, security, and sometimes their lives for a nation many of them would never live to see.

Yet India’s freedom arrived amid the trauma of Partition. Independence brought celebration and sorrow together. Millions were uprooted. Families were divided. Communal violence claimed innumerable lives. The midnight of freedom carried both hope and grief.

India then faced the enormous task of building democratic institutions across a vast land of different religions, languages, castes, regions, and customs. Poverty was widespread. Literacy was limited. Infrastructure was inadequate. Many outside observers doubted that such a diverse country could remain united and democratic.

India did more than survive those doubts. It built and sustained the world’s largest democracy.

Neither the United States nor India has followed a perfect path. Both nations have faced injustice, division, political turmoil, and moments that tested their highest ideals. Yet both continue to return to one central belief: the authority of government ultimately comes from the people.

That belief is the bridge between July 4 and August 15.

What America Made Possible

For the earliest Indian immigrants, America was not always welcoming.

Immigration laws once restricted Asian migration and citizenship. Indian laborers on the West Coast faced discrimination and violence. Bhagat Singh Thind, a U.S. Army veteran who served during World War I, fought unsuccessfully for the right to retain American citizenship. In 1923, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Indians were not eligible for naturalization under the racial classifications then embedded in American law.

That history forms part of the Indian-American experience, even if we rarely discuss it during our community celebrations.

The Luce-Celler Act of 1946 allowed a small annual quota of immigrants from India to enter the United States and made Indian immigrants eligible for naturalization. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 significantly expanded immigration opportunities by replacing nationality-based quotas with a system that prioritizes family reunification and professional skills.

A new chapter began.

Doctors came to serve communities that desperately needed them. Engineers joined American industries during a period of rapid technological growth. Professors, scientists, and researchers entered universities and laboratories. Small-business owners opened motels, grocery stores, restaurants, and convenience stores, often working seven days a week with limited capital and little social support.

Many arrived with one or two suitcases, a few dollars, and the telephone number of a relative or friend.

There were no WhatsApp calls home, no Indian television channels in every household, and no convenient direct flights connecting American cities with Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, or Bengaluru. Letters could take weeks. An international telephone call was expensive and reserved for important news. Finding familiar spices could require a long drive. Temples and cultural centers were few.

Two historical documents side-by-side: a 1776 edition of “The Pennsylvania Evening Post” containing the U.S. Declaration of Independence and India’s 1930 Declaration of Independence.

Those immigrants had to build a community from the ground up.

They organized associations in living rooms and rented halls. They established temples in former churches, warehouses, and modest suburban buildings. They opened language schools so their children could learn Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Punjabi, Malayalam, Marathi, and other mother tongues. They celebrated Diwali in school cafeterias and India’s Independence Day in public parks.

They also founded newspapers, magazines, and community media because mainstream publications often overlooked their achievements and concerns.

“The first generation was not merely seeking financial security. It was creating a cultural home.”

America made that home possible. Its universities welcomed talent. Its economy rewarded initiative. Its Constitution protected freedom of religion, speech, and association. Its entrepreneurial culture allowed newcomers to begin with little and build something meaningful.

Bhagat Singh Thind, a U.S. Army veteran who served during World War I, fought unsuccessfully for the right to retain American citizenship.

Indian Americans did not succeed alone; no community does. We benefited from the civil rights struggles that came before us, particularly the sacrifices of Black Americans who challenged discriminatory laws and expanded the meaning of equal citizenship. The doors through which later immigrants walked were opened, in part, by people who marched, organized, suffered, and refused to accept exclusion as permanent.

Remembering that history should deepen both our gratitude and our responsibility to stand with others when their rights or dignity are threatened.

What India Gave Us

If America provided opportunity, India provided an inner compass.

Indian immigrants brought more than professional degrees: family photographs and recipes passed down through generations. They carried a civilizational inheritance: dharma, seva, respect for elders, devotion to family, reverence for knowledge, and the belief that success has meaning only when it serves something larger than oneself.

They brought the wisdom of the Vedas, Upaniṣads, Bhagavad Gītā, Rāmāyaṇa, and other sacred traditions. They brought Jain ahimsa, Sikh seva, Buddhist compassion, and the many devotional streams that have enriched Indian civilization. They brought music, dance, literature, philosophy, festivals, and regional customs shaped over thousands of years.

Not every Indian-American family practices these traditions in the same way. Some are deeply religious; others are cultural or secular. Some speak an Indian language fluently; others know only a few words. Some visit India every year; others know it mainly through stories told by parents and grandparents.

Still, certain values endure.

We see them when children touch the feet of their grandparents. We see them when families prepare meals for a neighbor facing illness. We see them in temple volunteers who serve without expecting recognition, physicians who offer free health screenings, students who tutor younger children, and business owners who quietly support community causes.

We also see them in the importance placed on education. For many immigrant parents, education was not simply a route to a good salary. It was a form of security that could not be confiscated at a border. Degrees, knowledge, and discipline were possessions no government could easily take away.

The results are visible throughout the United States. Indian Americans now serve as physicians, educators, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, attorneys, artists, journalists, public officials, and members of the armed forces. They lead corporations, universities, and nonprofit organizations. They conduct lifesaving research, create jobs, develop new technologies, and care for patients in large cities and small towns.

Yet numbers, titles, and salaries alone cannot measure the community’s contribution. Its real story is also found in everyday acts of service: the rural doctor answering a late-night call, the teacher encouraging a struggling student, the motel owner offering a newcomer a first job, or the young volunteer packing meals for families she may never meet.

These are not exclusively Indian values or American values. They are human values strengthened by both traditions.

“250 @ 250”: Recovering a History Too Often Overlooked

As the United States commemorates its 250th anniversary, Indiaspora—a nonprofit network of global Indian leaders—has launched an important initiative titled “250 @ 250: The Indian American Story.”

The project presents a curated collection of 250 moments illustrating the depth, diversity, and influence of Indians and Indian Americans in the United States. Together, these moments remind us that the Indian-American story did not begin with the highly skilled immigration wave that followed the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. Its roots extend much further into American history.

One of the earliest moments highlighted by Indiaspora dates to 1790, when an unnamed “man from Madras” arrived in Salem, Massachusetts. Documented by Reverend William Bentley, he became the first recorded direct, non-coerced commercial and cultural visitor from India to New England. His presence was connected to the growing maritime trade between New England and the Indian subcontinent.

Another little-known story is that of Conjee Rustomjee Couhujee Bey, who served in the U.S. Navy under the name Antonio Gomez during the Civil War. His service places a person of Indian origin in an American military uniform decades before large-scale Indian immigration began.

Three generations of Sikh-Americn medical professionals in a modern clinic.

The collection also remembers the Bengali peddlers, silk traders, and laborers who built lives in neighborhoods such as Harlem and the Lower East Side. Living within a racially divided America, some formed families with African American and Latina women, creating communities that crossed ethnic and cultural boundaries long before the term “Indian American” became familiar.

In 1886, Anandi Gopal Joshi graduated from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, becoming the first Indian woman to earn a Western medical degree in the United States. She was only 21. Her accomplishment anticipated the profound role that Indian and Indian-American women would later play in American medicine.

The project also highlights Swami Vivekananda’s historic appearance at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago. His message of religious tolerance and universal acceptance introduced Hindu philosophy to a large American audience and helped establish a lasting place for Vedanta and Hindu thought in this country.

Other moments document the contributions of early farmers and entrepreneurs; the establishment of Hindu temples, Sikh gurdwaras, and other houses of worship; the growth of Indian-American physicians’ organizations; the spread of Indian cuisine; the influence of artists and musicians; and the rise of Indian-origin leaders in corporate America.

Indiaspora’s collection performs an important service: it replaces a narrow success story with a fuller human history.

The Indian-American journey was not simply a straight line from immigrant student to doctor, engineer, or chief executive. It included sailors, soldiers, farmers, peddlers, cooks, religious teachers, writers, activists, and families whose names have largely disappeared from popular memory. It contained remarkable achievement but also discrimination, sacrifice, loneliness, and struggle.

By gathering these stories, Indiaspora has created more than a commemorative timeline. It has helped place Indian Americans where they belong—not outside the American story, looking in, but inside it, participating in the country’s development across generations.

Full credit and acknowledgment: The historical moments and project description in this section are drawn from “250 @ 250: The Indian American Story,” researched, curated, and presented by Indiaspora. Desh-Videsh gratefully acknowledges Indiaspora for preserving and sharing this important history.

From Guests to Stakeholders

For many years, Indian immigrants behaved as though they were guests in America.

They worked hard, paid taxes, avoided controversy, and told their children to concentrate on their education. Politics was considered divisive or unsafe. Public advocacy was left to someone else. Some believed professional achievement alone would guarantee acceptance.

The second and third generations have begun to change that approach.

Young Indian Americans increasingly understand that citizenship requires participation. They vote, organize, run for public office, serve on school boards, join the military, advocate for policy changes, and speak openly about discrimination. They do not see themselves as temporary visitors. America is their country, and they expect to have a voice in shaping its future.

A historical portrait of Dr. Anandi Gopal Joshi with her degree, 1886

That confidence is healthy, but it brings a demanding question: What kind of voice will we bring?

Will Indian Americans participate only when an issue affects visas, taxes, business interests, or relations with India? Or will we defend democratic principles consistently, including when another community is under attack?

The true test of political maturity is not whether we can gain access to powerful people. It is whether we use our influence responsibly.

At a time when public debate is becoming increasingly hostile, Indian Americans must resist the temptation to import every political division from India into American institutions. We may disagree strongly about governments, political parties, religious questions, and social policies. But disagreement should not turn temples, associations, professional organizations, and family gatherings into permanent battlegrounds.

Our community is too diverse to speak with one political voice—and it should not try.

Indian Americans are Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jain, Buddhist, Jewish, Zoroastrian, and nonreligious. They trace their roots to every region of India and speak dozens of languages. They include recent immigrants, descendants of early settlers, professionals, laborers, entrepreneurs, students, and multiracial families.

That diversity is not a weakness to overcome. It is a democratic strength to preserve.

The Hyphen Is a Bridge

Swami Vivekananda addresses the World’s Parliament of Religions, 1893.

The term “Indian-American” is sometimes treated as though the hyphen represents divided loyalty. In truth, it represents connection.

“The hyphen does not ask us to choose between two countries. It tells the story of how one identity has enriched the other.”

An Indian-American child may eat pizza with friends on Friday, attend a pūjā on Saturday, volunteer at a food bank on Sunday, and begin Monday morning reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at school. She may enjoy Bollywood music and American football, speak English more comfortably than her parents’ language, and still feel a powerful connection to grandparents living thousands of miles away.

There is nothing confused about that identity. It is the natural experience of a multicultural America.

The first generation often worried that its children would become “too American.” The children sometimes felt they were not “Indian enough.” With time, many families discovered that identity is not a mathematical equation in which becoming more American requires becoming less Indian.

A young person can honor Diwali and Independence Day, appreciate the Bhagavad Gītā and the U.S. Constitution, celebrate Holi and Thanksgiving, and feel entirely at home in both worlds.

Indian-American life has already changed both cultures. Yoga and meditation have entered the American mainstream. Indian food is found far beyond major cities. Diwali is recognized by schools, legislatures, and public institutions. Indian music, fashion, cinema, and literature have become part of America’s cultural landscape.

Influence also travels in the other direction. Indian families have absorbed American ideas about individual choice, gender equality, open debate, and civic participation. Younger generations are raising difficult but necessary questions about caste, patriarchy, mental health, marriage, and personal freedom. Some of these conversations make elders uncomfortable, but they are also helping our traditions respond to a changing world.

“A living culture does not survive by freezing itself in the past. It survives by carrying its deepest values into the future.”

Freedom Is More Than a Flag

National anniversaries naturally invite celebration. There will be parades, patriotic songs, flag-hoisting ceremonies, fireworks, and speeches. These rituals matter. They give visible expression to our gratitude and belonging.

But freedom cannot be measured by the size of a flag or the volume of a slogan.

Freedom asks more of us.

It asks whether a child from a poor family receives a good education. It asks whether a woman can walk without fear and make decisions about her life. It asks whether religious minorities can worship without intimidation. It asks whether citizens can criticize their government without being treated as enemies. It asks whether immigrants are valued only for their labor or welcomed as full human beings.

Both India and America must continue facing these questions.

Patriotism should never require silence about a nation’s failures. Mature love of country is honest. We correct what we love because we want it to live up to its highest ideals.

Americans who confronted slavery, segregation, and discrimination were not betraying America. They were insisting that America honor its promise. Indians who challenge corruption, inequality, communal hatred, or injustice are not weakening India. They are asking the republic to remain faithful to the freedom for which earlier generations sacrificed.

For Indian Americans, that principle must apply equally to both nations. Love without honesty becomes sentimentality. Patriotism without accountability can become dangerous.

The Next Chapter Belongs to Our Children

From curry to burgers, every shared meal is another chapter in the IndianAmerican story.

The pioneers of the Indian-American community built temples, businesses, cultural centers, professional associations, and media organizations. They gave their children opportunities they themselves did not have.

The next generation must decide what to do with that inheritance.

Will our institutions remain relevant to young people born and raised in America? Will our community measure success only by income, degrees, and prestigious job titles? Or will we also value teachers, artists, social workers, journalists, public servants, and people who choose less conventional paths?

Will we teach children only how to perform a dance for India Day, or will we help them understand the history behind the freedom they are celebrating? Will we expect them to recite prayers without explaining their meaning? Will we tell them to be proud of India while leaving no room for their questions?

Young Indian Americans do not need a perfect India to feel proud of their heritage. They need an honest India—ancient, diverse, wounded, creative, complicated, and still evolving.

They do not need a flawless America in order to love their country. They need an America willing to examine its history and continue widening its circle of belonging.

Our responsibility is not to hand the next generation a fixed identity. It is to provide them strong roots, moral confidence, and the freedom to grow.

One Indian-American Story

One table, many traditions—sharing India’s flavors

India’s 80th Independence Day and America’s 250th anniversary offer more than an unusual alignment of dates. Together, they create a historic moment of reflection for every Indian American.

We are the beneficiaries of two freedom movements.

From India, we inherited the lesson that moral courage can confront even the mightiest empire. From America, we inherited the proposition that rights do not belong only to rulers or inherited classes but to ordinary people.

From India, we learned that unity need not erase diversity. From America, we learned that people from across the world can become part of a shared national story.

From both nations, we learned that democracy is a continuous process. Both nations taught us that democracy is an ongoing process.

The Indian-American community now stands at a new stage of its journey. We are no longer invisible newcomers. Our numbers, accomplishments, and influence have grown. With that success comes an obligation: to serve, participate, build bridges, and protect the democratic freedoms that made our story possible.

This August, as we raise the American and Indian flags together at community gatherings, let us recognize them as more than just two national symbols. Together at community gatherings, let us see more than two national symbols.

A simultaneous flag-raising during a community dual-anniversary celebration in the summer of 2026.

Let us remember the generations who struggled beneath each of them. Let us honor the immigrants who crossed oceans with little more than courage and hope. Let us thank the country that welcomed our labor and ambition and the civilization that gave us our cultural and spiritual foundation.

Most importantly, let us ask what we will contribute to the next chapter.

Two hundred and fifty years after America declared its independence, and on India’s 80th Independence Day, the work of liberty continues. It continues in courtrooms and classrooms, voting booths and houses of worship, family conversations and community institutions. It continues whenever someone chooses service over selfishness, dialogue over hatred, and courage over silence.

We may have come to America from India, or we may have been born here carrying India within us. Either way, we belong to a remarkable story—a story made possible by two nations, two journeys toward freedom, and one community connecting them.

Two flags. Two anthems. Two beloved nations.

And one Indian-American heart, grateful enough to hold both.

About the Author:

A software engineer by profession, Indian culture enthusiast, ardent promoter of  Hinduism, and a cancer survivor, Raj Shah is a managing editor of Desh-Videsh Magazine and co-founder of Desh Videsh Media Group. Promoting the rich culture and heritage of India and Hinduism has been his motto ever since he arrived in the US in 1969.
He has been instrumental in starting and promoting several community organizations such as the Indian Religious and Cultural Center and International Hindu University. Raj has written two books on Hinduism titled Chronology of Hinduism and Understanding Hinduism. He has also written several children books focusing on Hindu culture and religion.

BEYOND THE RĀMĀYAṆA The Sītāyana – A Timeless Journey of Women’s Strength, Resilience, and Self-Discovery

By Dr. Mohini Shinde & Raj Shah

You know the Rāmāyaṇa .

You know the exile, the abduction, the war, the victory, and the homecoming.

But the woman who lived through every single moment of it – who loved without condition, endured without breaking, and built an entire world with her hands while the kingdom looked away – She was never given a chance to speak.

Until now.

In Beyond the Rāmāyaṇa: The Sītāyana, Sita finally tells her story.

Not the story of a devoted wife. Not the story of a patient sufferer. Not the story that kings and poets found convenient to preserve.

Her story. The real one.

She will tell you what it felt like to walk through fire to prove an innocence that should never have been questioned.

She will tell you what it felt like to be sent into the forest – pregnant, alone, and utterly betrayed – by the man she had never once failed. She will tell you how she built a home from nothing. How she raised two sons who would one day stand before their father and sing her silenced truth back to him.

She will tell you what she said when he asked her to return. And she will tell you why – after a lifetime of proving, enduring, and surviving – She finally chose herself.

This is not just Sita’s story. This is every woman’s story. This story also resonates with every man who has ever loved a woman.

“Every generation inherits the Ramayana. This generation finally inherits Sita’s truth.”

For readers of The Palace of Illusions, this retelling offers a unique perspective. · The Forest of Enchantments · The Penelopiad · The Red Tent · Circe – but unlike those retellings, this version is not a story built around a silence in the margins of myth.

Sītā is the woman at the very centre of one of the world’s most beloved epics, finally given the voice that the original story always denied her. Where other retellings invent a world around a forgotten woman, The 

Sītāyana excavates the truth buried inside a story everyone already thinks they know. This is not an adaptation. This is reclamation.

This is the retelling that readers have been waiting four thousand years for, and once you start it, you will not be able to put it down.

This is the book that will make you see the Ramayana – and every story you thought you knew – differently. Forever.

“Some stories are told. Others are taken back. This is Sita, taking hers back.”

Free your Mind from Overthinking – Discover the Power of Trust 

By BK sister Shireen Chada

IT’S 2AM AND YOUR MIND IS STILL RUNNING.

 Replaying the conversation from Tuesday. Rehearsing the one coming Friday. Playing out scenes that haven’t happened and may never happen at all.

 You’ve tried thinking your way to safety. You’re still awake, so you already know how that’s going.

 Trust is the other way.

 The Sacred Trust Code is a simple five-minute practice you can use at your desk, in your car, or lying awake at 2am. It doesn’t ask you to stop thinking. It teaches you where to place your trust when your mind refuses to let go.

Practiced daily, it changes what your mind does in the quiet. Old conversations lose their grip. The rehearsals get shorter. You stop reliving the same moment a hundred times.

 Shireen Chada tested these principles through anxiety, illness, and cancer, and refined them with more than four thousand students in her Insight Timer course The Trust Revolution, before they became a book.

 You don’t have to believe a single word.

Run the first experiment tonight. Let your own mind tell you.

 Shireen Chada has spent more than three decades teaching Raja Yoga meditation in the Brahma Kumaris tradition. An author, speaker, and retreat leader, she draws on ancient spiritual wisdom and modern psychology to help people quiet the mind, cultivate inner peace, and discover the freedom that comes through trust. 

Inclusive Krishna : Celebrating Equality, Fairness and Inclusion in the Bhakti Tradition

By Nathan Hartley

The theme of this book hasn’t been chosen simply because it’s fashionable, contemporary, or it’s trendy amongst a certain audience. No, not at all.

The theme of inclusion is a central teaching of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which can be traced back to that profound conversation that took place between Lord Krishna (God) and His friend and disciple, Arjuna, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra some 5,000 years ago.

A Month of Reflection, Celebration, and Resolve

I’ll admit this issue took me longer to put together than most. Not because the stories were difficult to locate but because they kept pulling me in different directions—celebration, historical reflection, and personal memory—and I had to sit with all of it before I understood how it fit together. Eventually I realized it didn’t need to be reconciled. It just needed space to grow, as community life often feels.

Twenty-Five Years of the BAPS Mandir in Miami

The story kept coming back to me while editing this issue: the Silver Jubilee of the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Miami. To every volunteer, devotee, and spiritual leader who built it—thank you, and congratulations.

Twenty-five years doesn’t sound like much set against the age of the civilization it draws from. But I think about the families who arrived in South Florida decades ago with little more than faith and a willingness to work and what they’ve built since—mandirs, cultural organizations, thriving businesses, and an entire community infrastructure—and it stops me every time.

I should be honest about something here. I’m not someone who’s at BAPS Mandir every Sunday. In this community, some sevaks attend every week, year after year, no matter the weather, and I’m not one of them. But I’ve been to the Mandir enough times over the years—for festivals, for events, and for stories I was covering—to notice something. Every single sevak I’ve encountered, without exception, carries an utmost faith—a shraddha—in Pramukh Swami Maharaj and also in Mahant Swami Maharaj that goes beyond anything I can fully explain from the outside. It’s not performative. I’ve watched a sevak spend an entire day preparing prasad for hundreds of people, and when I asked why, they didn’t talk about the Mandir or the community. They talked about Pramukh Swami Maharaj and Mahant Swami — about wanting to live in a way that would make their guru proud. I’ve heard the same sentiment from a teenager who is taking arti thali to devottes, a grandmother reciting bhajans, and a doctor running a free health screening. Different generations, same undercurrent.

That, I’ve come to think, is the actual engine behind everything else—the schools, the disaster relief, the health fairs, and the mentorship that turns kids into doctors and community leaders. It happens because thousands of individuals have anchored themselves to something they trust completely, and that trust translates into service without anyone having to ask twice. Twenty-five years in, the true story behind the anniversary is not the growth of a building but the profound faith that quietly unites an entire community, one sevak at a time.

A Debt of Gratitude to Brahma Kumaris

BAPS isn’t the only spiritual organization I’ve closely followed over the years, and this feels like the right issue to express my feelings about publicly, because I owe a real debt of gratitude to the Brahma Kumaris community here in Florida.

For those less familiar, Brahma Kumaris is a spiritual organization built around raja yoga meditation, self-reflection, and a return to what its practitioners call “soul consciousness”—the idea that we are, at our core, peaceful spiritual beings temporarily living a physical life. It’s an entirely unique tradition from BAPS in its structure and practice, but I’ve found the same quality of sincerity in the people who carry it forward.

I want to publicly thank Sister Waddy Ben, who leads the Brahma Kumaris Miami Center, for welcoming me so warmly into the Brahma Kumaris family and for trusting me to help organize spiritual events across South Florida.

Her leadership doesn’t come with a lot of noise. She leads quietly, humbly, and with a kind of steady dedication that inspires people far beyond just me. Because of her, the center has become a place where people from entirely different backgrounds show up and discover meditation, peace, and real personal growth. I’m grateful for her friendship, her encouragement, and honestly just the trust she’s put in me over time.

Any events I’ve helped put together were never really about me. They were my way of giving something back to a community that’s shaped my own spiritual journey more than I probably realize. If anything, they’re just a small reflection of how much this organization has meant to me and to so many others trying to find more peace and purpose in their lives.

Here’s what I keep coming back to about our South Florida Hindu and spiritual community: it’s strong because of how many different groups contribute to it, not because of any one organization. Brahma Kumaris, BAPS, Akshya Patra, Ekal Vidyalaya and plenty of others all do things differently, but they’re built on the same foundation—humility, service, compassion, integrity, and self-discipline. Values that honestly feel harder to find these days.

These organizations are quietly doing important work. Stronger families, better citizens, more compassionate leaders — that’s what comes out of their spiritual education, volunteer efforts, youth programs, and community service, often without much recognition.

I feel lucky to have been part of the Brahma Kumaris in South Florida, even in a small way. So thank you, Sister Waddy Ben, and thank you to every volunteer out there—you’re proof that real change begins within.

Looking Ahead

I contemplate what I want to leave behind, professionally and otherwise, and it usually comes back to a few things.

It starts with our kids. Academic success matters, obviously, but so does character — the kind of grounding that outlasts a diploma.

It also means staying invested in the institutions that got us here—mandirs, meditation centers, cultural groups, and professional associations. I worship, meditate, or believe differently. Think of these as sentimental extras. They’re the infrastructure that keeps a community connected to itself while it grows into the wider world.

And it means building real relationships outside our circles — and honestly, outside our traditions, too. I don’t think the strongest communities are the most insulated ones. I think they’re the ones willing to connect with people who don’t worship, meditate, or believe quite the same way they do.

As someone who helps decide which stories are published in these pages, I feel that responsibility with each issue. I try to make room for the quieter stories—service, resilience, everyday people doing meaningful work without expecting anyone to notice.

That’s really what I hope this issue holds together: celebration, memory, and gratitude toward more than one spiritual home. A Mandir turning twenty-five, anchored by a faith I admire more than I can fully grasp. A Brahma Kumaris community that opened a door for me I didn’t expect. And a community still writing its next chapter—with more confidence than fear and more purpose than doubt.

Raj Shah,
Managing Editor,
Deshvidesh Media Group.

Indian-Americans are often called one of the remarkable immigrant success stories in America. They have long been called a model minority. They earn more than any other ethnic group in America. They run top companies. They teach in top universities. For decades, this success story stayed mostly out of the political fight. That is changing now. Online hate against Indian-Americans is rising fast. Many community members believe that President Donald Trump’s policies and statements are exacerbating the situation.

But success doesn’t always mean acceptance.

In the last few years, more and more Indian-Americans say they face discrimination and harassment. A 2026 survey found that almost half of Indian-Americans have experienced some form of bias. At the same time, anti-Indian and anti-Hindu comments have grown louder online, especially around the H-1B visa program.

Why is this trend happening?

Dr. Adit Adityanjee, President of the Council for Strategic Affairs, tackled that question in an interview with Dhairya Maheshwari of Daily Geopolitics. He looked at the politics, the economics, the culture, and the history behind the backlash.

His answer was simple.

“Indian-Americans are the highest-paid income group in America,” he said. “Success breeds jealousy. That is definitely an economic issue.”

Money is not the only factor. But it explains part of why America’s culture wars have now ensnared a community once celebrated as a model minority.

A Post That Shocked Many

Things got worse in April 2026. President Trump shared a post on Truth Social with comments from radio host Michael Savage. The post called India and China “hellholes.” It claimed Indian and Chinese immigrants were taking jobs from Americans. It also mocked their English and said they only hired their own people.

People reacted fast.

India’s Foreign Ministry called the comments “uninformed, inappropriate, and in poor taste.” The Hindu American Foundation called them racist. Congressman Ami Bera said they were “offensive, ignorant, and beneath the dignity of the office.”

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi introduced a House resolution against this kind of rhetoric. He warned it fuels discrimination against Asian-Americans.

For many Indian-Americans, none of the rhetoric was a shock. It felt like one more chapter in a pattern they’d already seen.

Dr. Adityanjee says the hate didn’t start with one post.

“There has been a force multiplier since Trump’s second term started,” he said. “Existing prejudices have become more visible and more openly expressed.”

A Rising Wave of Online Hate

The “hellhole” comment wasn’t the start. Prominent Indian-Americans had already been getting hit with abuse online.

When FBI Director Kash Patel posted a Diwali message, some people told him to “go back home.” The same thing happened to Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, and even the official White House accounts.

Researchers say anti-Indian content online has spiked. Most of it targets immigration, religion, and stereotypes about Indian culture.

This phenomenon is no longer confined to obscure corners of the internet. It’s showing up in mainstream politics.

Dr. Adityanjee says many Indian-Americans now feel like an easy target—for things that wouldn’t be tolerated against other groups.

Why Indian-Americans?

Dr. Adityanjee’s answer starts with success.

Indian-Americans top almost every economic chart. Median household income is over $150,000. More than three-quarters have a bachelor’s degree or higher. They’re everywhere in medicine, tech, finance, academia, and business.

Professor Rohit Chopra of Santa Clara University says success itself draws resentment. Dr. Adityanjee agrees.

“When a community becomes highly successful, highly educated, and highly visible, it attracts attention,” he said. “Unfortunately, success can also attract resentment.”

This isn’t new. Throughout history, successful minorities have often become targets during hard economic times.

But Dr. Adityanjee sees something deeper.

“The United States is a country built by immigrants,” he said. “Yet many people still believe they are the only ‘real Americans.’ There is cognitive dissonance there.”

That contradiction sits at the center of today’s anti-immigrant feelings. America celebrates immigration in theory. In practice, some people are uneasy when newer immigrants succeed and become visible.

Indian-Americans are visible. They have achieved the American dream through education, hard work, business, and success.

That’s exactly what makes them a target.

“When people see successful brown-skinned professionals buying homes, driving luxury cars, running businesses, and building places of worship, there is anger, there is anguish, there is jealousy, and there is hatred,” Dr. Adityanjee said.

The Hindu Dimension

Religion adds another layer.

Many Indian-Americans are Hindu. Temples, cultural centers, and Diwali celebrations have grown considerably over the last twenty years.

Dr. Adityanjee pushes back on the idea that America belongs to one religion.

“The Constitution is secular,” he said. “It does not say America is a Judeo-Christian country. Every citizen is entitled to practice their faith.”

Still, anti-Hindu comments are common online now. Hindu festivals and Hindu public figures get mocked in ways that go past normal political debate.

For many Hindu Americans, the issue isn’t disagreement. It’s exclusion—feeling treated as less American because of their faith.

The H-1B Flashpoint

No issue captures the tension better than H-1B visas.

Indian nationals get most of these visas, which let skilled foreign workers fill jobs in tech, engineering, healthcare, and science.

Anti-immigration activists have targeted the program for years.

Critics say it steals American jobs. Supporters say it fills gaps the U.S. can’t fill on its own.

Dr. Adityanjee rejects the idea that Indian professionals are a threat.

“These are smart professionals,” he said. “They deserve the respect that is due to them.”

He points to the dozens of billion-dollar companies founded by Indian entrepreneurs and the thirty-plus major U.S. corporations now run by Indian-origin CEOs.

“This phenomenon is one of the greatest success stories of modern immigration,” he said.

But H-1B holders keep getting painted as job thieves or scammers.

The rhetoric has gotten sharper under the Trump administration. Critics often hold up Indian tech workers as the face of what’s wrong with immigration.

Dr. Adityanjee says many Indian-Americans feel singled out in these fights.

When Hate Moves Offline

What worries people most is that online hate doesn’t stay online.

In Texas, protesters carried signs reading “Don’t India My Texas” and “Deport H-1B Visa Scammers.” In Florida, local politicians have called for deporting Indian-Americans. Across the country, groups have tracked harassment, workplace discrimination, and public confrontations.

In one case, a Texas man told two Indian-American women he was glad they were being deported. A restaurant customer in Virginia verbally assaulted businessman Salil Maniktahla and pursued him outside.

Dr. Adityanjee says political rhetoric helps create this environment.

“The bar has definitely been lowered,” he said.

He supports a government’s right to enforce immigration law. But he draws a line between policy and prejudice.

“If you start harassing people because of their ethnicity, religion, or skin color, that should not be acceptable,” he said. “That is not an immigration issue. That is a civil rights issue.”

Anti-India or anti-Indian-American?

One key point from the interview: there’s a difference between criticizing India’s policies and attacking Indian-Americans.

Dr. Adityanjee agrees that trade fights and political disputes between governments are normal. Every country looks out for its own interests.

However, ordinary Indian-Americans should not bear the consequences of these disputes.

Most are citizens. Others are legal residents, students, or workers contributing to the economy. Targeting them for their ethnicity goes against what America claims to stand for.

A Global Trend

This issue isn’t just an American problem.

Similar anti-Indian sentiment has shown up in Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Anti-immigrant movements are growing across the West, often painting immigrants as a threat to jobs and culture.

Dr. Adityanjee sees the situation as part of something bigger.

“What you are seeing is not just an American issue,” he said. “It is happening across many Western countries.”

Social media spreads these narratives fast, letting local arguments shape opinions far beyond their borders.

The Road Ahead

Indian-Americans aren’t one single group. They’re citizens and immigrants. Democrats and Republicans. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and Jains. They come from every corner of India and hold every kind of political view.

That diversity is a strength. But it also makes it harder for them to act as one.

What’s clear is this: Indian-Americans are no longer outside the identity politics and racial tension hitting other minority groups.

The signs are hard to miss. Online hate is growing. Public hostility is more common. Political rhetoric keeps getting sharper.

Where the situation goes next depends on more than government policy. It depends on whether leaders, media, and ordinary people choose to push back on prejudice—or look the other way.

As Dr. Adityanjee put it, “There is racial hatred, there is economic jealousy, and there is resentment. We should not deny that reality.”

The real question isn’t just how America treats Indian-Americans. It’s whether a country built by immigrants can still live up to its own promise.

What Needs to Change 

Talking about the problem isn’t enough. Indian-Americans need to organize. Look at the Jewish-American community. There are about 6 million Jews in the U.S. There are about 5.6 million Indian-Americans. The numbers are close. But political power isn’t. Jewish Americans hold major positions in Congress, in courts, and in government agencies. They donate heavily to candidates who back their causes. Most are citizens. Most show up to vote. And when something threatens their community, they speak with one voice. 

Indian-Americans are still catching up on every one of those fronts. Too many eligible voters don’t register. Too few run for office. Too little money goes to candidates who’d actually defend their interests. And the community itself is split along religion, region, and party lines, so the voice rarely comes out as one. 

That has to change. More Indian-Americans need to become citizens and vote. More people need to run for office, at the local level and beyond. More people need to donate and organize the way other communities already do. Most of all, Indian-Americans need to set aside their differences when it matters and stand together. Success bought them a seat at the table. Only organized political power can prevent the loss of that seat.

About the Author:

A software engineer by profession, Indian culture enthusiast, ardent promoter of  Hinduism, and a cancer survivor, Raj Shah is a managing editor of Desh-Videsh Magazine and co-founder of Desh Videsh Media Group. Promoting the rich culture and heritage of India and Hinduism has been his motto ever since he arrived in the US in 1969.
He has been instrumental in starting and promoting several community organizations such as the Indian Religious and Cultural Center and International Hindu University. Raj has written two books on Hinduism titled Chronology of Hinduism and Understanding Hinduism. He has also written several children books focusing on Hindu culture and religion.

Beyond the Big Fat Wedding: What Makes a Marriage Last?

“May you two remain here together, never be separated. May you enjoy the full span of life, playing with your children and grandchildren in your own home.”

— Rig Veda 10.85.42

Every wedding season, I have the privilege of witnessing extraordinary celebrations. Lavish décor, breathtaking venues, designer attire, exquisite cuisine, and unforgettable entertainment have transformed Indian-American weddings into some of the most spectacular celebrations anywhere in the world.

Today’s weddings are grander than ever. Multi-day events, destination celebrations, personalized ceremonies, social-media storytelling, and carefully curated experiences have become the norm. Families invest enormous time, energy, and resources to create memories that will last a lifetime.

And rightly so.

A wedding is one of life’s most joyous milestones. It brings together families, friends, traditions, and generations. It celebrates love, hope, and the promise of a shared future.

Yet every wedding also raises an important question:

What happens after the celebration ends?

After the final dance, the last photograph, and the departure of the guests, another journey begins—a journey that is far more important than the wedding itself.

The journey of marriage.

In our excitement to create the perfect wedding, we sometimes forget that a wedding lasts a few days, while a marriage lasts decades.

A wedding is an event. A marriage is a relationship.

A wedding is carefully planned. A marriage unfolds day by day.

A wedding is about celebration. A marriage is about commitment.

The distinction is important because while beautiful weddings create cherished memories, strong marriages create meaningful lives.

Our Hindu traditions have long understood this distinction. Marriage, or Vivaha, is not merely a social contract. It is considered a sacred partnership—a commitment to walk together through all stages of life. During the Saptapadi, the seven sacred steps taken around the holy fire, the couple makes promises that go far beyond romance. They pledge mutual support, shared responsibility, trust, respect, friendship, and spiritual growth.

At the heart of Hindu marriage, or for that matter, any marriage, lies the concept of Dharma.

Dharma is often translated as duty, righteousness, or moral responsibility. In marriage, Dharma reminds us that love is not simply about what we receive from another person. It is also about what we give. It is about fulfilling responsibilities with sincerity, compassion, and commitment.

This idea may seem old-fashioned in a world that increasingly emphasizes individual fulfillment. Yet many of the strongest marriages continue to thrive because both partners understand that lasting relationships require effort, patience, and sacrifice.

The word “sacrifice” itself has become somewhat unpopular in modern culture. We are often encouraged to prioritize personal happiness above all else. While self-care and personal growth are important, successful marriages also require compromise. No two people agree on everything. Differences in personality, habits, priorities, and expectations are inevitable.

Marriage teaches us how to navigate those differences with grace.

It teaches us that being right is often less important than being kind.

It teaches us that listening can be more valuable than winning an argument.

It teaches us that mutual respect is the foundation upon which love continues to grow.

The ancient sages understood that lasting marriages are built on far more than attraction or romance. They require patience, mutual respect, trust, sacrifice, and a willingness to place the well-being of the relationship above momentary disagreements.

One of the most beautiful blessings from the Rig Veda captures this ideal perfectly:

“May your minds be united. May your purposes be united. May your hearts be united. May your thoughts be united, so that you may live together in harmony.”

— Rig Veda 10.85

This vision of marriage remains as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.

Modern Indian-American couples face opportunities and challenges unlike any previous generation.

Most couples today are highly educated and career-focused. Both partners often pursue demanding professional goals while simultaneously managing family responsibilities. Financial pressures, home ownership, raising children, caring for aging parents, and maintaining work-life balance can create significant stress.

Social media adds another layer of complexity.

Every day, we encounter meticulously curated snapshots of others’ lives. Perfect vacations, romantic anniversaries, luxury homes, and seemingly flawless relationships can create unrealistic expectations. Comparison often becomes the thief of contentment.

The truth, however, is that no marriage is perfect.

Every couple faces disagreements.

Every family encounters challenges.

Every relationship experiences seasons of growth, adjustment, and change.

The strongest marriages are not those without problems. They are those in which both partners learn how to navigate problems together.

Another unique challenge for Indian-American couples is balancing two cultural worlds.

Many young adults are deeply rooted in American values of independence, personal choice, and individual achievement. At the same time, they inherit Hindu traditions that emphasize family, duty, community, and collective responsibility.

Neither perspective is inherently right or wrong.

The challenge lies in creating harmony between them.

Questions about family involvement, religious traditions, parenting styles, career priorities, financial decisions, and caregiving responsibilities often require thoughtful conversations and mutual understanding.

Successful couples learn that marriage is not about one person winning and the other losing.

It is about finding solutions that honor both partners while strengthening the relationship.

In this regard, there is much we can learn from our parents and grandparents.

Many of them built marriages that lasted forty, fifty, or even sixty years. Their lives were not free from hardship. They faced financial uncertainty, immigration struggles, health challenges, family obligations, and personal sacrifices.

Yet they endured.

What was their secret?

Perhaps there was no single secret.

Rather, there were certain values that consistently guided them.

Commitment over convenience.

Patience over impulsiveness.

Respect over ego.

Partnership over competition.

They understood that love is not sustained solely by grand romantic gestures. It is sustained through countless small acts of kindness performed every day.

A cup of tea prepared without being asked.

A supportive word during difficult times.

A willingness to listen.

A readiness to forgive.

A habit of showing appreciation

A commitment to show up for one another every day.

These small moments rarely appear on Instagram, but they are the moments that build enduring marriages, the foundation of lifelong relationships.

As I speak with newly married couples, I often notice that enormous effort goes into planning the wedding itself. Couples spend months selecting venues, photographers, entertainment, menus, invitations, and décor.

But imagine if couples devoted an equal amount of time preparing for marriage.

Imagine discussing financial goals as carefully as wedding budgets.

Imagine planning communication strategies as thoughtfully as reception seating charts.

Imagine investing in premarital counseling with the same enthusiasm used to select a wedding venue.

Imagine preparing for a lifetime together with the same dedication used to prepare for a single day.

The return on that investment would be immeasurable.

Fortunately, many young couples are already moving in this direction.

As wedding celebrations continue to evolve, I am encouraged by a growing trend among younger couples. Increasingly, they are seeking more meaningful experiences rather than simply following tradition for tradition’s sake. They want ceremonies that reflect their values, tell their stories, and create authentic connections with family and friends.

This is an encouraging trend because meaningful weddings often lead to meaningful marriages.

The true purpose of a wedding is not simply to impress guests.

It is to establish a foundation upon which two people can build a life together.

A successful marriage is not measured by the size of the ballroom, the number of guests, or the popularity of wedding photographs on social media.

It is measured by something far more meaningful.

It is measured by trust.

It is measured by mutual respect.

It is measured by friendship.

It is measured by resilience.

It is measured by shared values.

It is measured by the ability to support one another through life’s inevitable joys and challenges.

It is measured by the willingness to grow together rather than apart.

Most importantly, it is measured by the countless ordinary days that become extraordinary. 

As you enjoy this Wedding Issue of Desh-Videsh, filled with beautiful celebrations, inspiring love stories, and unforgettable moments, I encourage you to look beyond the splendor of the wedding day.

Celebrate the wedding, certainly.

But honor the marriage even more.

Cherish the memories.

But remember that the real achievement is not creating a perfect wedding.

The real achievement is creating a lasting marriage.

Because long after the flowers fade, the music ends, and the photographs are placed in albums, what remains is the partnership.

What remains is friendship.

What remains is the commitment.

And what remains is the beautiful journey of two souls walking through life together.

And that is where the real love story begins.

That is the true meaning of marriage.

Raj Shah,
Managing Editor,
Deshvidesh Media Group.