The census bureau classifies people of Indian origin as “Asian Indian”. They always have as I discovered. (see Census 1990 and Census 2000 form).
People with origins from other South Asian countries (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh) will be required to go through the tedious process of checking “Other Asian” and filling out a text box specifying their country as their race – Other Asian -> Pakistani, for instance. Thanks, Census Bureau, for making this bureaucratic process simpler for us, minute as it might be. I was a lukka grad student in 2000 and didn’t care enough to even know if I had received a census form. So this being my first official census, I’m naturally quite intrigued by it.
The term “Asian Indians” , which actually makes a lot of sense, is a classification seldom used by people of Indian origin in the US, first generation or otherwise, who prefer terms like Indian-Americans, a shortened version of the previous Indo-Americans, a broader classifications “South Asians”, a generic “desis” or in some cases even “I’m from India”. The census form will never use “Indian-Americans” for the simple reason that it is easy to confuse with “American Indians”, a classification used largely by Native Americans. The other terms, barring South Asian, of course, would never find their way on an official document.
So the question for other people like me who will be checking the “Asian Indian” category is: do you think “Asian Indian” accurately encompasses your race? If not, what other term would you use?
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