The Melting Pot Through A Crystal Ball

A couple of weeks ago , I was having dinner with some colleagues from the United States and were chatting about how America was changing. One of the things which was mentioned was how the immigrants were no longer buying into the melting pot concept . His view was that in the past all immigrants , if not in the first generation , but certainly by the second generation had become Americanized. He felt that was no longer the case.He sounded a bit concerned.

I thought about it and feel that until the fifties the majority of the immigrants were white and predominantly Christian ( apart from the African Americans  who were brought in as slaves). Yes there were exceptions. You had Chinese who came to build the rail roads but who did not have equal rights. Then you had the Jews who  were initially discriminated against but gradually became part of  the mainstream. The Hispanics predated the Americans, but the numbers have jumped up radically. From the seventies you saw more of a influx of immigrants who were Muslims, Hindu's and Sikh's.

The concern now is that the recent wave of  immigrants now while living and working in America still want to retain their ethnic and religious identity. They want to build their own places of worship, eat their own food and speak their own language while at home. I do not feel that this is a cause of concern.  Once you have the third and fourth generation they too will become Americanized, but that does not necessarily mean that they will give up their religion. After all the first American immigrants came to avoid religious persecution. So why should the new generations of Americans be expected to give up theirs ? There will be  some who will , but there will be others who will retain theirs.Religion  however will increasingly  become of less importance as is the case  now for the many Americans, English and even for Indians.

If you want an example of what the American Melting Pot  will look like in fifty to  hundred years from now, look at India from a socio-cultural point of view. Starting from Alexander's time, followed by the Mongols, the Turks, the Persians and others , we have had invaders who have come and in most cases settled down and assimilated while retaining their own religion. Apart from the majority population of Hindu's, we have large communities of Muslim ( the second largest Muslim population after Indonesia) , Buddhist, Sikhs, Christians,Parsi's, and Jews ( most of them  have now migrated to Israel).What makes India unique is the the Indian identity - you  have fair, blue or green eyed Indians, you have brown Indians,you have Indians who are blacks,Indians who have Oriental features - but who  are all Indians. There are twenty official languages recognized by the Indian  Constitution.Although Hindi is the official language in most schools, students also study another regional or state language and or English apart from Hindi. 

During his visit this week President Obama in his  many speeches talked about the diversity  of India. At various times  and during his address to the Parliament, he interacted with the Hindu President, the Sikh Prime Minister, the Muslim Vice President and the Christian power behind the throne. Perhaps a meeting with the  Dalai Lama ( who after fifty years here could be classified as a honorary Indian) would have rounded off the major religions of the world.

Yes, occasionally we have incidents against certain minorities - Muslims, Christians and even Sikhs, but in the overall scheme of things these numbers are relatively small. For the most part, they live in harmony, and increasingly speak in a common language. They enjoy Bollywood ( and Hollywood) movies and shows. They root for the Indian cricket team and so on.

So the message to my American colleague is to look at India's social cultural mix. This is where America is going to be a  hundred years from now or even earlier.  Relax its not so bad.