There is nothing we Indians cannot do, even if it means to settle in the USA. We’re incredible Indians with a zest to make a mark everywhere in the world. Today, almost 1.5% i.e 3.22 million people of the total US population comprises of Indian immigrants. But, are you aware of the history of the first Indian that settled in the USA?

Well, the first confirmed presence of an Indian in the USA was in 1790. Wow, the history of Indo-Americans dates long back, much earlier than we thought! The

earliest record states that of a young Indian man from Madras who visited Massachusetts in 1790 in order to promote trade links.

During the 18th century, 1851, six Indians marched in the Salem Fourth July parade in the USA under the banner of “East India Marine Society”, out of which few are believed to have married American women of African origin and included themselves in the community.

Between the 1899 – 1914 periods, the first wave of Indian immigrants involving of Sikh Farmers and labourers from Punjab region of British India arrived in California in search of occupation in lumber mills and on farms in Washington states, California, and Oregon.

In 1913, A.K. Mozumdar became the first Indian-born person who earned the US citizenship. But later because of the US Supreme Court decision that no East Indian origin person could become a naturalized American citizen, his citizenship was revoked.

In 1918, Raghunath N. Banawalkar became the first Indo-American to be recruited by the US Army. He had also won a Purple Heart medal. In 1943, a new wave of light came for Indians when the then President Franklin D. Roosevelt endorsed a bill calling for an end to the “statutory discrimination against the Indians”.

It was only after the Luce-Cellar Act of 1946, Indo-Americans restored the naturalization rights in the United States, and thereafter it was no looking back for us! In 1960 there were only 12,000 Indian immigrants, but today, there are 3.22 million immigrants in the USA supplanting even Mexico and China.

Although all the untold stories of Indian immigrants are remarkable, the tale of those coming in the first earlier years and over the past 50 years is unique on several fronts. We Indians make our culture, family values proud everywhere we go!