Why are so many young Indian students in their early twenties dying in the US? The tally is nine so far in the three months of 2024 alone. Is it an outbreak of racism extended to the brown Indian student? Are they quite thoroughly unwelcome in America? If so, why do their Indian parents send them there in droves and at enormous expense? The expatriate Indian student community is the largest in the US and bigger than that of the Chinese.
Generally, it is the American, Caribbean and African people who are subjected to murderous racist attacks. The Black Lives Matter movement is a testament to the fact that rampant racism involving some institutions and police departments persists in America.
To prevent violent attacks against Indian students and other Indians, the current Biden administration has provided security, both on and off campus, and in the community at large. But do some Indian students put themselves in harm’s way by flouting cautionary advisories on dangerous areas?
Four Indian students have been killed in two weeks according to a news report datelined 2 February 2024. They were 19-year-old Shreyas Reddy Benigher from the Linder School of Business, Ohio, Neil Acharya of Purdue University, Vivek Saini from Panchkula in Haryana. The latest is Sameer Kamath, an Indian-American pursuing his doctorate in mechanical engineering at Purdue University again.
The Ministry of External Affairs in India has said a total of 403 Indian students have died abroad from various causes since 2018. The largest number of deaths occurred in Canada followed by Britain.
In addition, Akul Dhawan was found dead of hypothermia outside the University of Illinois UIUC in Champaign. G Dinesh of Telangana and Nikesh of Andhra Pradesh were found gassed to death in their flat in Connecticut. Kuchipudi and Bharat Natyam dancer Amarnath Ghosh, age 34, was shot to death in St Louis Missouri. Paruchuri Abhijit of Boston University was found dead in his car, making up the ninth death so far in 2024.
There is at least one death of an Indian every day across the US, says an American community leader Mohan Nannapaneni, founder of volunteer-based non-profit organisation TEAM Aid. These are mostly students and H-1B employees who have recently come to America.
Are some Indian students lonely and feeling alienated far from home? Do some of them, unable to fit in socially or cope academically, persist in their studies there due to societal and parental pressures emanating from back in India? Though more often than not, Indian students who go to American universities are exceptionally bright and are there on earned scholarships. But are they mature and experienced enough in the Western cultural mores and milieu to avoid bullying and ridicule? Sometimes, there are underlying mental health issues even amongst gifted students which are activated by the pressures of academics and fitting in.
Some die of physical illness and natural causes. Perhaps the lack of seeking timely medical attention in an alien medical system is to blame. Again, this is a phenomenon that affects foreign students even here in India, because many tend to neglect themselves in the absence of relatives to keep an eye on them.
In January 2024, a young girl graduate student Jaahnvi Kandula was run over by a speeding policeman Officer Kevin Dave in a police car at a street intersection crosswalk in Seattle. To compound matters, the manslaughter caused by the police car being driven at 119 kmph was laughed off by another Seattle Police Officer Daniel Auderer, who said Kandula’s life had ‘limited value’. He dismissed the proposition that officer Dave was at fault and that a criminal investigation was necessary.
Several voices in India are being raised against the necessity of sending Indian students to study abroad. Perhaps the answer lies in sending them to better regulated and safer places such as Singapore where the spectre of racism is largely absent.
It seems that most of the White world, including Australia and New Zealand, has a racist problem that their governments are struggling to quell.
The lure of obtaining lucrative jobs in Europe and America by studying and graduating from their universities is under pressure now because of the economic recession. The fact that many American corporations already have Indians in prominent positions or at the top is probably resented by the natives.
Unlike White immigrants, the Indian, by dint of his or her color, does not blend in. The Indian also tends to not assimilate into the great American or European melting pot. Tensions are bound to result.
The answer may lie, at least in the medium term by setting up US and European university campuses in India and West Asia. Till then, these are very real risks that Indian students and their families must face.
As for the H1 B visa employees, they too must weigh their pros against their cons. Of course, statistically, these tragic demises are not very large compared to the masses of students and employees who go to America.
The Indian diaspora in the West is now in millions after all, and many have found jobs in local, state and federal government as well as the judiciary and medicine.
Those who are already European and American citizens must organise to maintain their security. More so in America, a land where the First Amendment allows everyone to own and use firearms. Nothing works better than a strong response and the perception that Indians are not timid pushovers.