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<p>[INDIAN</a> STUDENTS IN AMERICA](<a href=“Search | South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)”>St. Nihal Singh, "Indian Students in America")
by Saint Nihal Singh
from Modern Review, August 1908</p>
<p>What are the emotions of an Indian student on his first arrival in America? Transition from the Orient to the American Continent at first occasions a violent strain on the Indian newcomer. Later, when mellowed by time, it forms an important epoch in his career. All through life it continues to constitute a never-to-be-forgotten memory, thrilling and exciting at times, interesting always.</p>
<p>The first feeling of the newly arrived Indian Student is that of awe at the vastness of the change in his environs. Life on one side of the Pacific is characterized by tranquility and staid calmness. On the other it is a constant flurry and bustle. On one shore of the Ocean spirituality and beatification are the ideals. On the other material gain and quick results away the people.</p>
<p>When an Indian young man firs sets his feet in the United States of America, his slow gait, limp, listless ways, lifeless, inert talk and tranquil looks attract the attention of the people amongst whom he thrown., To an average American, every one who hails from Hindostan is a “Hindoo” - and no matter how clever he may be, he is taken for a nirvanic and unanimated character.</p>
<p>On his arrival the newcomer from Hindostan, is greeted with an avalanche of “slang,” utterly unintelligible even to a person well-versed in the English language. Few Americans have street manners. They display rank impudence, rudely staring at faces and clothes but slightly different from their own. A person wearing a turban or a Turkish cap cannot appear even in metropolitan American cities without attracting crowds about him.</p>
<p>Another class of Americans extends patronage to the newly arrived “Hindoo.” To this type people the Indian is the representative of a nation living in the dark and dismal regions of “heathendom.” The patronage bestowed upon the “East”-Indian, as he is styled in America in contradistinction to “American”-Indian - is not unoften mingled with “pity.” In many instances it is actuated by a religious feeling which has for its motive the rescuing of the benighted from the realms of darkness and damnation. Not unfrequently it offered in an graceful manner, perhaps with some superior airs. Thus, probably exhibited with the best of intentions and the most Christian spirit, the interest shown by American friends assumes in the eyes of the Indian protege the character of insult. </p>
<p>The din and noise, the turmoil and constant hurry of American cities jar upon the nerves of the freshly-arrived Indian. The harsh tones and nasal twang of the glib and fast-talking Yankee grate upon his ear. The “business lunches,” as the noonday meal eaten liquor shops- termed “saloons” - are called, appear barbaric to him. The quick-lunch counters, by which term is meant the eating houses which make a specialty of servinf meals, generally at all hours of the day and night, and where people sit down to the table without divesting themselves of the hats and engage in hurriedly gulping down hot and cold drinks, vegetables and meats, eggs and fish, appear to him positively vulgar.</p>
<p>In many instances the newcomer meets with little assistance from his countrymen already settled in the United States and familiar with the ways and life of Americans. Some of them even seem to indulge in fun at his expense. Some exhibit jealousy and vent their spleen on him. Others try to take mean advantage of his ignorance.</p>
<p>Even when the newly arrived Indian student finds himself in the hands of faithful friends and helpful comrades and is fortunate enough to enlist the co-operation of some of his countrymen in or near the town in which he lives, for a time at least, he continues to feel like an exotic in the Arctic regions - stranger in a strange land.</p>
<p>His trials increase in proportion as he lacks adjustibility and virility - the will, decision of character and capability to become accustomed to new surroundings and conditions. His difficulties multiply thick and fast if through religious scruples or other reasons he unwilling to partake of meat. In America meats are much cheaper than vegetables and, for reasons of economy as well as habit, from the principal feature of the diet. Even in large cities vegetarian restaurants are scarce, and wherever they exist few of them seem to know how to do anything else but boil the vegetables. There are comparatively few landladies who permit young men to cook their meals on the kitchen range. As the phrase goes, they refuse to have a man “messing around the kitchen.” All these trials heap upon the head of vegetarian.</p>
<p>If he unsophisticated - uninitiated in the mysteries of what seems to him to be an erratic etiquette and eccentric code of manners, morals and ethics, he virtually finds himself an “Alice-in-Wonderland.” Many woeful experiences - indescribable pain, heartache, agony and disappointment, darken the early days of his sojourn on this continent. </p>
<p>Even those who arrive in America with a knowledge of etiquette gleaned from books of manners and good behavior or from America-returned friends, encounter many disappointments and reverses. They find their information either entirely inadequate or out of date. </p>
<p>If the newcomer has a letter of introduction from some missionary friend, not infrequently he is disappointed to find that unfortunately he has presumed on it more than after-events warrant him in doing.In India people are prone to out of their way to help a stranger. They do this in a sweet, unostentatious manner., effacing self, making it easy for the recipient to accept the proffered aid without feeling humiliated or even indebted to them. In America, soon after landing, the Indian learns to his cost it is different. He quickly discovers that he is expected to take care of himself. If any aid is vouchsafed for him, usually it is offered in such a way that he finds he cannot accept it without lowering himself in his own estimation - wothout injuring his self-respect.</p>
<p>The case of a wealthy student may be cited. He reached Chicago, Illinois, with the determination to do the best he could to educate himself. With the greatest difficulty he eventually succeeded in securing the invitation of an association to address them on the present “unrest” in Hindostan. His resources were slender. Naturally he thanked his stars, as he expected to make money out of his lecture. The Secretary as well as the Chairwoman of the organization being reticent in regard to his compensation, on the evening of his lecture the speaker casually dropped a gentle hint to the Treasurer that he expected to be paid for his time and effort. Throughout the evening he hoped for the best. Towards the close of the proceedings, to his dismay he saw the hat being passed around. The collection was handed over to him, not as a recompense for the fine talk he gave his hearers, but as “he was indigent and had appealed for monetary assistance.”</p>
<p>Such instances are by no means rare. Indian students meet many obstacles in America if through religious or other motives they are unwilling to divest themselves of their turbans or long hair and affect the dress and outward mode of life of an ordinary American. Students hailing from hot parts of India are likely to suffer from climatic change. Winters in Middle-Western and Eastern North America are severe. The thermometer is apt to register in mid-winter several degrees below zero.</p>
<p>Were the causes of heartaches limited to the above category of trials, the Indian student in America would not be so badly off; but color prejudice stirs the American conscience and sways the American behavior; and wor betide the Indian student who, in addition to his swarthy face, has curly, intensely black. He is sure to be mistaken for a Negro and treated contemptuously, in many cases insultingly. Many Hindostanis, on account of this prejudice, find it hard to secure entree to the lodging houses, restaurants, cafes and society in general. Some of them have met experiences of such a nature that hundred heart-rending tales could be written about them. </p>
<p>The case of Dr. Nat C. Baynes, who obtained the diploma from the Chicago Dental College, may be cited. He relates that he met considerable difficulty in renting rooms for himself in Chicago. Dr. Baynes is thin and tall, with a brownish-black face, black eyes and wavy, coal-black hair. He applied to more than two dozen landladies who had “furnished rooms to rent” signs displayed in the windows. Wherever he went, without exception, he received the same stereotyped reply that the party in question had forgotten to remove the card - she had no rooms to let. Dr. Baynes states that, though a Christian, he with no better success at the Chicago Young Men’s Christian Association. He had reason to believe that there were vacant rooms in the Association building which were rented for residential purposes. He was perfectly willing to pay the price demanded and abide by their rules; but he was given to understand that he could not be accommodated.</p>
<p>From the above concrete example it is easy to form an opinion of the trials that beset Indians in the United States owing to the racial question. Americans have only nominally freed the Negroes. As a matter fact, the latter are still looked down upon and treated as if they were convicts or animals. This prejudice is more rigorous in the Southern States than in the North; but there is hardly a State in the Union entirely free from its taint. The average American is too lazy or too busy to analyze the features of the Indian student. He off-hand attributes his sallow complexion to his originally coming from Africa, and accordingly metes out to him the same treatment that he would accord to an Afro-American. The Indian students in America have to combat the scourge of these prejudices and thus they do not have a sinecure time.</p>
<p>Most of the Indian students are attracted to the United States in order ot obtain practical training. Some arrive with intention of prosecuting professional education, chiefly medical, surgical, and dental. Commercial training and scientific salesmanship appeal to a few. Engineering and agricultural studies attract a number. One or two have shown inclination to join the American army and train themselves as expert soldiers.</p>
<p>In order to attain their individual ambitions, the students pursue different courses. As preliminary, the large majority obtains admittance to technological institute or the medical, technical or agricultural department of some prominent university. Some pursue their studies in the educational institutions until the diploma is secured. Others merely gather a rudimentary knowledge and then quit their Alma-mater.</p>
<p>In either instance, the student is anxious to test his theoretical knowledge and become more intimate with the practical working of the profession or trade he is learning. With this end in view, he seeks to enter laboratories, workshops, factories and mills.</p>
<p>In the institutions where the latest discoveries of science are employed in producing commercial products, the Indian student endeavors to start at the bottom and, through indomitable courage, and perseverance, mount to the very top.</p>
<p>A young man from the Punjab, who is mastering scientific agriculture, found it to his interest to abandon his studies at the Agricultural University and do practical work on a farm where electricity and steam exclusively were employed in plowing, harrowing, planting, cultivating and harvesting and the land manured with productive fertilizers and watered by means of scientific irrigation.</p>
<p>This is true of every industrial science. The aim, in each case, without exception, is to learn the methods that will yield the best results with the least amount of labor and time and the minimum expense.</p>
<p>The constant aim of the American is to install machinery in place of human agency and thereby reduce the expense of manufacture. He is anxious to substitute steam for manual labor and electricity instead of steam. He after “results.”</p>
<p>This spirit is reflected everywhere. The American is primarily a commercial man. All his institutions are tinctured with commercialism. The schools, college and universities, all are intensely practical - in other words, they initiate their pupils into the mysteries of production with the least investment of capital. The same spirit is predominant in the factory and farm-house. Only, there it is more pronounced. Thus it is that Indian students learn a lesson whose value it is impossible to exaggerate. Europeans who have resided in India make it a point to talk about the unpracticality of the people of Hindostan. Residence in a practical country and training in schools and workshops where commercial cheapness is the ruling sentiment, tend toward eradicating the unpractical vein in the Indian. Their influence is toward making him practical. He acquires more than a hazy conception, a mere theoretical general knowledge of the way a thing ought to be produced. He learns the shortest cut to execution. </p>
<p>The Japanese have conclusively proved that American methods, when modified, can be applied in Oriental countries to advantage. What Japan has achieved in this direction, India will be able to do, provided the Indian student learning to American methods in America creditably acquits himself.</p>
<p>The value of the sojourning on the American continent for the purpose of securing agricultural or industrial training lies in the fact that here the student secures a practical education. It must not, however, be supposed that in his quest, the Indian student in America,m finds himself on a smooth road to fortune. He encounters innumerable difficulties, hard to surmount. Finding a mere course in the university or technical school not sufficient for his purposes, when he repairs to the workshop to supplement the knowledge gained in school by actual work, he discovers the American manufacturers jealous of imparting the Indian his foreign trade secrets. He does not have a very considerable foreign trade with India at the present time. The Yankee, however, is ambitious. he expects eventually to have the commercial supremacy of the world. Since he has heard of the boycott of English goods in India he is all the more eager to keep his trade secrets to himself and endeavors to get a foot-hold in the Indian market. Hence the jealousy. </p>
<p>The average Indian student who arrives in the United States is grossly misinformed regarding the state of affairs in this country. He finds to his dismay that he cannot avail himself of the high and manual training schools which are free throughout the United States as he is advanced far beyond the grades taught in them. Most of the American universities charge fees which only in exceptional circumstances are remitted. He also finds that yo pay his expenses by doing outside work while at school, requires unusual grit and physical stamina.</p>
<p>The lot of the American “pay-the-way” student is by no mean enviable. He has to content himself with a meagre quantity of food which invariably is of the most inferior quality. He is forced to subject himself to a very rigorous discipline and make many sacrifices in order to accomplish the longed-for result. A conservative estimate of the cost of a College course for four years would be Rs. 4,000, or Rs. 1,000 per year, to include tuition, board and room rent during the college terms, and books and incidental expenses. In order toearn this sum he obliged to work hard during the months the college is closed for the summer vacation. His earning go towards paying fees, and buying books and school supplies. The money for board and room rent he earns by laboring in his out-of-college hours.He works in private houses minding furnaces, building and tending fires, sweeping and cleaning rooms, washing windows, doing laundry work, waiting at table and doing general household work of all descriptions. Or, he may choose to obtain a situation at the boarding club where he washes dishes, waits at table or helps in the kitchen. Or, he takes care of horse or cow, chops wood, picks fruit and berries or sells newspapers. Some American students have even paid their way while at college by doing barber work.</p>
<p>A “pay-the-way” student known to the writer who, to-day, is wedging his way journalistic circles, had the following two menus at different periods of his college life and thus managed to curtail expenses and considerably lighten his burden. He earned every cent of the money spent during the three years he was at the University/ The cost given per week:</p>
<p>NUMBER ONE.
Graham bread $.15
Fruits (Bananas, prunes, apples,etc.) .$.30
Nuts (peanut, chestnut, walnut, pecan etc.) $.25
Total $.70</p>
<p>NUMBER TWO.
Milk $.15
Breakfast foods .$.15
Graham bread $.15
Fruits $.45
Eggs $.40
Total $1.30</p>
<p>The indomitable young man mentions that he never ate breakfast. At noon he partook of few slices of bread, a banana or two, a stinted handful of peanuts or some dried fruit; in the evening he ate raw eggs. Sometimes he would use the milk and breakfast food for noonmeal, and nuts, fruits and eggs for his supper. He subsisted on this diet and weighed 160 pounds all the time he was at college.</p>
<p>The case of another student may be mentioned, who successfully paid his way through Yale University. During his college life he lived exclusively on bread and beans. In order to provide variety, he was in the habit of using different inexpensive sauces with the beans, and thus was able to maintain steady diet of one sort of food without becoming nauseated by it. From the above it will be seen that the student who desires to pay his expenses while at college is necessitated to stint himself greatly in order to succeed. Furthermore, despite the employment bureau which almost every leading educational institution in America maintains in order to help such young men to obtain positions, and college Young Men’s Christian Associations, which also assist in this direction, the Indian student is apt to find difficulty in securing work. Especially is this so if the student is not willing to forego his caste prejudices and do any kind of work that presents itself to him. Two or three Sikh students endeavored to pay their way in three or four different cities. As they were willing to divest themselves of their turbans and long hair, they were unable to succeed in securing work and had to abandon the project.</p>
<p>The number of Indian students who depend upon their own unaided efforts to pay their way while going through college is far from large. As a rule those who work in mills, factories and laboratories earn enough to pay their expenses. The rest depend upon stipends from home or are in receipt of scholarships from charitably inclined individuals or Associations. </p>
<p>Indian students in America have friends everywhere in the country. Many men and women in New York, Boston, Columbus, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles are interested in their welfare. They endeavor to bring sunshine into their lives and make their stay in America as pleasant as possible. Mrs. Lucy E. Adams, a Chicago woman, is very much in love with the people of India. Every Indian student in and about Chicago looks upon her as “Mother.” Mrs. Adams truly deserves this appellation, as there are very few mothers whose solicitude for their children outshines that of hers for her “Indian boys.” Mrs. and Mr. E.G.Forssell almost always have one or two Indian students in their home in Chicago. At least a core of Indian young men have had the privilege of stopping with the Forssells until they were able to take care of themselves. Similarly, there other Americans who constantly are helping Indian students to get admittance to American universities, technical institutions, laboratories, factories and workshops.</p>
<p>American friends of Indians in New York have formed themselves into a society to help Indian students in America. May Wright Seawell, one of the most prominent figures in American educational and club circles and a firm friend of India and Indians, is at the helm of its affairs. Myron H. Phelps, a leading lawyer of the Empire City, also is deeply interested in the movement.</p>
<p>Between all these friends, good care is taken of the Indian student sojourning in America - so much so that, in a short time, he ceases to consider himself an exile from home. As soon as he takes root in some American city and forms a nucleus of friends, he forgets the petty annoyances that sometimes creep into his life through the impudence of ill-bred and color-prejudiced Americans. America becomes a home to him, and as long as he remains in the country he passes his days in the comfort and happiness. When the time for departure arrives he bids goodbye to the Western World with tears in his eyes and sharp twinge at his heart.</p>