Jana Jensen
LITR 4333
November 15, 2003

Female Immigration from India – Increased Hope and Independence Upon Immigrating to America

            Female Indian immigrants dealt with much upon immigrating to America.  They had grown accustomed to not being treated as well and as fairly as the men.  They had the responsibilities of every household chore imaginable in addition to completely caring for all of the children in the family.  The female Indian immigrant did not have it easy.  However, upon immigration to America she was eligible for many more opportunities than she was back home.  By the late 1920s women became the majority of new immigrants entering the country (Vernez 11).  She now had more choices in the working world, more rights in the government and more freedom to follow her dreams.  Immigration opened many doors for the Indian female with more social, economic and domestic freedoms while at the same time, allowing her to hold true to her Indian customs and tradition.

The numbers of Indian businesses were rather small in the late 1960s before the flow of Indian immigrants to America. The constant stream of Indian immigrants since then has increased these numbers and even changed the nature of Indian businesses. The number of Indian workingwomen particularly increased.  The size of the Indian population increased and Indians discovered a variety of new businesses. Today they can be found as owners of motels, garment businesses, candy and newspaper stores, electronics and appliance shops, as well as running newsstands and gas stations.  These stores often carry different combinations of Indian dresses, groceries, recorded music, and electronics (Khandelwal).  Through these business ventures as well as other ventures of the female Indian immigrant one can see the experiences and struggles involved in women trying to find their own identities.

In “The Restroom” by Chitra Divakaruni, the speaker is emigrating from India to America for personal freedom and economic betterment.  She and her husband have come to America to make a better life for themselves in owning their own business, a liquor store.  Here they hope to make good money in order to provide a good life for their family.  They even hope that soon they can afford to bring their daughter over and eventually have another child “this time a strong son to carry the family name” (Divakaruni 22).  These opportunities she is faced with are ones that she would never have experienced in her homeland.  At home in India she dug in the fields, ground Bajra and cooked for 12 people with no stove or running water. To bring another child in the world would be another mouth to feed.  However, now she can work in her own store and make her own money alongside her husband and raise a larger family.  America offers her the opportunity to work for herself in an air-conditioned store.  This lifestyle would have been unheard of back home in India.  Even though she is faced with much hardship upon arriving in America, the speaker still sees the hope and promise that this new country offers her.  Through her shock and grief upon hearing that her husband has been shot, she is comforted by the simple American conveniences found in the airport restroom.  Just the shining fixtures and flowing water help to comfort and calm her: “Water flows and flows over my hands, warm and full of light, like a blessing” (Divakaruni 23).  She is faced with the difficult journey to the hospital to see her husband.  But the hope she now has will keep her positive and will allow her to remain strong. After reading the poem, one can’t help but think that everything will turn out well for this woman and her husband.  Though their economic failure led them to immigrate to America, their hard work and difficult times endured in this new country will pay off by providing them with rich and fulfilling lives.  

Another work portraying the female Indian immigrant is “A Wife’s Story” by Bharati Mukherjee.  This too shows promise for the young female immigrant arriving in America.  This girl, like the one in “Restroom,” is also faced with hardship, but despite this, seeks opportunities not available to her back home. One sees Panna’s everyday struggles and relationships with her friends and roommate. And though she is much “Americanized” she still holds to her Indian roots and becomes disturbed by the “Patel” jokes she hears.  However, Panna is a woman of strength.  She is determined to hold onto her independence in America while at the same time holding to her Indian roots.  She now becomes the provider for herself and takes on much of the role of the man from her culture.  "A Wife's Story" is an example of Panna’s encounters between cultures and also of encounters between her and her husband. It demonstrates the idea of role reversal.  It is the wife, not the husband, who has come to America and who is knowledgeable about this new home. The wife, Panna, is the guide for her husband who is visiting her. She is the one who educates her husband on customs and everyday living.  She is aware of her husband's ignorance in dealing with American customs, but her husband sees her as someone who needs protection.  He's confused by her newfound independence.  As Panna says upon meeting him at the airport:

He looks disconcerted. He's used to a different role. He's the knowing, suspicious one in the family. He seems to be sulking... But I can't help the other things, the necessities until he learns the ropes. I handle the money, buy the tickets. I don't know if this makes me unhappy” (Mukherjee 63).

It is here she discovers that she likes being the knowledgeable one.  She enjoys her independence and making the decisions.  Having to make all the plans and take care of everything for her husband does not make her unhappy.  She has realized now that she enjoys and deserves this freedom that America has given her.  She enjoys reveling in her strength.  The author of the story even states, “I find that quite naturally my main protagonists are rather strong women who assert themselves sometimes physically and always very emotionally." (Mukherjee-BBC) Unfortunately for Panna’s husband, it is at this time upon seeing her new independence, that he becomes jealous and wishes to take him back with her.  He says, “You’re too innocent…I've come to take you back” (Mukherjee 68). Her husband is trying to assert the traditional male role of Indian society.  However, she says she cannot go back; stating that the program she is studying takes two years to complete. Yet, the reader knows that the program is an excuse. She has assumed a new identity in America.  It is one that she greatly loves and would not be able to partake of in India.  In the end, the close of the story emphasizes the fact that the ties of the Indian culture no longer bind her. Instead she now depends upon herself:

     In the mirror that hangs on the bathroom door, I watch my naked body turn, the breasts, the thighs glow. The body's beauty amazes. I stand here shameless, in ways he has never seen me. I am free, afloat, watching somebody else.

She is now aware of her new self and knows that it is a person that her husband will never see as a part of his life.  She knows she could not be this same woman back in India.  In America she finds the joy of self-discovery of her body and her sense of freedom. Therefore, Panna stays in America, continues her education and enjoys her life as an “American” woman.

            To conclude, America has given the female Indian immigrant many rights that she would not have had in India.  Upon immigrating to America, she discovers a new hope in herself to achieve goals beyond her dreams.  Traditionally women immigrants have limited access to education and the labor market in their country of origin.  However, America allows them to bring experience and skill to the labor force that may differ from that of the men (Vernez 4). They also find a new value within themselves that gives them hope and strength.

Works Cited

Primary Sources

Divakaruni, Chitra. “Restroom.” Unsettling America. Ed. Maria Gillan and Jennifer Gillan. New York: Penguin Books, 1994. 21-23.

Mukherjee, Bharati. “A Wife’s Story.” Imagining America. Ed. Wesley Brown and Amy Ling. New York: Persea Books, 2002. 57-69.

Secondary Sources

Khandelwal, Madhulika S. Indians in New York City Businesses. April 1991 http://qcpages.qc.edu/Asian_American_Center/aac_menu/research_resources/aacre22.html

Mukherjee, Bharati Being a Woman Writer. BBC World Service. “Women Writers” http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/womenwriters/mukherjee_being.shtml

Vernez, Georges. Immigrant Women in the U.S. Workforce. Oxford, England: Lexington Books, 1999.