Social Change, My Community and Me by Indira Tenginakai

My Community: The Liminality of Being Indian American

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-29 22:35:56 UTC

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-29 22:36:09 UTC

This is a picture I took on my last trip- I used to feel that all the colors and designs of the jewelry were too bold, too big, and too much of a statement. Now, I can see them for their beauty and recognize that they are not gauche but confident and truly beautiful.

Historical

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-29 22:36:18 UTC

Environmental

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-29 22:36:26 UTC

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-29 22:51:22 UTC

Feeling Liminal:

I used to feel disconnected from my Indian side. I avoided traditional clothes, felt awkward about cultural celebrations, and wanted to just "fit in." But over time, I’ve started embracing my roots: practicing my language (Kannada), listening to Indian music, and wearing Indian clothes proudly. However, this change didn’t happen in isolation. Many kids like me are going through this, in the 2nd gen community.

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-29 22:59:53 UTC

This figure shows that immigration from India to the US has increased! This means that there are more and more people who feel the same way I did.

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-30 00:06:30 UTC

In this short video, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Mindy Kaling describe how it feels to dislike/not feel comfortable with your culture as an immigrant child. Although the Netflix show certainly has it's not school-appropriate elements, it does a lovely job (in my opinion) at showing the transition from disliking Indian culture to embracing it. Just like Devi, I'd feel 'too' Indian or 'too' American, and I would hate to wear my cultural clothing or be at Indian functions or religious events, feeling that they were 'too Indian' (as if that was a bad thing). And, just like Devi, I began to accept my identity, and love my Indian side. Seeing these feelings portrayed in a television show helped me realize that how I was feeling was not just isolated to me- other kids of immigrants felt this way too.

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-30 00:16:40 UTC

This photo is from last year! In India again- and this time I tried to wear more traditional clothing (yes, I paired the top with jeans, but its a style!). It sounds silly, but I felt a bit uncomfortable at first. I'm very much an American person, and it still felt a little bit like I was intruding on my own culture...if that makes sense? As the trip went on, though, I felt much more comfortable in my own skin, in my kurtas and lehenghas, wearing jhumkas and bangles! And now, I feel like I have reached the best point of my life so far liminality-wise: I'm still growing, of course, but being both Indian and American has never felt so natural to me. I'm going to India soon, and I'm going this time not as a (total) foriegner, but as someone who can belong.

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-30 00:16:59 UTC

This photo is from many years ago- a picture of the daughters of three 2nd generation Indians in Portland!

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-30 00:17:12 UTC

This picture is from 3ish years ago. I was in India, alongside my cousins and sister, wearing Western clothing! I distinctly remember that in that trip, despite being in India, I did not wear Indian clothing or jewelry once. It felt too uncomfortable- I felt 'too American' and too much like a poser, a foreigner- that I could not bring myself to wear Indian clothing.

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-30 00:22:02 UTC

I remember I used to feel like the 'odd one out' with my mom's upma or my dad's dhal and rice. Living in the U.S., especially in liberal places like Portland, gave me space to explore my identity. But that same environment also made me question my differences. Why didn’t I bring “normal” lunches? Why didn’t I speak Kannada (my home language)? Why did my name and skin stand out?

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-30 00:25:35 UTC

"We all know the Indians were colonized by the Europeans, but every colonized Indian has been colonized by the Indian reaction to colonization."
- Sherman Alexie

I feel this quote connects to Chapter 1 of Changing Society, where the book discusses the colonization of Algeria, and how the belief of the colonizers was that colonization would improve the lives of those they were colonizing. This is similar with British colonization over India, which left India with new pressures in how people were expected to behave.

Alexie's quote explains why being Indian can feel so complicated. Those pressures were passed down and still shape how identity works today. My generation is trying to understand (and sometimes undo) those layers.

Cultural

indiratenginakai — 2025-06-30 06:21:15 UTC

indiratenginakai — 2025-07-16 01:48:33 UTC

Globalization creates diverse, complex cultural landscape for the 2nd generation community as we navigate between our families' heritage and the mainstream society we live in.