From: alok@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (alok.vijayvargia)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian.american,soc.culture.indian,news.groups
Subject: Re: Good reason to say YES to SCIA (was Re: Good reason ...)
Keywords: sci.canadian
Date: 14 Apr 92 16:32:59 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.indian.american
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T

In article <1992Apr8.173355.19075@spatial.com>, ramap@spatial.com (Rama K Pidaparti) writes:
> In article <1992Apr3.184020.7001@cbnewsi.cb.att.com> alok@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (alok.vijayvargia) writes:
> >In article <1992Apr3.165549.18743@nas.nasa.gov>, raghavan@wk21.nas.nasa.gov (Venkatraman Raghavan) writes:
> 
> >As the number of Indian origin Canadians increases, they can form
> >a soc.culture.indian.canadian, if they like with a Canada distribution.
> 
> And with a good number of Indians from Britain/GULF/etc., etc., we'll have a
> host of these groups when IMHO only mailing lists would do the job.

Well mailing lists after a while become very cumbersome to manage and
administer. It requires a person with good computer science
background to do the mailing list software and system administration.

About having hosts of such groups, I don't think itis unreasonabe to have them.
Firstof all number of such groups will not exceed 10 or so in our life time.
Secondly each country ihas its own culture.tradition, values. People
of INdian origin living in a country are subject to that environment.

USA, Canada, UK, GULF, Germany, France, Hongkong, Southeast ASia etc are
quite distinct environments to have separate groups.

> 
> Because once a group is created setting the distribution to the local country
> can not be enforced and would waste a lot of money.  

A group for a particular area need not be carried in the sites outside that 
area. So this problem is hypothetical.

> Because the people
> writing FREEly on these groups are witing on them for FREE when somebody is
> paying for it.

You won't be paying for soc.culture.indian.gulf or soc.culture.indian.UK
etc. if you were living in USA.

> 
> The most Important reason:  Indians are Indians inspite of changing their
> passports.
> 

That is merely wishful thinking. An INdian with American Citizenship 
does not enjoy a variety of rights in India. 

First - a visa is required to visit India
Second - not all areas can be visited in INdia - for example protected and
restricted areas
Third - No right to work there - special permits are required
etc.

Reverse is true too. You know all about that.

> At least it will be that way for the first few(Two/Three) generations.

See above.
> Then Say Americans with Indian origins feel the same way as Americans with
> German/Irish/English/name_it_what_you_want roots.
> 
No. There are significant differences. I have met people of INdian origin
from a variety of countries. They tend to think and value different things.

> Also like Praveen Ratnam said, MOST of the Grad students are going to stay
> here permanently with the possibility of changing their passports.  Once

Well when they do so, they will be welcome as INdian-Smerican.
However until then, they are not Indian-American.
They are presently temporarily residing here.

> you are American how does it matter.  Down the road all these topics like
> which Language to speak become irrelevant.

I hope so. But that is not what is happening unfortunately.
I have witnessed too many sub-ethnic groups being formed in the Indian 
expatriate community in USA and elsewhere.
> 
> Dividing Indians here as IIs and IAs is ridiculous.  An ugly attempt.

They have not been together to begin with, with the exception of IAs who were 
IIs earlier (like me).

> 
> As of now it is premature to create SCIA.  I am not opposed to its creation
> per se.  Just it is not time yet.  It will be a long long time before one would
> be needed.

It is not too early to begin such efforts.
> 
> I feel s.c.african.american is relevant because I guess it is not a positive
> thing to have a group called s.c.blacks or s.c.N* as they carry negative
> feelings.  It is more a problem of choice of 'polotically correct' term.

I don't think that is the reason alone. Having a community group is
useful in pursuing rights of the community.

Why do you think we have s.c.asian.american ?

> 
> >Alok
> 
> Ramakrishna.
> 

Alok