Americans with roots in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal: their achievements, their politics, their community life, and the wider diaspora. Here, unlike in foreign policy, the shared identity is real.
Editor's comments
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A Sikh truck driver was stabbed at a rest stop. Others feel targeted too
Editor's comment
The New York Times · A Sikh truck driver was stabbed at a rest stop. Others feel targeted too
Americans rightly recoil at bias incidents like this one. Meanwhile something once fantastical is developing in parallel: autonomous trucks, which will push thousands of truck drivers, Sikh and otherwise, into other kinds of work. One of them, built by Aurora, was demonstrated live on CNBC the same day.
Read the article at The New York Times · Aurora's autonomous truck on CNBC
About the label
“Desi” is how many Americans of South Asian origin describe themselves. Some prefer a national label, such as Indian American or Pakistani American, and the site respects both.
Desis by the numbers
Americans by origin, 2023
Alone or in combination with another race or origin
Adding them gives about 6.5 million. People who report two origins, such as Indian and Pakistani, are counted in both groups, so the number of distinct people is slightly lower. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 American Community Survey, via Pew Research Center.
Members of Congress: six Indian Americans sat in the House when the 119th Congress opened in January 2025: Ami Bera, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Suhas Subramanyam and Shri Thanedar, the largest such group to date.
