India gained independence from British raj on August 15,1947 and adapted a constitution becoming a Republic on 26th January 1950. On this occasion of 68th Republic Day, we can very proudly say that Indians have been contributing significantly in the building and progress of their homeland and adapted land-USA.With a population of about 3.8million (either born in India or reported Indian ancestry or race), they are among the wealthiest communities in the US, with a median annual household income of $88,000 compared with the national median of $49,800. They are among the most highly educated racial or ethnic groups in the U.S. According to the data from the American Community Survey, 40.6% of Indian Americans 25 and older have graduate or professional degrees, and 32.3% have bachelor’s degrees; an additional 10.4% have some college education. constitute ten percent of all medical students in America.

Indian migrants began arriving in the United States in the beginning of 19th century. In 1813, a group of daring Indians established a Ghadar Party with dedicated patriots like Lala Har Dayal, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Kartar Singh Sarabha, Abdul Hafiz Mohamed Barakatullah, and Rashbehari Bose. They started a weekly Urdu newspaper “Ghadar” launching Ghadar Movement seeking India’s independence from Britain. Many members of this Party were later executed by the British Sarkar on their visit to India. The Washington Chapter of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) launched centenary celebration of the Ghadar Movement that was followed up by multiple events at different parts of the USA. I had the great honor and privilege to be the president of GOPIO at that time.

Indian Americans are becoming increasingly visible in US politics, journalism, academia, or business.In the field of science and technology, Indians have become back bone of recent inventions. Two Indians have been awarded Nobel Prize for their contributions to science and medicine. They are: Hargovind Khorana Nobel Prize for Physiology & Medicine in 1968, and S. Chandrashekar Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983.

Indian doctors, numbering more than 35,000, constitute over five percent of all physicians in USA and about 36% of scientists at NASA are Indians.

Indians with significant achievements as academicians, inventors, and high-level administrators include: Vinod Khosla (co-founder of Sun Microsystems), Vinod Dham (creator of the Pentium chip), Sabeer Bhatia (founder and creator of Hotmail), Arun Netravalli (president of AT & T-Bell Labs), Rajiv Gupta (GM of Hewlett Packard), Sanjay Tejwrika (Microsoft Testing Director of Windows 2000, Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar (Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart), Rakesh Khurana (Dean of Harvard College), Jamshed Bharucha, (President Emeritus of Cooper Union previously Dean of Arts & Sciences at Dartmouth College and Provost at Tufts University), Vijay K. Dhir (Dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science), Dinesh D’Souza (President of The King’s College, New York), Anjli Jain (Executive Director of CampusEAI Consortium, Dipak C. Jain (former Dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University), Vistasp Karbhari (President of the University of Texas at Arlington), Pramod P. Khargonekar (Vice Chancellor of Research, University of California, Irvine), Renu KhatorChancellor of the University of Houston System and President of the University of Houston), Pradeep Khosla (Chancellor of the University of California, San Diego), Vijay Kumar (Associate Dean of School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania), Geeta Menon (Dean of the Undergraduate College at New York University Stern School of Business), Nitin Nohria (Dean of Harvard Business School), Sethuraman Panchanathan (Executive Vice President and Chief Research and Innovation Officer at Arizona State University), Michael Rao (President of Virginia Commonwealth University), Beheruz Sethna (President of the University of West Georgia), Dr. Paul Shrivastava ( Distinguished Professor and Director, David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Concordia University), Molly Easo Smith (President of Manhattanville  College), Kumble R. Subbaswamy (Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst), Subra Suresh (President of Carnegie Mellon University), Satish K. Tripathi (President of University at Buffalo).

Other academicians of international fame are: Manjul Bhargava (Professor of mathematics at Princeton University and winner of Fields Medal, 2014), Abhijit Banerjee (Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT), Kaushik Basu (Chief Economist of the World Bank), Jagdish Natwarlal Bhagwati (Professor of Economics at Columbia University), Raghuram Rajan, Professor University of Chicago and former Governor of Reserve Bank of India), (Salman Akhtar, Distinguished Professor at the Jefferson Medical College), Muzaffar Alam and C. M. Nain (Professors in South Asian Languages & Civilizations at the University of Chicago), Akhil Amar (Professor of Law at Yale Law School).

Indra Nooyi (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo), Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft), Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google), Ajay Banga (President and CEO of MasterCard), Rono Dutta (former President of United Airlines; Chairman of Air Sahara), Rajiv Gupta (General Manager of Hewlett Packard), Anshu Jain (former co-CEO of Deutsche Bank), Sanjay Jha (CEO of Global Foundries and former CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices), Vyomesh Joshi (Executive Vice President of Imaging and Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard Company), Thomas Kurian (President of Product Development at Oracle Corporation), Victor Menezes (Chairman of Clearing House Association; former Chairman and CEO of Citibank), Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft), Ranji H. Nagaswami (Chief Investment Officer for AllianceBernstein Fund Investors), Shantanu Narayen (CEO of Adobe Systems), Dinesh Paliwal (Chairman and CEO of Harman International), Arati Prabhakar (Director of DARPA), Rajeev Suri (CEO of Nokia), Padmasree Warrior (CTO of Cisco Systems), Rakesh Gangwal (former CEO and Chairman of US Airways Group), Rajat Gupta (former Managing Director of McKinsey & Company), Vikram Pandit (former CEO of Citigroup), Kanwal Rekhi (former EVP and CTO of Novell), Deven Sharma (former president of Standard & Poor’s), Salman ‘Sal’ Khan (founder of Khan Academy, a free online education platform), Amar Bose (founder and chairman of Bose Corporation), Bharat Desai (co-founder and chairman of Syntel), Sant Singh Chatwal owner of the Bombay Palace chain of restaurants and Hampshire Hotels & Resorts), Vinod Khosla (founder of Khosla Ventures; co-founder of SUN Microsystems), Vinod Dham (designed the Intel Pentium Chip Processor).

Indians are being recognized in the field of arts and entertainment. Some of the recent successes include:Nina Davuluri, Miss America 2014; M. Night Shyamalan (Hollywood director), Mira Nair (director and producer), Kal Penn (actor), Omi Vaidya (actor), Sheetal Sheth (actress),Waris Ahluwalia (fashion designer), Aziz Ansari, Russell Peters, Aman Ali, Russell Peters,Rajiv Satyal, Anish Shah, Azhar Usman ((actors and comedians). Norah Jones (singer and winner of multiple Grammy Awards).

Fareed Zakaria (columnist for Time magazine and host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN), Zubin Mehta (former conductor, New York Philharmonic Orchestra; receiver of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame), Zarin Mehta (executive director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra), Nicki Minaj (pop singer and rapper), Nina Davuluri (crowned Miss America 2014).

Kiran Desai (winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize), Siddhartha Mukherjee (physician and 2011 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction), Anita Desai (novelist; shortlisted for the Booker prize three times), Vikram Seth (poet, novelist, travel writer), Uday Singh Taunque (first Indian American to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom; posthumously awarded Bronze Star and Purple Heart gallantry awards),

Indians have started making their mark in political and administration both at local and national level. Notables include: Kamala Harris (United States Senator from California), Nikki Haley (former Governor of South Carolina and now US Ambassador to the UN), Kumar P. Barve (majority leader Maryland House of Delegates), Mervyn M. Dymally (41st Lieutenant Governor of California, (1975-1979); member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1981-1993), Kashmir Gill (mayor of Yuba City, California, Faz Husain (first native of India to win elected office in Michigan), Bobby Jindal (former Governor of Louisiana; Vice Chairman of the Republican Governors Association), Aruna Miller (member of the Maryland House of Delegates), Ami Bera (U.S. Representative for California’s 7th congressional district), Raja Krishnamoorthi (U.S. Representative for Illinois’s 8th congressional district), Ro Khanna (U.S. Representative for California’s 17th congressional district), Pramila Jayapal (U.S. Representative for Washington’s 7th congressional district), and Dalip Singh Saund (first Asian-American member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California).

Preet Bharara (United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York), Cathy Bissoon (judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania), Nisha Desai Biswal (Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs), Joy Cherian (first Asian head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), Huma Abedin (aide to United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), Arif Alikhan (former Assistant Secretary for Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; former Deputy Mayor for Homeland Security and Public Safety for the City of Los Angeles), Preeta D. Bansal (member and past chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom; former Solicitor General of New York), Aneesh Chopra (Federal Chief Technology Officer of the US), Rashad Hussain (U.S. Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation), Neel Kashkari (former interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability in the United States Department of the Treasury), Neal Katyal (Solicitor General of the United States), Gopal Khanna (Chief Information Officer of Minnesota), Narayana Kocherlakota (President of Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis), Kris Kolluri (New Jersey Commissioner of Transportation), Vivek Kundra (Federal Chief Information Officer of the US), Farah Pandith (Special Representative to Muslim Communities for the United States Department of State), Rachel Paulose (former United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota), Anant Raut (counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee), Rajiv Shah (formerUnder Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics; current Administrator of USAID), Ambassador Islam A. Siddiqui (Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the Office of the United States Trade Representative), Rajen Anand (Executive Director, USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion), Sabita Singh (first judge of Indian descent in Massachusetts history), Subra Suresh (Director of National Science Foundation), Vinai Thummalapally (served as U.S. Ambassador to Belize), Richard Verma (Assistant Secretary for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs, at the Department of State), Vince Girdhari Chhabria (judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California), Manish S. Shah (judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois), Srikanth Srinivasan (judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit), Kalpana Chawla (NASA space shuttle astronaut, who died in space shuttle blast), Sunita Williams (NASA astronaut), Vivek Murthy (Surgeon General of U.S.; former Vice Admiral of U.S. Health Corps), Sanjay Gupta (neurosurgeon; CNN chief medical correspondent; declined offer by President Barack Obama to be nominated U.S. Surgeon General) Our young generation is making us proud. About 73% of National Spelling Bee winners since 1999 have been Indian Americans. Indian Americans Account for Nearly One-Third of Science Talent Search Finalists.

(The author can be reached at 1509 Coat Ridge Road, Herndon, VA 20170; raabta.india@gmail.com)