From South Asia to the Southern US: Exploring South Asian Identities, Lived Experiences, and Collective Action in Texas

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dc.contributor.advisorBratter, Jeniferen_US
dc.creatorMehta, Sharan Kauren_US
dc.date.accessioned2023-08-09T16:44:55Zen_US
dc.date.created2023-05en_US
dc.date.issued2023-04-21en_US
dc.date.submittedMay 2023en_US
dc.date.updated2023-08-09T16:44:55Zen_US
dc.descriptionEMBARGO NOTE: This item is embargoed until 2029-05-01en_US
dc.description.abstractThe recent rise in bias-motivated violence against Asians in the US has not only captured significant public attention, but also reignited critical questions about who “counts” as Asian and what, in turn, constitutes anti-Asian racism. This dissertation centers South Asians in the US—a demographic classified as Asian within the current racial rubric, but one that has long held an ambiguous status within the Asian category. This ambiguity is far from new but brightened after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, with growing scholarship illuminating the critical role of religion in how South Asian Muslims, Sikhs, and other religious communities are racialized—and the divergent racialization processes within the Asian category. This divergence has further brightened during the COVID-19 pandemic, inspiring questions about the contemporary boundaries within the Asian category and the challenges these boundaries pose on building pan-Asian and interracial solidarities. Drawing on theories of racial formation and intersectionality, I conducted 65 in-depth interviews with South Asian community members and organizers in Texas between 2020 and 2021 to examine how religiously diverse South Asians (with a focus on Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus) across generations understand their racial identities, perceive the lived impacts of racism on their everyday lives, and respond to these challenges civically, politically, and in their local communities through collective action. Findings reveal some of the complexities of negotiating Asian and South Asian identities given the prevalence with which these terms are socially coded as “East Asian” and “Indian,” respectively—situating these racial and panethnic identities as sites of felt exclusion for some and ongoing contestation for others. The immense heterogeneity of lived experiences in the US and globally also renders diverse conditions under which community members embrace or distance themselves from panethnic terms, spaces, and action efforts. Together, findings amplify the need to bridge our sociological understanding of Asian racialization and the racialization of religion, and to think globally about racial schemas, identities, and politics in order to discern how South Asians negotiate their racial place in the US and understand the socio-political issues around which they mobilize.en_US
dc.embargo.lift2029-05-01en_US
dc.embargo.terms2029-05-01en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.citationMehta, Sharan Kaur. "From South Asia to the Southern US: Exploring South Asian Identities, Lived Experiences, and Collective Action in Texas." (2023) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/115112">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/115112</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/115112en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectSouth Asianen_US
dc.subjectAsianen_US
dc.subjectracializationen_US
dc.subjectraceen_US
dc.subjectracismen_US
dc.subjectreligionen_US
dc.subjectMuslimen_US
dc.subjectSikhen_US
dc.subjectHinduen_US
dc.subjectidentityen_US
dc.subjectcollective actionen_US
dc.titleFrom South Asia to the Southern US: Exploring South Asian Identities, Lived Experiences, and Collective Action in Texasen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentSociologyen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineSocial Sciencesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_US
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