The history of Indian Americans in the United States has been marked by recurring episodes of public hatred and racial violence. In 1907, white mobs in Bellingham, Washington, drove hundreds of Sikh lumber workers from the city. Decades later, the “Dotbusters” gang terrorized South Asians in New Jersey, culminating in the 1987 murder of Navroze Mody. After 9/11, Sikh Americans and other South Asians faced a surge in hate crimes, including the 2001 murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi. In 2017, Srinivas Kuchibhotla was fatally shot in Kansas after an assailant reportedly told him to “get out of my country.” Across generations, these attacks have punctuated the Indian-American experience.
