Punjab Avenue

Indians in the New York City metropolitan area constitute one of the largest and fastest-growing ethnicities in the New York City metropolitan area of the United States. The New York City region is home to the largest and most prominent Indian American population among metropolitan areas by a significant margin, enumerating 711,174 uniracial individuals by the 2013–2017 U.S. Census American Community Survey estimates. The Asian Indian population also represents the second-largest metropolitan Asian national diaspora both outside of Asia and within the New York City metropolitan area, following the also rapidly growing and hemisphere-leading population of the estimated 893,697 uniracial Chinese in the New York City metropolitan area in 2017.
The U.S. state of New Jersey, most of whose population is situated within the New York City metropolitan region, has by a significant margin the highest proportional Indian population concentration of any U.S. state, with a Census-estimated 4.1% of New Jersey's population being an individual of Indian origin in 2017.

History

The first Indian to become a naturalized U.S. citizen was Bhicaji Balsara, a resident of New York. However, this was after the Luce–Celler Act of 1946 that restored naturalization rights to Indian Americans in the United States. A number of Indian Americans came to the U.S. via Indian communities from other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Jamaica. The quota on Indian immigration was removed in the 1960s, leading to exponential growth in the number of Indian immigrants to the United States. While Indians prior to this time were primarily involved in agricultural endeavors or constructing railroads in the western United States, the largest number hereafter came to New York City and its affluent suburban environs, consisting largely of professionals, including physicians, engineers, financiers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and lawyers, as well as businesspeople. By 1974, there was a notable Indian population in the greater New York area, with particular concentrations in Hoboken, New Jersey and Flushing, Queens, though neither was strongly identified as a Little India at this point and there was already a push to move out to the suburbs, especially to Nassau County on Long Island. with houses of worship for Indian religions starting to be built around the larger Indian suburban communities throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

A small Little India did already exist in Manhattan on Lexington Avenue, between 27th and 30th streets around the former Little Armenia spice shop of Kalustyan's, which had becoming popular among Indian and other South Asian immigrants in the 1960s becoming notable enough to be featured in the '' New York Daily News'' as a prime spot for Indian food and groceries by 1976. However, by the 1980s, it was eroding due to increased competition from other Indian districts in Queens which were closer to where the Indian population lived. Hicksville in Nassau County would become the center of the Indian community on Long Island, with Indian stores concentrating on South Broadway around Route 103 by the 2000s. As the 20th century came to a close, this started to change however, with growing concentrations of Indians in areas such as Middlesex County, New Jersey, where 55,000 Indians lived by 2000 and in Jersey City. During the 1990s, these two areas would see their main centers of Indian commerce - Oak Tree Road in Edison, New Jersey, and Newark Avenue in the Journal Square neighborhood in Jersey City become primarily Indian, compared to the 1970s and 1980s, where there was a more of a mixture of businesses. By 1994, there were already over 100 Indian businesses on Oak Tree Road.

An Indian enclave also emerged in Jackson Heights during the late 20th century, with a strip of Indian stores on 74th Street, though many Indians actually lived in the adjacent, cheaper neighborhood of Elmhurst. Starting in the 1990s, following the path of past generations of New Yorkers, many Indian immigrants starting moving from Queens to Long Island in the 1990s into towns such as Hicksville, Elmont, East Meadow and North New Hyde Park seeking bigger homes, better schools and more space. During the 1990s, Indians were the fastest growing group on Long Island. Hicksville would become the center of the Indian community on Long Island, with Indian stores concentrating on South Broadway around Route 103 by the 2000s. The Indian American population would also surge in the further reaches of Central New Jersey in the 2000s in towns such as West Windsor, Plainsboro and Montgomery. The Indian influence in this area manifested itself with the creation of an annual Indian-American fair in Mercer County Park and the creation of cricket fields and leagues in the area. By the 2010s, there were pushes to teach Hindi and have Diwali off at school districts in Central New Jersey. Around this time, there were also a series of home invasions apparently targeting Indians and South Asians in New Jersey, which started to prompt questions about a lack of Indian and more broadly Asian representation in New Jersey's local police forces.

Demographics

The New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area, consisting of New York City, Long Island, and adjacent areas within New York State, as well as nearby areas within the states of New Jersey (extending to Trenton), Connecticut (extending to Bridgeport), and including Pike County, Pennsylvania, was home to an estimated 711,174 Indian Americans as of the 2013–2017 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, comprising by far the largest Indian American population of any metropolitan area in the United States; New York City itself also contains by far the highest Indian American population of any individual city in North America, estimated at 246,454 as of 2017. At least twenty four Indian American enclaves characterized as a Little India have emerged in the New York City metropolitan area. As of December 2019, Indian airline carrier Air India as well as United States airline carrier United Airlines were offering direct flights from the New York City Metropolitan Area to and from Delhi and Mumbai. Delta Air Lines inaugurated non-stop flight service from JFK International Airport to Mumbai in December 2019.

The Indian American population in the New York City metropolitan region was second in its population as an Asian ethnicity only to the approximately 893,697 uniracial Chinese New Yorkers as of 2017. However, while the presence and growth of the Chinese population is focused on New York City and Long Island in New York State, the gravitas of the Indian population is roughly evenly split between New Jersey and New York State.

Central New Jersey, at the geographic heart of the Northeast Megalopolis, has emerged as the largest hub for Indian immigrants to the U.S., followed closely by Queens and Nassau County on Long Island. Oak Tree Road in Edison and Iselin is known as an Indian dining and shopping destination.

Jersey City in New Jersey has the highest proportion of Asian Indians of any major U.S. city, comprising 10.9% of the overall population of Jersey City in 2010, increasing to 11.4% by 2013. Bergen County, New Jersey