Punjabi Americans, are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

region of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. There are over 300,000 Punjabi Americans, many of whom were

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

s who first settled in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

's Central Valley to do agricultural work.

Sikhs

Sikhs have been a part of the American populace for more than 130 years. At the turn of the 19th century, the state of Punjab of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

was hit hard by British practices of

mercantilism Mercantilism is an economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. It promotes imperialism, colonialism, tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal. The policy aims to reduce a ...

. Many Sikhs emigrated to the United States and began arriving to work on farms in California. They traveled via

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Angel Island, California Angel Island is an island in San Francisco Bay. The entire island is included within Angel Island State Park, administered by California State Parks. The island, a California Historical Landmark, has been used by humans for a variety of purposes ...

, the western counterpart to

Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mi ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. "Some Sikhs worked in lumber mills of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

or in railroad construction and for some Sikhs, it was on a railway line, which allowed other Sikhs who were working as migrant laborers to come into the town on festival days". Due to discrimination from

Anglo Americans Anglo-Americans are people who are English-speaking inhabitants of Anglo-America. It typically refers to the nations and ethnic groups in the Americas that speak English as a native language, making up the majority of people in the world who spe ...

many early Punjabi immigrants in California married

Mexican Americans Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...

, forming a sizable

Punjabi Mexican American The Punjabi Mexican American community, the majority of which is localized to Yuba City, California, is a distinctive cultural phenomenon holding its roots in a migration pattern that occurred almost a century ago. The first meeting of these cultur ...

community. Punjabi farmers were also able to circumvent laws prohibiting their ownership of property by operating through American bankers.

Role in America

Most Sikhs started life in America as farm labourers, with many eventually becoming landowners and successful farmers. In 1956,

Dalip Singh Saund Dalip Singh Saund (September 20, 1899 – April 22, 1973) was an Indian-American politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from California's 29th congressional district as a member of the Democratic Party. He was the fi ...

became the first Asian American to be elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

. At present Amarjit Singh Buttar is perhaps the only turbaned Sikh who holds elected public office. He was elected in December 2001 to the

Vernon, Connecticut Vernon is the most populous town in Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 30,215 at the 2020 census. Vernon contains the smaller villages of Talcottville and Dobsonville. Vernon contains the former City of Rockville. ...

Board of Education for a four-year term. He has also been recently selected as the chairman of the board.

Bobby Jindal Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (born June 10, 1971) is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of Louisiana from 2008 to 2016. The only living former Louisiana governor, Jindal also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives a ...

, the governor of

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

is also of Punjabi descent, as well as

Nikki Haley Nimrata Nikki Haley (née Randhawa; born January 20, 1972) is an American diplomat and politician who served as the 116th and first female governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, and as the 29th United States ambassador to the United Na ...

, the former

United States Ambassador to the United Nations The United States ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the U.S. delegation, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The position is formally known as the permanent representative of the United States of America to the United Nations ...

and the 116th governor of South Carolina. Many Punjabi Americans have become successful in technology-related fields.

Vinod Dham Vinod Dham is an Indian-American engineer, entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is known as 'Father of the Pentium Chip' for his contribution to the development of Intel's Pentium micro-processor He is a mentor, advisor and sits on the boa ...

helped to develop the

Pentium Pentium is a brand used for a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel. The original Pentium processor from which the brand took its name was first released on March 22, 1993. After that, the Pentium II and Pe ...

processor while

Vinod Khosla Vinod Khosla (born 28 January 1955) is an Indian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He is a co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Khosla made his wealth from early venture capital investments in areas suc ...

and

Sabeer Bhatia Sabeer Bhatia (born 30 December 1968) is an Indian businessman who co-founded the webmail company Hotmail.com. Career Bhatia briefly worked for Apple Computer, as a hardware engineer and Firepower Systems Inc. He, along with his colleague Ja ...

co-founded

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

and

Hotmail Outlook.com is a webmail service that is part of the Microsoft 365 product family. It offers mail, Calendaring software, calendaring, Address book, contacts, and Task management, tasks services. Founded in 1996 by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smit ...

respectively.

Aneesh Chopra Aneesh Paul Chopra (born July 13, 1972) is an American executive who served as the first Chief Technology Officer of the United States. He was appointed in 2009 by President Barack Obama and was at the White House through 2012. Chopra previously ...

served as the first Chief Technology Officer of the United States (CTO), appointed by President Barack Obama.

Notable Punjabi Americans

Activists

Kala Bagai Kala Bagai (later Kala Bagai Chandra; 1893-1983)National Archives at Riverside; Riverside, California; NAI Number: 594890; Record Group Title: 21; Record Group Number: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Petitions, 1949-19 ...

, immigration activist *

Bhagat Singh Thind Bhagat Singh Thind (October 3, 1892 – September 15, 1967) was an Indian American writer and lecturer on spirituality who served in the United States Army during World War I and was involved in a Supreme Court case over the right of India ...

, soldier and spiritualist. Fought for Indian-American citizenship rights in the US *

Sakharam Ganesh Pandit Sakharam Ganesh Pandit (1875–1959), also known as S. G. Pandit, was an Indian Americans, Indian American lawyer and civil rights activist. Pandit immigrated to the United States in 1906 and became a citizen in 1914. In 1923, he represented Bha ...

, lawyer and civil rights activist. Lawyer of Bhagat Singh Thind in

United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind ''United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind'', 261 U.S. 204 (1923), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States decided that Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian Sikh man who identified himself as an Aryan, was ineligible for naturalized citi ...

Khizr and Ghazala Khan Khizr Muazzam Khan (born 1950) and Ghazala Khan (born 1951) are the Pakistani American parents of United States Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in 2004 during the Iraq War. The couple received international attention following a speec ...

, parents of US Army captain Humuyun Khan and anti-

Islamophobia Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism. The scope and precise definition of the term ''Islamophobia'' ...

activists

Military

* Humayun Khan,

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

officer who was killed in the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

Uday Singh Uday Singh (born 9 November 1952) is an Indian politician and was a member of the 14th and 15th Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Purnia constituency of Bihar as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).He is the son of Smt. Madhur ...

, soldier of Indian descent who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom

Musicians

Heems Himanshu Kumar Suri (born July 6, 1985), better known by his stage name Heems, is an American rapping, rapper from Queens in New York City. Best known for being part of the alternative hip hop group Das Racist, Suri is also the founder of Greedh ...

, rap artist and former member of alternative hip-hop group Das Racist *

Raveena Aurora Raveena Aurora (born September 30, 1993), mononymously known as Raveena, is an American singer-songwriter. She gained a following after her first debut EP, ''Shanti'', was released independently in 2017. Her first album, ''Lucid'', was release ...

, singer-songwriter

Politics

, governor of Louisiana *

, governor of South Carolina and former United States Ambassador to the United Nations * Kashmir "Kash" Gill, former mayor of Yuba City, California * Ravinder "Ravi" Bhalla, mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey and first turban-wearing Sikh mayor of a U.S. city *

, first Asian American and first member of a non-Abrahamic faith elected to the House of Representatives *

Ro Khanna Rohit Khanna (; born September 13, 1976) is an American politician, lawyer, and academic serving as the U.S. representative from California's 17th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he defeated eight-term incu ...

, U.S. Representative for California's 17th District

References

{{Asian Americans Indian diaspora in the United States Pakistani diaspora in the United States Asian-American society Indian American American people of Indian descent Pakistani American