Dallas Becoming a Center for South Asians in America

2022-12-27

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1
  • Near a large Hindu religious building, the Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple, a cricket game is in progress.
  • 2
  • But the game is not taking place in India, where cricket is very popular.
  • 3
  • Instead, the game is taking place in the American state of Texas.
  • 4
  • The cricket game and the Hindu temple are not far from Christian churches, cattle ranches and the Dallas Cowboys football team.
  • 5
  • Over the last 10 years, the Dallas-Fort Worth area has had the highest Asian growth rate of any major U.S. metropolitan area.
  • 6
  • A metropolitan area is the urban area of a city and nearby towns or suburbs.
  • 7
  • The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Indians make up more than half the area's Asian population increase.
  • 8
  • The Dallas suburb of Frisco alone has experienced growth similar to that of large American cities such as Seattle and Chicago.
  • 9
  • While many Texans still love football, a growing number love cricket.
  • 10
  • Kalyan "K.J." Jarajapu, a volunteer at the temple who was watching a cricket game, said, "I never imagined that there would be...a cricket world like I saw back home in India here in (metro) Dallas."
  • 11
  • The American Community Survey is a program of the Census Bureau.
  • 12
  • The program shows that the percentage of Asians among foreign-born persons in the U.S. has risen recently.
  • 13
  • It has gone from 30 percent during the 2012-to-2016 period to 31 percent in the 2017-to-2021 period.
  • 14
  • At the same time, the percentage of immigrants from Latin America and Europe has gone down.
  • 15
  • Immigrants from South Asia believe they have found good conditions in Frisco and other Dallas suburbs.
  • 16
  • Texas-based students of Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji came together in 2008 to purchase a four-hectare piece of land in Frisco.
  • 17
  • They built a small Hindu temple there. Within three years, it was hosting hundreds of worshippers.
  • 18
  • Jayesh Thakker, a temple trustee and joint treasurer for the India Association of North Texas, said they raised enough money to build a 3,065-square-meter temple in 2015.
  • 19
  • Nearly 30 workers came on special visas to make sure every detail honored Indian Hindu design traditions.
  • 20
  • "They built it first as an American structure and then they 'Indianized' it," Thakker said.
  • 21
  • Indianize means to make something Indian - design, artwork, and so on.
  • 22
  • The Islamic Center of Frisco has grown, too.
  • 23
  • Its leadership is planning to more than double the size of the 1,672-square-meter mosque by 2024.
  • 24
  • With more than 3,500 people attending prayers and 460 children attending Sunday school, the board moved to acquire more space in 2019.
  • 25
  • Azfar Saeed, the center's president, remembers that nearly 20 years ago only 15 people came to pray in a small space on any given day.
  • 26
  • "At that time, nobody knew Frisco. People were like, 'Where are you going?'" said Saeed, who was born in Pakistan.
  • 27
  • By 2010, "people just started moving...here," he said.
  • 28
  • The pandemic brought another change.
  • 29
  • Suddenly, people from California or Chicago were able to work remotely and live in different places.
  • 30
  • The city of Houston, Texas, has had a large number of incoming Asians in the last 10 years.
  • 31
  • It has the second-highest growth rate after Dallas among major U.S. cities.
  • 32
  • "The moment people went remote it felt like people were like, 'OK, I have a tiny house in California for $800,000 and I can buy a mansion here in Texas. Let's go,'" Saeed said, laughing.
  • 33
  • The influence of South Asian cultures is almost everywhere.
  • 34
  • The movie theater in Frisco shows films in Telegu, Tamil and Hindi.
  • 35
  • At Tikka Taco in Irving, people can get tacos filled with foods such as tandoori chicken, lamb or paneer tikka.
  • 36
  • Sometimes Indian politics appear in the Dallas suburbs.
  • 37
  • A number of people recently joined protests outside Frisco's City Hall in support of Christians in India who claim a Frisco-based group supports Hindu nationalists threatening their churches.
  • 38
  • However, Hanuman Temple now works with the City of Frisco for Holi.
  • 39
  • Holi is a yearly Hindu celebration also known as the Festival of Colors.
  • 40
  • People put colored powders on each other. The temple also organizes food donations, health fairs and other community services.
  • 41
  • Laxmi Tummala is Hanuman temple's secretary.
  • 42
  • Tummala said her group does not want to be apart from the wider community.
  • 43
  • "We don't want to just be here and be isolated," she said.
  • 44
  • I'm Ashley Thompson.
  • 45
  • And I'm John Russell.