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Identity and Ideological Positioning: The Hermeneutic Horizons of Asian Indian Alliances in the United States
Unformatted Document Text:  1 Identity and Ideological Positioning: The Hermeneutic Horizons of Asian Indian Alliances in the United States Introduction The study of Intercultural communication has recently been undergoing major shifts as scholars attempt to address such salient issues such as power, politics and space in regard to communicating across and between cultures. It is no longer possible to envision intercultural communication as a uni-directional process stemming from the west outward. The mere demographics of the U.S. itself suggest that culture is not a stationary “thing” to be studied. Intercultural communication must address ideological questions regarding one’s cultural identity. As movement throughout the world continues to be greatly facilitated, the politics of home and location become increasingly fraught with complexities. Within the U.S., there are many diasporic groups seeking a physical and ideological space in/through which to express and engage their identities. This essay focuses on the South Asian dispora, specifically Asian Indian Americans and their quest for identity and home within the U.S. Diaspora, a term originally utilized to name Jewish communities in search of home, seeks to name the ideological place where one’s multiple identities emerge and engage all aspects of one’s identity. For example, one’s identity as Indian and/or American is an ideological positioning that is informed by layers of identity also culturally and idealogically informed. Radhakrishnan (1996) explains, “There is a two-directional nature to diasporic historicity: both past and future oriented within the history of the present. Overdetermined as it is by multiple histories, the postcolonial location feels like an intersection, fraught with multiple adjacencies.” It is precisely these adjacencies, these intersections which illuminate how identity is negotiated and communicated. This essay serves to examine the intersections and adjacencies that inform issues of identity for Asian Indian Americans and how their identity serves as an

Authors: Bhatt, Archana.
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1
Identity and Ideological Positioning: The Hermeneutic Horizons of Asian Indian Alliances
in the United States
Introduction
The study of Intercultural communication has recently been undergoing major shifts as
scholars attempt to address such salient issues such as power, politics and space in regard to
communicating across and between cultures. It is no longer possible to envision intercultural
communication as a uni-directional process stemming from the west outward. The mere
demographics of the U.S. itself suggest that culture is not a stationary “thing” to be studied.
Intercultural communication must address ideological questions regarding one’s cultural identity.
As movement throughout the world continues to be greatly facilitated, the politics of
home and location become increasingly fraught with complexities. Within the U.S., there are
many diasporic groups seeking a physical and ideological space in/through which to express and
engage their identities. This essay focuses on the South Asian dispora, specifically Asian Indian
Americans and their quest for identity and home within the U.S. Diaspora, a term originally
utilized to name Jewish communities in search of home, seeks to name the ideological place
where one’s multiple identities emerge and engage all aspects of one’s identity. For example,
one’s identity as Indian and/or American is an ideological positioning that is informed by layers
of identity also culturally and idealogically informed. Radhakrishnan (1996) explains, “There is
a two-directional nature to diasporic historicity: both past and future oriented within the history
of the present. Overdetermined as it is by multiple histories, the postcolonial location feels like
an intersection, fraught with multiple adjacencies.”
It is precisely these adjacencies, these intersections which illuminate how identity is
negotiated and communicated. This essay serves to examine the intersections and adjacencies
that inform issues of identity for Asian Indian Americans and how their identity serves as an


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