New Delhi: Caste and religion continue to shape the Indian American experience, with strong support for laws banning caste-based discrimination even as reports of bias, especially among US-born Indian Americans, remain widespread, a new survey by global affairs think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has found.
The 2024 Indian American Attitudes Survey (IAAS), conducted by the think tank in partnership with YouGov, polled 1,206 Indian Americans, including US-born naturalised citizens and non-citizens, across different demographic categories.
According to the survey, a clear majority of Indian Americans support laws prohibiting caste-based discrimination, with 77 percent backing such measures and just 11 percent opposed to them,
The survey also found that despite opposition to caste-based discrimination, 46 percent identified as general or upper caste while a smaller 32 percent did not identify with any caste.
Indian-Americans are the second-largest immigrant group in the US, but the survey found that discrimination, particularly among US-born Indian Americans, is widespread.
One in two respondents reported experiencing discrimination in the past one year, the most common form of which was biased treatment based on skin colour. Indian Americans perceived discrimination against Muslims to be especially common.
Notably, discrimination was more frequently reported by US-born Indian Americans than by foreign-born.
The survey examined seven core aspects of diaspora life: civic and political engagement, connections to India, identity navigation, religion and caste roles, rising nationalism, discrimination experience and political knowledge.
It is the third in a three-part series on the social, political and foreign policy attitudes of Indian Americans. The first Carnegie report, released in October 2024, revealed key insights into the political preferences of Indian Americans, particularly ahead of the November 2024 presidential election.
The second, released in March 2025, covers foreign policy attitudes of Indian Americans. The latest third report, released in July, deals with the social activities of Indian Americans as well as the social challenges they face.
In a world where high-profile Indian Americans in tech, media and politics dominate media attention, this survey aims to look beyond headlines and examine the everyday experiences of the wider community.
“Indians now make up the second-largest foreign-born immigrant group in the United States, after Mexicans. To understand the full complexity of Indian American life, one must look beyond the headlines and into the everyday experiences of this diverse, rapidly growing community,” Carnegie said. “To that end, this study aims to shed light on ordinary Indian Americans and their lived social realities.”
Religion & politics
According to the survey, politically, Indian Americans show active interest in both US and Indian affairs, with US-born citizens significantly more engaged civically and politically than their foreign-born counterparts.
Across generations, strong connections to India persist, countering ideas of total assimilation. Identity is becoming more fluid, with younger generations expressing stronger Indian identification.
The report also highlights the deep role that religion plays in shaping identity and political perception among Indian Americans.
The religious composition of the community is led by Hindus, who form the majority, followed by Muslims and Christians, with other minorities like Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists and religiously unaffiliated individuals comprising the rest.
This religious diversity not only structures social identities but also influences how Indian Americans interpret political developments in both India and the United States.
When asked about the impact of “growing majoritarianism”, particularly statements seen as marginalising Indian minorities, 70 percent of Indian Americans agreed that such speeches pose a growing threat to minorities in India. However, there is a clear religious divide in how this threat is perceived.
While a majority of Hindus, 66 percent, said that majoritarian rhetoric is problematic, a higher 75 percent of Muslims and 71 percent of Christians agreed, indicating that non-Hindus are more likely to feel vulnerable or concerned about religious intolerance in India.
At the same time, concern about white nationalism in the US was even more pronounced. About 80 percent of Indian Americans across all religious groups viewed it as a serious threat.
The findings suggest that while developments in India remain important for Indian Americans, they are also deeply affected by the social and political dynamics of the US.
The widespread consensus across faiths about white nationalism reflects a shared sense of marginalisation and threat in the US, particularly in the wake of rising hate crimes and anti-Asian sentiment in recent years.
Religion serves as main axis of social networks
While most Indian Americans form ties within their religious communities, only 21 percent report that their close friends are from their own caste. This indicates that caste identity exists in principle, yet it plays a much smaller role in everyday social life in the US, compared to religion.
The caste issue has gained prominence in the US following a series of high-profile developments. Allegations of caste discrimination in Silicon Valley, which employs many Indian-origin workers in the tech sector, brought the issue to the fore.
Moreover, the Black Lives Matter movement drew comparisons between caste in India and race in the US, as some US universities and states moved to ban-caste-based discrimination.
More civic & political engagement
Among foreign-born respondents, US citizens were more engaged politically than non-citizens, underscoring clear engagement gaps tied to legal status.
US-born Indian Americans reported the highest levels of civic and political engagement, participation in local meetings, volunteerism, and political activism, outpacing naturalised citizens, who themselves exceeded non-citizens.
The survey measured engagement through activities such as community service, local issue involvement, public meeting attendance, protests, campaign activity, political donations and online participation.
US-born citizens consistently show the highest civic involvement, with foreign-born citizens moderately engaged and non-citizens trailing across all activities.
US-born Indian Americans are twice as likely to engage in political action compared to non-citizens. Activities requiring financial or institutional involvement (e.g., donations, volunteering) show the largest gaps between groups. Nearly half of non-citizens reported no civic or political participation, highlighting how legal status directly correlates with disengagement levels.
The 2024 IAAS data confirms that citizenship and nativity are central to civic engagement among Indian Americans. US-born citizens lead on every indicator, foreign-born citizens participate moderately, and non-citizens remain largely on the margins of civic life.
These findings are “a reminder that researchers and analysts should not be too glib or superficial in their assessments of complex social groups. Indian Americans, to paraphrase Walt Whitman, contain multitudes”, Carnegie said in the report.
Kasturi Walimbe is an alumna of ThePrint School of Journalism, currently interning with ThePrint.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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