At a time when Americans held odd ideas about India, a poet set the record straight
Krishnalal Shridharani studied in the US in the 1930s, when few Indians harboured the American dream, and wrote an account of what he saw and experienced.
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The United States is an extremely popular destination for Indian students today, no matter how strong the dollar gets. But a century ago, few people from India had the American dream.
Back in the early 1930s, Indian students preferred to go to Britain, Germany and Japan, in that order, staying away from the US because of a combination of distance, high living costs and unfriendly immigration. In 1934, one enterprising 22-year-old decided to buck this trend: Krishnalal Shridharani.
Born in what is now Bhavnagar district, Shridharani, who was a prolific poet, short story writer and playwright, moved to the United States to join a master’s programme in sociology and economics at New York University. He was a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranth Tagore.
“Only the adventurous and a few strays among Indian students ever think of coming to the United States,” Shridharani wrote in his book My India, My America. “They are ones who either do not need or do not want a governmental appointment upon their return to India. Or they belong to that small species of self-reliant Indian students who are eager to learn new industries and new professions and who intend to embark upon private enterprises, instead of becoming cogs in an already well-geared governmental setup....
