Indian-American community exerts growing clout back home

That the US should be center stage for this long-running dispute has a lot to do with the rising wealth of Indian-Americans.

In a first study of its kind, Devesh Kapur at Harvard University found that Indian-Americans donated an estimated $150 million in 2004. He says they are the most educated ethnic group in the US and have the highest median income. "I think the real story is how little they give," he says.

The way they give is also noteworthy. Sidel says that as with other more established ethnic groups, Indian-Americans are no longer just sending money back to family, but are increasingly putting it toward social and charitable causes through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and professional associations.

One of the biggest professional groups is the Asian American Hotel Owners Association. Modi had been invited to the US by AAHOA to speak this week at their annual convention in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Nearly all the group's members, who control more than half of America's economy lodging, hail from Gujarat.

In a press release sent after the State Department revoked Modi's visa, AAHOA said it "understood" the government's position and reasserted that Modi was invited to speak about business opportunities and tourism in Gujarat.

Protest organizers, however, said the trip was an effort to raise Modi's profile for an eventual bid for prime minister. Modi was not the only foreign leader to be snubbed by the US last week.

Breaking with a St. Patrick's Day tradition, political leaders did not host Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. Sinn Fein's militant wing, the Irish Republican Army, is embroiled in a murder and bank heist scandal. The killing of Robert McCartney has touched off concern among Irish-Americans, who are a key source of funding for Sinn Fein.

But it is not easy to establish that donated dollars end up funding violence abroad.

"I don't know if money given to RSS schools leads to violence," says Rao. "While one can make that causal stretch for political purposes, no good social scientist would be willing to do that."

Biju Mathew, a professor at Rider University and contributor to the Sabrang report, admits the report found no legal smoking gun. But he describes as a "relic of the past" the notion that to catch someone red-handed "you would mark a currency bill and see where it surfaces again."

After Sept. 11, the US released a new set of regulations for charitable giving, and established a blacklist of groups that finance terror. There is anecdotal evidence, supported by new research on the Pakistani community by Adil Najam at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., that Muslim-Americans are shifting their donation dollars to local rather than international causes.

Corporations are also changing the way they donate. Cisco Systems, Inc. was once a major contributor to IDRF through its employee-matching program. In May 2003 the company suspended its program, a move a spokeswoman said was related to uncertainty over the changing federal guidelines. IDRF no longer receives matching funds from Cisco, or from Oracle.

Despite these losses, IDRF's general funding did not drop after the November 2002 report. The group's president says IDRF raised $757,000 in 2003 compared with $702,000 in 2002.

Meanwhile, Nishrin Hussain takes satisfaction that Modi cannot come to America. "I am delighted," she says.

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