In doing my dissertation research, I continually notice that the population of South Asians who migrated to the U.S. during the 1950s-'60s was really shaped by how the American university system worked and who universities prioritized. This was because so many of the South Asians who came to the U.S. in those years came as students at American universities. The logic of this seems a bit obvious when one compares the South Asian experience to experiences of other groups migrating to the U.S. for economic reasons. For instance, when American industries looked to hire a lot of factory workers in the late 1800s, more working class Europeans immigrated to work those jobs. Similarly, when large-scale agriculture developed in the southern U.S. during the early 1900s, it was once again more of the working class who came from Mexico and the Philippines to fill those jobs.[1] It thus makes sense that the demands of universities shaped which kinds of South Asians came to the U.S. when higher education was one of the main pathways for their immigration.
American universities usually prioritized prospective international students considered the smartest or highest achieving. For example, prospective students whose thinking or work impressed a graduate professor or department received greater encouragement and support for their applications. University applicants also needed to supply their previous academic scores or to take new regimes of exams, competing to demonstrate the highest intellectual aptitude for university acceptance or funding. Because the U.S. had become known as one of the foremost university locations in the world, this kind of competition meant that those who came for graduate education in the U.S. were some of the top thinkers and learners in their countries. In this way, just as a supply of working class jobs led to working class immigration during some U.S. eras, the logics of higher education shaped South Asian migration in the 1950s-‘60s around a highly intelligent and high-achieving population.
Two South Asian students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offer examples of how this trend played out in individual situations: Govindjee and Fazlur Rahman Khan.
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Govindjee’s journey from Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, to Urbana, Illinois, offers one example of the traditional pathway into graduate school. His father, a sales representative for Oxford University Press and a former college teacher, gave up their family name in an attempt to help break the caste system’s hold on Indian society but passed on to his sons and daughter a love for learning and an expectation of high education. Govindjee grew up in a home surrounded by books in English, which gave him a quick facility with one of the key languages of the Academy at the time. Then, when Govindjee entered Allahabad University, a childhood fascination with nature flowered into a Master’s degree in Botany. Lecturing on plant physiology and working in the university’s botany lab deepened his interest. In the end, he graduated “first class” from Allahabad University, a term that publicized his exceptional grades while attending there. His upbringing, family class, and educational opportunities helped shape him into the intelligent and academic student favored by the U.S. university system.
One semester, while conducting a review of the latest discoveries regarding chlorophyll, Govindjee came upon an old journal article that confounded him. Its author, Dr. Robert Emerson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), presented a conundrum to the world of botany regarding chlorophyl’s role in photosynthesis.[2] Govindjee proceeded to write Dr. Emerson a letter requesting an update on Emerson’s research. His letter turned out to be timely. Even though the paper had been published ten years earlier, Dr. Emerson replied, “Dear Mr. Govindjee. It is exactly the problem I’m working on right now, and if you are interested in it, I encourage you to apply to the University of Illinois Admission and Fellowship Program.”[3] Govindjee went on to do just that. Not only did he receive university scholarship money to fund his studies, he also applied for and won a grant from the U.S. government’s Fulbright Foundation to pay for his travel expenses. In 1956, he entered the U.S. as a graduate student. His academic curiosity had allowed him the favor of an American biologist, and his academic abilities won him the means to work towards a PhD in the United States.
Govindjee’s experience also highlights a few of the funding sources that expanded in the mid-20th century for foreign students in the United States. The United States as well as students’ home countries began to invest money in providing higher education at U.S. institutions. The grant awarded to Govindjee came out of the Fulbright Act, originally passed in 1946 to fund educational exchange opportunities through monies owned to the U.S. by other countries. Just two years before Govindjee sought an American degree, Fulbright scholarship offerings for South Asians had expanded. In 1954, the passage of Public Law(PL)-480 authorized the shipment of surplus agricultural goods to “friendly” nations and made available rupees gained from such sales to bring Indian and Pakistani students to U.S. universities.[4] Developing nations like India and Pakistan also began to invest resources to form for themselves more college-educated workforces.
These new sources of educational funding demonstrated increased government investment in human capital, but they provided funds for only a small portion of those students coming from South Asia. As IIE published in its annual survey reports, less than 10% of Indian students between 1955-1965 actually came to the U.S. on government money (except in the years 1961 and 1962, where the numbers reached 13% and 11% respectively).[5] Instead, far more students paid travel and education fees with private rather than public money. Not only did private organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation offer scholarships for students, universities themselves provided funding for graduate students, through fellowships and occupational positions as research and teaching assistants.[6] In Govindjee’s case, the UIUC paid for his research at the university and for his living expenses as well. In fact, according to IIE annual surveys, 35-40% of Indian students received private funding for their studies in the United States.[7] Moreover, although survey categories obscured the trend, students often found ways to draw from multiple funding sources during their years of study in the United States. Government funding may have signaled new directions in public interest, but private monies played a much larger role in the actual expansion of the South Asian student population in the U.S. before 1965.
Securing funding could require considerable competition and ability to overcome. In 1953, when Fazlur Rahman Khan, a prospective student from East Pakistan, applied for funding for his studies in the U.S., he chose to take extra precautions to stand out from the crowd. Pakistan’s government had announced a one year scholarship - the Central Government Scholarship - to study in the UK or US, and all interested parties would be judged by their scores on a proficiency exam. After hearing that even an average score on a language exam improved an applicant’s overall score, Khan took French language classes just to earn the added distinction.[8] Not surprisingly, by exam time he had not achieved French proficiency; still, Khan impressed the interview committee with his willingness to go above and beyond. Rather than the year of funding for which he had applied, he won the Pakistan Overseas Scholarship, funding two school years of study in the United States.
At the same time, Khan applied for a U.S. Fulbright Scholarship after seeing it advertised in a newspaper. According to Khan’s diary, 1400 Pakistani students applied for the program that year, all competitors for the scholarship money.[9] Upon arriving at the oral examination, Khan discovered another hurdle: the interviewer spoke with a Southern American accent. Khan had never heard such an accent before, and it proved difficult for the Indian English-speaking Khan to understand. Still, he performed well enough to win the Fulbright scholarship as well. With the two scholarships in hand, Khan could travel to the U.S. and study graduate-level structural engineering for 3 years with full-funding throughout. These opportunities proved an enormous boon to Khan, and his attainment of them came through demonstrating his ability beyond that of his competitors.
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[1] Asians also became involved in such jobs, but they didn’t necessarily come from working class backgrounds. Because Asian groups - other than Filipinos - were excluded from most middle class jobs and land ownership during the early 1900s, they found employment as agricultural workers by default no matter their class background before immigration.
[2] Namely, when chlorophyl was the only pigment absorbing light in a plant cell, Emerson found that not much photosynthesis actually occurred. Govindjee’s letter to Dr. Emerson stated, “I do not understand it, and wonder if you now have an understanding of what you discovered…” Govindjee, Oral History with Govindjee, interview by Joy Block, (October 15, 2016) paragraph 45.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Donald B. Cook
[5] Calculations based on statistics in the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors published from 1956-1965.
[6] Until 1963, IIE annual reports lumped university funding together with private organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, despite the fact that international students attended many state-run institutions. “Public” only meant “federal.”
[7] Calculations based on statistics in the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors published from 1956-1965.
[8] Fazlur Rahman Khan, Interview with Fazlur R. Khan, 1978, Fazlur Khan Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago, 27.
[9] Yasmin Sabina Khan, Engineering Architecture: The Vision of Fazlur R. Khan (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004), 31.
