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India
‘Little
India is an ethnic enclave containing a large population
of Indian people within a society where the majority
of people are not Indian’ - Wikipedia
Click
on the following links for listings in Canada,
Singapore, Australia, UK and other parts of the world.
Following is a listing of "Little India"s
around the globe In the US:
Devon
Avenue, Chicago, IL // Jackson
Heights, NY // Oak Tree Road,
Edison, NJ
//
Pioneer Boulevard, Artesia, California
//
El Camino Real, Santa Clara, Bay Area; California
// Chatham Street, Cary, North Carolina
// Newark
Avenue, Jersey City, NJ //
Hillcroft,
Houston, Texas // Hicksville,
Long Island, New York // Millbourne,
PA // Little
India in other Countries around the world // Articles
featuring Little India in the US
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Little
India, Indian Street, India Bazaar, India Town are generic
names for streets or locales with larger concentration of
South Asian shops, bazaars, restaurants botiques and businesses.
Though popularly known as ‘Little India’ or Indian Street,
these locales are generally an eclectic mix of businesses
and entrepreneurs from the Indian subcontinent – Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka - and not India alone. People
of Indian origin, those from Singapore, Malaysia and the African
continent enjoy their ‘Little India’ identity in the western
society. Named communities tend to endure as we see with Korea
Town and China Town (example: SFO’s
Chinatown) that are known for distinctly ethnic
shopping experiences.
Devon
Avenue, Chicago, IL: Devon Avenue, caters to
the interests of the South Asian community of Chicago and
surrounding region (Current census puts the Indo-Pak community
around 400,000 in Chicagoland). Sections of Devon Avenue
have been given secondary names in honor of the people that
inhabit the respective areas. Devon Avenue also goes by the
names of Gandhi Marg, Mohammed Ali Jinnah Way, and Golda Meier
Blvd. Websites of interest:
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DevonAvenue.com
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Here, There, and Everywhere: A Guide to Off the Avenue
Indian: Explore the Indian cuisine outside of Devon Avenue:
While Devon Avenue may be the epicenter of Chicago’s South
Asian community, it’s not the only place to find great
Indian and Pakistani food in the city. While Devon serves
as both a dining destination and a full-fledged outing,
there are times when a good, quick meal is more than enough.
Thankfully, there’s an abundance of curries, spicy vegetables,
red-tinted tandoori chicken and thick doughy naan outside
of that North Side neighborhood. From Hyde Park to Oak
Park, from authentic to upscale, there’s no shortage of
all things Indian in Chicago, both on and off of the Avenue.
You may check out GaramChai.com’s Bazaar and Restaurant
sections.
- Down
India Street: Devon
Street in Chicago doesn't quite give one a feeling of déjà
vu, a transferred memory of the bustling bazaars of Old
Delhi or Ranganathan Street in Madras, but it comes close.
One marked difference is the lack of roadside hawkers and
peddlers with their cacophonic calls, the stray cow or dog
pottering around. Maybe even a snake charmer as is the western
but mythical view of India. Manmeet Singh, from New Delhi,
says "Oye, yaar, you get the desi feeling here. Hindi
music, hordes of people on the streets, the congestion,
the chaat, the tandoori ... are so attractive." From
Rediff.com
Jackson
Heights, NY: Jackson Heights in Queens,
New York City is the principal shopping area for South Asians
in the New York metropolitan region. Teeming with stores of
every kind - saree boutiques, beauty parlors, travel agents,
insurance agents, jewelry stores, restaurants, antique outlets,
immigration law firms, music shops, mithaiwalallahs and more,
this is the place to go. The street between Roosevelt and
37th avenues, which the local merchants’ association have
considered naming ‘Little India,’ is a bustling hub of Indian
merchandise that draws a large number of the city’s 180,000
Indian Americans regularly. A street in Jackson Heights was
also named ‘Kalpana Chawla Way,’ a memorial to the late Indian-American
astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who lost her life along with six
others in the February 2003 crash of space shuttle Columbia.
Websites of interest:
- A
Tour of Jackson Heights: Bollywood in Queens:
Jackson Heights is a great neighborhood for stocking up
on Bollywood films and music.Start out right by seeing the
feature film at the Palace Theater on 37th Road.
Formerly a blue venue, the shabby exterior hides a delightful
local theater devoted to Bollywood films. Truly the big
screen is the best place to see the whirling all-singing,
all-dancing, over-the-top drama of the Hindi movie masalas.
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Cash and Curry: In New York's Jackson Heights
neighborhood, South Asian shopping and noshing is a naan
event. Gillapi, a Bangladeshi dessert, looks like
a sad, flattened waffle. But when I bit into one of the
golden-hued babies at Alo Sweets & Desserts in Jackson
Heights, Queens, I thought I'd been transported to nirvana.
It crunched, and then oozed syrup down my wrist. I licked
the sweetness off my hand, forgetting I sat at a Formica
table with my husband, Callan, my friend Cybele, and Jenine
Lurie, a New York City foodie guiding us on a tasting tour
of this enclave known for its South Asian food, imports
and atmosphere. -
WashingtonPost
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Offbeat New YorkLittle India in Jackson Heights:
A Quick Tour of a South Asian Neighborhood. Exit
the Roosevelt Avenue subway station in Jackson Heights....
The first sign of something different is a "sweets
shop" whose window displays row upon row of neatly
stacked balls and rectangles in pastel pinks, pistachio
greens, caramel browns, and coconut whites. In a few more
steps it becomes clear: chaos solidifies into a bustling
Little India neighborhood where more South
Asian immigrants—Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi—live
than anywhere else in New York City...By John Roleke.
Oak
Tree Road, Edison, NJ: Indian immigrants,
especially along the Eastern seaboard, are familiar
with Edison, NJ, as the location of Oak Tree Road, the
one-stop shopping destination for all things Indian.
Between 1990 and 2000, the Indian population in Edison
nearly tripled from nearly 6,000 to about 17,000. Links
of interest:
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Pioneer Boulevard, Artesia,
California: About half an hour away from Downtown
Los Angeles, right off the Imperial Freeway in Artesia is
an enclave of eateries, markets, and stores known as Little
India. About 20 years ago the Indo-American community came
to Artesia. They found the land very affordable. Now the shops
along the north and south of 183rd and 188th on Pioneer Boulevard
are for the most part owned by merchants from the Indian subcontinent.
Article of Interest:
-
“There
are many reasons for moving to Southern California. Right
up at the top of my list is Little India. What is Little
India? It's the second largest ethnic Indian community
in the United States, just behind New York City. Little
India is located on Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia, roughly
between 183rd St. and 187th St. In those four blocks,
you have the feeling of being in India-- or as close as
possible using a suburban strip mall as a base. ….We spent
all day Saturday tramping Pioneer Boulevard. (Wear good
walking shoes.) We hadn't planned on staying that long,
but we got hooked. Sari stores! Oh, God! I love them!
When I was a teenager, I made many of my own clothes.
I have a deep and abiding love for handcrafts and textiles.
The clothes in these stores! So beautiful! The workmanship,
the ornamentation! The variety! You have to see them.
The saris, punjabis and other traditional clothes are
displayed in racks, as in our familiar Western stores.
They can also be displayed hanging from the ceilings and
high on the walls. Most stores are packed with goods.
You walk into a brilliant rainbow of color and pattern
coming from all sides: Rich fabrics. Glitter and gold.
Beads. Sequins. Intoxicating!” -
Sandy Nathan
El Camino Real, Santa Clara, Bay Area; California:
In every city in the crescent ringing the bay from Newark
south to San Jose and back up through Palo Alto, Indian populations
doubled, tripled or more -- in Sunnyvale they swelled by more
than 500 percent -- during the 1990s, according to the U.S.
Census Bureau. El Camino Real continues to reflect the needs
and interests of the Indo-American community in the region.
“Passing through Silicon Valley, El Camino Real is dominated
by Asian businesses. But in the stretch through Sunnyvale,
home of Lockheed's, and a bit on either side of it is something
more than Asian for anyone from South India; it is truly "Little
Madras". Cupertino may be "Little China" and
Fremont "Little India", with the focus on North
Indian business establishments, but when work-focussed South
Indian families in the Valley decide to unwind during the
weekends, it is to the "Little Madras" stretch of
El Camino Real that they head — to shop and dine. "Nalli's"
is not always a part of the programme, but the food stores
are. The "Nilgiris" franchise might have its shelves
with gaping gaps in them, but its video library is packed
with Indian films, particularly South Indian ones, to suit
every taste. "India Cash Carry" is much more spacious,
has far better stocked shelves and freezers, a wider range
of Indian kitchenware and even a row dedicated to Sri Lankan
kitchen items and processed foods.”
[A `Little Madras' here too .... The Hindu]
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Bold new cuisine of India flavors the South Bay: "The
volcanic growth of the South Bay's Asian Indian population
during the Silicon Valley boom has meant an explosion
of Indian markets and restaurants. New arrivals, many
of them highly educated tech workers and their young families
here on H1B visas, have brought along the rich profusion
of dishes and flavor combinations from India's many regions."
- San Francisco Chronicle
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A Little India Right Here: The Valley’s Indo-American
Parents Foster Culture and Spirituality: By 9 a.m. every
Sunday morning, Indian women draped in saris glide up
San Jose’s Park Avenue, young children in tow, slipping
into a building named ‘Sandeepany.’ Sandeepany is a Sanskrit
word meaning something which (or someone who) can illuminate
others. Parenthood.com
Chatham Street, Cary, North
Carolina: During recent times, Chatham
Square in Cary, a nondescript, open-air shopping center near
the intersection of Maynard Road has been reborn as a thriving
hub of South Asian commerce.Chatham Square is home to other
ethnic stores. A Korean grocery and a Mexican restaurant are
on the North Lake Street end. But on weekends, the crowds
are predominantly South Asian.
-
Cary
masala; East Chatham Street, Cary: "In 1998 and
1999 there was a big software boom and the Y2K problem,
and companies here hired so many people from India,"
explains Reddy, who is now happily dividing his 70-hour
workweeks between his various businesses. "I opened
my store and I convinced other Indian friends to open
other businesses. Many people who come here to the market
tell me they can't find such things even in big cities
like Chicago." - The Independent Weekly, Cary
Newark
Avenue, Jersey City, NJ: According to
the 2000 Census, there are more than 20,000 Asian Indians
in the Hudson county and nearly 13,000 in Jersey City. Newark
Avenue between Kennedy Boulevard and Tonnelle Avenue -- is
the center of gravity for Jersey City's vibrant Indian community.
It's only a couple of blocks from the Journal Square PATH
subway station. A number of grocery, video, electronics, jewelry,
and clothing stores supply the needs of the immigrant community.
- GET
NJ Other links on Little India in Jersey City:
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Hindu
festival in Jersey City expected to draw thousands:
Traditionally a nine-day festival, Navratri is celebrated
in autumn in honor of the Hindu goddess Durga. The local
Indian community usually holds the festival in a temple
or hall, but this year organizers will be allowed to close
off Newark Avenue between Kennedy Boulevard and Tonnelle
Avenue for their event. - HKV.org
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Mumbai To Midtown, Chaat Hits The Spot - In Jersey
City the Little India strip on Newark Avenue is lined
with places for chaats and sweets, while only one restaurant
serves the rich curries; New York Times
Hillcroft, Houston, Texas:
Located between 59 and Westpark in Hillcroft, this
is perhaps the latest of the Little India’s across Northern
America
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South Asian businesses venture into Houston's suburbs: Masala from Patel Bros. A mangalsutra from Karat 22 Jewelers. A new sari from Sari Sapne. And mithai from Raja Sweets. Clustered along a short stretch of Hillcroft between Westpark and the Southwest Freeway, these four businesses were where most of Houston’s South Asians shopped for the spices, bridal ware, clothing or sweets they couldn’t find at their neighborhood Kroger or strip mall. That was 20 years ago. Today, Little India has grown, attracting Aisha’s Salon & Spa, Mythili’s Beauty Salon and Keemat Grocers, to name just a few.
They and other businesses that have spilled over into the neighborhood have expanded, and many are following the local South Asian population to the suburbs, opening new locations beyond Hillcroft in Clear Lake, Sugar Land, Katy and Pearland. Many have even started franchising businesses that got their start in Little India. “The community is prospering and spreading all over the greater Houston area,” said Jagdip Ahluwalia, executive director of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston. “Because of the way American life is, we tend to shop in our neighborhoods, and just as major stores have branches, these South Asian businesses are going every which way.” - Houston Chronicle
- The Gandhi Blocks:Renaming Hillcroft: The same organization that campaigned successfully several years ago to place that statue of Mahatma Gandhi next to the herb garden in Hermann Park is now proposing another Houston honor for the slain spiritual leader. Abc13’s Sonia Azad reports that Houston’s India Cultural Center wants to rename the section of Hillcroft Ave. between Highway 59 and Westpark to Mahatma Gandhi Street.
Or should that be Mahatma Gandhi Avenue?
- Check out our listings of Indian Restaurants in Little India, Indian Bazaars and grocery shops in Hillcroft
Hicksville, Long Island, New
York: Midpoint on the Long Island Expressway,
and with Route 106-107 accessible from all direction,
the Indianization of this all American town, situated in the
Hempstead Plains, is taking place, one samosa at a time.Indians
are opening stores with an eye on the mainstream — mixing
and matching items. Amit Banot is following this strategy
at his specialty store, Bombay Gourmet, which has not only
Indian gourmet treats like Haldirams, Roopak Spices and Kwality
ice-cream, but also olives, chocolates and exotic olive oils
and pasta sauces found in mainstream gourmet stores. Interesting
article on Hicksville:
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Hindville:
The town of Hicksville in Long Island was an Indian stronghold
before the arrival of the pilgrims. Not the desi variety,
to be sure, but native American Indians. And now interestingly
enough, Indians are reclaiming the town back — the desi
ones, this time!- Little India (Magazine)
Millbourne, PA:
The only town in America with a majority Indian
population. In the 2000 Census, almost 40 percent of the population
of 943 in this unpretentious borough was Indian, the highest
in any place in the nation. The next densest Indian concentrations,
in Plainsboro Center, N.J., and South Yuba City, Calif., are
only about a fifth to a quarter of those towns’ populations,
so Millbourne’s place in Indian American lore is likely secure
for a few decades yet - Link
to Article
Articles
- Little
India: Six blocks, many stories
- New
York Times: MAKING IT WORK; The Cop In Little India
- OffBeat
New York: Little India in Jackson Heights: A Quick Tour
of a South Asian Neighborhood
- Little
India in NYC: At the behest of, well, just about everyone,
S and I finally made a trip to Jackson Heights to see what
all the fuss was about. Verdict? Not much. Sure, Patel Brothers
is great. We got lots of spices and made aloo mattar last
night, which we mopped up with some precooked aloo parathas,
since I am categorically unable to get the hang of traditional
breads. And there are lots of stores glistening with ostentatious
jewels of all kinds, and there are curry-a-minute shacks
a grotty as those found in the back lanes of Old Delhi,
but for some reason, some how, it just doesn't ring true.
- Cash
and Curry (Washington Post): In New York's Jackson Heights
neighborhood, South Asian shopping and noshing is a naan
event.
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In Suburban Sahibs, an incisive book on the growth
of Indian immigrants in Central New Jersey, Washington
Post reporter S. Mitra Kalita follows the lives
of three very different Indian families all pursuing
the American dream in Edison.
