Satyagrah Souls is a monthly column highlighting the achievements of Indian Americans locally and beyond, raising political awareness for our readers by presenting such role-models of inspiration for each of us to strive for similar uplifting purposes to reach higher zeniths of fulfillment. We Indian Americans are going through a transitional evolution, as we get entrenched, establishing ourselves in this free world, exerting our zealous work ethics and citizenship values as we do some good – as entrepreneurs, high tech geeks, doctors, lawyers and more. We are imposing our good will upon this fantastic country. But in quiet moments we may concur that our involvement can run a bit deeper to make a better impact over issues near and dear to our hearts.
We have this pinching feeling in our conscience of a task that needed our say. Are we doing enough? Yes we can get involved! Our involvement can simply start with developing a healthy curiosity in our local community, instead of being ‘busy’ bystanders. Once we get involved, we quickly discover, how easy it is for us to impact change and how freeing and energizing the experience is; personally rewarding and transformative at the same time.
There are some of us who are already beginning to or have made their mark in doing just that. With this monthly series, we want to highlight these SatyAgrah souls as inspiration for all of us. Here is a satyaGrah soul, who has embarked upon a path not trodden…
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Pramila is serving her first term in the Washington State Senate. She represents the 37th Legislative District, which stretches south from Capitol Hill to Skyway and downtown Renton. Her home of nearly twenty years, the 37th is one of the most racially and economically diverse districts in the state.
Born in India, Pramila came to the U.S. by herself when she was sixteen to attend Georgetown University. She worked on Wall Street as a financial analyst following graduation and then went on to earn a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University. After working in the medical equipment industry for a year, she decided to leave the private sector and pursue work in the social justice arena.
Pramila has spent the last twenty years working both internationally and domestically as a leading national advocate for women’s, immigrant’s, civil and human rights. She led one of the largest voter registration efforts in Washington State, helping over 23,000 new Americans to register to vote.
She is the founder of OneAmerica, Washington state’s largest immigrant advocacy organization and key player in the passage of the 2014 Dream Act. In May 2013, Pramila was recognized as a White House “Champion of Change.”
In addition to her work as an advocate, she is an author of a book and a contributor to numerous publications, including The Nation, Crosscut and Reuters. She lives in Columbia City with her son and husband, and has another grown stepson who lives in Colorado.
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Pramila we were delighted to see you as the first Indian immigrant elected to the Washington State
Legislature. But this was a journey that you started almost 20 years ago as an activist in South Seattle. What was the defining moment that set the path for you as a community leader?
Since I left the world of Wall Street and the private sector back in 1991, I was searching for how I could make a real difference to creating a better world. I wanted my avocation and my vocation to be the same, not different. I wanted to do work that would make me wake up every morning and know that I would do something that mattered for the lives of those around me. That led me to nonprofit, international social justice work with a public health organization that worked all over the world. But 9-11 was the moment that really politicized me, pulled me forward into a very public kind of advocacy, into community organizing, and into pushing for political change.
What prompted you to establish OneAmerica, Washington state’s largest immigrant and refugee advocacy organization?
I knew when 9-11 happened that nothing would ever be the same for people who looked like me. I remember getting a call from a friend, early in the morning on that day, and pulling a tiny television out of my boxes (I had just moved into a new home the day before) and watching the horrifying events on TV. Soon after that, I started getting calls from friends and acquaintances about the hate crimes that were happening in the South Asian, Arab American and Muslim communities.
The crowning call came from a school teacher friend of mine in South Seattle just five days after 9/11. She was in tears telling me about the third Muslim family that had taken their kids out of school because they were being harassed. I cried too-and couldn’t believe that this was the country that I had literally just become a citizen of the year before. I decided I had to do something-so I started calling around, got a meeting with our Congressman for that Monday after 9/11.
That is really how Hate Free Zone (the original name before we changed the name to OneAmerica in 2008) started-first around education and advocacy for those experiencing hate crimes by individuals against other individuals.
But within just a few weeks, we realized that we had to fight the Federal government at the time for massive abuses of civil liberties, things like “disappearing” Arab and Muslim men, stopping deportations, and many other things that were being done in the name of civil liberties. It’s incredible, too, what happened once we started standing up and speaking out.
People flocked to us-we had volunteers, partners, built coalitions and started fighting-and even winning. We produced education curriculum that we and our partners delivered in school districts around addressing bullying, understanding different religions and cultures, and building new bridges between immigrants and other communities. That fledgling effort-no staff, no money, nothing but passion and determination for a better and different world-led to the creation of what is now the largest immigrant advocacy organization in the state and one of the largest in the country.
Now that 9/11 is behind us, how much of a priority is OneAmerica today?
I am so proud of what we created together and what OneAmerica continues to advocate and stand for. While the issues being addressed may be different today, the sad reality is that OneAmerica is as needed today as it was then. We have also helped to foster the birth and growth of a larger community of ethnic and immigrant organizations who are reaching even deeper into their own individual communities. OneAmerica continues to address the issues of civil liberties abuses of post-9/11 communities, of human rights abuses along the border, of immigration reform and immigrant rights, as well as improving education, jobs and other important issues to immigrant communities and communities of color.
How relevant is OneAmerica for our Indian American community? Do you see the Indian American community as passive when it comes to addressing issues of our rights?
In terms of the Indian American community, OneAmerica is still strongly connected to it. It works in strong partnership with the Sikh Coalition, as well as with other service organization serving the South Asian community. However, some of the issues are different.
Our Indian American communities still deal with hate crimes-but now we also focus on how we help get more South Asians elected, how we increase civic participation of South Asians, how we help young South Asians or South Asian families who are affected by a broken immigration system. There is plenty of relevance for the South Asian community, to be sure!
It is not that South Asians are passive, but it is true that so many more can be active and engaged. That is a goal of mine! We need to understand in our community that to speak up and speak out IS the most patriotic thing we can do. That is what is so great about America.
Our ability to have freedom of speech, to vote, to be engaged right here in our own community, and to be very, very proud of our Indian heritage even as we celebrate our place in this country we call home. I want more South Asian Americans to be involved in fighting for democracy-because if we don’t fight for democracy, then how can we expect to preserve it, grow it or make it better? That’s a challenge to everyone out there reading this!
How important is race? You as an elected leader – how invested are you to address issues that are important to ethnic minorities and our Indian American Community.
Race is critically important. As both an advocate on the outside and now as an advocate on the inside, I have been and will continue to be devoted to addressing the issues that are important to ethnic minorities and our Indian American community. We cannot be shy about asserting our deep knowledge and understanding of our community’s needs. Of course, I advocate for everyone-but there is no question that I take my responsibilities to represent Indian Americans seriously as well. I will never forget where I come from, and I have a deep understanding of our community in a way that others may not. We do not have enough legislators of color, enough immigrants, enough ethnic minorities and so as a representative of those communities, I feel I have a special obligation to bring their needs, accomplishments, challenges and opportunities forward.
The myth of the model minority hurts us-our ethnic communities have varied needs. We need these communities to be deeply invested in government and government needs to invest deeply in our ethnic communities.
It was a great privilege by the way, as the first South Asian elected to the State legislature in Washington, to present a resolution celebrating Republic Day and Indian Americans in the state of Washington. No one had ever done that before, and to be able to acknowledge the depth of culture and contribution that Indian Americans bring to Washington and to educate others in the Senate about our Indian American community was wonderful and brought so much pride to our community as well.
And the flip side, how strongly should our community align with leaders such as yourself and others like Governor Nikki Haley (South Carolina) and Governor Bobby Jindal (Louisiana). Being an Indian American is good enough to deserve support?
I believe that being Indian American alone is simply not enough to deserve support. The first and foremost reason to support a candidate is because that candidate stands for something you as a voter and constituent deeply believe in and respect. You have to educate yourself about a candidate’s platform and make your choices carefully and thoughtfully because it is critically important who we elect.
My values and platform differ sharply from Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal, and if I were one of their constituents, I would not vote for them because our values and beliefs differ dramatically. Now, if there is an Indian American candidate whose values you DO support, I think Indian Americans should go out of their way to support them in any way possible, because those candidates really need our help.
It is hard to run for office, and candidates of color and ethnic minorities often suffer great disadvantages in running. We desperately need all the help possible for our own communities of origin-and we hope that a win for us is a win for them! Often, though not always by any means, we can help represent our communities better than those who don’t know our communities-but we need the support and the help, as long as the first condition of similar values and beliefs are satisfied.
On a personal note, it makes me so proud to see other Indian Americans proud of helping to elect me, of being so involved in my campaign, of contributing to me. It also makes me proud to be a role model for our younger Indian Americans, and to continue to forge a path forward for more of us to be elected to office.
Do you see the Indian community as united working, collaborating to make a difference? In certain areas of the United States, we still see regional politicism emerge, that brings the language and caste oriented communities together but are still impacting the united, cohesive force of the Indian community from collaborating and building upon our success.
I do see this to some extent, but I also see the younger generation of leaders really changing this. Organizations like SAALT and the Sikh Coalition and the many domestic violence organizations across the country have been so important to bringing the Indian American communities together. I also think many people do realize that in a new country, we are more alike with others from our broad communities than we are different-in this new country, building coalitions and collaborating together as a broad South Asian community makes us so much more powerful.
What are you doing to encourage up and coming leaders in the community? How are you seeding leaders to follow your path?
This has been a critical priority for me from the start! During my campaign, I created internships and fellowships for young people, particularly people of color and women, and I actively sought out young South Asian Americans. They were fantastic! Many stayed involved all the way through the campaign, coming and volunteering every week. After I got elected, we have the opportunity to have Senate pages with our office, and we actively recruited young high schoolers from the South Asian community to come and page in the office with us. I speak to numerous groups of young people here and around the country on why it’s so important to run for office and be engaged in democracy.
I help mentor those who are running and share my own experiences of what it has been like. I am currently actively supporting several Indian American candidates running for office here locally and will continue to do so. I am also starting an active effort to fund and operate a permanent campaign that keeps our organizing and engagement going.
Here is the segue question then. We quote you from your election night “given the scale of the change we seek we have to prepare ourselves to what amounts to a permanent campaign. And this is just the beginning.” What defines a permanent campaign and this is the beginning of what?
A permanent campaign is a campaign that doesn’t just follow the cycles of elections-too many voter engagement campaigns start and end with an election. Groups parachute in and out. No work is done to engage those who are not currently voting-most campaign work focuses on those who are already good voters or registering new voters to vote. However, we have such a huge portion of our communities that are registered but have lost faith in the political process, don’t know how to vote or don’t believe it’s important or that their voice counts.
I want to change all this. And I want to do it through getting more young people, women and people of color engaged in making this happen. A permanent campaign is also not just focused on electing someone, but on keeping the momentum and organizing going after they are elected-to help us all achieve our goals. Yes, elected officials have to be accountable to the community that elects them, but they also need the community to turn out, to organize and to help continue to push in collaboration from the outside and inside.
That’s what the permanent campaign I am working on now will entail and I’m excited to create new models for this kind of permanent organizing so that we can expand our democracy and achieve the change we want to see in the world.
Senator Jaypal thank you! Very happy that you joined us today, sharing your perspectives rather candidly, and definitely learning and inspiration for all of us. Your passion, your commitment, your enthusiasm to do some good came out loud and clear.
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Dear Readers
Do you have a story to share? We invite you to introduce us to folks in your community who are making a difference – we would love to profile them. Are there similar stories you are familiar with locally. The ones who helped address a simple issue in the community to make life a bit better. Perhaps someone you know decided to make a run for school board, was appointed to the planning commission. Provide us your insights on Indian Americans locally and nationally who are making things happen. These perspectives will help construct roadmaps for our community to empower ourselves, to hopefully ignite a desire in all of us to represent our local communities as doers, leaders, establish and entrench ourselves in this glorious country of America and help make it a better place
ABOUT RISHI: Rishi is Silicon Valley’s energizer bunny deeply engaged in his local community. He is an elected city councilmember in Saratoga, CA who continues to follow his passion for community service and community building. Rishi’s day job is as a Silicon Valley hi-tech executive but his zeal for community service effervescent. Rishi Kumar is the President of the Bay Area Indian American Democratic Club (www.baiadc.org) whose charter is to further the interests and values of Indian Americans, work towards political empowerment and advance ethical standards in the political system. Rishi would love to get your recommendations for coverage of engaged Indian American leaders who are trailblazers in your community. You can reach him via his website www.RishiKumar.com.
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