For Indian Americans, spelling bee spells unity
Every year, about 11 million children in the United States participate in school-level spelling bees. The first Scripps National Bee was held in 1925; because of the pandemic, it was canceled last year for the first time since World War II.
In 2019, Scripps named eight winners for the cup “octochamps,” they coined themselves. Previously, only two kids had ever tied for the win. Seven of the 2019 champions were of Indian descent.
“It’s not spellers against spellers. It’s spellers against the dictionary,” Ashrita Gandhari, a current finalist from Ashburn, Va.,, said about the sense of camaraderie and companionship among the contestants.
That doesn’t mean she’s not in it to win it. Ashrita, 14, is spending about 10 hours a day practicing, and has three coaches. She gets incredible support from her community.
Indian Americans are one of the younger, newer groups of immigrants in the United States. More than 60% of Indian immigrants living in the United States today arrived after 2000. “That’s not the case for most other Asian populations, Chinese, Filipino, Korean,” said Sangay Mishra, an associate professor at Drew University and the author of “Desis Divided: The Political Lives of South Asian Americans.”
Indian immigrants did come to the United States in earlier waves. But the implementation of the H-1B visa program in 1990, which allowed for the entry of specialized foreign workers, brought in Indian immigrants in much larger numbers.
Balu Natarajan won spelling bee in 1985.