EDISON: Here the train station hoardings tell it all. Travel agents promise the best airfares from New York to Mumbai. Shagun Fashions is selling dazzling Indian saris. And DirecTV offers "the six top Indian channels direct to you."

Roughly every third person who lives in Edison, a New York suburb, is of Asian Indian ancestry. Many are new immigrants who have come to work as physicians, engineers and high-tech experts and are drawn to "Little India" by convenience — it is near the commuter train — and familiarity.

Here they can "get their groceries and goods from home," says Aruna Rao, a mental health counsellor who lives in town.

Although a steady stream of Indians have settled in the U.S. since the 1960s, immigrants positively poured into the country between 2000 and 2005 — arriving at a higher rate than any other group.

Not only is the Indian community burgeoning, it is maturing. Increasingly, after decades of quietly establishing themselves, Indians are becoming more vocal in the American conversation — about politics, ethnicity and many other topics.

"I've been studying the community for 20 years and in the last four or five years something different has been happening," said Madhulika Khandelwal, president of the Asian American Centre at Queens College in New York. "Indian-Americans are finally out there speaking for themselves."

Roughly 2.3 million people of Indian ancestry, including immigrants and the American-born, now call the U.S. home, according to 2005 Census data. That's up from 1.7 million in 2000. They have big communities in New Jersey, New York, California and Texas, and their average yearly household income is more than $60,000 — 35 per cent higher than the nation overall. Indian Americans, along with Indian expatriates worldwide, sent about $23 billion back to India in 2005, World Bank data show.

And so when Virginia Senator George Allen was caught on video in August calling an Indian American man the term for a type of monkey — the community quickly responded. Within days after the reports emerged, Sanjay Puri, founder of the U.S. Indian Political Action Committee, and other Indian leaders in the Washington area requested and got a lengthy meeting with Senator Allen, Mr. Puri said. The Senator publicly apologised.

If this had happened 10 years ago? "It would have been a lot harder," Mr. Puri said. "But this is a prosperous and fast-growing community. People are beginning to understand that we are contributing politically, so that made a big difference."

Many Indian immigrants arrived in the U.S. focused almost entirely on individual success — getting a top-notch job, making good money and pushing their children to do the same. But things are changing. After the September 11 attacks, many Indian Sikhs, who wear turbans as part of their faith, were mistaken for Muslims — and terrorists.

Hundreds were harassed or worse: In Mesa, Arizona, a Sikh gas station owner was shot and killed on September 15, 2001, by a man who told the police "all Arabs had to be shot."

Few knew their rights because few had been engaged politically, said Amardeep Singh, executive director of The Sikh Coalition in New York. "We were caught with our pants down," he said. "September 11 created a confrontation. We realised we now need to actively involve ourselves in policy-making. Otherwise policies will be made that exclude us."

The group now has two bills pending in the New York city council — one would allow city employees to wear turbans and the other would make city officials craft plans to prevent hate crimes if another terrorist attack happened. The community recently saw three Sikhs elected to low-level offices around the city. "It's a good first step," Mr. Singh said.

The push extends beyond Sikhs, Mr. Puri said. "The question that every Indian-American is asking lately: Is the American dream — making a lot of money and having fancy cars — enough?" — AP

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