EP 76: The South Asian Diaspora on Indigenous Lands

North America looks the way it does today because European settlers took land that Indigenous peoples were already living on. They did this through unfair treaties, wars, forced removal, and taking land by force. Historians call this settler colonialism — when newcomers move in, push out the original people, and build a permanent society on their land.

And this didn't end in the past. It still happens today, just in quieter ways.

Now, land is taken through laws, court decisions, and big corporations. For example, mining projects, pipelines, dams, and logging often get approved even when Indigenous nations say no. The process looks official, lots of paperwork and legal terms, but the idea is the same: governments still act like they can use Indigenous land without Indigenous permission.

Immigrants have a complicated role in this. We didn't start these systems, we didn't fight the original wars or create reservations, but we still arrive and build our lives on this land. That means we also benefit from a system built on taking land from Indigenous peoples. And each of us has to choose whether we continue that system or help change it.

Today, I'm talking with Nishant Upadhyay, author of Indians on Indian Lands. We discuss how South Asian communities became part of these settler systems, how race and caste shape our relationships with Indigenous peoples, and what it means to live responsibly on lands that were never given up.

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