When Bal Natarajan became the first Indian-American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1985, the headline in an Associated Press story read, “Son of Immigrants Wins National Spelling Bee,” with the first paragraph noting that the winner “spoke Indian, his parents’ native language, at home.”
Such details would hardly make news today, after a quarter century of Indian-American spelling champions, most of whom are the descendants of parents who came to the U.S. on student or work visas.
This year’s competition is due to begin on Tuesday at a convention center outside Washington and, as usual, there are many Indian-American nominees, including Shraddha Ratchamreddy, Aryan Khedkar, Bruhat Soma and Ishika Valipiri.
According to census data, about 70% of Indian-born US residents have immigrated since 2000, which coincides with a surge in Indian-American spelling bee winners. Prior to 1999, there were two Indian-American Scripps winners. Of the 34 since, 28 have been Indian-American, marking three consecutive years with an Indian-American co-winner, and one year (2019) when eight winners were announced, seven of whom were Indian-American.
The experiences of first-generation Indian Americans and their children, who are spelling bee champions, speak to the economic success and cultural influence of America’s second-largest immigrant group.
As of 2022, there are 3.1 million people of Indian origin living in the United States, and the median Indian American household income is $147,000, more than double the median household income for the U.S. as a whole, according to census data. Indian Americans are also more than twice as likely to earn a college degree.
According to the Institute of International Education, Indians received 74% of H-1B visas approved for professional positions in fiscal year 2021, and a record number of about 269,000 Indian students enrolled in U.S. universities in the 2022-23 academic year.
These figures paint a picture of a high-achieving demographic well-positioned to succeed in the academic rat race.
Ganesh Dasari, whose daughter and son have each appeared in the Scripps Prize multiple times, earned a doctorate in civil engineering from Cambridge University and was hired by ExxonMobil on an H-1B visa to come to the U.S. He quickly obtained a green card.
“My wife and I come from similar backgrounds and we both benefited from an education, so we put a lot of effort into our children’s education,” Dasari said. “We basically taught them everything academically and some sports, but obviously there was a bias in our thinking that education took precedence over sports.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the “spelling bee champions” as one of his country’s contributions to the United States during a 2016 speech to Congress, with that year’s co-champions, Nihar Janga and Jairam Haswal, looking on from the sidelines.
Among the Indian American spelling population, certain subgroups are over-represented: those from the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where Telugu is the primary language. Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana, is the information technology hub of India, and the region produces many H-1B visa recipients.
“When I go to the spelling bee, everyone speaks the language,” Dasari said. “It makes me realize how many people are from the same state.”
Last year’s winner Dev Shah’s father Deval Shah grew up in the northwestern state of Gujarat and was proud that Dev was the first person of Gujarati descent to win the spelling bee. 2022 winner Harini Logan’s parents are from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, in southern India. Shah is an engineer and his wife is a doctor, and both Harini’s parents trained as software engineers.
Indian-born parents with spelling-loving children have a network of similar families who can provide guidance and support, as well as access to organizations such as the North-South Foundation, which hosts academic competitions for Indian immigrants.
“The North South Foundation is the main reason why Indian American immigrants are really in the majority,” Shah said.
When Harini first won the NSF spelling bee, one of the judges, Ganesh Dasari, “literally ran after us” and told her “she had great potential to make it to the national stage,” said Harini’s mother, Rampriya Logan.
Thirteen-year-old Ishika from Spring, Texas, competing in her third Scripps tournament this year, woke her parents at 6am the day after losing a spelling bee with her third-grade class and said she wanted to enter more spelling bees. Her mother, an IT manager who immigrated to the US in 2006, reached out to other Houston-area families with children who excelled in spelling, asking for advice.
The relative affluence and stability of Indian American families might lead observers to conclude that their children primarily benefit from privileged upbringings. Devesh Kapur, a professor of South Asian studies at Johns Hopkins University and co-author of “The Other One Percent: Indians in America,” says the truth is more nuanced.
“It’s important to note that the kids who take part in spelling bees tend to come from middle-class immigrant families working in IT and other professions, rather than from affluent Indian-American families working in finance, tech start-ups or consulting,” Kapoor said.
Natarajan, a Chicago-based physician and medical executive who currently serves as NSF’s volunteer chairman and experienced the spelling bee as a parent when his son, Atman Balakrishnan, competed in the beehive, said that while he sometimes feels out of place as a U.S.-born child, he is impressed by the grit of Indian-born parents and their children.
“It’s hard to explain, but it’s a very specific mindset that inspires effort and in many ways leads to results and sustainable success,” Natarajan said.
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Ben Nuckols has been covering the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow him at https://x.com/APBenNuckols .
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