AIA, US Census, and the Count of Asian Indians As a note from the pages of history, it is important for us to bring to the attention of our readers that AIA was involved in the Census process from the 1970s. In the 1970 Census, we were counted as Whites. Moving them from the footnote to the white category, as was the case until then, was a long process. The Federal Interagency Commission Chaired by George Hall accepted AIA's contention that the five-fold exhaustive classification of all Americans for the implementation of the Civil Rights acts must be based on the classification of the continental source of immigrants, not race/religion, color as such. As Asian-Pacific Americans they became a sub category with their own identification as "Asian Indians." There was no other choice except to accept the prefix "Asian" to avoid any further mistake that Columbus made.	Dr. Manoranjan Dutta
It was achieved by the efforts of Dr. Manoranjan Dutta (One of the Founders of AIA), Professor of Economics at Rutgers University, who was then President of AIA and a member of the US Census Advisory Committee. His efforts at the Census has continued to be expanded in scope and complexity by his successors at the AIA and at the Census Advisory Committees in the persons of Dr. Jitendra Shah of St. Louis, MO and Dr. Piyush C. Agrawal of Miami, FL who is the current Chairman of US Census Advisory Committee on Asian Population.
The Association of Indians in America (AIA) condemns in strongest possible terms the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. We salute all those who lost their lives in this tragedy. AIA has established a relief fund: AIA Love America Fund to help the families of victims. Please donate generously and mail your check to: AIA, 1625 Eagle Bend, Weston, FL 33327

[page 3]