BUILDING BRIDGES THE ROLE OF INDIAN AMERICANS IN INDO-US RELATIONS

When Swadesh Chatterjee arrived in the United States with his wife Manjusri and their baby daughter, he had just $35 in his pocket. A decade and a half later, he was a successful North Carolina businessman at the helm of a company, while Manjusri had a thriving practice as a psychiatrist. They were well on their way to achieving the American dream.Not satisfied with simply being an immigrant success story, Chatterjee decided it was time to give back—both to his adopted land and his motherland. He took on a leading role in the burgeoning movement of Indian Americans seeking a rapprochement between the United States and India after decades of Cold War misunderstandings and resentment. Chatterjee helped shape this movement and its strategy, and in the process he developed a new playbook for immigrant political empowerment.This memoir is a chronicle of the ups and downs of that movement, a blueprint for younger Indian Americans and other immigrant groups raising their voices in the United States, and a deeply personal family story.