Author: Todd R. Brown

Source: InsideBayArea.com

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_7024793?source=rss

FREMONT — In their South Asian homeland, Hindus are more than 800 million strong, yet Indians overall make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population with about 1.7 million people.

Still, recognition of Hindu Americans and the issues they face is on the rise, according to an advocacy group co-founded by Fremont resident Mihir Meghani.

"Four years ago, a congressman — I won't name him — asked us if we were Shias or Sunnis," said Meghani, an emergency room physician and president of the Hindu American Foundation. "Now we're on the hill, on Capitol Hill. There is a more basic understanding of who we are."