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Indian American Community Archives Initiative launched at Rice University
Inaugurated by Consul General of India in Houston D.C. Manjunath and foundation president Krishna Vavilalam, the initiative will create a physical archive at Rice.
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Staff Reporter - Fri, 05, Jun 2026
- 05:02 EDT
- 40
Members of the Rice and Houston communities gather for a group photo at Fondren Library's Woodson Research Center after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Rice and the Foundation for India Studies, formally establishing an Indian American Community Archives initiative within the Houston Asian American Archive. / Chandu Kongara
Rice University established an Indian American Community Archives initiative within the Houston Asian American Archive in June in an attempt to expand its documentation of Houston's diverse communities.
Organized at the Woodson Research Center, the event brought together university leaders and community partners to sign a memorandum of understanding between Rice and the Foundation for India Studies, signaling a shared commitment to building future collections that reflect the experiences of Indian Americans in Houston.
Inaugurated by Consul General of India in Houston D.C. Manjunath and foundation president Krishna Vavilalam, the initiative will create a physical archive at Rice for public use. This will also establish a formal partnership and intention to grow such a collection over time through community collaboration, oral histories and donated materials.
"We're honored today to be getting together and setting intentions formally to really start building in the area of telling the stories of the Indian community in Houston," said Amanda Focke, head of special collections at Rice's Fondren Library.
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Focke emphasized the importance of oral histories and ephemeral items such as community event flyers, in addition to formal archives, in shaping a more complete public record.
"Oral histories and ephemera are so important because they tell stories that might not be anywhere else, and they fill in gaps in the history," she said.
Focke added, "It's important that that history be available publicly, because how else will people write new stories?"
The Houston Asian American Archive, founded by Anne Chao and Tani Barlow, has spent more than a decade documenting the stories and experiences of Asian American communities across the Houston region.
"Houston is the seventh-largest city for Asian Americans in this country, yet there was no dedicated repository preserving these histories," Chao said.
She continued, "That inspired us to begin building one."
She emphasized that the archive's mission extends across the full spectrum of Asian American communities. "Our goal is to be truly pan-Asian, encompassing East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian communities alike," Chao said.
Organizers said the June 1 ceremony represents an important first step toward expanding the archive's South Asian holdings.
As additional materials are collected and preserved, the archive is expected to serve as a valuable resource for researchers, students and community members seeking to explore the history and impact of Indian Americans in Houston and beyond.
Discover more at New India Abroad.
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