Social drama as a site for the communal construction and management of Asian Indian "stranger" identity

This study uses ethnographic methods to examine how a social drama that occ urred in a community of Asian Indian strangers in the United States constit uted a scene of identity management. Normative and code rules of this speec h community are examined to assess how Asian Indians maintain dimensions of their Indian identity while simultaneously adapting to the exigencies of t he host culture. The social drama provides an instantiation. of how the cul ture of the Indian stranger is socially negotiated within the speech commun ity, The identity management performed in the social drama is examined in r eference to how the community is enabling and constraining the process of a daptation to the host culture.