For One Group, 'Macaca' Recalls Slurs After 9/11

"Increasingly over the last five to eight years, Indians have been very involved in local politics," Oberoi said. "At this point, people are going to get actively involved. This will really heat things up."

Sanjay Puri, the leader of an Indian American political action committee, organized a meeting between Allen and about two dozen Indian Americans last week after the senator's comments became public. "He was very receptive and listened well," Puri said.

After the meeting, Allen promised to continue supporting Indian Americans on the visas and on a nuclear cooperation agreement with India.

"I've learned from it and moved on," Allen said of the reaction to his statements. He said the apology he issued shortly after the comments were made public "was not just to [Sidarth]. It was to anyone who might have been offended."

Some Indian Americans appeared ready to accept Allen at his word. Even amid the uproar, Northern Virginia business executive Sudhakar Shenoy said that "he's been nothing but great to my community."

And Manjit Singh, of Fairfax, wasn't outraged. He wasn't even really offended. He was shocked that Allen would say something so "stupid -- especially for a politician of his stature," said Singh, 48, an accountant whose office is among shops in a Falls Church strip mall that cater largely to Indian Americans.

On weekends, Loehmann's Plaza on Route 50 is packed with theatergoers seeing Bollywood movies. Other people make frequent stops at the Punjab Dhaba Indian Cafe and Carryout to buy food and rent Hindi films.

But several Indian Americans said Allen's comments added to a sense of discrimination that has increased since the Sept. 11 attacks. There were several high-profile attacks on people of Indian descent by those who linked them to terrorists. And sitting in a plane with a turban suddenly attracted suspicious and worried stares.

"All Indians felt some kind of a kinship," said Chopra, the first Indian American to be named to Virginia's cabinet. "After 9/11, the sensitivity went up."

It is for that reason, he and others said, that some Indian Americans reacted with such dismay to the video of Allen.

Deepa Iyer, 33, executive director of SAALT, a nonprofit organization in Takoma Park that supports people with South Asian ancestry, said the terrorist attacks "led to this perception that South Asians are to be suspected, or to be feared, or somewhat marginalized." She added that Allen's comments to Sidarth are "not an isolated incident. It's part of a broader pattern of incidents. It was, Oh, gosh, here we go again."

Iyer said her group hopes to use Allen's comments, and the fallout from them, to encourage more political activity and awareness among Indian Americans in the Washington area.

"This is something that's coming from both sides of the aisle," she said. "What are the political parties going to do about this?"

Smita Siddhanti, president of an environmental consulting firm in Tysons Corner, said she had planned to vote for Allen before the incident. She doesn't know what was in Allen's heart, but she said she is disturbed that he would be so careless with his words. She said she didn't know whom she would vote for now.

"We all have to think, many times now, about George Allen," she said.