Day 351: Little India, Artesia, California
📌APIA Every Day (351) - Artesia’s Little India, located along a stretch of Pioneer Boulevard, first began emerging in the early 1980s. Through the decades, the community continued to develop as numerous South Asian businesses opened in the district, attracting customers from all over Los Angeles county. Today, the Little India neighborhood remains an important commercial center for South Asian Americans living in Southern California.
The earliest roots of Artesia’s Indian community trace back to 1971, when Balkishan Lahoti began operating an informal grocery store out of a garage in the city. Although Lahoti later relocated his business to Bellflower, other South Asian establishments soon followed his precedent. Entrepreneurs started opening stores on Pioneer Boulevard, serving the growing Indian population in the neighboring city of Cerritos, which surrounds Artesia on three sides. By 1981, a thriving business corridor composed of places like Neema Sari Palace, Bombay Store, and the East Indian Market helped revitalize Pioneer Boulevard which was otherwise facing issues of economic decline.
In response to this growth, Ramesh Mahajan, owner of Standard Sweets & Snacks, formed the Little India Chamber of Commerce in the 1990s and began efforts to officially recognize the neighborhood as “Little India.” By 1997, 120 South Asian businesses were operating on Pioneer Boulevard, making Artesia one of the largest Indian commercial enclaves in the U.S. That same year, the city hosted its first Indian Independence Day parade, further solidifying the district’s role as a cultural anchor.
In 2004, with support from Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez, community members lobbied for the creation of a Little India sign on the 91 Freeway. These efforts were opposed by city council members who disagreed with how the moniker would represent the diversity of the community. Taking matters of visibility into his own hands, Venkatesh Koka paid to feature the name of his family business, Krishna Koka’s Little India Village, on four freeway signs through the Adopt-A-Highway program. Eventually, although the area was officially designated the “International and Cultural Shopping District,” many locals and visitors alike continue to refer to it as Little India.
Today, Little India serves a combined Artesia and Cerritos Indian American population of over 5,000 and remains a center for South Asian cultural festivals. However, the lasting impacts of the 2020 pandemic have caused the existing businesses to struggle with reduced food traffic as they compete with online retailers and new Indian stores across L.A. Faced with the question of how to modernize their offerings while also catering to long-time customers, Little India’s business owners continue to work to preserve the district’s cultural identity.
Written by Avneet Dhaliwal
LEARN MORE:
PBS SoCal: Artesia: From Portuguese Dairy Farms to Little India | History & Society
LA History Archive: The Pioneer Project: Histories of Artesia Timeline
Los Angeles Times: Artesia Thinks the World of Itself
Los Angeles Times: Little India, already struggling before the pandemic, is at a crossroads
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