The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of India Currents.
The Indian American paradox
As India and the United States gear up for pivotal elections this year, the role of Indian Americans in shaping the political landscape of both nations has never been more pronounced.
Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Modi have transcended national boundaries in their election campaign by visiting the U.S. to court the diaspora. American landmarks from the Golden Gate Bridge to Times Square often serve as rallying points for impassioned discussions on Indian issues, such as witnessed during the recent inauguration of the Ayodhya temple.
In the mosaic of American politics, Indian Americans are leaving an undeniable imprint. From a solitary representative in 2013, the community has experienced a seismic shift, culminating in the historic election of Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020 and the tantalizing prospect of an Indian American Vice President in 2024 too.
Yet, beneath this narrative of progress lies a disconcerting paradox: the political ideologies embraced by Indian Americans in the United States often sharply diverge from their opinions on similar issues in the Indian political scenario, revealing a troubling hypocrisy that merits examination.
Leaning left in America
Like most other minority ethnicities, Indian Americans in the U.S. consistently lean left. The 2020 elections showcased this trend vividly, with a staggering 72% of Indian American voters supporting the Biden-Harris ticket. Analysis such as those by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the BBC suggests that this preference is largely driven by concerns over xenophobia, majoritarianism, and the perceived entrenchment of Christian and White fundamentalism within the Republican Party.
The exuberant reception that Prime Minister Narendra Modi received from the diaspora during his 2023 visit to the U.S. underscores his popularity among Indian Americans. Prime Minister Modi undoubtedly deserves credit for his growth-oriented vision for India. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge that his popularity among the diaspora is ironically also fuelled by the same ethno-nationalist politics that the diaspora shies away from in the US political landscape.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (B.J.P) and its allies have openly espoused a vision of India as a Hindu nation, a stance that goes even beyond Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a law enacted by the B.J.P. granting citizenship exclusively to non-Muslim refugees has raised fears of targeted deportation of Muslims. The law is reminiscent of the discriminatory national origin cap for green cards in the US that the Indian diaspora rightfully criticizes. Nevertheless, from San Francisco to New Jersey, thousands of diasporans have rallied in support of the CAA, oblivious to the irony of they, immigrants, and visible minorities by race and religion, exercising free speech and secularism in the US in alignment with India’s rightwing that looks upon these very freedoms with disdain.
Disparity in responses
Under the Modi government, there has been a troubling surge in attacks on Muslims by extremist right-wing groups, such as forcing Muslims to chant Hindu slogans as a sign of loyalty. As foreign policy analyst Max Boot points out in his Washington Post column “Narendra Modi is India’s Trump,” both are immigration and national security hardliners, thrive on populist policies, and frame any criticism of their policies as unpatriotic. Their majoritarian beliefs have galvanized the far right of their respective countries resulting in a wave of bigotry, and hate crimes.
The disparity in responses to racism and xenophobia becomes apparent when comparing reactions to attacks on Indian immigrants abroad and those in India itself.
During Trump’s presidency, a similar surge in hate crimes against Indian Americans stirred panic among the diaspora, prompting protests against racism in both India and the US.
Yet similar incidents in India, such as the recent attacks by a right-wing mob on foreign students offering prayers at a student hostel in the West Indian state of Gujarat go unchallenged.
Cancel culture
On social media platforms such as Twitter, and Blind, an app used by tech professionals many of whom are Indian immigrants, any criticism of hate crimes in India is quickly met with accusations of being unpatriotic or engaging in whataboutism, effectively stifling meaningful dialogue.
This inconsistency speaks to a deeper issue of our insecurities, and our inability to introspect our cultural shortcomings.
Consider the issue of interracial and interreligious marriages, for instance. If the discriminatory laws of the 1960s, which forbade interracial marriages between whites and Indians, were to resurface, we would all rightfully condemn them as deeply racist. While it has been over 5 decades since interracial marriages have been normalized in the US, such unions remain socially stigmatized in India. The BJP and its affiliates staunchly oppose marriages that don’t follow social norms, particularly those crossing religious lines, regressing India’s socio-cultural norms to a time predating the civil rights era of the 1960s in the United States.
As Indian Americans, we must confront this hypocrisy and reflect on the values we truly stand for. It is time to transcend political opportunism. Our rising political influence places a moral responsibility on us to reflect on the values that we cherish and to champion those values in both countries.
