Indians form Republican Hindu Coalition

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Why do Indian-Americans vote Democratic in the first place?

Well, considering that the US only has two parties: the Democratic party and the White party - they do not have that much choice, really.

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I would add one more consideration. I have a very good Indian friend who moved into a lily-white Republican near-exurb: air, house, school - the usual reasoning making this attractive for somebody who is quite well-off and has few personal and no religious links to an ethnic community (he is Hindu by birth, but religion is not a matter of much concern for him). The guy is, unquestionably Indian, born and raised in that country, and not ashamed of it at all (he makes good jokes about the ABCDs  ), but he has been in the US forever, is married to a non-Indian, and is very well integrated (even his accent is pretty much impossible to assign to the subcontinent). Well, guess what: since he moved out of a big city, he has gotten comments in public about his kid "growing up to be a terrorist". Of course, he is the only non-white guy around: hence, he is everyone´s "scary Muslim". Wealthy or not, if you are not white, they will never let you forget. Is it so surprising that he is not much of a friend of the "White Party"?

So, for an Indian in the US, you either stay in the big multicultural urban center (and we know how people there vote), or you live in an Indian community (and keep your identity strongly - something the modern Republican party very much frowns upon). Or you get to be called a "Muslim terrorist" on a playground. Unlike the Poles, Indians cannot hide their skin color. Some people are content with becoming a "Bobby" and experiencing selective deafness when on a school parking lot. But others are not.

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but which it has been painted as quite successfully).

It did the painting itself.

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There's no way Hinduism has one of the lowest conversion rates in the United States. No one born in the United States actually practices that religion; they all turnout as atheists/agnostics/apatheists/whatever. With such a wholesale rejection of Hinduism ('rejection' isn't really the right word, since the attitude is too apathetic to be construed as such) I don't know how you can arrive at the conclusion that Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal are somehow unique in terms of defying their cultural heritage of whatever.

Sure I see a lot of Indians born in the states who don't practice Hinduism, me being an example I suppose, but I've yet to meet anyone who's actually converted to Christianity. Because of that Christianity, I think that Haley and Jindal are unique.

I do not think our American Christian friends here realize how poisonous the word "conversion" is for non-Christians. I may be completely atheistic and non-nationalistic, but even I have to make a conscious effort for conversion into Christianity, if it happens, not to affect my relationships with people: it is sitting in deep. I would not object if my daughter(s) decided to convert (would attend a church, or whatever, wedding, if necessary), but I would, definitely, say something at night to my wife which would make her upset with me (she is a lot better on this than I am). I would pretend that I were just joking, but I would know myself that it would be more than a joke.  Bad among the secular Jews - and I am pretty sure even worse among secular Hindus.

Of course, Israel explicitly bans converts from Judaism from settling there and the current ruling party in India has always made fight against Christian conversion one of its main aims. It is the admirers of PM Modi who are supposed to be the Republican Hindu electorate.  Bobby Jindahl can hardly seem a very nice man to many of them. It is hard to explain to Christians, especially in America, where conversion is fairly common and the religious market is competitive. I know this, and I even like this. But...