Indians form Republican Hindu Coalition

[Taco Truck 🚚]

I'm an Indian-American who happens to be a Republican and Hindu, so this is good news I guess.

If you are willing to renounce your faith maybe.

I am not Indian, but my parents immigrated from there before I was born. They're Americans as well now, but they are still Hindus, and I was raised Hindu as well.

Won't even dare to call yourself "Indian"?  You will fit in nicely.

It'll be an interesting case study to see how liberals react if this is at all successful; it might be fun to see racist Democratic roots revive themselves if Indian-Americans start voting Republican!

Indians in the Republican party do a fine job of running away from anything non white.  So why wait?  Just enjoy Republican Indians now!  Nikki Haley (AKA Nimrata Randhawa) calls herself "white" and Christian.


I was amused by some of the replies in this thread.  I know several Indians well and at least one of them is right leaning.  Years ago I asked him what the deal was with Indians that were Christian.  He said they were typically from the lower caste.  He said upper caste families like his wouldn't dare do such a thing.  Imagine his surprise a few years later when I told him all the high profile elected Indian Republicans are Christian!

I found this thread amusing because Hindu Republican is an oxymoron.  The key to success in the Republican party seems to be getting as far away from the Hindu religion as possible.

What do you guys think of the self loathing of right wing Indians?  Nimrata Randhawa changes her name to Nikki, calls herself "white," marries a white guy, and becomes a Christian.  Do you think she should spearhead the Hindu outreach?

How seriously would we take Barack Obama if he changed his official name to Barry Dunham married a white woman, went to an all white church, and checked off "white" on his voter registration form?

[Taco Truck 🚚]

Your first post on this forum is full of personal attacks. You will surely be a valuable addition

Sorry, after reading the thread I just felt compelled to point out the elephant in the room.  Do you disagree with anything I said?  And what exactly do you consider a "personal attack"?

[Taco Truck 🚚]

If you don't see it then you're not going to get it.

So you can't explain your "personal attack" on me.

I think it is so funny that left-wingers seldom denounce Jews like progressive hero Jonathan Leibowitz a.k.a. Jon Stewart for "Americanizing" their identity, because that's "a personal choice"

Actually his name on his birth certificate is Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz.  He simply dropped his last name after his parents divorced when he was a kid and he had a falling out with his father.  The situation causes him a lot of pain.

Really if you are policing people's "personal attacks" you really should be a little more sensitive to other's feelings.  I've watched a few episodes of Jon Stewart's show and he is a heck of a lot more openly Jewish than a lot of Jews in show business.  If you even casually watch his show he speaks about his Jewish background all the time.  He does tons of self deprecating Jewish humor.

I think what ends up happening a lot with Republicans is a kind of false equivalence.  Nikki Haley and Jon Stewart both changed their names.  Obviously Nikki Haley way more.  But that in and of itself is neither here nor there.  You left off the long list of other things I said Nikki Haley did because they didn't fit your agenda.  What I ask of you is look at that part of the discussion.  Do you disagree with what I said?  Sure you can cherrypick a phrase out of the entire post and quote it out of context.  But then you would be arguing with a strawman and not addressing the ideas presented in my post.

I assume you realize Hindus have one of the lowest conversion rates in the United States but high profile Indians in the Republican party can't seem to convert fast enough.  It's strange on a thread about Republican Hindus until I showed up no one pointed this oddity out.

[Taco Truck 🚚]

I am not Indian, but my parents immigrated from there before I was born. They're Americans as well now, but they are still Hindus, and I was raised Hindu as well.

Won't even dare to call yourself "Indian"?  You will fit in nicely.

Why would I call myself Indian when I'm not? I don't identify with that nation at all.

I rest my case.  America is a nation of immigrants.  Most people here are proud to embrace their heritage... except Republican Indians.  They run from it as fast as they can.

[Taco Truck 🚚]

Vietnamese say hi and hello.

You bring up a good point.  I am assuming Vietnamese Americans align with the Republican party because of the Vietnam war and Republicans blind demagoguing of benign or even positive socialist policies.

Conversely I was a bit bemused when one of my right leaning Indian American friends asked me why the United States has historically been so antiIndia.  I get the whole "world's largest democracy speech."  I have to carefully remind him his buddy Ronny Ray Gun and friend's zero tolerance for socialism is the driving force behind the rift.  The mental contortions the poor guy has to do to lean Republican are painful to watch.

There's no way Hinduism has one of the lowest conversion rates in the United States.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

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.

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I am not allowed to post links yet but you can look up the Pew study yourself.  You are allowed to post links so where is your citation?  New information is always welcome.

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Gotta love a self hater.

The Indians I know are a proud people who would never run away from their culture.  They don't necessarily wear their heritage on their sleeve but in private they speak to me about their heritage all the time.  I never predicted that we would have two self hating Indian governors in office in the South simultaneously.  Even my right leaning Indian friends aren't self hating.  The Pew study lines up with my past life experience.

[Taco Truck 🚚]

I don't really have much to add to this discussion since I am not Hindu myself and can offer only anecdotal evidence, but all I can say to this is that one of my closest friends is a Republican and Hindu (born in the US to parents who immigrated from India) and that being both doesn't seem to require any mental contortions for him.

Give it time.  I don't talk about politics with most people.  I was aware of my friend's rightward leanings for years before I saw the contortions.  I was actually surprised by it.  I mean how can someone who is proud of the democracy in India and lean to the political right not know why the Muslim religious fundamentalists in Pakistan were repeatedly given aid by Reagan?

Indians, other than Jindal and Haley, are proud independent thinkers.  They were not going to let themselves become an American client state during the cold war.  Their socialist non aligned state was the enemy of hard line Republicans.  That a right leaning Indian doesn't know this is pretty amazing.