Indians form Republican Hindu Coalition

[RR1997]

Are most Indians in the U.S. Gujaratis?

No. Most of them are South Indian apparently (according to statistics).
Most South Indian-Americans tend to be the doctor/techie/engineer/manager/etc. types.

[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?

[DavidB.]

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

[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"?

[DavidB.]

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"?

If you don't see it then you're not going to get it. And yes, I do disagree with the idea that Hindus cannot be Republicans.

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" - whereas Nikki Haley is considered a "self-hater". Apparently, she is now even ridiculed because she might be from a lower Indian caste (who cares? This is just class hatred).

Guess why this double standard is applied? Because Jews like Stewart vote Democrat. Democrats suddenly hate minorities if they vote Republican, and will use everything against them in order to bully them into the Democratic coalition.

[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.

[pikachu]

Like I said before, there's a very good argument to made that a party which has many politicians who prides themselves for being Christian is going to alienate a primarily non-Christian ethnic group. Until they ditch or severely downplay that, they're going to struggle.

[OSR stands with Israel]

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?

Look at my first post in this thread on why Hindu Democrat is an oxymoron.

[Clark Kent]

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.

[Kingpoleon]

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.

But... But... You must identify as Indian-American!

Why would we do something as stupid as to allow you to choose to do something that could cause confusion/death.

[Clark Kent]

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.

But... But... You must identify as Indian-American!

Why would we do something as stupid as to allow you to choose to do something that could cause confusion/death.

What? I can't tell if this is sarcasm that translates badly over the internet, or if I'm missing something here...

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

The whole "Republican Party becoming the party of white Christian bigots" is probably the biggest factor.

But on top of that you've got to realize that Indians who manage to immigrate to the United States are generally the cream of the crop from India. India is an extremely poor country, and so only the most educated and financially successful people are capable of coming here. You can't just walk across the border; you have to fly across an ocean to get here. Being educated and successfully getting a job here (HB1s and what not) usually require a British educational background with strong English skills, cultural awareness to assimilate, and the skills necessary for getting a job here (as already mentioned, doctors, engineers, business professionals, etc.). Generally, if you have such an education, you would find the culture that the Republican Party panders to (usually provincial, whites in the south and Midwest) to be a major turn-off, no matter how "pro-business" the Republicans are.

And even despite the "pro-business" image of the Republican Party, in India, the relations between business and government are radically different from what we have here in the U.S. India's first PM, Nehru, was an avowed socialist, and India's balancing act in the non-aligned movement lead to the formation of many socialist and communist parties who enjoyed great electoral success (again, remember that India is an extremely poor country), and the political narrative from 1947 to 1991 was that of Gandhian socialism. Though socialism in India was fairly unique to India, it nontheless has had enormous influence on the political views of Indians (including those who move abroad). Hell, I can go downstairs right now and pick up a pamphlet my mom had to read in school written by Josef Stalin (something about dialectual materialism, whatever that is). What Indians learn about the theories of socialism, communism, and capitalism are not discussed in the same way that they are here, where socialism and communism are automatically regarded as "evil". And since the United States increasingly sided with Pakistan and China against India in the 1970s and 1980s, India came to distrust the U.S. and trusted the USSR instead, which was pretty generous in helping India out.

So your whole "taxes are evil!!!" and "government is socialism!!!" thing, Indians don't really get in the same way that Americans do. If you come from a country where people literally die in front of you for lack of a social safety net, you're not going to be very sympathetic towards the party of "less taxes, less social services"

And regarding business again, seeing the massive pollution and abuse of workers that is done by businesses in a poorly-regulated economy like India's, maybe Indian-Americans are pretty happy to have clean neighborhoods, air, and water.

Hindus are very family orientated and believe in strong family values which Democrats do not

This is true and all, but Asians in the United States are still committed to political secularism, even if they personally are traditional.


Oh yeah, and your point about Muslims is just stupid, considering the enormous influence Islam has had in India (and still does). I mean, we wouldn't have the f-ing Taj Mahal without them. Yes, India has a complicated dynamic regarding Islam and Hinduism, but saying that Indian-Americans will vote against Democrats because they "pander to terrorists" or whatever is just really f-ing stupid. Did you forget that something like 15% of India is Muslim? Did you forget that a good number of Indian-Americans are Muslim? Or lemme guess, Muslims aren't "really" Indian.

What if I told you, that before 9/11, Muslim Americans gave 70% of their votes to George W. Bush in 2000? After 9/11, the GOP fully embraced Islamophobia and general suspician of "brown" people, so why the hell will Indian Americans voted Republican if Hinduism is targeted by evangelical Christians as a "idolatrous, cow-worshipping, pagan" religion? Why will they vote Republican if the Republican voter base views anyone who is "brown" as either a welfare, illegal immigrant leach (if you look Hispanic) or a terrorist (if you look more Middle-Eastern)?

[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.

[Sbane]

I think Republicans will have more luck at the local and state level with the Indian vote than at the federal level. My dad has been very angry at the Democrats lately for onerous regulations on refineries leading to higher gas prices in California. And they are ready to slap on some taxes on top of that, because obviously gas prices aren't high enough here. He will be voting Republican at the state level next time but I doubt he will vote for a Republican president. He hates Trump etc and that is the Republican Party at the federal level. I know this is just anecdotal evidence but these are the sorts of issues that will get Indians voting Republican and they are more likely to happen at a more local level than at the federal level.

[Хahar 🤔]

Schadenfreude does a very good job of explaining what Indian people actually think. You can be offended all you want if you're a teenage Republican in an all-white suburb, but it won't change the way things are.

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

Because they are not white.

[Boris]

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.

[ag]

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.

[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.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

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.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

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.

[Vosem]

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. With that said, a large majority of Indians, both in my experience and in actual data, seem to lean Democratic, for two key reasons: a perception of the Republican Party as an "anti-science" party (which unfortunately to a significant extent it is) and a perception of the Republican Party as an "anti-brown" party (which of course it is not, but which it has been painted as quite successfully).

[ag]

but which it has been painted as quite successfully).

It did the painting itself.

[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.

[pikachu]

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.

[ag]

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...

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Democrats usually get around 70-75% of non Christians, and I doubt that's changing anytime soon.