Washington: Leaders of Indian origin are quickly reaching heights in American politics. Despite being the largest immigrant group in this country across the oceans, in 2013 there was only one Indian-origin member of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the US Parliament. The number of state parliaments was barely 10. There was no one in the Senate, the upper house of the US Parliament. But after ten years, there are five members of Indian origin in the US Parliament. The number has risen to 50 across the states. The country’s vice president, Kamala Harris, is of Indian origin. This is the third consecutive time since 2016 that a candidate of Indian origin is contesting the presidential election. This time, Nikki Haley is in the running for Republican candidates, while Indian-born Vivek Ramaswamy is also in the race to challenge her.
Neel Makhija, executive director of Impact, a pro-India group, says if we look at immigrants in administrative positions, people of Indian origin are largely moving from “nothing” to equality. By the way, most Indian voters are Democratic supporters. In such a situation, the big question is how much support Nikki Haley can garner. In the past, when an Indian-origin candidate ran as a Republican, they rarely talked much about their family history, but Nikki Haley places great emphasis on her Indian, particularly Punjabi, background. It is also worth noting that many transport operators and truck drivers in America and Canada have this background.
What is the reason for the increasing influence?
Experts, analysts and four Indian-origin members of the US Parliament also explain the reason for the increasing influence of Indians in American politics. According to him, there are many factors such as wealth, high level of education and fluency in English that have opened the doors to politics for the second and third generations of Indian origin. Groups like Impact and AAPI Victory Fund, which gather support for the Indian diaspora, have also helped a lot in getting people of Indian origin into parties, gaining support for them, and bringing the attention of major leaders to these people of Indian origin .
The influence of these groups was particularly strong in states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania and Texas, where the number of Indians is large. Impact co-founder and former Kansas MLA Raj Goyal says these advocacy groups actually work together in local boards, state legislatures and congressional elections. Goyal says when I first contested elections as a Democrat, the Republican candidate asked who “Rod Doyle” was? That was unimaginable for me. But today, most voters recognize leaders of Indian origin. We see them on television, read about them in classrooms, and see how they run large companies.
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The year 2016 was crucial for Indian politics
In 2016, Indian-born leader and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal entered the presidential race for the first time. That same year, Pramila Jaypal of Washington, Ro Khanna of California and Raja Krishnamurthy of Illinois reached the House of Representatives as representatives. In this way the number of Indians in the American Parliament increased from one to four. Republican and Indian-origin leader Amy Bera of California reached the House for the first time in 2012. This year, Kamala Harris reached the Senate, becoming the first leader of Indian origin to reach this upper house of the US Parliament.
Since then, the number of Indians in state legislatures has tripled. The special thing is that they were chosen from areas that are not Indian strongholds. Like Pramila, Jaipal was elected from a Seattle-based district that is majority white. Mr. Thanedar represents a district in Detroit that is home to a vast majority of black people. Currently, almost all Indian-origin candidates elected in parliament and state legislatures are Democrats. Nikki Haley’s candidacy could be a case study, as she is a Republican and hails from Punjab, India, where many of the truck drivers in the United States and Canada come from.
