Indian American community seems to be divided over Kamala Harris

By Shubha Singh

Aug 25, 2020

New Delhi: The selection of United States Senator Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s Vice President candidate sent a wave of excitement through the Indian American community in the US as well as Indians in India and around the world.

The nomination of Kamala Harris, daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants to the US, has energised the Democratic Party campaign. But even as she has been hailed for her Indian ancestry, it is becoming clear that the Indian American community will be a divided one at the time of the presidential election in November.

The Kamala Harris story is the fulfilment of the Indian dream in America, of hard-working immigrants doing well in the US and their children getting an equal chance going on to achieve high success. Despite the Indian tendency to applaud even the remotest India connection, Kamala Harris’s candidature finds the Indian American community split between the Democratic and the Republican parties. The divide has taken place at a time when Indians in American are getting politically active as political activists, volunteers and vocal in expressing their political leanings.

The Indian community in America has traditionally supported the Democratic Party with a small section of richer Indians, who donate liberally and back the Republicans. In the past couple of years a growing number of conservative Indians have moved toward the Republican Party. This process has increased as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump established a rapport which saw the two leaders sharing a dais at a gala event in Houston in 2019.

Trump’s partnership with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been well-received by both Indians and Indian Americans. According to a Pew Research poll, about 50 percent of Indians surveyed approved of Trump. Trump has claimed in one of his press conferences that more Indian Americans support him than the Democratic Party presidential candidate, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.

There are about 4 million Indian Americans in the US, of which just over one million are voters. But they are mainly concentrated in some states and districts where their numbers gain greater significance in a close contest. At the time of the 2016 elections, Donald Trump had not attracted much support among the Indian American community with the exception of a couple of small Hindu American groups in Republican states.

But Trump has gained in support among Indian in the US as his relations with Modi have grown visibly warmer. The Howdy Modi event in Houston, Texas and the colourful public event, Namaste Trump in Ahmedabad during Trump’s state visit to India early this year reinforced his appeal to Indian Americans. President Donald Trump has made a concerted effort to court different groups of Indian Americans, such as Hindus and Sikhs.

Harris with her Left-leaning progressive politics has emphasized her identity as Black Jamaican. She has rarely mentioned her part-Indian ancestry in her political life, though she has often spoken of her mother who came to the US as a young student and rarely talks of her Jamaican father. It is her Black identity which will appeal to the African-American voters who far out-number the South Asian voters in the US. It is her progressive politics and emphasis on her identification as a Black politician that turns away many American Indians.

For the right-wing Indians in America, Harris’s outspoken views on the situation in Kashmir, the abrogation of Article 370, her criticism of the Citizenship Amendment Act are evidence that the Democratic vice Presidential candidate is not India-friendly. Harris even backed her Democratic party colleague, Senator Pramila Jayapal’s resolution on lifting the restrictions in Kashmir. This position offended many American Indians. Her association with Senator Jayapal is perceived as anti-Indian and anti-Hindu by right-wing Indians. It can overcome the appeal of the historic significance of a woman with Indian roots being in the running for the second highest position in America.

The social media chatter is full of instances of her so-called anti-Indian stance, often taken out of context. Some of the commentary points out that Harris chose not to attend either of the two rallies Prime Minister Modi had attended in the US, at the Madison Square Garden, in New York or the Houston even though a good number of American Senators and Congressmen had been present. The large gatherings of Indians at these functions had raised the political profile of the community in American politics. The huge enthusiastic and cheering crowds of Indians were an eye-opener for American politicians, who are used to much smaller political gatherings.

In her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Harris wowed Tamilians around the world by referring to her “chittis” (mother’s younger sisters in Tamil) and spoke movingly about her mother. She said that her mother, Shyamala Gopal raised her daughters “to be proud, strong Black women. And she raised us to know and be proud of our Indian heritage.” Biden also addressed Indian concerns on the newly imposed restrictions on H1b or work visas, Chinese threats against neighbours, no tolerance of terrorism in South Asia or elsewhere as well as promising a “high priority” to Indo-US relations.

Kamala Harris’s Indian roots may be a rallying call for Indians in America, but they may not be enough to swing the Indian community vote in one direction.

–India News Stream