He’s a “Big Fan of Hindu”

In October, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Sangeet Som, declared that the Taj Mahal was a “blot on Indian culture” for its Muslim heritage. In November, Donald Trump retweeted an anti-Muslim propaganda video from the leader of a prominent hate group in England. The BJP stood silently as multiple Muslim cattle ranchers were lynched for transporting cattle in April. Trump has repeatedly called for bans on Muslim immigration in 2017, even successfully signing an executive order to temporarily block immigration from some Muslim-majority countries. The parallels are uncanny. The BJP and its leader, Narendra Modi, have a history of a Hindu nationalist agenda. While in power, they have normalized Islamophobia and the erasure of Muslims from India’s history. In America, Donald Trump’s agenda falls not far from Modi’s. He has overtly promoted Islamophobia, largely equating Islam with the prevalence of radical terrorism, while standing silently as violence against Muslims and anti-Muslim rhetoric burgeons. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has already made it clear that the two countries are on track to build an “ambitious partnership which will expand bilateral trade between the two regions and promote their economic prosperity.” However, the partnership between the two countries seems to extend far beyond economic terms and reveals a far more insidious agenda.

Islamophobia is not new to the United States nor India. India has a history of conflict between Hindu-nationalists and Muslims and the United States has become hyper-aware of “Islamic extremism” in the post 9/11 era. But according to the Pew Research Center, anti-Islam sentiments in the United States are more centered around political conflict while in India they focus on religious disputes. Furthermore, the alliance between the U.S. and India has been weaker while the U.S. government maintained stronger alliances with countries neighboring India like Pakistan. Nonetheless, the alliance between the U.S. and India is growing, and the anti-Muslim actions coming from the BJP and the Republican party aren’t coincidental. They suggest a coordinated effort to spearhead a nationalist agenda in both countries by targeting and oppressing Muslims. At the intersection of both of these political movements lies a largely forgotten but growing group of voters: Indian-American immigrants.

[pullquote]It is an effort to spearhead a nationalist agenda in both countries by targeting and oppressing Muslims.[/pullquote]

Indian-Americans currently make up 1 percent of the American population and, in the last year, have won five seats in the House of Representatives and secured multiple appointments to leadership positions in the executive branch. Their voting behavior hasn’t been well studied, but in past elections they have disproportionately voted for Democrats. An article in the Harvard Political Review analyzing Indian-American political identity argues that while the conservative values of the Republican party align with cultural values of Indian Americans, Indian-Americans have often been marginalized by the Republican Party as religious and ethnic minorities. Indian-Americans have been hard to characterize as a voting bloc as voting patterns seem to vary by religious and language divisions.

With the rising normalization of discrimination against Muslim minorities, religious divisions among South Asian voters stand to become far more important. Already, there have been multiple acts of violence against Hindu- and Sikh-Americans who were mistaken for Muslims, and violence against South Asian Americans is at its highest since the era immediately after 9/11. Efforts to address this rise in violence have focused not on fighting against anti-Muslim violence, but on emphasizing the distinctions between the various religious groups that make up the Indian diaspora.

[pullquote]As activism pivots from solidarity to separation, there is a risk that religious divisions turn the group into a swing vote.[/pullquote]

As activism pivots from solidarity to separation, there is a risk that religious divisions within the South Asian American community turn the group into a swing vote in the forthcoming elections. Growing Islamophobia pits the desire to lift up all oppressed minorities from discrimination against the competing desire to distinguish oneself from the rampant racial profiling of Muslims. The signs are already there. Last October, the Republic Hindu Coalition set up an event to garner support for Donald Trump which featured a performance where the lead singer was “attacked by jihadists and rescued by Navy SEALS.” At the event, Trump also claimed that he is a “big fan of Hindu” distinguishing Hindus from Indians, a crude attempt at replicating the nationalist agenda promoted by today’s BJP. While the coordination is not perfect, the intent is clear: isolating non-Muslim South Asians from Muslims and making anti-Muslim sentiment a more pertinent issue. If violence against South Asians continues to rise, many Indian voters may become single-issue voters and support discrimination against Muslims in exchange for self preservation. It wouldn’t be unheard of as Indian immigrants keep close ties to their families back home and support for the BJP’s agenda is frighteningly high. If the Democratic Party wants to maintain their dominance of the Indian-American vote, they must work harder to address violence against South Asians and promote solidarity among Muslim-Americans and the South Asian American population as a whole. If they do not, they risk losing a pivotal voting population which will have growing importance in upcoming elections.

[pullquote]If the Democratic Party wants to maintain their dominance of the Indian-American vote they must work harder to address violence against South Asians.[/pullquote][pullquote]

Ishaan Shah ‘20 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached at ishaanshah@wustl.edu.