Republican candidate Donald Trump recently said that he’s met some members of the Indian community. Who exactly are these Indian Americans?
Two leading groups of Indian Americans have put their money and publicity behind Trump, both are newly formed organisations. Indian Americans for Trump is led by A.D. Amar, an engineer from Chandigarh who migrated to the US and made one futile run for the Congress. He believes Trump embodies what most Indians think about immigration—there should be quality. Amar says the media has a large anti-Trump bias, and therefore, Trump’s resonance with the non-billioniare Americans does not reflect properly.
The other group is the Republican Hindu Coalition, an outfit inspired by and formed with the help of the Republic Jewish Coalition. RHC is led by Shalabh Kumar, another Chandigarh export who is a multi-billionaire in Chicago and has contributed overwhelmingly to Trump’s campaign. It was through RHC that Trump attended the entertainment fund raiser in New Jersey recently. The organisation worked closely with Anupam Kher and Panun Kashmir back in India and reportedly sent proceeds of the charity for displaced Kashmiri Pandits and displaced Hindus from Bangladesh. Kumar has hobnobbed with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too. “We represent Hindus not just from India but from the entire world, who’ve migrated to the US, including Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Caribbeans,’’ Kumar said at a press conference. “There are four million Hindus in the US.” RHC holds a strong position on Islamic terror and therefore finds resonance with Trump’s claims.
The Indian diaspora to the US is the kind of quality immigration Trump approves of. As per the last census figures, the per capita income of Indian Americans is the highest for any community. They are highly qualified with 67 per cent of them being graduates, over 50 per cent having post graduate qualifications and several of them being successful entrepreneurs. Indira Nooyi, Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella are the types of names that lead US conglomerates today. Trump had earlier released a statement lauding the contribution Indians had made to the American society. In fact, his daughter Ivanka Trump is slated to celebrate Diwali at a temple in Virginia.
The Indian diaspora comprises only two per cent of the US population, so its votes are not so critical as the Hispanic this time. Many Indians are not citizens there, but on H1 and other visas. Indian American citizens are largely Democratic, though, with the diaspora going into the second and third generations, a shift is being witnessed. The more established the diaspora, the more it tends to be conservative in leaning. According to the Pew Research Centre, two thirds of the diaspora is Democratic leaning, one third Republican. “But when it comes to voting, 60 per cent vote for the candidate, not the party,’’ Kumar said.
