Indian Americans Are Having a Moment in the Sun

Pride fills our hearts, but prejudice, lest we forget, lurks close by, writes Murali Kamma.

Donald Trump with Kash Patel (left) and Sriram Krishnan.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Indian Americans are having a moment in the sun. Perhaps more than a moment.

In recent years, they’ve been getting the kind of attention they never received in the US, giving rise to a celebratory and, some would argue, self-congratulatory mood within the community.

Pride fills our hearts, but prejudice, lest we forget, lurks close by.

There have been articles galore, both in the US and abroad, highlighting the accomplishments of Indian Americans – and on American television lately, we’ve had the unaccustomed pleasure of hearing reporters and anchors pronounce names such as Harmeet Dhillon, Kamala Harris, Vivek Ramaswamy, Usha Vance, Jay Bhattacharya, Kash Patel, Sriram Krishnan, and Tulsi Gabbard.

Gabbard, despite her Samoan and European ancestry, has been embraced by Indian Americans as one of their own.

We’ve also heard a lot about the MAGA (Make America Great Again) backlash these individuals triggered.

There will be more negative repercussions, for different reasons, if Donald Trump, as the 47th president, is able to install them in visible, influential positions. The far right doesn’t want people like Indian Americans to have power, either in government or civil society. Period. But others – Americans who reject extremism – will be disappointed to see Indian Americans taking an active role in rolling out Trump’s controversial, antidemocratic initiatives.

What's Leading to Greater Awareness of Indian Americans?

The lionising of Indian American achievers is not new (remember the late Nobel laureates Har Gobind Khorana and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar?), but what’s more recent is the heightened awareness of a community that’s barely 1.5 percent of the US population.

National politics, of course, plays a big role in the magnification, though we can’t discount something as remote and unusual as outer space. Yes, I’m referring to the astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams. For several months now, Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore have been stuck, in a very public way, at the International Space Station. They’ll remain in the news until they return to Earth.

Indian American CEOs are routinely quoted in the media, whether the story is about AI or the economy. As for physicians of Indian origin, they’ve long met a crucial need in the US (as one joke had it, there were only two roles for Indian actors in America: medical doctor and store clerk).

What brought greater visibility to these physicians was their work as frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Medical experts like Dr Ashish K Jha, to give a prominent example, made frequent media appearances to offer guidance and reassurance.

Speaking of journalists, it’s far from uncommon to see Indian American bylines and faces. On Sunday morning, which is primetime for news programmes, Fareed Zakaria GPS and Inside Politics with Manu Raju are back-to-back shows on CNN.

Then there’s the world of entertainment, not to mention the literary world. The days when all the notable Indian American authors or actors could fit in a minivan are long gone. Ved Mehta was the only Indian-origin writer associated with The New Yorker for decades; now it’s hard to keep up.

Indian Americans in US Politics

Sticking to the political world, after the election of Virginia’s Suhas Subramanyam, the number of Indian Americans in the House of Representatives has gone up to six. In the Biden-Harris administration, I was startled to read, 130 Indian Americans have served in senior positions.

What about the incoming Trump-Vance administration? The number will be much lower, but it’s nevertheless striking that Trump, given his affinity for far-right figures and politics, has turned to Indian Americans for a few high-level positions in his administration. It seems like a bright spot for the community. Except, unsurprisingly, it gets darker when we dig deeper.

Take the ultraloyalist Kash Patel. He believes the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, though he has no evidence whatsoever. Even more alarmingly, he has said that he’d go after Trump’s ‘enemies’ if confirmed as FBI director. He’s backtracking now, but it could be because he wants to win over skeptical Senators in what promises to be a tough confirmation battle. Warning red lights – McCarthyism! J Edgar Hoover! – must be flashing in the heads of some folks.

The backlash against Indian Americans from Trump’s hard-right supporters should surprise nobody. Immigration/demographic change is at the heart of the MAGA movement. Tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan has pro-immigration views, which explains why the reaction to his selection as Trump’s senior advisor on AI has been particularly vicious.

What may be surprising is that Trump remains unfazed. That’s one of his strengths – he can withstand pressure. But it’s true that Trump, more than anything, demands fealty and admiration. Kash Patel, like the others Trump picked, aces the ‘yes-man’ test.

That raises a question: How qualified are these appointees? Not a few lack the right credentials and experience, making them ill-equipped to manage the challenges that come with these high-profile jobs.

What Explains Trump's 'Embrace' of Indian Americans?

Every community has a rogue’s gallery, and Indian Americans are no different. However, we’re not talking here about scamsters and other malevolent actors who cause harm. We’re talking about self-righteous people who will think they’re doing what’s right for the nation, even though their loyalty is to an individual rather than the US Constitution. That’s autocracy, not democracy. It’s misguided, then, to take chauvinistic pride in such Indian American appointees.

Many Indian Americans have been enamoured with Trump since the days of his ill-fated Trump Taj Mahal (casino and hotel) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. But how do we explain his current embrace of Indian Americans?

Well, India is the brightest foreign market for his family’s real estate business. “The Trump company’s business partners here have plans to bring the total number of Trump-branded buildings to 10 in the coming years,” The New York Times reported. This surely pleases Trump, for whom no business is more important than doing business.

Trump’s coalition of businesspeople (Ramaswamy, Elon Musk, etc) and bigots (Stephen Miller and the far right) is showing strain even before his second term begins. Entrepreneurs and executives are hoping the former group will prevail, but I won’t bet on it. The tug-of-war may lead to an outcome that won’t please immigrants. We’ll see. We should remember that nothing animates MAGA more than immigration – and it is, above all, an ethnoreligious national movement.

Neera Tanden, a political consultant affiliated with the Democratic Party, put it well on X. “I hope Indian Americans remember this moment at the next election,” she wrote, referring to the virulent online attacks against Indian Americans. “They don't see you as one of them. And never will. You thought they just hated other immigrants. But it turns out there's no exception for you. As many of us have been telling you.”

For visible minorities, their visibility is a mixed blessing. That includes Indian Americans. And this is true for visible minorities anywhere, not just in the US.

Meenakshi Ahamed’s Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America will be released by HarperCollins India in March this year. I was struck by the book cover, which shows 16 accomplished Indian Americans from various fields. Only two are women, and they are Nikki Haley and Chandrika Tandon. If the cover image prompts questions, that’s a separate issue.

How did the Indian American community, whose median household income ($145,000 in 2022, according to Pew) is greater than the median household income among Asian Americans overall, make such a rapid ascent in a relatively short time? The US made it possible, obviously. But Indian Americans should also acknowledge the three C’s – class, credentials, and caste – that gave them an advantage over their less fortunate brethren.

I, too, have a cover image in mind. It features all the Indian Americans Trump wants to appoint. We don’t know yet how many will end up in his administration. For those who do, let’s hope they don’t trigger a backlash – not from MAGA land, but from mainstream America.

(Murali Kamma is a managing editor and writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. This is an opinion article, and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)