By Bhavdeep Kang Would Harris have secured the vice-presidential nomination if she were a practising Hindu? Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who identifies as Hindu, threw her hat into the ring early on, but found zero traction. The US constitution requires no test of religion for public office, but surveys show that the voting public does.
The Indian obsession with the US elections is only natural; in a globalised and multi-polar world, electoral outcomes have far-reaching effects, particularly in the post-Covid geopolitical scenario. Equally natural is our vicarious sense of pride in the political success of PIOs. A section of Indian intellectuals attributes this success to the superiority of western political culture. How valid is that perspective? The argument goes something like this: Western liberalism creates an enabling, pluralistic environment, in which Indian American politicians thrive, just as the US corporate culture puts Sundar Pichais and Satya Nadellas at the helm of IT giants. So much better than our messy identity politics, geared against minorities and women. This warm endorsement of western liberalism overlooks the fact that in the US, which is a majoritarian democracy, political formations are arguably as 'Christian majority' as the BJP is 'Hindu majority'. The two most prominent Indian American politicians, Kamala Harris and Nikki Haley, are both churchgoers, as was Piyush 'Bobby' Jindal, another PIO who made a bid for a presidential run. So was former US president Barack Obama. Although there are a handful of non-Christian, non-Jewish elected representatives from minority communities, the more successful ones – at least those who get within viewing distance of the White House - tend to be churchgoers. Would Harris have secured the vice-presidential nomination if she were a practising Hindu? Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who identifies as Hindu, threw her hat into the ring early on, but found zero traction. The US constitution requires no test of religion for public office, but surveys show that the voting public does. Yet, colour, and not religion, is recognised as the major faultline in the social fabric of the US. In India, faultlines are multiple: caste, class, community. So strong are prejudices of caste and class that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen