Hindu Americans are having a moment. Usha, Tulsi, Vivek, and Kashyap are suddenly household names. Suhas Subramanyam just became yet another Hindu elected to Congress. For a community comprising 1 percent of the U.S. population, we’re suddenly in the political zeitgeist. But when ignorance of Hinduism is prevalent—only 15 percent of Americans know basic facts about Hinduism—being seen comes at a cost.
Growing up Hindu in California in the 1980s meant facing questions about dowries, caste, or eating monkey brains. Hinduism was not just weird, it was eternal damnation. Forty years later, Hindu Americans in public life are facing the same stereotypes in spades. Two Hindu Americans who made presidential runs—Tulsi Gabbard and Vivek Ramaswamy—have already endured a litany of bigoted attacks. Ramaswamy took incoming from the Left—a CNN talking head parodied his name, as well as the Right—a conservative pastor said that to support a Hindu for president was to “fight with God.” Ann Coulter inveighed that she wouldn’t vote for an Indian American as she only votes for “WASPs.”
Meanwhile, as the first Hindu American woman elected to national office, Gabbard continues to be similarly targeted. Her Hindu identity has been mocked as cultish. Her Hinduness is said to render her vulnerable to manipulation by the Indian government—even though Gabbard is not of Indian origin. Her bigoted opponents also claim that Gabbard’s positions make her a “Hindu nationalist.”
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Now Gabbard faces what will no doubt be a bruising confirmation process as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Recent events in the Middle East mean that Gabbard will be questioned on Syria and Russia, which is fitting. But what concerns Hindu Americans like me is the re-emergence of criticism rooted in a particular theme: Gabbard’s religious identity.
So let’s set the record straight: The Hindu tradition is a decentralized, pluralistic family of spiritual traditions without a single papal authority. Gurus, or spiritual teachers, are respected. Gabbard identifies with the Vaishnava tradition, a tradition within the Hindu umbrella that privileges devotion to One Supreme Being in the form of Sri Krishna. Hardly a cult, Vaishanava traditions are embraced by hundreds of millions of Hindus worldwide.
To imply that Gabbard’s Hindu beliefs are rooted in a “cult” is to try and marginalize her spiritual beliefs and invoke the same Hinduphobic bigotry that we have long faced.
Equally odious is the premise that Gabbard is compromised because she is a Hindu who happened to promote U.S. allyship with India as a Member of Congress. All of the American presidents during Ms. Gabbard’s congressional tenure and dozens of her colleagues traveled to India, met with leaders of the country, and welcomed India’s prime minister for White House State Dinners and speeches before Joint Sessions of Congress. But only Hindu Americans like Gabbard are being singled out as suspect of having dual loyalty to a foreign government. The occasional photo with visiting Indian political leaders, or statements of support to India, against, for example, Pakistan-sponsored Islamist terrorism in India’s Kashmir territory, are caricatured as “proof” that a Hindu American is a Manchurian puppet.
The dual loyalty slur not only traffics in stereotypes; we know it’s dangerous. When Hindu American Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi was similarly targeted as a “Hindu nationalist” who was “too close to India,” the attacks culminated in a gaggle outside his Illinois district office chanting “Death to Raja.” The slogans were so jarring that leaders across the political spectrum issued shocked condemnations.
A Senate confirmation hearing awaits Gabbard and the other Hindu nominees for leadership roles in the incoming administration. But a senator invoking the “cult” or dual loyalty “Hindu nationalist” smears will hear pushback from Hindus who’ve endured that affront.
We may be just 1 percent, but that taint we will never accept.
Suhag Shukla is the Executive Director of the Hindu American Foundation and can be reached on X at @suhagashukla.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
