From , by Bachchoo Two Americans with whom I was exchanging political platitudes said that most Indians in the United States vote for the Republican Party and would in November endorse Donald Trump. Though bowing to their absolutely superior familiarity with this sort of statistic, I interjected asking if this was because most Indians who are granted American citizenship and the vote are either traders, Silicon Valley wallahs or some form of professionals or bourgeoisie? No, they said, even the Asian taxi drivers, of which there are many, will vote for Donald Trump. I wondered aloud whether this was because most of the Asian taxi drivers of big cities, say New York, are Pakistanis and wouldn’t vote for Kamala Harris because she is half Indian? Besides, I contended, the Asian taxi drivers, even if they were Indian, were not numerous enough compared to the professionals and Indian middle classes who might feel their economic interests were better served by Republican inclinations and policies.
The argument was turned on its head when I recently read an actual statistical poll of Indian-American intentions in the coming election. Though I myself have never been inclined to vote for, say, Rishi Sunak, simply because we share Indian origins, the poll set out to ask Indians how they would vote on the assumption that Kamala Harris’ half-Indian origin might influence their answer. The statistic was simple.
Fifty per cent would vote, they said, for Kamala – no reasons of policy .