But almost immediately, new emails started circulating. desis and their friends that “if the stamp doesn’t sell enough, it will be discontinued.” Please don’t let this happen, do your part TODAY!” The emails caused such panic that the Postal Service had to announce that it had no plans to remove the stamps from the sale.

In a way, the Diwali stamp saga encapsulates both desi pride and desi insecurity, because the Indian diaspora craves to be accepted into the American cultural mainstream. When Barack Obama lit the very first Diwali diya at the White House in 2009, Indian-Americans beamed with pride. It helped that Diwali, despite being a Hindu holiday, didn’t feel overtly religious. The message that light prevailed over darkness was rather non-denominational. But even as Obama lit the diyanew email petitions have surfaced, encouraging desis to push for a federal holiday for Diwali. Winning spelling bees was one thing, gaining recognition from America’s ruling elite was another.

In this sense, the 2024 US presidential election is like a Diwali gift to Indian-Americans. For the first time, both sides of the presidential ticket have a connection with India. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ mother was Indian. Usha, the wife of Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, is of Indian descent. Indianness plays out in intriguing ways during elections.

For example, Donald Trump told African-American journalists that for a long time he had no idea Harris was half-black because he claimed she was only highlighting her Indian roots. It was a strange statement because many desiPeople have long accused Harris of exactly the opposite, that she identified politically with the black community and was only Indian-American at Indian-American fundraisers or Diwali events. Trump saw that African-Americans were a much more powerful voting bloc than Indian-Americans and thought that if he could portray Harris as an opportunistic black politician, it might help him in the long run.

View full image

In a way, it underscored that, despite Diwali’s imprint, Indian-Americans still did not matter enough in American political calculations. Joyojeet Pal of the University of Michigan recently analyzed the history of Indian-American lobbying for Laundry. While Native American voter turnout was high (74% in 2020) and Native American mega donors were welcome, the population was seen as not having the numbers to be decisive, he said. he concluded.

Yet they counted. Pal claims that a group of Indian doctors, many of whom were based in Florida, helped create the Indian-American Republican Council, which proved crucial when Florida became the decisive state in George’s narrow victory W. Bush in the 2000 election. Indian-American hoteliers invited Narendra Modi to their 2005 annual event, resulting in Modi’s visa ban. The Indians built the Indian-American Political Action Committee modeled after the pro-Israel AIPAC, another community that punches well above its demographic weight in America. While Bobby Jindal made news as the first Indian-American to be elected to Congress after Dalip Singh Saund in 1956, Pal says Bera’s election to Congress from California was what “triggered steady growth Indian-American candidates. The fund funds Indian-American applicants.

Still, it was difficult to shake off that foreign feeling. Even Trump, India’s self-proclaimed best friend, would call his rival Nikki Haley Nimrada (sic) Haley, reminding voters of her ethnic origins. Haley’s campaign website ignored any mention of her birth name, Nimrata Randhawa.

In 2010, I followed several Indian-American candidates for office, almost all in places where there was no significant South Asian population. In Kansas, candidate Raj Goyle told me that when people asked him how many Indian-Americans there were in his district, he said 10. “They said 10 percent wasn’t bad. I said no, 10 people. “It makes sense,” Shekar Narasimhan, then co-chair of the Indian-American Council of the Democratic National Committee, told me. “We are not considered black or white. This means that we are not immediately pigeonholed. “.

After the obligatory salute to their hard-working immigrant parents pursuing the American dream, applicants introduced themselves on all-American resumes: high school football player, Iraq War veteran, trombone player in the school orchestra, and now Harris’ claim that he worked at a McDonald’s. Bera illustrated the cultural tightrope when he said he had “the best of both worlds,” the family values ​​and work ethic of immigrants and his state’s “strong public school system.” He lost that election but later won it, demonstrating that change happens even if it takes time.

But old prejudices die hard. Narasimhan realized this in 2006, when Republican Senator George Allen mocked a young Indian-American at his rally as “macaca.” This young man was the son of Narasimhan. “It was a huge wake-up call,” Narasimhan said. “It established that no matter what we do or how we feel, we are different.”

Even in this election, far-right commentator and Trump supporter Laura Boomer caused a furor when she joked that if Harris won, the White House would smell like curry. But that doesn’t mean America isn’t changing. Vance boasted that he could make a “mean chicken curry.” It is not for nothing that Anjula Acharia, host of the All That Glitters Diwali Ball, tells the New York Times that his intimate New York party now has competing sponsors. This year, Nora Fatehi danced on Dilbar And O Saki Saki.

Also, Kamala Harris doesn’t show up as Kathy. She is happy to be filmed doing a dose. Her Indian-American supporters are numerous, for example at a fundraiser South Asian Writers Speak Out for Kamala, headlined by Kavita Das and Kiran Desai. Oscar-nominated Indian-American graphic designer Sanjay Patel created a piece of art to support his campaign, in which he openly pays homage to Kamala’s namesake, the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, depicted holding the US Constitution.

Whether Harris wins or not, cultural change is irreversible. Patel’s Kamala Harris enamel pins might have a limited shelf life, but its Ghee Happy Diwali Coloring Book we hope it survives this election cycle.

Like the Diwali Forever stamp.

Sandip Roy is a writer, journalist and radio host. He publishes @sandipr.

Cult Friction is a biweekly column about the issues we face all the time.