華裔同胞們注意了:
Record number of Indian-Americans seeking office
By JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National Writer Jesse Washington, Ap National Writer
–
Sat Jun 19,
7:43 pm ETManan Trivedi who is running for Congress in Pennsylvania's 6th
Congressional District makes campaign calls in Philadelphia, Wednesday,
June 16, 2010. A new wave of Indian-American candidates are running for
high-profile office across the country. At least eight children of
Indian immigrants are running for Congress, governor or attorney general
_ the most ever. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Meet Reshma, Surya, Manan, Raj, Ami, Ravi, Nimrata and Kamala — a new
wave of Indian-American politicians. At least eight children of Indian immigrants are running for Congress
or statewide office, the most ever. The star of this trend is Nikki
Haley, born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, who is favored to win the election
for governor of South Carolina.
Indian heritage is where Haley's similarity with the
other candidates seems to end. She is the only Republican, the only one
who has been widely mistaken for a white woman, the only one who has been
accused of abandoning her heritage for converting from the Sikh faith to
Christianity.
Yet when Haley's motives are questioned and some
suggest Indians must become less "foreign" to get elected, many of these
new candidates are quick to ask: Who are we to judge the mashup of
American ambition with an ancient culture?
Manan Trivedi, a doctor and Iraq war
veteran who recently won a Democratic primary for Congress in eastern
Pennsylvania, said he did not view his ethnicity as a handicap: "The
American electorate is smarter than that."
He called criticism of Haley's name and religion
unfounded. "Nikki Haley and (Republican Louisiana Gov.) Bobby Jindal are
on the wrong side, but they worked their butts off, they had the
bonafides to get the votes, and I think it had so much more to do with
their work ethic than the fact that they may have changed their names
and adopted a different religion."
Jindal was elected the nation's first Indian governor
in 2007, at age 36. Named Piyush at birth, he told his Hindu parents
when he was 4 that he wanted to be called Bobby, like the "Brady Bunch"
boy. He converted to Catholicism as a teenager.
As Jindal's star rose, the meaning of his
assimilation drew much scrutiny. Many people outside South Carolina only
learned Haley is Indian after a fellow South Carolina lawmaker used a
racial epithet to describe her. Now her choice of names, marriage to a white man and Methodist conversion is
raising similar questions.
Christianity is a more critical issue for white
Republicans than other groups — could a Hindu who worships multiple
gods, or a turbaned Sikh who doesn't cut his hair, survive a statewide
Republican primary in the Bible Belt?
Vidya Pradhan, editor of India Currents magazine,
thinks not.
Haley and Jindal "were really ambitious about their
politics, and they could not do it being Hindu or their old religion,"
Pradhan said. "I do think it was a political move. They felt that not
being a Christian would hurt them."
Haley and Jindal declined to be interviewed for this
story. But J. Ashwin Madia, a Minnesota Democrat who
lost a congressional election in 2008 and is a follower of the Jain
religion, says their faith is irrelevant.
"They can choose to be called what they want to be
called, they can worship what they want to worship," said Madia, a board
member of the Indian American Leadership Initiative,
which supports Democratic candidates. "I don't think being
Indian-American is this thing they need to strive for or meet some sort
of purity test. They are finding the right balance for themselves."
Madia stopped using his first name, Jigar, when he
joined the Marines about age 22. "I'm not running from something or
ashamed of it. I'm proud of my name and where I come from. But I was
constantly explaining it or hearing it mangled."
Barack Hussein Obama, known as Barry in his younger
days, proved that an unusual name was not an insurmountable political
barrier. Some Indian politicians seem to be following his blueprint as
they embrace their Indian names while describing their faith in voters'
lack of bias.
"This campaign is all about vision and values and
policies," said Raj Goyle,
who is battling for the Democratic congressional nomination in his
hometown of Wichita, Kan. "I don't spend time thinking about
differences, I think about ways that Kansans can come together."
Goyle worships at an Indian temple. His first name is
Rajeev, but he has gone by Raj since childhood. In 2006, he became the
first Indian-American elected to the Kansas Legislature and the first
Democrat to hold his statehouse district.
He said he doesn't worry about appearing more
American or more Indian. "I am who I am, I'm proud of my background and
what I've accomplished and my family. Kansas voters absolutely will
choose the best candidate based on the merits."
Indians began immigrating to the United States in
large numbers about 50 years ago, but just two have been elected to
Congress: Dalip Singh Saund in 1956 and Jindal, who entered Congress in
2004 and became governor midway through his second term.
In 2008, Madia says he was the only major Indian-American candidate for
Congress. Today there are six, including Goyle and Trivedi. Ami Bera
in California, Ravi Sangisetty in Louisiana and Reshma Saujani in New
York face upcoming primaries, and Surya Yalamanchili won a primary in
Ohio.
In California, Kamala Harris, the child of an Indian mother and black father, won the Democratic
nomination for state attorney general and is favored to win the election
this fall. Harris was raised in a black neighborhood, attended black
churches and graduated from historically black Howard University. She
also worshipped in her mother's Hindu temple and has made many visits to
her family in India.
"Running for office, you have to simplify or condense or put into
pre-existing boxes who you are," Harris said, "so people will have a
sense of you based on what they easily and quickly identify."
"I grew up in a family where I had a strong sense of my culture and who I
am, and I never felt insecure about that at all," she said. "Slowly,
perhaps, with each of us taking on more prominent positions, people will
start to understand the diversity of the people."