Narendra Modi’s fan base among proud Hindutva supporters in the U.S., his unique combination of free-market rhetoric and cultural nationalism appears as a tonic.

The most vocal of these saffron supporters are not within India. Those within, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), recognise the mathematics of the Indian general election and would not like to put allies such as the Janata Dal (United) and Nitish Kumar, its Chief Minister in Bihar, in a difficult spot. In Chicago and Houston, on the other hand, Modi has a much more excitable fan base—people like Shalabh “Shalli” Kumar, the non-resident Indian (NRI) businessman from Chicago who organised the yatra by three U.S. Congress members to visit Modi in March. They have no compunctions about the sentiments of Nitish Kumar. For them, self-identified as self-made Yankees and proud Hindutva supporters, Modi’s unique combination of free-market rhetoric and cultural nationalism appears as a tonic.

Shalli Kumar and other NRI businessmen who support Modi possess a large megaphone to exaggerate the popularity of their views. I was involved in the two campaigns against Modi in the United States: the popular groundswell to deny him his visa in February-March 2005 and the successful bid to have Financial Times revoke the 2009 Asian Personality of the Year award to him. This year, my colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania raised a ruckus when they heard that he was to speak at Wharton; the mainstream mood kicked in and the initiation was rescinded.

Republican Indians
Since 9/11, a section of the Indian American community has veered rightward, into the camp of the Republicans (as far as U.S. politics is concerned) and concomitantly into the arms of the BJP. The sentiment in this demographically small section of Indian America is that both Republicans and the BJP are programmatically opposed to Islam and that both Republicans and the BJP are in favour of untrammelled free-market policies that ignite the animal spirits of Man. Despite his own self-identification as a “Reagan Democrat”, Shalli Kumar is a fitting representative of this unity between Republicans and the BJP.

In 2011, Kumar launched the National Indian American Coalition (NIAC) with a meeting, funded by his firm AVG Group. Kumar and some of his friends had been fervent Ronald Reagan supporters in the 1980s. His love of Reagan is so strong that Kumar’s India home in Bangalore is called the Rana-Reagan Palace (named for Maharana Pratap Singh and Reagan—with pictures of the two adorning the entire house, with Bhagat Singh set next to Reagan in one of the galleries).

Merlot Daruwala wrote:"His love of Reagan is so strong that Kumar’s India home in Bangalore is called the Rana-Reagan Palace (named for Maharana Pratap Singh and Reagan—with pictures of the two adorning the entire house, with Bhagat Singh set next to Reagan in one of the galleries."

Bwahahaha...

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Merlot Daruwala wrote:"His love of Reagan is so strong that Kumar’s India home in Bangalore is called the Rana-Reagan Palace (named for Maharana Pratap Singh and Reagan—with pictures of the two adorning the entire house, with Bhagat Singh set next to Reagan in one of the galleries."

Bwahahaha...

Lolu. does he also have posters of jhansi rani laxmibai and sarah palin. does he also pay obeisance to the NRA and talk endlessly of glocks and smith and wessons?

Marathadi-Saamiyaar wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Merlot Daruwala wrote:"His love of Reagan is so strong that Kumar’s India home in Bangalore is called the Rana-Reagan Palace (named for Maharana Pratap Singh and Reagan—with pictures of the two adorning the entire house, with Bhagat Singh set next to Reagan in one of the galleries."

Bwahahaha...

Lolu. does he also have posters of jhansi rani laxmibai and sarah palin. does he also pay obeisance to the NRA and talk endlessly of glocks and smith and wessons?

Such people are abundant in Cong(i) - MT Sonia ji camp as well. After all, dont forget the powerful "secular" lobby that succeeded in Modi visa denial and annual passage of anti-India resolution calling for propagation freedom. remember the anti-hindu, anti-India Keralan from NJ who leads a "secular" organization ?  

So BJP and HSS have their own funny characters. If anything it is a good thing bcz this group will be more influential in lobbying congress for more pro-India action. But, for this group all you will have is an anti-hindu/India  spouting venum constantly.

However, it is no secret that our NRIs are more right-wing than the average Indian. Guha states at the end of his article that “The current Overseas Friends of the BJP have, inevitably but regrettably, diminished the meaning of ‘Indians’ to make it ‘Hindus’.” This cannot be merely explained by socio-economic factors alone.

Closer home we saw an analogous situation in Sri Lanka. The Tamil diaspora who fled Sri Lanka due to the civil war, turned out to be the biggest contributors of funds for the LTTE. The implications of this were dire. Consider this: the people who fled their countries’ civil war, for a more comfortable life abroad continued to fund this war, making life miserable for their fellow citizens back at home. The money for buying weapons came from abroad, but the weapons were forced into the hands of children of the locals. Here too, the diaspora didn’t see themselves as Sri Lankans, but developed a more narrow Tamil identity. Was it a manifestation of their guilt, at having escaped the war and abandoning their homeland, that made them seek identity in funding the LTTE? A placebo that they were doing their part in helping their homeland?