Shashi Tharoor’s disappointment overlooks how diaspora enthusiasm for Modi was often orchestrated, not organic.
Indian-Americans, settled and prosperous, see themselves as Americans first and avoid risks to protect their life in the US.
The community is fragmented, driven more by sectarian loyalties and post-9/11 Islamophobia than by allegiance to Indian politics.
Very many people respect Shashi Tharoor, the Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, as a perspicacious observer of men and matters; some even regard him a prescient in the art of changing loyalties. It was, therefore, entirely natural that he would have been the first to voice disappointment over the American-Indian community’s studied reticence—and, apparent, disloyalty—in the context of Donald Trump-induced turmoil in the Indo-US relationship. To most people in India, the Indian diaspora’s silence in the clash of egos between the US President and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems as disquieting as it jars as unnatural.
The silence seems unnatural because for over a decade we have been made to believe that the Indian-origin citizens in other countries, most particularly in the US, are natural partisans of Prime Minister Modi. They would gather in very large numbers in Houston or New York because they naturally feel gratified that at last India has a leader of whom they could be proud of because he has made them feel proud to be “Indians”; they would throng the airports just to get a glimpse of Modi because they are mesmerised by his charisma; and, we were made to believe that the Prime Minister now strides like a colossus on the world stage and that he has the clout and the heft even to make a difference in the American presidential contests.
So, how could these “Indians” remain indifferent and silent when the US President seems determined to demolish the over-sized myth of Modi, the global statesman? Why are they not writing letters to their Congressmen and senators, protesting this very public mauling of India and its leadership? Why this betrayal?
Since Tharoor is the new kid on the Modi block, it is natural that he should have allowed himself to be persuaded of all this spiel about the Diaspora’s infatuation with the Prime Minister and Motherland. He can be excused for being so impressionable; after all, not many know about the hours and the weeks of backroom efforts put in by the event-managers nor about the entreaties and blandishments by our diplomats to the “Indian community” to turn up in good numbers to shout “Modi, Modi”. Then, there is the entire network of religious sects, mostly Gujarat based, who are pressed into service to fill the halls to produce images of rapturous reception for the Prime Minister during his overseas travels.
The “American-Indian” community is shrewd enough not to go against the grain of American public mood.
However, it is unrealistic—and unnatural—to bemoan the American-Indians’ silence in the current downturn in Indo-US ties. It is to be kept in mind that the American citizens of Indian origin are under oath to respect the American constitutional authorities, and, they cannot allow themselves to be seen as being ‘Indian first and an American second’, particularly when the White House seems to be so enamoured of its own maximalist capacity for vindictiveness. After all, in India, we expel young Kashmiri students from hostels or sometimes even put them in jail because they cheer for Pakistan in a cricket match; then, why should we demand of the American-Indians to speak up in defence of the “motherland”.
The American “desis” are no longer confused. They have chosen to migrate to America for a better life than they thought it was possible for them in India; they and their children have no intention or desire to return to the Motherland; they do not feel any guilt for having abandoned Mother India nor do they feel apologetic for having lent their talent and education—even if acquired at the expense of the Indian tax-payer—to an alien land. Contrary to what the likes of Tharoor may think, they do not feel a case of divided loyalties. They have made their choice—and, the choice is the United States of America.
And, pray, why should the American-Indians feel agitated about this whole business of H-1B visa restrictions? Why should an entrenched and prosperous American-Indian moan the exclusion of a new tranche of Indians? Remember the cautionary tale of the travellers in the unreserved compartment on the Indian Railways.
And, surely, why demand of the non-citizen Indians to speak up in favour of “Bharat”. Who would want to run the risk of deportation! And, for what? Just to sustain the myth of a “resurgent India” under the inspirational leadership of a self-proclaimed Vishwaguru!
The American-Indian community—and let us make no mistake about this—has no problem with President Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) pitch. The rich and the successful American Indians do want the US to become a better land of milk and honey so that their children may have an easier life. That exactly was—was it not?—the original idea when they chose to leave India for the US. Probably a majority of the upper crust American-Indians vote for the Republicans.
The American-Indian community cannot be expected to get agitated about President Trump’s foreign policy choices or his authoritarian proclivities. They feel cozy in their comfortable suburban homes; they are not going to jeopardise “all this” just to sustain the mystique of an assertive India under an assertive leader.
Except for a brief period—in December 1971—there has been no direct confrontation between Washington and New Delhi. Disputes and disagreements were dealt by the diplomats and the disagreeableness, if any, was confined to the “strategic community” in India. America, of course, looms large in Indian public imagination, but the reverse is not true. Trump is the first president to depict India publicly as a source of American discomfort; and, the “American-Indian” community is shrewd enough not to go against the grain of American public mood.
Nor do the American-Indians constitute a homogenous community! They have effortlessly carried their sectarian loyalties with them; the Reddys would have their own associations, just as the Kammas pitch their tent separately; the Kurmis in New Jersey will segregate themselves socially from the Yadavs, etc. Then, there are rival religious sects from India making a demand for their attention and devotion.
The only sentiment that “unifies” and animates this amorphous community is the patina of Hindu-Muslim animosity back home. The overwhelming majority of the Indian Diaspora in north America remains entrapped in the “9/11” memories and they are not averse to any politics or any leader who would deal “firmly” with “the other”.
Since they find having to uncomplainingly subject themselves to the everyday insults and indignities that a “White America” dishes out to them, the American-Indians derive vicarious satisfaction when a political party seeks to impose a “Hindu Rashtra” back in India. The American-Indians would be enormously pleased if the minorities are shown their place; from the comforts and safety of their homes in Chicago or Los Angeles; they are happy to cheer the lumpen mobs in Gujarat or Bihar or Uttar Pradesh indulging in a bit of lynching or desecrating a mosque. It is no exaggeration that the Hindutva project has gained enormous respectability with the upper and middle classes in India because their kith and kin in San Francisco and New York have succumbed to the fashionable Islamophobia after 9/11.
The American-Indian community can be expected to stand for India in a stand-off with Pakistan, whether in a cricket match or a war of words at the United Nations or the actual four-day war. Muslims and Pakistan are the “enemies”. America is not “the other”.
(Views expressed are personal)
Harish Khare is a Delhi-based senior journalist and public commentator.
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This article appeared in the October 11, 2025, issue of Outlook Magazine, titled "I Have A Lot Left Inside" as "The Silence Of The Lambs".
