But almost immediately new emails began circulating warning desiand his friends that “if the label doesn’t sell enough, it will be discontinued. Please don’t let this happen, do your part TODAY!” The emails caused so much panic that the postal service had to announce that it had no plans to remove the stamps from sale.

In a way, the Diwali stamp saga sums up both desi pride and desi insecurity, as the Indian diaspora yearns for acceptance into the American cultural mainstream. When Barack Obama lit the first Diwali diya At the White House in 2009, Indian-Americans beamed with pride. It helped that Diwali, despite being a Hindu festival, didn’t feel overtly religious. The message that light prevails over darkness was quite non-denominational. But even when Obama turned on the diyanew email requests emerged, encouraging desis to push for a federal holiday for Diwali. Winning spelling bees was one thing, winning recognition from America’s power elite was quite another.

In that sense, the 2024 US presidential election feels like a Diwali gift to Indian Americans. For the first time, both sides of the presidential ticket have an Indian connection. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ mother was Indian. Usha, the wife of Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, is of Indian origin. Indianness is manifesting itself in intriguing ways in the elections.

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

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It went some way to underlining that despite the Diwali seal, Indian-Americans still did not matter enough in American political mathematics. Joyojeet Pal of the University of Michigan recently analyzed the history of the Indian-American lobby for newslaundry. While Indian-American voter turnout was high (74% in 2020) and Indian-American mega-donors were welcomed, the population was deemed not to have the numbers to be decisive, it concluded.

However, they have been important. Pal says a group of Indian doctors, many of whom were based in Florida, helped build the American Indian Republican Council, which proved crucial when Florida became the swing state in George W. Bush’s narrow election victory in 2000. Indian-American hoteliers invited Narendra Modi to their 2005 annual event, resulting in a visa ban for Modi. The Indians created the US-India Political Action Committee modeled after the pro-Israel AIPAC, another community that has a weight far greater than its demographic weight in the United States. While Bobby Jindal made headlines as the first Indian-American elected to Congress after Dalip Singh Saund in 1956, Pal says Bera’s election to Congress from California was what “triggered a steady growth of Indian-American candidates.” The fund finances Indian-American candidates.

Still, it’s been hard to get rid of that strange feeling. Even Trump, India’s self-proclaimed best friend, would refer to his rival Nikki Haley as Nimrada (sic) Haley, reminding voters of their ethnic origins. Haley’s own campaign website omitted any mention of her birth name, Nimrata Randhawa.

In 2010, I followed several Indian-Americans running for public office, almost all in places without a 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 is not bad. I said no, 10 people.” It makes sense, Shekar Narasimhan, then co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Indian American Council, told me. “We’re not seen as black or white. It means we are not immediately pigeonholed. “.

After the obligatory shout-outs to their hard-working immigrant parents pursuing the American dream, the candidates showed up with all-American resumes: high school football player, Iraq War veteran, trombone in the school band, and now Harris’ claim to work at a McDonald’s. Bera exemplified the cultural tightrope walk 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 subsequently won, proving that change happens even if it takes time.

But it is difficult for old prejudices to disappear. Narasimhan realized this in 2006, when Republican Senator George Allen mocked a young Indian-American at his rally by calling him a “macaca.” That young man was Narasimhan’s son. “It was a big 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 by joking 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 “bad chicken curry.” Not in vain, Anjula Acharia, host of the All That Glitters Diwali Ball, tells the New York Times that her former intimate party at a New York house now has sponsors fighting over her. This year Nora Fatehi danced Dilbar and Or Saki Saki.

Also, Kamala Harris is not running like Kathy. She is happy to be filmed doing a dosa. His Indian-American supporters are in full force; for example, a South Asian Writers Speak for Kamala fundraiser, spearheaded by Kavita Das and Kiran Desai. Oscar-nominated Indian-American graphic artist Sanjay Patel created artwork to support her campaign, openly paying homage to Kamala’s namesake, the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, who is shown holding the US Constitution.

Whether Harris wins or not, the cultural change is irreversible. Patel’s Kamala Harris enamel pins may have a limited lifespan, but their Happy Diwali Ghee Coloring Book Hopefully it will last longer than this election cycle.

Like Diwali Forever stamp.

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

Cult Friction is a bi-weekly column about topics we continue to stumble over.