Even after living in the US for decades, Indians can have shockingly right-wing opinions about the presidential race and Donald Trump
Members of the right-wing Hindu Sena feed cake to a poster of Donald Trump to mark the 70th birthday of the US presidential candidate in New Delhi. Pic/AFP
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The US presidential election has taken a curious turn following videos of Democratic candidate and front-runner Hillary Clinton walking to her car — she complained of “overheating” during a 9/11 commemoration in New York — and her knees suddenly buckling. Coming after a steady stream of adverse news, it helped raise her Republican opponent Donald Trump in the polls. Despite her team’s admission of her pneumonia and her scheduled return to the campaign trail later in the week, the video has shaken the voters’ confidence.
This is not a small thing; the job of the planet’s most powerful person is no doubt draining — recall that President Barack Obama greyed considerably, almost overnight. Her poor health might have imploded her candidacy had her opponent not been so unpopular that his party had given up on him and was concentrating on retaining its legislative majorities. Some in the press speculated on who might replace her if she stepped down for health reasons, but these were quickly stamped out by her formidable campaign. It is truly a bizarre presidential contest in which not a few from each party have wished their candidate would drop out.
I called my mother who lives in Brooklyn, New York. She and my retired father lived for 33 years in a spacious house in an upscale part of Westchester County, itself an upscale suburb of the Big Apple; after a stroke four years ago that debilitated her left side, they eventually moved to a smaller, more manageable apartment that was also close to where my sister lives. My mother supports Hillary, who is four years younger; she voted to make Hillary her senator in 2000, and supported her in 2008 when she lost in the semi-finals to dark-haired Obama. My mother was a supporter of local Congresswoman Nita Lowery, and was thrilled when Hillary moved to Chappaqua in Westchester, just a short drive from my parents’ house, after Bill Clinton’s presidency ended.
(Incidentally, though my father, suffering Alzheimer’s disease, says he’s a Republican, he too can’t stomach the idea of Trump. This is true for anyone who’s lived in New York for so long.)
I wondered what would happen in the presidential race now but my mother was sanguine. “Hillary will win,” she said confidently. And then, in half-whisper: “What do you think?” Probably Democratic voters, frightened by Trump, would turn out in large numbers everywhere to decide the election.
“Still,” she said, and told me of her recent visit to her dear friend Mrs Dwivedi, wife of Dr Dwivedi, both of whom I have known them since we migrated in 1974 (though I haven’t seen the Dwivedis in years). She said that Dr Dwivedi claimed to be a Republican and bad-mouthed President Obama. My mother responded that Obama was the best president America has had in a while. Dr Dwivedi countered that Obama only helped Blacks. What nonsense, my mother shot back.
“Didn’t Papa say anything?” I asked. She snorted that he mutely stared into space.
Dr Dwivedi is a fair-skinned Kanyakubja Brahmin from UP who believes he’s atop the evolutionary scale. (I didn’t even know Brahmins had an internal hierarchy.) He not only looks down at Blacks, Hispanics, Koreans and Biharis, but also sneers at Whites (I know that sounds odd, but let’s concede that Western civilisation has dominated humanity since the Renaissance). He is so particular about his caste identity that he did not allow his son or daughter, both in their 40s, to marry of their choice because they couldn’t find Brahmins. There would be no sacrifice of purity in his house.
Other Indians have similar feelings. My mother’s good friend Mrs Aggarwal visited and noticed that many Blacks lived in my parents’ building. “How do you like living here?” she asked. My mother understood and told her: “I lived over 30 years in Westchester but the Whites always let us know how they resented our moving into the village. In this building, at the local bank, at the shops down the street, we get respect and affection.” My mother was constantly greeted with “Hi, Mrs Sinha, how’s the doctor?” She told Mrs Aggarwal that Indians were wrong to see all Blacks as evil. (I’m sure Mrs Aggarwal was unimpressed.)
It’s no wonder that Trump remains a contender in the polls. Voters not only disdain Hillary for her greed and shiftiness, but also dislike how they had to put up with a Black in the White House. Such broad-mindedness unsurprisingly afflicts many insufferable NRIs, particularly the affluent ones blessed with self-righteousness. And more generally, this obsession with identity and hierarchy shows how evolved humans are as a species. Thus, a population of boneheads deserve nothing better than a facts-averse, low-IQ, right-wing, pretend-strongman as their leader. Yes, I was talking about Trump.
Senior journalist Aditya Sinha is a contributor to the recently published anthology House Spirit: Drinking in India. He tweets @autumnshade. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
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