I’m returning to the SDMB after a long hiatus with a slightly altered username.
I’ve noticed that there are several prominent South Asian-Americans on the American Right (Vivek Ramaswamy, Saager Enjeti, Kash Patel, etc.). I realize that not all Indian-Americans are Hindu, but is there any correlation between caste identification and political orientation; i.e. are Brahmins more likely to be center-right to far right on the American political spectrum and Dalits more likely to be liberals/leftists? I realize that even if there is a general correlation, there would be plenty of exceptions.
Its an interesting question, I don’t know the answer.
Here is an article about Indian Americans and how they vote. But it doesn’t break it down by caste.
This article talks about how the upper caste Indians are over represented in the US.
Here’s the part that often gets erased from migration stories: Indian Americans aren’t a random sample of India’s population. They’re overwhelmingly from dominant-caste backgrounds—especially Brahmins, whose caste supremacy doesn’t stop at India’s borders.
Consider this: Brahmins make up less than 5% of India’s population, but one study found they account for 25% of Indian Americans. Meanwhile, Dalits—who constitute around 15% of India’s population—are almost invisible in these migration narratives.
A 2021 surveyrevealed that 83% of caste-identifying Hindu Indian Americans are upper-caste, with only 1% identified as Dalit or Scheduled Caste. And this isn’t an accident. Migration is expensive and requires resources historically denied to Dalit and Adivasi communities—generational wealth, English fluency, global networks, and access to elite education.
I have no idea how it breaks down beyond that though.
Having said that, no matter if you are an upper or lower caste in India, in the US you are still a brown immigrant according to the far right.
It would be like a white protestant going to imperial Japan and expecting to be treated better than a white Jew or a white catholic. As far as that culture was concerned, all white people were inferior to Japanese.
I would like to know the answer to this, too. One of my dearest friends was Sikh, and was probably the most conservative person I actually considered a friend. If she were alive today, I have no doubt she’d be MAGA. She was often quite critical of “welfare queens”, yet saw no problem with her family receiving massive farm subsidies every year. Her brother is a fairly prominent local politician and the last I heard, was a rising star in GOP circles, but I lost track of them when she passed about 10 years ago.
I think there is another factor to consider, which is that many (most?) Indians don’t really care about the caste system, or are even actively working to eliminate it.
The ones that want to keep the archaic and prejudicial system tend to be both (a) members of the higher castes and (b) extremely conservative. Those that are working to eliminate the caste system in India tend to be more liberal (and younger), and likely wouldn’t even answer the question if you asked them.
And you can also add the confounding variable that most (but by no means all) of Indians that have enough money to immigrate to the US likely came from higher caste backgrounds.
Yes, absolutely. Most readily seen in more conservative families when considering appropriate matches for the children in marriage.
But, IME, those prejudices are greatly diminished in the second generation. My wife’s parents (born in India) had preferences about who she should marry (but they didn’t fight too hard when she married a non-Indian guy). She has no preferences about who her kids marry. In fact, although we have many friends whose parents came from India I have no idea what caste they are from, and she only has the vaguest notions most of the time (typically just Brahmin who are more obvious about the religious-purity stuff).
Seattle was able to pass anti-discrimination based on caste in 2023. Similar proposed legislation in California was vetoed by Gavin Newsom.
A few weeks ago my SO had a consultation by a healthcare specialist of Brahmin ancestry. A pretty sharp cookie, which was appreciated, though the unveiled condescension in his poor bedside manner was on display. SO, herself never unaware of her own descent from minor nobility, didn’t like it.
My understanding is that one could tell by surname and home language spoken. There is a lot of discrimination of Dalits (formerly untouchables) by higher caste co-workers in tech. Here’s a good story about what happened a Google a few years ago.