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Diwali in the White House – Past, Present and Future
A Diwali reception in the White House, hosted by the President of the United States of America, is now something that is the norm rather than a novelty.
President Joe Biden poses for a photo with White House staff at a diya lighting ceremony in the Blue Room of the White House, Monday, October 28, 2024, before a reception to celebrate Diwali. / (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
Twenty-one years ago, President George W. Bush’s chief political advisor Karl Rove presided over the first ever celebration of Diwali in the White House. It was a landmark event that was a long overdue recognition of the presence of a large and vibrant Indian-American community in the United States. The Hindu, Sikh, Jain and other communities in India that celebrate Diwali finally at long last received due recognition for one of the most special days in their religious calendars.
Next week, I will have the honor of attending a reception hosted by President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden to celebrate Diwali in the White House. They will be continuing a tradition that started in the Bush era, and was continued by the Obama and Trump Administrations. The White House Diwali has become an annual event that has bipartisan support and will undoubtedly continue to be celebrated for years to come.
During the Trump Administration, there was a minor kerfuffle when President Trump’s tweet about the Diwali celebration in 2018 spoke about a holiday observed by “… Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains throughout the United States and around the world …”, forgetting the largest religious group that celebrates Diwali. And the same error was repeated when the tweet was reposted. Thankfully, the tweet was eventually corrected seventeen minutes later, adding in Trumpian style that they are “very, very special people”.
It’s easy enough to assume that this is just as one would expect, but for many Indian-Americans who came to this country in the 70s or 80s, or earlier, the fact that a Diwali reception in the White House is now taken for granted says a lot about a community which has become an integral part of the social fabric of the United States.
There was a time when Indian-Americans were a target for hatred and a public celebration of Indian culture and festivals was not commonplace. A low point was the “Dot Buster” attacks of the late 70s, some of which were deadly, when anyone who looked brown and South Asian was subjected to ridicule or physical attacks in places like Jersey City. Fast forward to today, when there are Diwali and Indian Independence Day parades that have Mayors and other elected representatives in attendance, and are celebrated with gusto.
Chinese and Japanese immigration in the 19th century was followed by immigration from India in the early 20th century. Amongst the early Indian immigrants were Sikhs who were generically referred to as “Hindus,” which applied to anyone from India. Widespread discrimination against Asians was the basis to deny citizenship by naturalization for non-white foreign-born persons. Bhagat Singh Thind, a Punjabi-born Sikh who had served in the U.S. Army in World War I, had his citizenship revoked in 1923 per a US Supreme Court decision. Soon thereafter, the door slammed shut for Asian immigration to the United States for the next four decades.
Everything changed in October 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act into law, and transformed the profile of immigration to the US significantly, leading eventually to the celebration of Diwali in the White House.
In 1980 when I arrived in the US, the Indian immigrant population in the U.S. was estimated to be around 400,000, but it has increased dramatically since then. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the US is now home to some 4.8 million Indian Americans. Indian-Americans have certainly come a long way in a century since Bhagat Singh Thind was denied citizenship in 1923.
The dawn of the new millennium has seen the image of the Indian-American population transform in a dramatic fashion, and they are looked upon by all sides of the political spectrum as the “model” immigrant community. Indian-Americans are viewed as well educated, hard-working, entrepreneurial and enterprising citizens. They have largely begun to blend into the American melting pot even while adding their own masala to it.
A 60 Minutes segment from 2003 titled “Imported from India” which I helped CBS create carried the tagline - “What is America's most valuable import from India? It may very well be brainpower.” The CBS broadcast was seen widely across the US, and it was in many ways a tipping point for Brand India’s ascent in the US, since it bookended an era when the image of Indian-Americans was completely transformed.
Indian-Americans now are in positions of leadership from coast to coast, from Silicon Valley to Wall Street to legislatures. A person of Indian heritage is represented on both the Democratic and Republican slates for the upcoming Presidential election, with Kamala Harris as a potential future President and Usha Vance as a potential future Second Lady.
It should then hardly come as a surprise that a Diwali reception in the White House, hosted by the President of the United States of America, is something that is the norm rather than a novelty.
To paraphrase the classic words of Neil Armstrong, “The Desis have landed.”
The author is a Chicago-based columnist and investment professional.
(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New India Abroad.)
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