The Nativist Right Is Attacking Indian American Republicans

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On Monday night, Harmeet Dhillon did something that doesn’t exactly conform with the image of the Republican Party as overwhelmingly white and Christian: she recited a Sikh prayer onstage at the RNC. Dhillon, a religious-liberty lawyer and member of the Republican National Committee, told the party faithful: “I come from a family of Sikh immigrants. I am honored to share with you, my fellow Republicans and guests tonight, a prayer from my faith tradition practiced by over 25 million worldwide.” Then she covered her head, and recited the Ardas. 

The crowd listened, and applauded afterward. “It was silent. People bowed their heads. It was very respectful,” she later told the New York Post. “When I left the stage, I was hugged and people took selfies with me. Not a single word of criticism inside the room.” 

But outside the room—more specifically, on social media—it was a different story. Lauren Witzke, the Republican nominee for the 2020 U.S. Senate race in Delaware, decried the fact that a non-Christian God was called upon, labeling Dhillon a “pagan blasphemer.” George Behizy, a Christian commentator with 200,000 followers on X called Dhillon’s prayer “ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE!!” and said whoever “invited her to pray to a foreign god” should be fired. 

“Blocking quite a few people. . .” tweeted Dhillon later that night. 

“It is difficult to go through it, but I did what I did for a reason,” Dhillon told me the next day. She explained she wanted “to show that all people are welcome in our party. Today, I continued to receive overwhelming support from RNC delegates and conservatives worldwide.” 

Dhillon isn’t the only Indian American in the spotlight at the RNC this week. 

Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, was born in San Diego to Indian immigrant parents and was raised in a Hindu household. An accomplished lawyer, she has clerked for the Republican-appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as well as Brett Kavanaugh. But since Trump picked Vance, many on what I call the nativist right have homed in on his wife’s religion and background. 

Stew Peters, a Christian nationalist with more than 600,000 followers on X, posted a photo featuring Vance and his wife holding their newborn child and said: “Trump VP nominee @JDVance1 and his Indian wife have three children named: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel. He’s not one of us.”

After Vance’s nomination on Monday, neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes asked on X: “Do we really expect a guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity?” 

For those who don’t want to see Hindus and Sikhs in the GOP, the disappointments have been coming thick and fast lately. On Tuesday night, two of the prime time speakers were the children of Indian immigrants to America who ran for president: Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. 

The RNC has been a reminder of the quiet but significant rise of the Indian American Republican. It is also a trend celebrated among mainstream Republicans, who know that devout members of different faiths, from different backgrounds, can share the same political worldview. That’s a reality that drives the nativist right a little crazy.

Rupa Subramanya is a reporter for The Free Press. Follow her on X @rupasubramanya and read her piece “I’m Stuck Between the Woke Left and the Nativist Right.” For on-the-ground reporting from the RNC, read Olivia Reingold’s piece about the young, bleach-blond Republican influencer who told her: “You can be any demographic and be a conservative.”