Race, religion, and the political incorporation of Indian Americans

Abstract This paper examines the logic underlying three different patterns of Indian American political mobilization and presents a theoretical examination of how race and religion interact to shape the political incorporation of contemporary immigrants. Indian Americans are becoming politically active around homeland and domestic issues. What is particularly striking about this group is that they have mobilized around a variety of identities in an attempt to influence United States policy. Some identify as Indian Americans, others as South Asian Americans, and yet others on the basis of their religious background as Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians. There is also an adult, second-generation population that is getting involved in civic and political activism in very different ways from their parents’ generation. My research focused on a variety of Indian American advocacy organizations and found that differing understandings of race, as well as majority/minority religious status in the United States and in India, played important roles in producing variations in their patterns of civic and political activism. I argue that these activism patterns can be explained by the ways in which race and religion intertwine with the characteristics of groups and political opportunity structures in the United States.