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Stamp of Approval

Diwali Coloring Book from Ghee Happy.
Sandip Roy
Diwali Coloring Book from Ghee Happy.

The “Diwali stamp” was practically an annual ritual in the United States.

While working in San Francisco in the 2000s I remember every year someone or the other would forward an email with a petition to the United States Postmaster General asking them to issue a Diwali stamp. Excited Indians would sign it and forward it to everyone they knew. Every year they were told this would be THE year. Every year they were disappointed.

Hanukkah, Christmas, Eid had all gotten stamps. Indians in America craved a Diwali stamp. It would literally be a stamp of approval.

In 2016 the USPS finally issued a Forever stamp showing a lamp against a sparkling gold background. But almost immediately new emails started doing the rounds warning desis and their friends “if the stamp does not sell enough, this will be discontinued. Please do not let this happen, do your part TODAY!” The postal service had to announce that it had no plans to remove the stamps from sale.

This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata

the Diwali stamp saga encapsulates both desi pride and desi insecurity as they crave acceptance in the American cultural mainstream. When Barack Obama lit the first ever Diwali lamp in the White House in 2009, Indian-Americans glowed with pride.

OBAMA

It helped that Diwali, despite being a Hindu festival, didn’t feel overtly religious. The message of light prevailing over darkness is fairly non-denominational. But even as Obama lit the lamp, new email petitions surfaced encouraging desis to push for a federal holiday for Diwali. Winning spelling bees was one thing, winning recognition from the American power elite was quite another.

In that sense the 2024 US presidential election feels like a Diwali gift to Indian Americans. For the first time ever both sides of the presidential ticket have an Indian connection. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ mother was Indian. Republican vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance’s wife Usha is of Indian origin.

Joyojeet Pal at the University of Michigan who analysed the history of Indian-American lobbying for the Indian portal Newslaundry found that while Indian American voter turnout was high (74% in the 2020 election) and Indian American mega donors were welcome, the population was still regarded as not having the numbers to be decisive.

Dalip Singh Saund was the first Indian American to be elected to Congress, in 1956, but Pal says Ami Bera’s election to Congress from California’s third congressional district in 2013 was what really “triggered a steady growth of Indian American candidates.”

Still it has been hard to shake off that foreign feeling.

In 2010 I followed several Indian-Americans running for office in America, almost all in places without a significant South Asian population.

It makes sense, Shekar Narasimhan, then co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Indo-American Council told me.

SN1A + SN1B: We weren’t seen as black or white. It’s actually  because we can not be immediately typecast. But portray ourselves as somebody that can be a bridge to all the issues.

Instead after obligatory salutes to their hard-working immigrant parents pursuing the American dream, the Indian-American candidates ran on all-American resumes - high-school football player, Iraq war veteran, trombone player in the school band and now Harris’ claim of working at a McDonalds.
Ami Bera exemplified the cultural tightrope walk when he said he had “the best of both worlds”,

AB1: rooted in the values of family, community. Hard work that immigrant population brings, but also benefited growingup in 60s and 70s in this state – that had strong public school system

He lost that election but went on to win subsequently showing change happens even if it takes time.
But old prejudices die hard. Shekhar Narasimhan realized that in 2006 when Republican senator George Allen mocked a young Indian-American at his rally as a “macaca”. That young man was Narasimhan’s son.

SN2: my son is classic example. That’s the first and only time I have seen his mother angry in something political.

But that’s not to suggest America isn’t changing. Kamala Harris is not running as a Kathy. She is happy to be filmed making a dosa with Mindy Kaling.

DOSA

Her Indian-American supporters are out in full force for example a South Asian Writers Speak Out for Kamala fundraiser. Oscar-nominated Indian-American graphic artist, Sanjay Patel created artwork to support her campaign where he openly pays tribute to Kamala’s namesake, the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. His Lakshmi holds up the US Constitution.

And whether Harris wins or not, the cultural change is irreversible. Patel’s Kamala Harris enamel pins might have a limited shelf life but his Ghee Happy Diwali Coloring Book will hopefully outlast this election cycle.

Like the Diwali Forever stamp.

This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata for KALW

If you want your own Diwali coloring book go to: https://www.gheehappy.com/test/diwali-coloring-book