Why Georgia’s Election Can Show Us the Future of Hindu American Political Power
By Dr. Murali Balaji, Co-Chair of Hindu Americans for Biden
The Christmas holidays always make me think of Georgia.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, my family would regularly travel to the Peach State to attend holiday gatherings with extended family and friends. Even though I don’t celebrate Christmas, the time off gave my dad ample excuse to pack us in the family sedan and make the 20-plus hour drive from the Philly suburbs to Atlanta and Alma, a small town in Georgia’s southwestern corner.
It wasn’t just about reconnecting with my dad’s college friends, an Indian American Hindu in Jonesboro and a Sri Lankan Hindu in Alma. It was the journey that made the trips so memorable. Along the way, we’d stop overnight at a hotel in a small town along the I-95 corridor, either in North Carolina or South Carolina, finishing the drive next day. Those hotels were owned by friends of my dad’s college friends — a Hindu AAA map, if you will.
There were some Christmas visits when we’d be joined by my dad’s other college classmate, Dr. Ansari, whose son Aziz followed us around the house, even though he was a few years younger than us. The Ansaris would come down from South Carolina to join us for the college reunions and marathons of Tamil movies we would watch on VHS tapes (Ironically, now we watch Aziz and his parents on Netflix).
I’d look forward to spending time with the kids of my dad’s classmates, who were in my age group and also straddling between growing up in the American South and retaining some sense of Hinduness. Back then, Georgia was less diverse, and a lot less tolerant of different faith communities, like mine.
Even while in college, I recall hearing stories from my family friends about what it was like being Hindu in Georgia. A Sri Lankan woman described wearing a cross in an effort to shield herself from being otherized and proselytized to by her classmates. Hearing about this experience, and many other uncomfortable, ostracizing encounters, I viewed Georgia as a place where being Hindu was not accepted.
But those times have seemingly gone away. Today, nearly 100,000 Hindus live in Georgia, and the community’s numbers are only matched by its cultural and geographic diversity. The Hindu Temple in Riverdale, just outside of Atlanta, was newly built for a small South Indian Hindu community in the early 1990s, attracting families from as far away as Texas and Virginia. Today, there are numerous Hindu temples across the state, from Albany to Columbus, attracting Hindus (and non-Hindus) of various cultural and ethnic backgrounds, including India, Bhutan, Nepal, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Fiji, and Sri Lanka.
For years, the Hindu population in Georgia has been a sleeping giant, largely ignored by both parties as the state became more diverse yet stayed consistently Republican. But on November 3, President-elect Joe Biden’s razor-thin victory over Donald Trump heightened the importance of Hindus to the state of play in Georgia. On January 5, they have an opportunity to come out of the shadows and flex their political muscle — for control of the U.S. Senate and a formal send-off to the old Georgia.
With candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock already making concerted outreach efforts to Hindu American voters, along with other South Asian and Asian American faith and ethnic groups, the importance of Hindus to the new Georgia can’t be overstated. Both Ossoff and Warnock have emphasized the role of the new Georgia coalition, building on the efforts of former Georgia state legislative leader and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Meanwhile, Biden campaign affinity groups like AAPIs for Biden and South Asians for Biden — as well as groups like Hindu Americans for Biden and Sikh Americans for Biden — have also gotten involved in the efforts to reach voters.
With early voting already underway and turnout already setting records, Hindu American voters can make up for years of shame, of marginalization and harassment and invisibility by flexing their muscles at the polls. It will be an opportunity to put an end to the policies of white supremacy embraced by so many of Georgia’s GOP senators while firmly establishing the state as a welcome home for Hindus and other minority groups.
To think that this Christmas, Hindu American voters in the state — and with fellow Hindus like me helping from afar — can help to change the trajectory of this country is something remarkable. It takes me back to those Christmas days in Jonesboro and Alma, but makes me look forward to the day I can go back — very soon — to a Blue Georgia.
To find your polling location, go to www.vote.org.
Murali Balaji is the co-chair of Hindu Americans for Biden and a national board member of South Asians for Biden.
