Trump’s Second Coming:  As the Empire Strikes Back Will the Hindutva American Project Get a Boost?

“Umrika, condolences” — the status update of a Facebook “friend” from India to which I awoke on the day after the U.S. Presidential Election of 2024, with the results confirming Donald Trump’s smooth return to the White House. This Facebook update sat uncomfortably with me. And, frankly speaking, annoyed me. Yet, I understood the reason for this bit of schadenfreude seemingly directed to all Americans regardless of color, gender, class and other social categories. A bit of resentment mixed in there as well for not being part of this collective privilege of living in the global north, or so it occurred to me.

The US is the empire, despite rumblings in some circles of its decline, and Americans of all colors, genders and classes (among other identities), by way of that, are implicated as oppressors reaping the benefits of the nation’s global exploits. After all, immigrants arriving from countries destabilized by the US empire do subsidize the American middle classes by working for low wages. The family (mother and daughter who are sometimes accompanied by the teenage son/brother) that cleans my house, for instance, are immigrants from one of the many South American nations destroyed by American interests. The American passport, a stamp of approval from the empire, is itself another source of privilege. This valued possession eliminates the requirement for American citizens to obtain visas to most parts of the world and thus, eases international travel. I have one. The professional class of immigrants, whether arriving as foreign students or workers, who “choose” to leave India also stand to gain from dollars earned in the empire. Surely, then, I do understand the angst underlying “Umrika, condolences.” 

At the same time, “Umrika, condolences” presents an overly simplistic and essentialized understanding of the US and all Americans. It willfully ignores the fact that not all Americans are equally privileged, not to mention that advantage and disadvantage should not be conceptualized in binary terms to begin with. Further, this newly anointed mad king of the empire has the power to cause an incredible amount of harm to the rest of the world as well. 

“Umrika, condolences,” willfully ignores those nuances of advantage and disadvantage, much like the colonial brush that paints the entire Global South as “primitive.” “Umrika, condolences” lacks empathy for the plight of many marginalized groups. For instance, there are socioeconomically disadvantaged colonial subjects who live right here in the U.S. A., including documented/undocumented immigrants/refugees from South and Central America and in fact from India and other parts of South Asia too, whose livelihoods and resources to support their families are now in jeopardy, as is probably their very lives, because of the unfettered mobilization of public support for deportations. 

There should be a concern for the socioeconomically disadvantaged immigrants from India (such as taxi drivers, gas station attendants, construction workers, and in countless other low-wage occupations), with or without documentation, who now live with the fear of deportation. For example, casual conversations that I have had with immigrant Sikh gas station attendants suggest regret at having immigrated to the US. My research on immigrant Sikh cabbies in New York City showed that as well. The immigrants had not anticipated the hardships they would encounter in the “land of the free.” Yet, that does not mean they desire expulsion from the US either. Mired in debt, whether for money invested in their passage to the US and/or obstacles in getting work that would permit a living wage, they would presumably welcome the time to strengthen their position before returning to India, and Punjab in particular. Moreover, unbeknownst to many, legal immigrants on various nonimmigrant visa statuses, while maybe socioeconomically secure, are now reminded of the precarity of their position in America too!

I anticipate suffering blatant indignities of daily life coupled with a thunderous reminder of my un-belongingness in America as a nonwhite individual under Trump.

Socioeconomically privileged Indian Americans should be concerned about their disadvantaged brethren. I doubt they will be, however. My pulse on the Indian American (read: Hindu American) community and news accounts show their movement to the right of the political spectrum. As nonwhite immigrants from a postcolonial nation, they are squarely aligned with the empire’s narrative of success and failure. Distancing from the “illegals” in their community is thus important to demonstrate their goodness as per the standards of whiteness, an integral aspect of their “model minority” identity. They also migrate with their colonized concept of self – Hindu, heterosexual, casteist, patriarchal, capitalist – which fits in perfectly with the dominant Christian, heterosexual, racist, patriarchal and unbridled capitalist framework of the American nation. And even those “Indian” Americans who expressed concern about a Trump Presidency personally to me — their concern is for themselves as minorities in America, while they gleefully support Hindutva nationalism in India, whether it be in its soft or hard form. 

In this moment of Trump in America, thus, I wonder whether the Hindutva American project got a renewed boost? Donald Trump’s and Narendra Modi’s infamous bromance is well known among certain circles. A report by Al Jazeera suggests that Modi is counting on it to negotiate India’s way out of the trade tariffs that Trump promised to impose on imports. It is the capitalists in India who will benefit if Modi is successful in his attempt to do so. If not, the suffering will befall the average Indian as those capitalists will attempt to recover their losses by wringing their wallets. More importantly, how will this Modi-Trump friendship impact the minority cause in India is something I wonder, not to mention its impact on the plight of the Indian minorities who reside in America. 

Personally, I am privileged. As a sociologist/college professor in America, I have class privilege. This class privilege migrated with me from Calcutta to Queens, New York over three decades ago. I am also privileged in the Indian context on account of caste (solidly upper caste, although my parents married across castes) and religion (due to being born into a Hindu family, albeit I profess atheism). Yet, I anticipate suffering blatant indignities of daily life coupled with a thunderous reminder of my un-belongingness in America as a nonwhite individual under Trump, akin to the kind that I am acutely aware minorities in India experience under Modi. Perhaps this is my privilege too because African Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Native Americans feel the fangs of the empire regardless of who is heading it. It may be worse now. For that, condolences should be extended to us all, “here” and “there.” 

And, then of course, the climate will likely be no better under Trump. Its disastrous effects will not only be felt by Americans but reach the various nooks and crannies of the world around, India included! Palestinians will continue to suffer under Trump, perhaps more so. Remember, it was under Trump that the American embassy was moved to Jerusalem. Jared Kushner recently has even spoken of the destruction in Gaza as prime real estate investment. 

So, then, “Umrika, condolences” to me reflect the sentiments of the uninformed, and uncritical, and demonstrates a lack of self-reflexivity. Certainly, those using the “master’s tool,” the language being one just like I am using English to express myself here, to make space for themselves in the world should exercise a bit of self-reflexivity to recognize their participation in domination and dissect the many layers of privilege and underprivilege. Let us all demand better from ourselves – and here I am talking to myself as well – if the vision is indeed for a better world for all. 

Finally, those assuming me to be a Kamala Harris supporter. I am not. I did not vote for Harris. I certainly did not vote for Donald Trump either. 

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Diditi Mitra is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Brookdale Community College. Diditi would like to thank Shruti Devgan for taking the time to offer comments on drafts of this essay.