Indian Americans broadly support the overall trajectory of U.S.-India ties and favorably assess the Biden administration’s stewardship of the bilateral relationship, according to a new report published Monday.
Although opinion is hardly uniform, four in ten respondents believe the Biden administration adequately supported India during its four years in office, according to the 2024 Indian American Attitudes Survey (IAAS), conducted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
While Indian Americans shifted to the right politically ahead of the 2024 U.S. election, many remain concerned about what the future holds for U.S.-India ties under a second Trump administration.
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The nationally representative online survey of 1,206 Indian American adult residents was conducted by Carnegie between Sep. 18 and Oct. 15, 2024, in partnership with the research and analytics firm YouGov. The survey has an overall maximum margin of error of +/- 3%.
With more than 5 million people of Indian origin residing in the United States today, the study seeks to answer timely, important questions about the diaspora’s views on foreign policy: How do Indian Americans evaluate the Biden administration’s stewardship of U.S.-India ties? Do they think Trump will be better for India? How do they view India’s own trajectory, including the results of the June 2024 election?
Interestingly, the allegations of an Indian government plot to target and kill a prominent Khalistani supporter in the United States are not as widely known in the community as one might expect, according to IAAS. However, only a small minority of respondents believes that such official Indian government action, if undertaken, would be justified.
Beyond India and the subcontinent, there is no consensus among Indian Americans on the war in Gaza, one of the few foreign policy issues that dominated the U.S. election news cycle, according to authors Sumitra Badrinathan, Devesh Kapur, Annabel Richter, and Milan Vaishnav.
The diaspora’s sympathies appear divided between the Israeli people and the Palestinian people, according to the report. Some of this variation is accounted for by partisan ties, with Democrats more likely to express sympathy with the Palestinian cause and Republicans the opposite.
When it comes to India’s domestic transformations, Indian Americans appear more bullish in 2024 than they were in 2020. As many as 41% of respondents believe that India has become more democratic since its 2024 general election.
While support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hardly budged over the past four years, there has been significant shift among key demographics. Older respondents, women, those with a lower socioeconomic status, and noncitizens are less supportive of Modi in 2024 than they were in 2020 while younger respondents are more supportive.
Indian Americans, by and large, do not possess clear partisan identities in India. But, to the extent they do, they tilt toward the BJP, the survey suggests.
Two of the biggest—and, arguably, most consequential—elections occurred in India and the United States in 2024, which was widely hailed as the “year of elections“ with 73 countries across the globe going to the polls, the survey noted.
In June 2024, voters in India delivered a third term to Modi, despite his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) falling short of an outright parliamentary majority, the survey noted.
While Modi remains a popular, domineering figure, the results of the general election were widely perceived as a political setback, according to the report . However, with resounding victories in several subsequent state elections, Modi and the BJP appear to have recovered some lost ground.
Five months later, voters in the United States once again reposed their trust in Republican President Donald Trump, denying then vice president Kamala Harris an opportunity to succeed Democratic incumbent Joe Biden.
These two noteworthy elections took place against the backdrop of a burgeoning U.S.-India partnership, albeit one not without its hiccups, the survey noted.
In the run-up to the U.S. election, several irritants to the bilateral relationship emerged, including disagreements over the approach toward the Sheikh Hasina–led regime in Bangladesh, the U.S. federal indictment of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani on corruption charges, and a dispute over allegations that an Indian government official masterminded a “murder-for-hire” plot targeting a U.S. citizen—a pro-Khalistan separatist—on U.S. soil.
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While the study offers a deep dive into the diaspora’s foreign policy attitudes, it does not say much about the social realities of the community.
How do Indian Americans engage in civic and political life? What role do religion and caste play in their daily lives? Do Indian Americans experience significant discrimination in their daily lives? And how does the diaspora weigh the cross-pressures of “becoming American” with a desire to maintain their “Indian-ness”?
These questions, and several others, are the focus of the third and final study in IAAS series, according to Carnegie.
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