With Kamala Harris on the ticket as the United State’s first candidate of biracial Indian ethnicity, the discussion on the role of Indian Americans in politics has emerged as a headline item ahead of the national polls in November. 

There are now more than 4.5 million Indian Americans in the US – approximately 2.4 million of them voters – representing about 1.5 percent of the voting population. In 2023, in a tribute to the motherland’s overtaking its northern neighbour as the world’s most populous nation, they had surpassed Chinese Americans to become the largest Asian American group in the US, with a population growth of 50 percent in the last decade alone. 

The same year, Indian Americans were more represented in the US Congress than ever before with five representatives, about 40 representatives in state legislatures, and a vice president. 

A long way since the first Indian American was elected as Congressman in 1956.