The ongoing takeover of the American high-tech industry by Indians and Indian-Americans is well known (see, for example, “Indian Takeover Continues“). In addition, the phenomenon of “Woke Capitalism” or “Oligarchical Socialism” has received increasing attention since early in the Trump administration as well.
But what about the melding of the two? What would happen if immigrants from India and South Asia, often arriving here as employees and executives of high-tech firms, turn to socialist and outright Marxist ideologies? We would then find ourselves facing not only a takeover by a foreign over-class but one committed to an alien philosophy most Americans despise.
Well, it seems to be happening. Witness this article on the American Kahani website: “Socialists Among Us: Indian Americans are Emerging as the Intellectual Vanguard of the American Left.”
It is not too surprising that Indian natives and Indian-Americans would be imbued with the spirit of socialism. After all, the Indian constitution, adopted in 1950, begins this way:
WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens. . . . [emphasis added]
And, according to American Kahani, imbued they certainly are.
Consider, for example, Kshama Sawant, a native of Pune, India, who came to the U.S. in the late 1990s to work as a software engineer. She eventually left that field and entered politics in Seattle, Washington. There, as a member of the Marxist Socialist Alternative party, a part of the Trotskyist International movement, she was elected to the Seattle City Council in 2013. During the widespread violence and protests of 2020, Sawant led a mob to the residence of Seattle’s mayor Jenny Durkan (an address kept secret by law due to Durkan’s past work as a prosecutor). For this Sawant faced a recall election in 2021, which she won narrowly with the help of “tech workers at Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook.”
Sawalt prefers her socialism honest and up front, so she has not joined the Democrat Party, though she is a supporter of Bernie Sanders.
After commenting on the careers of Sawalt and other Indian and South Asian socialists and Marxists now active in the U.S., American Kahani assures us that “no one on the American left seeks to establish a Soviet style system with a centralized and planned economy and curbs on freedoms.” Of course not. That’s just “right wing scaremongering.” (Kshama Sawant certainly doesn’t want that, though she does call for “an end to the two-party system.”) In general, says the article:
[P]eople of South Asian descent appear to be playing an outsized role both as intellectual vanguard and grassroots activists. Young South Asian Americans born in this country and even some who were naturalized are becoming a force to reckon with. Rife with idealism, nurturing dreams of creating a better world, they are willing to make sacrifices to realize their vision.
Just don’t be surprised if one of the first sacrifices those young “idealists” make is you.
For more, see the American Kahani website.