There was a time when ‘Asok’ (Indian intern who works in the fictional corporate environment of Dilbert), the stereotypically accented Indian worker in the largely white corporate world, occupied a familiar place in the American imagination, i.e., intelligent, industrious, deferential, faintly comical and, above all, harmless. He could write the code, solve the problem and work the longest hours. But he was rarely imagined as the person who owned the building, set the rules or decided who belonged inside it.
Today, Indian-origin corporate chiefs command global enterprises, direct technological revolutions and influence millions of livelihoods. The journey from cubicle to corner office is a remarkable immigrant success story. Yet it exposes an uncomfortable truth that the minority welcomed for being useful is not necessarily accepted when he becomes powerful.
For decades, the Indian diaspora, particularly its Hindu professional segment, occupied a privileged position in America’s narrative of minority achievement. The model minority was presented as evidence that education, hard work and personal responsibility could overcome racial disadvantage. Indian success became a convenient counterpoint to the struggles of Black Americans and other historically marginalised communities.
The implication was unmistakable — if one minority could prosper, perhaps the problem lay not with the system but with those who had failed to master it. The American Right found particular appeal in immigrants who appeared to validate its preferred account of meritocracy. Bobby Jindal (born Hindu, later converted to Christianity), Vivek Ramaswamy, Kash Patel, etc., emerged as prominent conservative voices of the rightwing. Their individual trajectories differed, but their prominence helped establish Indian ancestry as compatible with American political and economic power. The reassuring proposition was that immigrants could rise, embrace conservative ideas, and embody the ‘American Dream’.
But political alignment is not permanent insurance against prejudice. Donald Trump’s MAGA movement has placed immigration, national identity, and cultural belonging, at the centre of its rhetoric. Its supporters are not a monolith, and legitimate immigration debates should not automatically be equated with racism. Nevertheless, portraying immigrants as threats or outsiders can reinforce the notion that some Americans are less entitled to belong than others.
The latest hate incident in Aurora, Illinois, makes this vulnerability chillingly tangible. Nineteen-year-old Alexandros Paporakis was arrested over an alleged plan to carry out a mass shooting targeting Indian people, potentially at the Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) Temple, one of the largest Hindu temples in the Chicago metropolitan area. According to prosecutors, Paporakis expressed neo-Nazi and white-supremacist views, told co-workers he could not wait to kill Indian people, and shared a manifesto outlining a mass-casualty plot. Police reported recovering a rifle, ammunition and material associated with white-supremacist extremism. He has been charged, and the allegations remain subject to legal proceedings.
The alleged plot was reportedly thwarted. But the fear it exposed cannot be dismissed. A community that has invested generations in education, enterprise and assimilation must still confront the possibility that its members could be targeted simply for being Indian. This does not prove that every expression of anti-immigrant politics causes violence, or that every MAGA supporter shares extremist beliefs. But exclusionary rhetoric has consequences when it normalises the portrayal of immigrants and people of colour as threats. Political leaders cannot be held responsible for every individual’s actions, but the climate their words help create deserves scrutiny.
Here the model minority bargain begins to unravel. The Indian American may be a billionaire, chief executive, conservative campaigner, or naturalised citizen. To a racial essentialist, none of these achievements necessarily erases the perceived foreignness of his name, skin colour, or ancestry. The worker once mocked for his accent and the executive scrutinised for his influence may discover that both remain subject to boundaries they did not create.
The Hindu diaspora must confront an uncomfortable contradiction. Some politically conservative Indian Americans may have believed that assimilation, economic success, and alignment with majoritarian politics offered protection from hostility directed at other minorities. But majoritarianism is transactional. It welcomes those who reinforce its preferred vision of the nation and can withdraw that welcome when their usefulness expires. No minority can permanently purchase security by demonstrating that another minority is less deserving.
Indian-American success should not diminish the struggles of Black, Latino, Muslim, Chinese or other communities. Representation at the top does not necessarily democratise opportunity below. Nor should the achievements of Indian Americans be mistaken for an invitation to hostility. Hindu temples deserve the same protection as churches, synagogues, mosques and every other place of worship. Indian Americans deserve security and belonging not because they are economically productive or politically convenient, but because they are entitled to them.
‘Asok’ was never simply a harmless caricature. He reflected how easily a society mistakes compliance for belonging. The corner-office executive represents a different image, but the question remains — is acceptance extended to the person, or merely to the role he performs?
The real test of the American Dream is not whether an Indian immigrant can run an American corporation. It is whether he can exercise power, worship freely and claim his place in the national story without being reminded that his belonging remains negotiable. If the welcome depends on usefulness, it was never equality. It was transaction.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
