AHMEDABAD: In early November, Samip ‘Sam’ Joshi, 32, created history of sorts when he was elected as mayor of Edison in New Jersey – the first Indian-American in the town of one lakh population with 44% Asians.
Joshi, who is a second-generation Gujarati settled in the US, traces his roots to central Gujarat. His term as mayor begins from January 2022.
Interestingly, one of the other candidates in fray against Joshi was Mahesh Bhagia, another second generation Gujarati in Uncle Sam's land.
“Indian-Americans are the fastest growing minority in New Jersey and constitute a sizable share of the population. Year 2021 saw the highest number of candidates from the Indian American community in political fray across the US,” Joshi told TOI. “We have already seen several legislators and senators, but now the community participation has widened in the past few years.”
Joshi's major poll promises during his campaign included a new township master plan and municipal broadband for faster, reliable internet.
Apart from Joshi, eight-odd persons with Gujarati roots have either been elected or appointed to various public positions in the past few years, says Ankur Vaidya, president of Federation of Indian Associations (FIA).
Gujaratis constitute a big chunk of diaspora in the US and many have earlier got appointed to top offices including Natwar ‘Nat’ Gandhi who was chief finance officer for Washington DC from 2007-13 and Rajiv ‘Raj’ Shah who was appointed administrator of USAID from 2015-18. However, the entry of Gujaratis into active life is a rather recent phenomenon driven by second and third generation Gujaratis.
Currently Ami Bera is a US senator elected from California while Niraj Antani and Amish Shah are members of state-level house of representatives from Ohio and Arizona respectively.
“Indian Americans form a sizable share of the population and are keen to participate in the electoral process of the country. Majority of those politically active are second or third-generation Indian-Americans and Gujaratis who feel a much closer connection with the US than India,” said Vaidya. “We however have only a few names to quote when it comes to successful candidates such as Sam Joshi of Edison.”
Kenny Desai, owner of a New Jersey-based engineering firm and a prominent member of the Gujarati diaspora who had accompanied Bill Clinton during his India visit in 2000, says earlier Gujaratis would remain ambivalent and were loath to take political sides, a trend which is fast changing.
“We built businesses, brought families and settled here but remained active only as campaigners and fundraisers. It’s the new generation that is taking keen interest in electoral politics. The US currently has about 30-40 lakh Indian population with a sizable number of Gujaratis. The new generation is born and brought up here and is not inhibited,” said Desai. “I surely foresee a rise in their representation in time to come.”
Ram Gadhvi, founder of Gujarati Literary Academy of North America, said that politics is all about representation, and Gujaratis are now getting active with fielding candidates at all levels. “We may however have to wait for a few years to see how the trend continues. We have already seen a large number of Indian Americans at prominent positions in state and centre,” he said.
