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As a child growing up in New York City in the 1970s, I was the only non-Catholic in a church-run school on the Upper East Side. It was mandatory to attend church every morning before classes began. Soon I was totally conversant with every aspect of Catholic rites and liturgy and still remember most of the hymns. My parents were asked if they wanted me to skip church attendance; they saw nothing wrong with their daughter starting the day by remembering God—any God. I joined a Catholic girls school when we returned to India too. Church attendance was not mandatory for non-Christians at that school, but I would invariably take a detour through the adjoining cathedral before going to class. I have many icons of Mary and baby Jesus in my home and Christmas trees remain an important tradition for me. Yet I am a devout Shakta Hindu, with nary a waver in my faith no matter how deeply I was immersed in Christian customs as a child. Most people don’t understand that we Hindus are the most ecumenical people in the world. We can be part of any religious ceremony in the world without weakening our own faith and belief or belittling that of others. We appreciate others’ gospels as corroborations of the timeless and universal truths of our own ancient scriptures and pray in any house of worship without fear of offending our own gods and goddesses. So, JD Vance knows Usha will never convert. Unless she does so to help him win the MAGA vote in a future Presidential run or quell the hurtful and ignorant comments from all sides of the ideological divide in the US. Hindus, after all, are also very pragmatic people. Many converted to several other faiths including Christianity in preceding centuries for political and economic reasons but never stopped believing in our traditional deities privately even as they went through the motions of following their new religion. Most Hindus are very secure in their faith and know they do not need to reaffirm their allegiance with congregational devotion unlike the Abrahamic religions. Attending temples is not de rigeur, nor are there mandatory rituals. Being Hindu is essentially a fact of birth not baptism; only Brahmin boys have some rites of passage. For the rest, being Hindu is whatever they want it to be. So, there is no point in sparring over whether Usha’s parents are observant Hindus or not. They can be believers without ritualism, without ever entering a temple. And those brought up in the Abrahamic faiths will never be able to understand that even agnostics and atheists are not considered beyond the pale by Hindus. There is no hellfire and damnation, no single path to God either. It is so liberating and ‘broadchurch’ that it would be beyond the comprehension of even the clergy of other faiths, much less the average Bible-thumping MAGA supporters. However, that would (and must) have been anticipated by the Vances before they took the plunge with Donald Trump to fashion a new America. Usha would have known that every aspect of their private lives would be under minute and probably hostile scrutiny, including her race and religious beliefs—or lack of them—from both their own party and the opposition, given how deeply vitiated American politics is right now. What is happening now should not surprise anyone. It is useful to remember that political couples are not exactly the same as ordinary folks; they are a team with a deep understanding of their common and individual goals. And they are generally primed to understand and withstand external pressures on their marriage and mutual commitments. Relationships do break up—most recently those of Justin Trudeau and Giorgia Meloni—but political couples tend to stick together, like the Kennedys, Clintons and Trumps. The Vances are going through their first genuine firestorm and there are no bets on what will happen. And social media plays an egregious role in exacerbating potential fracture points. In this case, it is Vance’s allegedly “creepy” embrace of MAGA icon Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika at a recent event. She is the darling of the evangelical Christian backbone of the MAGA movement and there is predictable speculation that their common beliefs will bring them closer. There is little doubt Vance’s supposed admission that he hoped one day his wife would follow the religion he and their children practice was an overture to the conservative Christian MAGA base. Usha and JD must have discussed threadbare that aspect of the current US vote bank long before this moment as they clearly do not want his political career to be limited to his current position as No 2. They must have anticipated intense MAGA pressure for her to convert as well. The only unexpected variable in this scenario is the advent of the blonde Erika Kirk as the poster girl of the Christian Right in place of her recently assassinated husband Charlie. She is currently riding high on the sympathy wave and probably has larger political ambitions. She may even regard JD Vance as the next best bet for the Religious Right now, but does that make them a potential MAGA super-couple, with Usha conveniently cast aside as the dispensable heathen? Opinion is free—and cheap. Everyone on social media can and will have their say, without a thought to the consequences on spouses and families. Or perhaps they do it (and are encouraged to do so) with precisely that intention, with religion offering an easy catalyst. If Usha’s faith indeed becomes a reason to split the growing MAGA base that has coalesced around Donald Trump’s refashioned Republican Party, there would be many smiling faces in political circles. In the super-charged world of media and politics, it is often hard to separate fact from motivated fiction. Social media also provides megaphones to the worst voices. Supremely intelligent women like Usha may also find it difficult to maintain an even keel in such circumstances. Especially as there are too many examples of power warping even the best people. Having faith—in their different Gods of course, but especially in each other—is paramount for the Vances. The author is a freelance writer. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
