Every four years, on January 20, the incoming President of the United States takes an oath or affirmation on assuming official powers and duties. By tradition, Presidential oath administered by the US Chief Justice entails the individual raising their right hand and placing the left on a Bible saying, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”.
Given the Biblical usage, the Presidents typically close the oath with the customary expression, “So help me God”. The rare few, such as Quakers like Franklin Pierce and Herbert Hoover, chose to ‘affirm’ as opposed to take the ‘oath’.
Some like Thomas Jefferson, Calvin Coolidge, Theodore Roosevelt and John Quincy Adams did not use the Bible. Other than these, all partook in the swearing-in ceremony with unquestionable elements of biblical religiosity, even if they were to be on account of convention.
Such subliminal religiosity brings into question the validity of the Jeffersonian metaphor ‘Separation of church and state’, which essentially substantiates the American constitutional position (which explicitly states "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States") on freedom of speech.
It is important to recognise that while ‘natural-born citizen’ is a pre-qualification for the President’s office, their personal faith isn’t, supposedly. But reality is starkly different, as concerns about faith certainly abound.
Practically all US Presidents have been Christians, or its affiliates such as, Unitarian, and Quaker. Some Presidential candidates with mixed-race parentage, or of non-Christian faiths, such as Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Bobby Jindal or even Barack Obama, did face ‘concerns’ and clear headwinds from the electorate. This, even though Kamala, Bobby and Obama identify and describe themselves as Christians.
Now it is the turn of Vivek Ramaswamy, the rather voluble, accusatory, and shrilly enfant terrible from the Republican Party primaries. Despite his best efforts to ingratiate himself with the ‘redneck’-sensibilities of the Republican heartland, Ramaswamy is facing issues about his faith, Hinduism.
This is a bridge that hasn’t been crossed in US politics, especially within Republican ranks. According to Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) research, an estimated 84% of Republican cadres (in 2022) identify as Christians of varied denominations, as opposed to only 60% for Democrat cadres.
Expectedly, Ramaswamy’s non-Christian faith will be an underlying concern, irrespective of the combative, vitriolic and extremist position that he adopts to endear himself to the hard-right. A left handed compliment of Ramaswamy’s efficacy of his bitter campaign is the frequent endorsement by the unhinged Donald Trump (triggering talks of ultimately running as Trump’s Vice-Presidential candidate).
Expectedly, Ramaswamy attempted to deflect concerns by positing his ostensible honestly (alluding willy-nilly to the ‘dishonesty’ of others) by stating, “I am a Hindu. I won’t fake my identity. Hinduism and Christianity share the same value set in common”.
Ramaswamy’s attempts to contexualise the similarities between Christianity and Hinduism, and quote liberally from the Bible in his campaign were to assuage conservative concerns. He obviously makes no such comparative outreach with other faiths like Islam, as that wouldn’t suit his partisan spiel.
His no holds barred attack on the likes of Nikki Haley, implying that she converted to Christianity for political reasons, is from his playbook of slyly deflecting issues from himself, and emerging as the more honest contestant. While his anti-woke, anti-climate, anti-gender and anti-Covid rants appeal naturally to the illiberal and hardcore Republican cadres, his faith concern is not something that will be easily surmountable, even in the politics of the ‘land of the free’.
Given that Presidential elections have increasingly become the theatre of the absurd with personalised aspersions and antics by candidates, the best hope for Ramaswamy is to dial-up his theatrical performance and emerge as Trump-on-steroids, even with a brown skin!
His hustler act with egregious behaviour is made to entertain in its reality-TV format of celebrating vile (with conspiracy theories like calling the January 6 insurrection as an ‘inside job’ by ‘big tech’ etc.), but running the government is another matter, perhaps even for the majority of Republicans.
Faith still matters in the US narrative, as the highest-ranking Muslim in the US administration is Dilawar Syed (Republicans had blocked his appointment for two years), still only the Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration. Faith is a matter that was sought to derail Barack Obama’s campaign, just as it is getting questioned for Ramaswamy today.
The post-Obama era has seen the advent of Trump and Ramaswamy, who neither represent the lofty and dignified constitutionalist anchorage that politicians from both sides of the American partisan fence represented.
It is also starkly different from the US and Indian sensibilities that Obama had suggested in his address to people of India at the Sri Fort auditorium in 2015, “Our freedom of religion is written into our founding documents. It’s a part of America’s very first amendment. Your Article 25 says that all people are ‘equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion’. In both our countries, in all countries - upholding this fundamental freedom is the responsibility of the government, but it's also the responsibility of every person”.
Sadly, Obama’s view is not exactly flowering in either the politics of the United States or that of India, as religion and its divisive outcomes occupy the centre stage. Meanwhile right-wing practitioners like Ramaswamy ironically face the consequences of the same genie that they and their politics unleashed.
So, more likely than not, Ramaswamy will continue putting up a comical show and possibly aim to secure a Vice Presidential ticket, as that would be ‘selection’ (by the current frontrunner by a considerable distance i.e. Trump) and not ‘election’ by Republican voters. At the end of the day, even as many Republicans concede that on many issues, Trump is a bit of an idiot, but he is their own idiot.
This is accommodation that they may not afford on someone with a name like Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy. Religion regrettably still matters, everywhere.
Lt. Gen. Bhopinder Singh is the former Lieutenant Governor of The Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Pondicherry and an Indian Army officer who was awarded the PVSM. Views are the writer’s own.