Abstract This study explores how four prominent Indian American Republican leaders: Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Kash Patel, and Harmeet Dhillon navigate and represent their ethnic, religious, and immigrant identities within a party shaped by conservative and assimilationist norms, and the strategies they employ to downplay their differences with conservative ideologies while reinforcing their alignment with conservatism. Using Postcolonial Theory and DesiCrit, this qualitative, multiple case study examines their rhetorical and visual strategies, speeches, debates, interviews, news, and imagery. The analysis uncovers patterns of representation and ideological framing that these leaders use to mobilize or erase ethnic and cultural identities. Findings indicate that while these figures project racial diversity, their calibrated performances rarely disrupt dominant power structures, exposing the paradox of representation in conservative politics. This inquiry foregrounds the conditional nature of inclusion and the constraints placed on racialized subjects within systems that remain tethered to normative whiteness and Christian hegemony.
Madhavi Tandon (2026) studied this question.