In 2021, Republican members of Congress formed the Congressional Hindu Caucus. For a community that had long gone unheard in Washington, it marked a turn: elected leaders organizing to listen, to build the US-India relationship, and to bring Hindu Americans into the mainstream of the party.
The Congressional Hindu Caucus is a group of members of the US House of Representatives who came together in November 2021 to give Hindu Americans a recognized presence on Capitol Hill. It was formed under the leadership of Representatives Pete Sessions, Chris Stewart, and Andy Biggs, and more than fifty House Republicans agreed to join at its formation. A congressional caucus is how members organize around a shared interest, coordinate, and signal that a community and its priorities are on their radar. For Hindu Americans, that recognition was a first of its kind.
The caucus was launched under three House Republicans: Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah, and Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona. They opened the door, and dozens of their colleagues walked through it. Membership in a caucus shifts over time as Congress changes, so the roster grows and evolves. What matters is the precedent these members set: an organized recognition that Hindu Americans are a community worth engaging, and worth hearing.
The caucus formed around two stated goals. The first is to integrate Hindu Americans into the mainstream of American politics and to give a voice to a community that had often been overlooked. The second is to promote a stronger alliance between the United States and India, two democracies whose partnership matters for a free and stable Indo-Pacific. Those goals line up closely with what our community has asked for over many years: to be seen, to be heard, and to help strengthen the bond between the country we call home and the country so many of us come from.
RHC was founded in 2015 to build a single, unified platform for Hindu Americans in Washington and across the country, and to bridge the community and Republican leaders. That work helped lay the groundwork the caucus was built on. We do not speak for Congress and we do not claim its decisions as our own. What we do is organize: we build relationships with members and their offices, we help constituents connect with the representatives who serve them, and we keep the community's priorities in front of the people who set the agenda. When Hindu Americans show up organized, informed, and united, the conversation changes. That is the coalition's job, and it is yours too.
Back the caucus and the coalition carrying it forward.
