Pranav Jani is an associate professor in the Department of English at Ohio State University.
I wrote a Dispatch guest column last November about why progressives need to oppose racism against MAGA Hindus like Vivek Ramaswamy and Kash Patel even when we disagree with them.
Now, the day after Ramaswamy won the GOP primary for Ohio governor, I’ll explain why I oppose him not only as an Ohioan, but as an Indian American and Hindu.
Let’s take up the question of identity first.
There might be Indian American or Asian American Ohioans who voted for Ramaswamy because it is so rare for us to see someone from our communities in political leadership, especially at this level.
I get it. Especially if you see the same racism we face every day being directed at Ramaswamy.
But we need to look to what Ramaswamy actually stands for, not just his identity. The great African American writer Zora Neale Hurston put it this way: “All my skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.”
Ramaswamy doesn’t share our values
Many progressive Indians and South Asians are opposed to Ramaswamy because he doesn’t represent our values or our principles.
Vivek Ramaswamy is beholden to big corporations, far-right networks and the whims of President Donald Trump. He doesn’t represent ordinary Ohioans – and not even his own community.
As our communities are targeted by the racist and xenophobic policies of this administration, Ramaswamy aligns himself even more with Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
Ramaswamy associates with the Big Pharma C-suite, divisive far-right forces and tech oligarchs – not working Ohioans. He has openly supported divisive right-wing Hindu nationalists and repeatedly backed corporations over people – for far too long.
His campaign is bankrolled by the crypto industry. Ramaswamy’s record shows he will work for their benefit, not for ordinary Ohioans.
His campaign’s two largest donors in 2025 were Ross Stevens, a Bitcoin executive, who donated $14 million, and Jeff Yass, a major crypto investor, who donated $10 million to the PAC.
While working as co-lead of the Department of Government Efficiency, Ramaswamy publicly applauded newly introduced legislation that began to move parts of Ohio’s state money to a Bitcoin or “digital assets” reserve.
As governor of Ohio, Ramaswamy would have even more power. He would be able to shape how over $250 billion in public assets, like the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, is invested. In effect, Ramaswamy’s plan for governor would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in state assets to the crypto sector, risking taxpayer money.
Financial analyst Chris Tobe noted: “I fear Ramaswamy, who through Strive is connected to the entire network of high-risk investments including both crypto and private equity, could take the corruption to the next level.”
Ramaswamy’s many, many flags
Ramaswamy has repeatedly downplayed racism, spread his own racist rhetoric and denied the existence of White supremacy – even when he has been on the receiving end!
Ramaswamy knows, quite cynically, that being a person of color helps legitimize his denials of White supremacy in the US. Ramaswamy openly admitted to this strategy during his presidential race, saying that his brown skin and Hindu identity “puts me in a better position” to argue for conservative ideas “without anybody accusing me of being a Christian nationalist or whatever labels one might use.”
Ramaswamy thinks he’s a better messenger for what he calls “Judeo-Chistian values” than “someone who’s shy about it or feels pressure to apologize for it.”
Ramaswamy has also expressed similarly regressive views around caste, writing patronizingly about lower-caste workers in his 2021 book, “Woke, Inc.”
He has actively associated with Hindu supremacist groups in the United States – most notably the VHP of America, whose two affiliated advocacy wings have both hosted galas featuring Ramaswamy as keynote speaker, and whose leaders have deep ties with him, to the extent that Ramaswamy credited one of them with teaching him Hinduism.
Finally, Ramaswamy’s plans for centralizing and restructuring universities – a Big Government plan if I ever heard of one – shows very little understanding of how universities operate. Worse, it will shut down access of ordinary Ohioans to a well-rounded higher education.
We’re not Ramaswamy’s family
We are tired of right-wing politicians with Ivy League degrees (like I also have) saying to Ohioans that college doesn’t matter. Ramaswamy’s plan is an attack on working-class students, an excuse to fire faculty and an attack on the idea of education as a higher good.
The inefficiency at Ohio universities has partly been created by the conditions that politicians have created – like Senate Bill 1, which is not only a repressive law but a bureaucratic nightmare. Let’s not penalize working people by gutting higher education in the name of efficiency.
A famous verse from Hindu scriptures enjoins us to see “the world as one family” (Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam). Vivek Ramaswamy stands for a very different view of the world.
His pro-corporate policies, denial of racism, support for xenophobic policies and Hindu nationalism, and disregard for working Ohioans will lead to division and hierarchy, not unity and progress.
Speaking as an Indian American and a Hindu, as well as a professor at Ohio State who has worked with our students and communities for over 20 years, I refuse to give my support to such a politician, Indian or not.
Pranav Jani is an associate professor in the Department of English at Ohio State University.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: No way I’m voting for Ramaswamy. He’s skinfolk, but so not our kinfolk | Opinion
Reporting by Pranav Jani, Guest Columnist / The Columbus Dispatch
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