A contrast of darkness and light: What it meant to celebrate Diwali at the White House

This week, within the space of twenty-four hours, I encountered two sharply divergent visions of the meaning of America. After presiding at Eucharist on Sunday, a part of my job as a priest, I was stuck in the chaos surrounding Madison Square Garden (MSG) just prior to Donald Trump’s now infamous rally. Protesters, barricaded streets, ambulances with sirens blazing but moving at a dead crawl — all this halted traffic and delayed my cab ride to catch a bus so that I could attend the White House Diwali celebration.

Little did I know that the chaos outside MSG would pale in comparison to the words that were being uttered within: everything from racist slurs against Puerto Ricans (Latinos more generally), to jokes about Black people and watermelons, to a crucifix-wielding firebrand who characterised Vice President Kamala Harris as “the devil” and “the Antichrist”, to senior political adviser Stephen Miller declaring that “America is for Americans and for Americans only” — all culminating in Trump’s own promises to engage in mass deportation.

The message that came through was loud and clear: immigrants of colour are in this country by white sufferance — a sufferance soon to be revoked when Trump resumes office. The dark irony of Vivek Ramaswamy, the son of an immigrant (as is Stephen Miller), cheerleading for mass deportation was unmissable, save perhaps to Ramaswamy himself.

^{Shrusti Amula, an Indian American youth activist, introduces US President Joe Biden at a reception in celebration of Diwali at the White House on 28 October 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)}

Then, little more than a day later, I stood in the East Room of the White House. The gathered assembly of South Asians dressed in our finest for Diwali, the Festival of Lights, defies description. “Bling” does not begin to capture the exuberant colours, the jewellery, and razzle dazzle of my people dolled up in celebration.

We heard moving speeches from distinguished Indians — including a message from the Indian-Slovene astronaut Sunita Williams (currently in the International Space Station), Indian American Georgetown student-activist Shrusti Amula, and America’s first Indian Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Dr Vivek Murthy.

^{Surgeon General Vivek Murthy delivers remarks as he helps to introduce US President Joe Biden at a reception in celebration of Diwali at the White House on 28 October 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)}

I’ve come to think of this contrast as a tale of two Viveks — a name, incidentally, which suggests piercing judgement and the capacity to see the true from the false. This Vivek, the nation’s doctor, spoke proudly of his family’s immigration journey and the welcome that President Joe Biden extended to his grandmother when Biden installed Murthy into office.

Biden, for his part, spoke from the heart and warmly opened the White House to some 700 people, largely of South Asian origin. He told us: “this is not my house. This is your house … It’s the People’s House.” I was deeply moved. The President went on to affirm:

[W]e’re unique in the world. We’re the only nation not based on race or religion or geography. America is based on an idea … The idea is that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all women and men are created equal. “Endowed by their Creator”, it said. We mean it …

This was no jingoistic celebration of American exceptionalism. Biden acknowledged:

We’ve never fully lived up to that [idea] … but we’ve never walked away from it either. That’s because of you and generations before you bringing thousands of years of heritage, tradition to give shape and meaning to American life.

Needless to say, the contrast between what took place inside Madison Square Garden and what was said in the White House could not have been starker. Biden articulated a vision for a multiracial and multi-religious America by welcoming Hindus, Sikhs and Jains — all communities that celebrate Diwali.

By contrast, under Trump, I am under no illusion that my citizenship papers and love for my adopted country protect me. It matters little that I came to this country as a child and can no longer call India home. In Trump’s America, the message comes through loud and clear: my skin colour matters more than my loyalty to our nation’s democratic creed.

^{US President Joe Biden delivers remarks at a reception in celebration of Diwali at the White House on 28 October 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)}

As an Indian Christian growing up in the United States, I learned to love Indian religious traditions in order to connect to a richer and broader sense of what it means to be Indian. In a happy irony, it was precisely because I was a nerdy Indian kid growing up in America that I was drawn to Indian traditions and to the work of inter-religious dialogue. I was never taught to believe that love for America should mean neglect of Indian wisdoms.

Because of that work, I know that the lights of Diwali represent truth, the Divine, the victory of justice over injustice, and the ultimate defeat of the forces of darkness and violence. President Biden had it exactly right when he spoke of South Asians bringing thousands of years of heritage to enrich the still very young American nation. Diwali traditions are part of that heritage.

A nation in which a naturalised immigrant is warmly welcomed to celebrate Diwali in the White House and invited to treat that place of quiet majesty as my own home — now that is a vision of America worth defending, and worth celebrating.

John Thatamanil is a theologian and Anglican priest. He is the author of Circling the Elephant: A Comparative Theology of Religious Diversity.