US election: In Texas, Sufi music and Netflix celebrities part of move to get South Asians to vote

Kamala Harris’ bid for vice-president has energised South Asian-American voters, and at least four from the community running for office in Texas this year

Netflix celebrities including Houston native Aparna Shewakramani of Indian Matchmaking are engaging with millennials to get their support for Democrats

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Riyaaz Qawwali, which plays a form of Sufi Islam devotional music, is trying to convince South Asian voters in Harris County, Texas to head to the polls. Photo: Handout

Published: 5:00am, 16 Sep 2020Updated: 1:41pm, 16 Sep 2020

Ahead of the United States election on November 3, a group of musicians is hoping to use the power of song to motivate the South Asian-Americans of Harris County, Texas, to vote – specifically through qawwali, a form of Sufi Islam devotional music that harks back to the 13th century.

The songs aren’t peppy numbers instructing voters to go to polling places. According to lead singer and artistic director Sonny from the band Riyaaz Qawwali, they aim to provoke intellectual and spiritual conversations within the South Asian community on the importance of exercising their voting rights.

More than 5 per cent of Texas’ 29 million people trace their roots to Asia or the Pacific Islands, according to a Houston Public Media report – a voting bloc that has taken on a new significance with at least four South Asian-American candidates running for county, state and federal office in the Lone Star State this year.

Of Harris County’s 4.7 million people, about 2 per cent are of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan descent, according to estimates from Rice University’s Kinder Institute of Urban Research. The largest county in Texas, its administrative seat is the city of Houston.

Chanda Parbhoo – founder of South Asian Americans for Voter Education + Engagement + Empowerment, a progressive group spreading voting registration awareness among Texans of South Asian descent – said politics was not usually at the forefront of South Asian immigrants’ minds.

“Often, South Asians don’t feel that they are part of the system or their vote counts,” Parbhoo said. However, the selection of Senator Kamala Harris – a Democrat of Indian and Jamaican descent – as running mate for presidential candidate Joe Biden is seen as being likely to bring more South Asian voters to the polls.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris. Photo: AP