A remark by US Vice-President J.D. Vance expressing hope that his Hindu wife might convert to Christianity has drawn sharp criticism in India, where commentators see it as a troubling signal ahead of his expected bid for the Republican Party’s 2028 presidential nomination.
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Speaking at the University of Mississippi last week, the vice-president said his children were being raised as Christians and that Second Lady Usha Vance also attended church with the family most Sundays.
“Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church? Yeah, I honestly do with that. Because I believe in the Christian gospel and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way,” he said.
Vance qualified his remarks, saying that even if his wife did not become a Christian, it would not cause any problems, adding that Usha did not grow up in a particularly religious family.
“In fact, when I met my wife … I would consider myself an agnostic or an atheist, that’s what she would have considered herself as well,” he said.
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Still, the suggestion that his wife might convert – and his apparent reluctance to publicly identify her religious background – struck a nerve in Hindu-majority India, where interfaith dynamics are often politically charged. Some critics have interpreted his comments as a move to court the conservative Christian base of US President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.