Female Iraq War vet Tulsi Gabbard becomes first Hindu elected to Congress

Hawaii has made history electing America’s first ever Hindu to the House of Representatives.

Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, 31, defeated K. Crowley of the Republican Party by a strong margin in Hawaii’s second Congressional district.

She is also the first female combat veteran to serve in Congress.

It is thought that as a practising Hindu, Ms Gabbard is likely to take her oath over the sacred text for her religion – the Bhagavad Gita – rather than the Bible.

Proud of her Hindu religion, she is not Indian or of Indian heritage. Ms Gabbard was bo in American Samoa to a Catholic father - Hawaii State Senator Mike Gabbard - and a Hindu mother. She moved to Hawaii when she was two and fully embraced her religion as a teenager.

Ms Gabbard first ran for office at age 21 and then voluntarily served a 12-month tour of duty with Hawaii’s National Guard after her first term, and became the first woman in the history of the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy to be designated a ‘distinguished honor graduate’.

 

Sacred text: It is thought Tulsi Gabbard will say her oath over the Bhagavad Gita, the holy scripture of Hinduism

In 2004 she was deployed to Baghdad as a medical operations specialist and was deployed to Kuwait in 2008 to train the country's counter-terrorism units.

Her victory has been cheered by the Hindu-American community across the country.

She also hopes her faith will help to encourage stronger ties with India, where the majority of the population is Hindu.

'It is clear that there needs to be a closer working relationship between the United States and India. How can we have a close relationship if decision-makers in Washington know very little, if anything, about the religious beliefs, values, and practices of India's 800 million Hindus?' Ms Gabbard asked, according to the Religion News Service news agency.

Ms Gabbard said her faith helped her through Iraq, where there were daily reminders that she could be killed any time, according to the Huffington Post.

'First thing in the moing and the last thing at night, I meditated upon the fact that my essence was spirit, not matter, that I was not my physical body, and that I didn't need to worry about death because I knew that I would continue to exist and I knew that I would be going to God,' she said.

While the Democrat has welcomed Indian-American support, her campaign pointed out that their contributions account for less than three per cent of the total it has raised.

In a statement soon after her victory, Ms Gabbard said: 'On my last trip to the mainland, I met a man who told me that his teenage daughter felt embarrassed about her faith, but after meeting me, she's no longer feeling that way.

'He was so happy that my being elected to Congress would give hope to hundreds and thousands of young Hindus in America, that they can be open about their faith, and even run for office, without fear of being discriminated against or attacked because of their religion.’