Yes and yes. Although as my co-worker points out (she is a skeptic), "They are liberal in the U.S. where they are outnumbered. Then they preach tolerance. But they don't preach tolerance at home, where they are the majority." The "they" being "Hindu Indians." She's not talking about all Indians, but the ones who self-identify as Hindu.
Definitely true. And "they" carries a pretty flexible definition. There are steep divisions by class/caste, ethnicity/dialect, southern/northern even within Hindus. There are ethnic stereotypes within India the way Europeans have stereotypes about Russians, Irish, Italians, etc. Then add Sikhs, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists, Assyrian Catholics, Roman Catholics and some Evangelical Christians to the mix. There is often a deep suspicion that runs between all of the subgroups. Indians self-stereotype themselves as being judgmental as hell. Status denotes what you can do for someone else and what they can do for you in exchange. In less developed countries, status is extremely valuable. There are also some big distinctions between the typical Indian living in India and those who have the means (and choose) to immigrate to North America. People with the means (financial and social) to immigrate, regardless of their choice to immigrate or not, tend to be similar to limousine liberals. But those who choose to immigrate are more likely to be more open minded/adventurous. So the people here aren't representative of people in India. Most Hindu Indians will self identify as Hindu, but it's used much more loosely than religious self-identification is used here among Christians. Kind of like Jewish people. Parental dating preferences for kids is informative wrt how Hindu-Indians here tend to show tolerance/bigotry. I won't get into the hierarchy in detail, but you can tell a lot about how tolerant particular families are by looking at who the American-born kids in their 20s-40s are married to. Or how old the women are when they get married. Or if they hang out with any Muslim-Hindu mixed marriage couples. You'll generally find that the most socially conservative families will have children who marry not only other Hindu Indians, but also within the same ethnic/linguistic group and within the same economic/social layer. I was friends with a Punjabi professional class caste woman for many years and you would have thought it was a scandal among her family. They were a mess. My wife's family are Brahmin Tamils. Tamils are admired for scientific/social/intellectual contributions but they tend to be looked down upon by northern Indians. Her family has a hell of a lot more social capital than my close Punjabi friend. Yet all of the American borns (10 of them including cousins) are married to non-Indians, who themselves come from pretty diverse backgrounds.
Actually, to me, with the exception of Biden and Yang, and to a lesser extent, Inslee, just about all of them are trying to differentiate themselves from Sanders. Warren has the long experience. Harris is a prosecutor/debater, Buttigeig is youngerst, Yang looks at things differently, almost economicall. Inslee looks at everything through the lens of Climate Change. Biden is more centrist. But even then, there is nuanced differences form Sanders that many have which don't make good sound bites. So the basic policies are out there and the effort now is how to get noticed. Harris so far has had the most defining moment, but has not really been able to back it up.