Two of the largest gatherings of Indian-Americans ever assembled for a foreign leader are sometimes conflated in casual conversation, but they were, in fact, two separate events, in two different American cities, five years apart. This article covers both clearly and distinctly.
Madison Square Garden, September 28, 2014
Modi’s first major U.S. diaspora rally took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City on September 28, 2014, roughly four months after he became Prime Minister and shortly after his debut address to the UN General Assembly that same week. According to TIME’s coverage of the event, over 18,000 people attended, nearly filling the arena to capacity, with more than 30,000 applicants having sought free tickets through a lottery, demand that far exceeded the venue’s actual seating. The event carried particular diplomatic significance because of Modi’s own history with the United States: in 2005, the George W. Bush administration had denied him a diplomatic visa over his role as Gujarat’s chief minister during the 2002 Gujarat riots, a visa ban that effectively barred him from the country for nearly a decade, making his 2014 arrival as a sitting Prime Minister a widely covered diplomatic reversal. Addressing the crowd, Modi told them, according to TIME, “Since taking over, I haven’t even taken a 15-minute vacation,” drawing loud cheers and underscoring the work-ethic branding that has run throughout his political career. Notable attendees included then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Bob Menendez and then-South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
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Howdy Modi, September 22, 2019, Houston
Nearly five years later, on September 22, 2019, Modi headlined a considerably larger and diplomatically distinct event: “Howdy, Modi!” at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, not Madison Square Garden, an important distinction since the two events are sometimes confused. Organised by the Texas India Forum, the event drew more than 50,000 registered attendees, according to widely reported figures at the time, and marked the first occasion a sitting U.S. president joined a rally for a foreign leader on American soil, with then-President Donald Trump appearing alongside Modi. Introducing Trump to the crowd, Modi said, according to Houston Public Media’s coverage, “I present to you my friend, a friend of India, a great American president, Mr. Donald Trump,” while Trump told the crowd, “With the help of Prime Minister Modi’s pro-growth reforms, India has lifted nearly 300 million people out of poverty.”
The Controversy Howdy Modi Generated
The Houston event drew a specific controversy the 2014 Madison Square Garden rally had not: attendees were heard chanting “Abki baar, Trump sarkar,” meaning “this time, a Trump government,” directly echoing Modi’s own 2014 campaign slogan “Abki Baar Modi Sarkar.” Opposition parties in India, including Congress, criticised this as Modi effectively campaigning for a foreign leader’s re-election, a breach of the normal diplomatic convention against a foreign leader appearing to endorse another country’s domestic electoral politics. The event also drew organised protests, with reporting citing roughly 12,000 demonstrators outside the venue, occurring roughly six weeks after India’s August 2019 revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status, with protesters specifically raising concerns about Kashmir’s autonomy and the treatment of religious minorities.
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Why the Distinction Between the Two Events Matters
Beyond simply avoiding a factual mix-up, the differences between the two events reflect a genuine shift in Modi’s diplomatic standing and the political context surrounding him: the 2014 Madison Square Garden rally was a first-term honeymoon-period event with no foreign head of state present and no significant organised protest, largely covered as a story about the Indian-American community’s political “arrival” and Modi’s own personal diplomatic rehabilitation after the 2005 visa denial, while the 2019 Houston event, occurring during his second term, combined an unprecedented joint appearance with a sitting U.S. president with organised protests tied to a specific, recent, and contested policy decision, illustrating how the scale and controversy surrounding his diaspora events grew alongside his own political standing.
Bottom Line
Modi’s Madison Square Garden rally, held September 28, 2014, in New York, and the separate “Howdy, Modi!” event at NRG Stadium in Houston on September 22, 2019, are frequently conflated but were distinct occasions five years apart: the first drew roughly 18,000 people in a first-term diplomatic-rehabilitation moment with no foreign head of state present, while the second drew over 50,000 people, marked the first time a sitting U.S. president joined a rally for a foreign leader on American soil, and generated organised protests and domestic Indian political criticism over the “Abki Baar Trump Sarkar” chant, reflecting how the scale and controversy of Modi’s diaspora events evolved considerably between his first and second terms.
Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available event records and news reports listed below. It is written for general informational purposes and does not represent an official statement from the Government of India or the government of the United States.
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