Is Ro Khanna Indian? Religion & Family Background Of US Representative From California

Ro Khanna is of Indian heritage, born to an Indian Punjabi family on September 13, 1976, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

In the 1970s, both his parents immigrated to the United States from India in search of a better life for their children.

Further, the politician is an Indian-American, a Punjabi-American, and a practicing Hindu American. His commitment and dedication to public service were inspired by his grandfather, who was active in Gandhi's movement for independence, spent several years in jail for promoting human rights and freedom, and further worked with Lala Lajpat Rai in India.

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From 2004 to 2009, Ro worked as an attorney at O'Melveny & Myers, representing technology corporations on intellectual property and trade secret issues. President Barack Obama appointed him as deputy assistant secretary of the United States Department of Commerce in 2009.

During his time, he led international trade missions and worked extensively to increase United States exports. Later, he got appointed to the White House Business Council. In August 2011, he resigned from the Department of Commerce and joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a law firm in the United States.

Khanna's pro bono legal project includes work with the Mississippi Center for Justice on different contractor fraud issues on behalf of Hurricane Katrina victims. He also co-authored an amicus brief, an individual or organization not a party to a legal matter to the US Supreme Court in Mt. Holly's case to permit race discrimination suits under the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Ro Khanna describes his faith as "Gandhian Hinduism." He follows the Hindu religion and is of South Asian ethnicity. He was born in Philadelphia with the name Rohit Khanna during America's bicentennial to a middle-class family who immigrated to the US from India in the 1970s searching for opportunity.

In 1994, Ro graduated from Council Rock High School, a public school located in Newtown, Bucks County. He was enrolled at the University of Chicago and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1998. In the university, he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the United States.

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He further earned a Juris Doctor in 2001 from Yale Law School of Yale University. Upon graduation, he clerked for federal appeals judge Morris Sheppard Arnold, a Senior United States Circuit Judge, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He specialized in intellectual property law in private practice.

Before serving in Congress, Rep. Ro taught economics at Stanford University, American Jurisprudence at San Francisco State University, and law at Santa Clara University. He is also the author of the book "Entrepreneurial Nation: Why Manufacturing is Still Key to America's Future."

In 2012, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Rep. Khanna to the California Workforce Investment Board. He committed to the board of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte from 2006 to 2013 while on leave for the Obama administration. He left Wilson Sonsini for his first unsuccessful campaign for California's 17th congressional district seat in 2014.

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Khanna got defeated by the incumbent, Mike Hondo, but gained substantial support from the Silicon Valley tech industry. He then became Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Smart Utility Systems. In 2016, he rechallenged Mike and, this time defeated him with significant support from tech corporations and venture capital firms.

Ro Khanna's parents are Indian Punjabi who immigrated to the United States from Punjab, India. His father graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the University of Michigan and is a chemical engineer. Talking about his loving mother, she is a former schoolteacher.

His maternal grandfather, Amarnath Vidyalankar, was from Bhera City, Shahpur District, Punjab Province, British India, now Bhera, Sargodha District, West Punjab, Pakistan. He was a part of the Indian independence movement and had worked with Lala Lajpat Rai, an Indian author, politician, and freedom fighter.

He is a glad occupant of Fremont, California, and married to a fellow Indian-American, Ritu Khanna. The loving couple is blessed with two exceptional children. His wife, Ritu, is the daughter of Mura Holdings, an investment firm chairman. He is also the chief executive of Transmaxx, a known automotive transmission parts supplier in Solon, Ohio.

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In June 2015, Ro announced his candidacy for the House in California's 17th congressional district. He accepted no donations from corporations or PACs for his 2016 campaign. 

He successfully raised $480,500 from individuals associated with the securities and investment industry. He further raised $170,752 from individuals related to the electronics manufacturing industry.

On June 7, 2016, he won the primary with 52,059 (39.1%) votes. He held his first town hall as a congressman on February 22, 2018, at Ohlone College. 

He officially joined the Justice Democrats on May 10, 2017, and is a member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.