In 1947, the puppet show Howdy Doody popularized the phrase “peanut gallery” for the TV age. Originally a vaudeville term, the “peanut gallery” referred to the cheap seats, from which dissatisfied audience members could throw peanuts at bad performers. Howdy Doody softened the term, using it to describe the live studio audience of children who generally cheered and followed the instructions of the show’s host. The peanut gallery would sing the Howdy Doody theme song, as well as commercial jingles for the show’s sponsors, including Colgate and Wonder Bread.

In 2019, just a few days ago in fact, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi played a starring role in “Howdy, Modi,” a rally that attracted tens of thousands to the Houston Texans’ football stadium. Perhaps the organizers, a group called the Texas India Forum, were not consciously referring to the puppet when they came up with their name, but the crowd they assembled was a peanut gallery in the mildest, most welcoming Howdy Doody sense — cheering for Modi, bursting into applause, and repeating his name over and over.

Modi, with his muscular projection of Indian nationalism, is popular with large segments of the Indian diaspora. That diaspora has been one of the major funders of Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the interconnected set of Hindu nationalist organizations that have supported the BJP’s rise, particularly the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In the Indian elections earlier this year, which put the BJP back in power with an increased majority, the Indian diaspora played a major role in fundraising and promoting Modi. The Houston rally was a continuation of the mutual love fest between the prime minister and his diasporic fans.