Do hyphenated Americans have to reject their heritage to be successful politicians?

It is interesting that the two most successful Indian-American politicians, Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, and Nikki Haley, probably next governor of South Carolina, felt compelled to change both name (from Piyush to Bobby and Nimrata to Nikki) and religion (from Hindu to Roman Catholic and Sikh to Methodist). Was this a wish to seem more "American," or simple happenstance. I find it sad that they felt comfortable in walking away from their cultural and religious heritages.