Indian Ambassador to Ireland slams biased media coverage after an Indian man faces a racist attack: How online hate fuels racism against Indians, especially Hindus

A grievous assault on a man of Indian origin in Tallaght, Dublin, has triggered diplomatic outrage and rekindled global conversations about rising racism against Indians, particularly Hindus, in the West. While the attack itself was disturbing, what sparked further indignation was how Irish mainstream media chose to report the incident.

Instead of unequivocally condemning the brutality, reports used language that cast doubt on the nature of the crime, referring to it as an “alleged assault” despite the visible and horrific injuries sustained by the victim. This minimisation of violence, which bore all the hallmarks of a racially motivated hate crime, was called out in strong terms by the Indian Ambassador to Ireland, Akhilesh Mishra.

Ambassador Mishra’s comments came with images of news reports that chose to cast doubt over the victim’s trauma, a strategy not unfamiliar to those tracking media narratives targeting Hindus globally. In doing so, Mishra highlighted an uncomfortable truth: that certain Western media institutions would rather gaslight Indian victims than confront the racial or ideological motivations behind such hate crimes.

The incident: A false accusation, brutal assault, and media whitewashing

The Indian man, who had arrived in Ireland just three weeks earlier, was assaulted and partially stripped in public in Tallaght on Saturday evening, July 19. According to The Irish Times, a mob confronted the man and falsely accused him of acting inappropriately around children, claims that were later disseminated online as part of a digital witch-hunt.

Irish police (Gardaí) have since confirmed that no evidence exists to support the accusations, yet the man was violently attacked, left bleeding, and taken to Tallaght University Hospital with serious injuries. Gardaí are now investigating the case as a possible hate crime, and there is speculation that the attack was racially motivated.

Local councillor Baby Pereppadan (Fine Gael) visited the victim and said he remains in shock and is not taking visitors. “Small incidents like these are happening frequently in Tallaght,” he warned, urging stronger police deployment in the area.

Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe condemned the mob action as “vile and utterly unacceptable.” “Anyone who thinks this sort of mindless, racist violence makes their community safer is lying and fooling no one. This is not the first such attack in our area but it has to be the last,” he said.

A pattern of dehumanisation: Global racism targeting Hindus

While people of colour, especially Africans and South-East Asians, have long faced discrimination in the West, the treatment meted out to Indians, and Hindus in particular, reveals a unique and consistent pattern of prejudice. Hindus are not just exoticised or mocked; they are systematically demonised, dehumanised, and often blamed for the crimes of their persecutors.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the disturbing trends on social media platforms where Hindu identity, symbols, and customs are routinely mocked with impunity.

From derogatory “cow piss” jibes to offensive caricatures of Hindu deities, the Hinduphobia is not just a cultural issue; it is a civilisational struggle where polytheistic traditions and Sanatan values are targeted by both far-left ideologues and right-wing supremacists, particularly in the West.

One need only look at the case of Stew Peters, a self-styled “America First” commentator who in 2024 described Hindus as “dot-headed cockroaches,” falsely alleging that Indians smear cow dung on their faces. Or Laura Loomer, who launched a xenophobic tirade against Indian-American Sriram Krishnan following his appointment to a senior AI policy position at the White House, calling Indians “third-world invaders.”

The vitriol extended far beyond individuals. Hindu deities like Maa Kali and Lord Ganesha were called “supervillains,” “demonic,” and “unfit for a first-world Christian country.” These sentiments are not just isolated outbursts but part of a coordinated campaign to otherise and vilify the Hindu community, especially those living proudly and unapologetically in the diaspora. 

And this bigotry is undergirded by latent racism against Indians, particularly Hindus, and it rises to the surface every now and then, in both physical and psychological form —from attacking them literally as witnessed in Dublin to more sophisticated forms of assault — Hindumisic conferences organised in western universities that serve to legitimise such racism and give way to its more dangerous siblings, bigotry and dehumanisation.

The “Dismantling Global Hindutva” Conference: Institutionalised hatred of Hindus

Perhaps the most blatant example of institutionalised Hinduphobia came in the form of the “Dismantling Global Hindutva” conference held in September 2021. Sponsored by over 60 academic departments from 45+ universities, primarily in the United States, the three-day event brought together some of the most vocal and virulent anti-Hindu activists in academia and media.

The speakers list read like a who’s who of Hindumisia, including Audrey Truschke, Anand Patwardhan, Nandini Sundar, and Neha Dixit, individuals known for drawing false equivalences between Hindutva and Nazism. Ironically, the event’s poster depicted an inverted hammer violently uprooting a saffron-clad RSS Swayamsevak, a visual metaphor for the organised dismantling of Hindu civilisational identity.

The hammer, disguised as a pencil, was meant to portray “academic critique,” but its Nazi-esque symbolism mirrored the Röhm Putsch imagery of Nazi propaganda, where ‘eliminating violent elements’ was used to justify political murders. In this case, the target wasn’t a rogue militia. It was a symbolic attack on Hindus who dare to be assertive about their culture and beliefs.

The points of discussion during the conference followed a classic Goebbelsian propaganda template: select a few emotive triggers, repeat them endlessly, and cast your enemies as the threat to civilisation. It’s a strategy that paves the way for dehumanisation and, eventually, justifies violence.

The RSS or other Hindu organisations targeted aren’t paramilitary thugs. They are groups that aid flood victims, rescue women from trafficking, or assist during pandemics, tasks most self-proclaimed ‘liberal saviours’ wouldn’t touch. So why label them “militant”?

Because self-defence, cultural reclamation, and Hindu unity threaten the ideological monopoly of Islamists, Marxists, and global evangelists.

Research reveals a disturbing surge in Hinduphobic slurs and hate speech across social media platforms

A comprehensive 2023 study by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) lends credence to Mishra’s concerns. The report, ‘Quantitative Methods for Investigating Anti-Hindu Disinformation’, found a sharp rise in derogatory and genocidal content targeting Hindus across platforms like 4Chan, Telegram, Gab, and Twitter. These include memes and slurs such as “pajeet”, a racial epithet used to mock and dehumanise Hindus, alongside visual propaganda depicting Hindu symbols like tilaks and saffron clothing being subjected to ISIS-style beheadings or Nazi-style executions. The analysis also showed that the usage of such coded hate terms surged dramatically around key geopolitical events involving India, indicating coordinated disinformation efforts.

Perhaps most alarmingly, the NCRI discovered that Iranian state-sponsored troll networks were deeply involved in disseminating Hinduphobic content, often under fake Pakistani identities. These accounts strategically amplified hashtags and tropes accusing Hindus of genocide, inflaming caste divisions, and misrepresenting communal incidents like the 2020 Delhi riots. The trolls pretended to be human rights activists while tagging major news outlets like CNN and MSNBC to internationalise their narrative. This manipulation of digital platforms for geopolitical ends shows that Hinduphobia is not merely social bigotry; it is being weaponised as a tool of hybrid warfare.

The incident in Dublin, therefore, is not just a case of individual victimisation, it is a symptom of a transnational campaign to dehumanise Hindus in both physical and ideological realms. The assault, followed by media whitewashing, echoes the same patterns identified in the NCRI report: digital dehumanisation leading to real-world violence. Mishra’s remarks, then, are not only a defence of one man’s dignity but a broader call to recognise and confront the systemic erasure of Hindu identity under the guise of liberal tolerance.

From Anti-CAA protests to Digital pogroms

The dehumanisation of Hindus gained major momentum during the anti-CAA protests in India. Posters morphed the sacred Om into Nazi swastikas, women wearing bindis were portrayed as oppressors, and slogans like “Hinduon se Azadi” (Freedom from Hindus) echoed across protest sites. The song “Jab sab but tod diye jaayenge, bas Allah ka naam rahega” (“When all idols are broken, only Allah’s name shall remain”) was not fringe. It was mainstream. And it was celebrated.

This same contempt now fuels the global narrative, where being a proud Hindu in the West is considered an act of aggression, and where Indian immigrants are seen not as contributors, but cultural contaminants.

Are Hindus “invading” the West?

Contrary to the far-right and leftist narrative, Hindus aren’t flooding Western countries. As per Pew Research (2024):

Hindus make up only 5% of the global migrant population. Though 94% of Hindus live in India, only 57% of global Hindu migrants are from India. In contrast, Christians form 47% and Muslims 29% of global migrants.

The “Hindu invasion” is a myth, an imaginary construct, a bogeyman to manufacture hate.

From Dublin to Dismantling Hindutva: A global war on Hindus?

The Dublin assault and its casual dismissal by mainstream media is more than just a reporting failure. It is a symptom of a larger disease — a civilisational bias against Hindus that spans continents, cultures, and ideologies.

From hate crimes on the streets of Ireland and America to academic witch hunts like Dismantling Global Hindutva, Hindus today are not just being targeted physically, but also intellectually, politically, and spiritually.

Ambassador Akhilesh Mishra’s tweet is not just a diplomatic protest; it is a call to wake up. To recognise that being Hindu, wearing saffron, reciting shlokas, or simply existing unapologetically, is enough to be branded a target.

The question is no longer whether Hindus are being demonised. The question is: How long will we pretend that it’s not happening?

How online hatred fuels real-world attacks on Indians and Hindus

The Tallaght assault is a chilling reminder that online hate doesn’t just remain on the internet, it metastasizes into real-world violence.

In this case, false accusations against the Indian victim were first circulated online, accusing him of inappropriate behaviour near children. These baseless claims spread like wildfire on local WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages, ultimately emboldening a mob to hunt him down, strip him, beat him, and leave him bleeding on the street.

This incident mirrors a disturbing trend: social media platforms have become hotbeds for anti-Indian and anti-Hindu bigotry, often driven by coordinated misinformation campaigns and algorithmic amplification of hate.

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