Surge in anti-Indian hate should come as no surprise – it has deep, racist roots
Most Indians may not know this, but Indians have, for decades, been special targets of racist movements which are now resurgent across much of the Western world. In light of this, it is necessary to understand the most significant and unifying framework animating white nationalist movements: the Great Replacement Theory.
It claims that white populations are being deliberately “replaced” by nonwhite people through immigration and differential birth rates. Which country currently has the most emigrants abroad (18 million as of 2020; the next highest is Mexico at 11 million) and which produces the most children every year (22 million-23 million)? India. This fact is not lost on white nationalists.
One influential text for white nationalists – a 1973 novel called Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail – explicitly portrays Indians as invading hordes coming to take over Europe. This novel has been praised by far-right figures such as Steve Bannon in the US, Marine Le Pen in France and Viktor Orbán in Hungary.
The novel describes Indians as misshapen, filthy creatures who are “shit-skinned” and “turd eaters,” who commit rampant incest. The book also targets Indians from the oppressed castes, showing the enduring fascination of racists worldwide with the caste system.
Those themes are now being repeated online to explicitly make the argument that Indians...
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