‘Indians destroyed wildlife in Canada and US’, ‘Diwali is demon worship’: How blatant Hinduphobia and false vilification is being normalised by Christian extremists in the West
Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights and triumph of good over evil, was celebrated across many countries in the world this year. The celebration illuminated the world with lights, positivity, and joy. However, amidst the Diwali festivities in the US, Christian extremists resorted to vilifying the Hindu festival as “demonic” and slandering those partaking in it. Out of nowhere, Indians have also been accused of ‘destroying’ wildlife in the US and Canada.
On 20th October, Kash Patel, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director and a Hindu by faith, wrote a harmless X post wishing everyone a happy Diwali. However, this did not go well with Christian delusionists, who found it inappropriate that a Hindu of Indian origin not only has reached the top echelon of American power but also dared to unapologetically celebrate his religious festival.
“Happy Diwali – celebrating the Festival of Lights around the world, as good triumphs over evil. A very Happy Diwali to all,” Patel wrote.
“Sir, please don’t promote the festivals of foreign gods in America,” one X user replied.
Another one wrote, “How about no. In America we are Christian.”
One X user went a step ahead and called for the deportation of all Indian-American Hindus from the US. “I want to live in America, not India. We need to deport all Hindus.”
A “very catholic” woman labelled Hindus as “false god worshippers” as if she has regular meetings with Jesus. “My politics is whatever gets pagan demon false god worshipers out of all leadership roles in our country. Diwali involves the worship of false gods and invites the presence and blessing of these demon gods. Lights are ceremonially lit to invoke the goddess of wealth,” the X user wrote.
Meanwhile, a right-wing YouTuber wrote, “Go back home and worship your sand demons. Get out of my country.”
Another one labelled Hindu deities as “demons” and asserted that “America wasn’t founded to protect or promote demonic worship like this and it has no place here.”
One Bradley Pierce responded to Patel’s post and wrote, “Celebrating the worship of false gods provokes the righteous judgment of Christ upon our land.”
Similar hateful and racist ‘deport Hindus’ and ‘Christ is God’ sort of comments and quotes have been flooded by Christian supremacists in response to the US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard’s Diwali post. One X user wrote, “Diwali is un-American. Move to India.” Several others replied, “Not My GOD!” with middle finger emoticons. Some called the post “gross”, while others called for Gabbard’s deportation.
Another ‘America First’ activist called the Trump administration a “joke” as US President Donald Trump celebrated Diwali in the White House along with prominent Hindu Americans.
Meanwhile, Rift TV’s CEO Elijah Schaffer called Hinduism a “demon religion” and wrote, “Thank you to all our politicians wishing us a happy day to celebrate a demon religion Diwali Nothing is better than having our elected & appointed officials celebrate demonic anti-Christian culture This is what our founding fathers wanted That’s why they died for us.”
Indians poaching wildlife in Canada and America: A New absurd addition to the anti-India online hate campaign
Besides hating on Diwali and demonising Hindus, American Christian racists demonstrated their clownery by claiming that Indians come to America and Canada to “poach the wildlife”.
“Indians come to America and Canada and poach the wildlife. The only wildlife left in India is rats and cockroaches. They will do this to North America if they stay here long enough,” an X user wrote.
In a subsequent post, he wrote, “If Indians can catch it with their hands and eat it, it’s gone. Sorry India, frogs and “wild tigers” don’t count.”
His factually incorrect and absolutely vile post got community-noted in no time.
“India ranks among the top globally for wildlife, as one of 17 megadiverse countries with 7.6% of mammal and 14.7% of amphibian species. Home to over 70% of wild tigers, it excels in conservation with 1,022 protected areas,” the community note read.
Several X users also schooled the racist buffoon about the damage historically inflicted by White men on global wildlife.
One Megan Basham with over 1,80,000 followers on X, cried hoarse that US federal offices are honouring Hindu deities even as America is rooted in “Christian culture”.
“If you as a Christian do not feel some pain at the thought of your nation, once firmly grounded in Christian culture, now witnessing federal government offices honoring Krishna, Kali, and Lakshmi, and telling you you must welcome giant golden monkey gods on the Houston horizon, then I think you have a lot more Bible reading to do,” Basham wrote.
Normalisation of Hinduphobia and India hate in the name of protecting the ‘sanctity’ of the imaginary ‘Christian nation’ of America
Interestingly, Christian extremists claim that America is a Christian nation. However, the American Constitution does not say so. The American Constitution separates church from the state. It states the US is a secular nation.
The blatant outpour of hatred for Hindus and Indians from the American right wing, particularly White Christian supremacists, is not surprising; rather, it is a mere continuation of the ongoing trend of normalising Hinduphobia.
In a recent exposé, it emerged that the leaders of a Republican Party-affiliated group, Young Republicans, exchanged racist, anti-India, anti-Black, pro-Nazi, and homophobic messages in a Telegram group chat. From furthering hygiene stereotypes against Indians to suggesting that Indians are not trustworthy, the Republican leaders of the now-disbanded group demonstrated how India-hate has been normalised in the American political circle.
Racism against Asians, Indians and particularly Hindus is being normalised in the US. From the H1-B visa debate to Diwali celebrations, White racists and Christian supremacists are vilifying Indians and Hindus as some sort of existential threat to American values and the country’s imaginary ‘Christian nation’ status.
Last year, JD Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, a Hindu by religion and a daughter of Indian immigrants, was subjected to racist and Hinduphobic attacks from White Christian supremacists who mostly are Republican Party supporters. Vance was also called names for marrying an Indian Hindu ‘heathen’.
Earlier, American commentator and author Ann Coulter told Vivek Ramaswamy on his podcast that she wouldn’t have voted for him because he is an Indian. On numerous occasions, during his stint for the Presidential nomination bid from the Republican Party, he had to face questions on Hinduism. Even a patriot like Tulsi Gabbard has been attacked for her Hindu faith and Indic roots. Kash Patel was condemned by the same racist lot for taking his oath to office as FBI director on the sacred Hindu scripture, the Bhagwat Geeta.
Ron DeSantis, the Florida Governor and Republican leader, earlier dismissed Indian tech workers as a “cottage industry” scam. His remarks added fuel to the MAGA narrativ,e which portrays Indians as ‘job-stealing invaders’. His anti-H1-B rhetoric has added to online racist attacks on Indian-Americans, Indians and Hinduism. OpIndia reported earlier on how the debate around H1-B visas and highly-skilled Indians using the same to explore career opportunities in the US snowballed into a full-fledged anti-India and anti-Hindu campaign.
Recently, Alexander Duncan, a Texas GOP official, demanded the removal of an idol of Lord Hanuman from public space, calling the Hindu deity a “false God.” In an X post published on 20th September, Duncan shared a video showcasing the 90-foot-tall statue of Lord Hanuman installed in the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple in the town of Sugar Land, Texas, and wrote, “Why are we allowing a false statue of a false Hindu God to be here in Texas? We are a CHRISTIAN nation!”
Donald Trump’s Trade Adviser, Peter Navarro, who Trump has unleashed as his attack dog to vilify India over its Russian oil purchases, resorted to slandering the Brahmin community. In an interview with Fox News, Navarro invoked caste and accused the Brahmins of India of “profiteering at the expense of the Indian people.”
From using fake caste-discrimination narrative to villainise Hindus in American universities, bringing up SB-403-like outrageous caste bills, relying on fake litigations like the 2019 CISCO caste discrimination case, running anti-Brahmin DEI programs, to targeting Hindu gods and temples, directing hate towards Hindu officials in the Trump administration, anti-Hindu and anti-India force,s be it Islamo-leftists or white racists and Christian extremists, all are essentially spreading, normalising, and celebrating Hinduphobia and anti-India racism.
This vitriol is so strong that these people are not sparing even their leader, Donald Trum,p who received online backlash for celebrating Diwali, that too inside the White House. All this hate for American Hindus comes even as they have been the most peaceful, law-abiding and economically contributing community in the US.
Is Hinduism an existential threat to Christianity in the US?
The American Christian supremacists are unable to tolerate a skilled and affluent minority of Hindu Indian Americans working hard, paying their taxes on time, and contributing significantly to the American economy simply because they are Hindus. Such is the irony that while Islamists are taking over city after city in the US and running Sharia-compliant ghettos, Christian supremacists view inherently tolerant Hindus as some sort of existential threat.
Pertinently, in its nationalist or supremacist strains, Christian extremism stems from a toxic blend of religious-theological absolutism, delusion of racial-historical superiority and cultural insecurity. The Christian extremists believe that pagan religions and cultures are primitive, false and incompatible with American Christian values. Like many other Abrahamic faiths, Christianity posits a monotheistic God as the sole supreme divine reality, which in their viewpoint, renders polytheistic or henotheistic faiths like Hinduism or Sanatan Dharma as ‘demonic’ or ‘idolatrous’.
For Christian extremists, anyone who does not believe in the Christian Holy Trinity and Jesus as the one true saviour is, by defaul,t a Satan worshipper and thus Hindu gods for them become nothing more than a diverse manifestation of Satan, false gods. To justify their Hindu hate, they often cite Biblical verses like Exodus 20:3-5.
This, however, is not a new-brought up argument. From Portuguese inquisitions, British-era proselytisation to the ongoing Pentecostal and evangelical missionary activities, Hindu beliefs have been dismissed as savagery, and Diwali lamps as ‘heathen fires’. While modern Christian extremists claim to oppose Islamic dominance and Sharia, they are becoming the other side of the same coin.
Hindu gods are no demons, in fact, there are no 330 million gods as many Christian extremists mindlessly claim. Hinduism is a polytheistic faith indeed, however, Hindu spirituality is rooted in the Vedic consciousness of God, which says a ‘Ekaṃ Sadviprā Bahudhā Vadanti’ (Rig Ved 1.164.46)–The truth (God) is one, but the sages (or learned ones) call it by many names or describe him in many ways.
Unlike Islam and Christianity, Hinduism poses no proselytising threat. India, the natural homeland of Hindus, has never invaded a country with the intent to alter its religious demography or impose Hindu faith on non-Hindus. Muslims and Christians, however, have invaded lands and destroyed civilisations to establish their religious supremacy.
From the orientalist caricatures in the 19th-20th century, fears of ‘eastern/Asian mysticism’ eroding Protestant ‘purity’ to anti-Hindu violence and online hate, Hindus and Indians have endured all the hate and yet contributed towards building a strong America. If Indian Hindus started thinking the way American Christian supremacists do, Christianity in India would perish into oblivion. Today’s calls for ‘sending back’ or deporting Hindus to India, and removing Hindu idols and temples, will eventually descend to calling for violence against Hindus.
This is no exaggeration or fear-mongering. Bangladesh stands as an example of how anti-quota student protests turned into anti-government protests, and then it magnified into Islamist Islamist-orchestrated anti-Hindu pogrom.
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