Normalisation of Hinduphobia in the US is moving ahead in full swing. From politicians and anti-Hindu lobbyists to parts of the media and academia, anti-Hindu actors from many walks of American life are instilling, promoting, and perpetuating Hindu-hate. Audrey Truschke, a notorious anti-Hindu “historian” known for whitewashing heinous crimes by Mughal tyrants against Indians, has written a propaganda piece that fuels hatred against Hindus by lying about the roots of violence in the West.

On 23rd September 2025, Religion Dispatches carried Truschke’s piece titled “WHAT IN THE WHAT?? Hindu Nationalism, Explained.” The article is laced with hostility toward the Hindu community in the US and claims that “Hindu nationalists” or “Hindutva ideologues” have threatened America’s social fabric “for half a century.” The Aurangzeb fangirl further alleges that Hindus are influencing American politics by masking a “political agenda” as religious practice to “exploit” religious liberty protections.

Her central charge is summed up in a sweeping sentence: “In the last decade, they’ve injected their far-right ideas into California’s textbooks, inspired Steve Bannon, helped elect Trump, attacked local Democratic groups, tanked civil rights legislation, and intimidated Muslim Americans. Their latest agenda item is blocking Zohran Mamdani from becoming mayor of New York City,” the article reads. The familiar scare line — ‘social fabric of America under threat’ — mirrors how Islamo-leftists in India also peddle the ‘India’s secular social fabric under threat’ narrative. In both versions, Muslims are cast as perpetual victims while Hindu nationalists are painted as their oppressors, even when the reality is the exact opposite.

According to Truschke, Hindus should let the Islamist lobby in the US spread anti-Hindu hatred without objection. Hindus should not upset Thenmozhi Soundararajan, a Brahmin-hating activist whose organisation, Equality Labs, exists to foment hatred against Brahmins and undermine Hinduism. Hindus should also quietly tolerate Zohran Mamdani — a known anti-Hindu, antisemite, and New York City mayoral aspirant — even as he makes anti-Hindu and anti-India remarks. Not to forget, Mamdani claimed that there were no Muslims left in Gujarat and labelled Prime Minister Modi a “war criminal.” In 2020, he described Hindus aligned with Modi’s party as “fascists” and berated New York politicians Jenifer Rajkumar and Kevin Thomas for not denouncing Modi. He also opposed the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, appearing at a 2020 rally where derogatory chants against Hindus were raised. Every Hinduphobic claim Mamdani makes in rallies and on social media stems from blatant hate and a fertile imagination — and Audrey Truschke is comfortable with these lies so long as they feed a Muslim-victimhood narrative.

While Truschke portrays Hindutva as an unprovoked “Hindu supremacy” movement, the rise of Hindutva is, in fact, a defensive response born from centuries of invasions, colonial exploitation, and political subjugation of Hindus — and from Islamist violence in independent India. Far from supremacy, Hindutva is religious-cultural self-assertion by a majority that endured temple destruction by invaders, including those by the Mughal tyrant Aurangzeb (whom Truschke has whitewashed), forced conversions, and countless injustices and atrocities that either never appear in her work or are downplayed and justified.

Even as Islamists create Muslim ghettos and no-go zones in the US, impose Sharia norms in Muslim-dominated areas, and declare “Sharia cities,” Truschke wants Americans to believe that law-abiding and peaceful Hindus threaten America’s social fabric. Over the years, Hindu temples in American cities have been attacked, and Hindus have faced religious and racial hatred online — yet Hindus are accused of asserting “supremacy.” Indian Americans, many of them Hindus, have been major beneficiaries of H1-B visas, and still they could not stop the Trump administration’s crackdown on H1-B. So much for supposed political influence.

Truschke then dismisses Hinduphobia as “non-existent,” leaning on “scholars” and “progressive” Hindu Americans. Her “progressive Hindu Americans” turn out to be “Hindus for Human Rights” (HfHR), an anti-Hindu and anti-India outfit funded by George Soros and run by Sunita Vishwanath. She approvingly quotes this framing: “Hindu nationalists frequently allege that they’re targeted as a religious minority, victims of what they call ‘Hinduphobia.’ Hindutva ideologues have popularized the concept of ‘Hinduphobia,’ but scholars and progressive Hindu Americans reject this framework, noting that no evidence exists for systematic religion-based discrimination or oppression of Hindus in the US,” the Religion Dispatches article claims.

OpIndia has already recorded how Vishwanath remembers her “Hinduness” mainly to sermonise Hindus and to vilify them for not being tolerant — read subservient — enough toward Islamists and their Hindu-hate. She has been seen alongside Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, another Hindu in name and not spirit, during his controversial US visits. Last year, The Wire published her op-ed on Janmashtami, where she grotesquely compared the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza with the trials of Krishna and the Pandavas in the Mahabharata, even likening Israel to Kansa. By twisting Hindu epics to push sympathy for Hamas — a terrorist outfit that massacres Israeli civilians — Sunita insulted Sanatan Dharma and whitewashed jihadist violence. Her organisation HfHR also repeatedly misuses Hindu symbols to delegitimise Hindu identity. In February 2024, HfHR hosted an event at UC Berkeley titled “Zionism and Hindu Supremacy: Partners Against Pluralism,” which equated Hindu identity with “supremacy” and paired it with the far-left demonisation of Zionism. Ironically, this group of “progressive Hindu Americans” was formed in 2019 by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and OFMI, Islamist advocacy groups with ties to Jamaat-e-Islami networks.

Returning to Audrey Truschke’s barrage, she accuses American Hindus of indulging in violence and tries to dress that claim in “history.” Predictably, she invokes the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), calling it an all-male “parent group of Hindu nationalism,” and cites Nathuram Godse, who killed M. K. Gandhi. She chooses not to mention how the RSS has, for decades, served society through relief and social-service work for people in need regardless of social or religious background. She even claims that a BJP operative attempted to assassinate a “US citizen.” The matter is sub judice, but she conceals that the “US citizen” is Gurpatwant Singh Pannun — an anti-Hindu Khalistani terrorist who organises anti-India and anti-Hindu protests, incites violence against Indian diplomats, and has issued threats to blow up Air India flights and bomb cricket stadiums in India.

Truschke also villainises Tulsi Gabbard, the United States Director of National Intelligence in the rump administration. For Islamo-leftists, a “good and progressive Hindu” is someone cut off from Hindu teachings, self-loathing, ashamed of Indian roots, and aligned with Islamist and liberal agendas; a “bad, extremist, violent Hindu” is someone proud of Hindu identity, proud of Indian roots, patriotic, and unwilling to bend to Islamo-leftist dictates. Thus, in Truschke’s telling, Sunita Vishwanath passes as a “progressive Hindu,” but Tulsi Gabbard does not.

As a typical self-praising leftist, Truschke also seeks sympathy for herself and for propagandists of her kind. She writes: “Because of the ever-present threat of violence, writing about Hindu nationalism is dangerous. The risks Hindu nationalists pose transcend borders and incentivize scholars and journalists alike to soft-pedal or simply ignore Hindutva. Those of us determined to confront the problem head-on learn to live with violent threats and the well-grounded fear that, one day, a Hindu nationalist might act upon those threats,” equating Hindus with terrorists through suggestion and tone. Toward the end of her rant, she laments that several Hindu groups are “promoting” Hindu nationalism globally and suggests ways to counter them.

Normalising Hinduphobia in the US: The Islamo-leftist agenda at work with renewed intensity

Hinduphobia in the West is not new. It has long simmered beneath the surface of the so-called pluralistic and progressive world. In 1910, The Detroit Times ran a highly derogatory article vilifying Hindus. The piece, titled “Hindoos (Hindus) Continue to Flock to the US,” called Hindus and Indians “Oriental scum,” quoting: “The dumping place for the scum of the Orient and India is San Francisco,” from the 1910 publication. In 1907, a mob of mostly white men, led by the Asiatic Exclusion League in Bellingham, Washington, drove out over 100 Asian Indian immigrant workers from the city. From the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, which barred immigrants from Asia, to the “Dot Busters” of the 1980s who targeted Hindu Americans based on their religious and racial identity, to cases of religiously motivated hate crimes against Hindus after 2001 — Hindus in the US, though a small minority contributing massively to the American economy, have faced hate, bias, and violence.

Earlier, these Hinduphobic attitudes showed up as anti-Asian racism and labels like “caste-ridden savages” and “heathens,” along with physical attacks. Today, they show up in temple desecrations, school bullying, media propaganda, and online hatred. A 2022 report by the Network Contagion Research Institute documented a 1,000% surge in anti-Hindu slurs online, blending white supremacist “replacement” fears with Islamist narratives that accuse Hindus of “genocide” in India.

The California textbook controversies that Truschke cites actually expose this academic Hinduphobia. During the revision of California’s K-12 history–social science curriculum, some pushed to replace “India” with “South Asia,” arguing that “India” did not exist as a unified entity before 1947, while also demanding stereotypical depictions of Hindus and Hinduism in textbooks.

Earlier this year, White and Christian supremacists ignited the H1-B visa debate after Donald Trump nominated American-born Indian Sriram Krishnan as senior policy advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. What started as online slander against Sriram spiralled into a full-scale campaign against H1-B visas for highly skilled Indians, followed by mockery and insults directed at Hindus and Hinduism. The campaign yielded results: Donald Trump backtracked from his earlier stance of supporting H1-B and skilled immigration and imposed a $1,00,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions filed by aliens outside the US. While this rule applies only to new applications, the MAGA faction celebrated it as a victory for its anti-Indian and anti-Hindu smear campaign. Victories, small or big, embolden bigots.

Recently, Alexander Duncan, the Republican Senate candidate for Texas, called Lord Hanuman a “false god” and objected to the construction of his statue in the US, arguing that America is a “Christian” nation. In an X post on 20th September, he shared a video of the 90-foot-tall statue of Lord Hanuman at the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple in 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!”

Weeks earlier, Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro — deployed as an attack dog to vilify India over its Russian oil purchases — targeted the Brahmin community. In a Fox News interview, he invoked caste and accused Indian Brahmins of profiteering. His words were: “So, you know, look, Modi’s a great leader… But I don’t understand why he’s getting into bed with Putin and Xi Jinping…when he’s the leader of the biggest democracy in the world. I would simply say to the Indian people. Please, understand what’s going on here. You’ve got Brahmins profiteering at the expense of the Indian people. We need that to stop…”

Meanwhile, the anti-Hindu lobby is running a campaign to push a “caste discrimination” narrative, aimed at undermining and vilifying the Hindu community in the US, particularly Brahmins. Many universities — including Harvard University, Colby College, Brown University, and California State University — have added caste to their non-discrimination policies. In 2023, the California State Senate passed SB-403 to ban caste-based discrimination, though it was later vetoed. Not to forget the 2019 CISCO caste case that was used to brand Hindus as casteist and incompatible with American values; it was dismissed after no wrongdoing was found.

In 2021, the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple in New Jersey was raided after a lawsuit alleging forced labour and caste discrimination. The legacy media targeted the temple and its leaders. This, too, turned out to be propaganda, not fact, designed to malign Hindus in America; US authorities have now closed the investigation after finding none of the allegations to be true. In 2024, the anti-Hindu lobby also opposed House Resolution 113, which condemned Hinduphobia in the US.

In recent years, hate crimes against Indian Americans have risen. According to the FBI’s 2020 data, hate crimes against Indian Americans are up by 500 per cent. Beyond politics and social media, American media and academia also perpetuate anti-Hindu bias through selective outrage and erasure. OpIndia has repeatedly shown how outlets like The New York Times, among others, have been complicit in spinning and amplifying anti-Hindu narratives. OpIndia has also reported how DEI programs normalise hatred against Brahmins in the US — trying to recreate the same prejudice that Nazis held toward Jews — by building bias against Hindus, especially so-called “upper-caste” Hindus like Brahmins, who already face organised hate campaigns.

Vandalism of Hindu temples in the US has become a grim routine. In September 2024, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Sacramento, California, was defaced with anti-Hindu and anti-India graffiti, just days after a similar attack at the BAPS Mandir on Long Island, New York. While Khalistani terrorists have frequently carried out such crimes, Christian supremacists are now also intensifying opposition to Hindu symbols, statues, and temples. Last year, reports from California showed anti-Hindu incidents ranked second only to antisemitism, with 23.3% of religious hate calls tied to Hinduphobia. In July 2025, a video surfaced of a white American berating an Indian man: _“Why are you in my country? I don’t like you guys here. There are too many of you guys here. Indians! You guys are flooding all the white countries. I am tired of it. Americans are sick of this sh. I want you to go back to India…”_**

There is a rising tide of racism and religious hatred against Hindus in the US. Not every crime against Indian Americans is religiously driven, but the online hate against Hindus has added fuel. Even the H1-B debate began with “Indians are taking over our jobs” and quickly mutated into open Hinduphobia. Today’s calls to “send back” Hindus and remove Hindu idols and temples will, if allowed to grow, slide toward calls for killing — even genocide. The United Kingdom saw this pattern during the Leicester violence, when Hindus were vilified by Islamists and their liberal cheerleaders, resulting in targeted attacks on the Hindu community. In the US, the likes of Audrey Truschke are building on latent racism to convince Americans — and the wider West — that Hindus should be hated. Once hate is normalised, violence will be justified.