Anti-India Hate: How It Went Mainstream in America

Anti-India Hate: Long before the United States imagined itself into existence, India had already slipped into the American imagination. The very error that brought Christopher Columbus to the Bahamas — the belief that he was sailing toward India — etched the subcontinent into the earliest chapters of the American myth. For centuries, that geographical confusion endured so deeply that the first people of the continent were permanently mislabeled “Indians,” a linguistic accident that still lingers.

But the real Indians — the ones who carried passports, philosophies, spices, and stubborn resilience — came much later. And their arrival marked the beginning of one of the most improbable immigration sagas in modern history: the slow, bruising, brilliant rise of the Indian-American identity.

Anti-India Hate: A Community Born From Exclusion

One of the earliest recorded names in this narrative is Bhicaji Framji Balsara, a Parsi gentleman from Mumbai who walked into an American courtroom and insisted he qualified as a “free white man.” In 1923, World War I veteran Bhagat Singh Thind — one of the countless Indian soldiers whose service helped the Allies win not just one but two global wars — made a different argument: that Indians were “Caucasian” and therefore eligible for citizenship.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected him.
Brutally.

Worse, the verdict retroactively stripped 3,000 Indians of citizenship they had already earned, sweeping them into deportation under the Asian Exclusion Act of 1921. Only in 1965, after the landmark immigration reforms, did the door crack open again — and the trickle turned into one of the greatest talent inflows in modern American history.

Gas, Beds, and Meds — And the Birth of a Stereotype

Comedian Nimesh Patel famously jokes that Indians spent the decades of exclusion quietly studying America:

“They like to sleep, they like to eat, they like to drive.
So they’re going to need gas stations, motels, and cardiologists.
Gas, beds, and meds, baby.”

Funny, yes — but also a sharp summary of how a marginalized community mastered the American marketplace.

Indian Americans became the silent engines of industries that cover the country’s daily life: running motels along endless highways, filling medical residency rosters, running tech teams, and clocking in at gas stations before sunrise. They became the model of the model minority: grateful, diligent, academically terrifying, politically quiet.

As long as they stayed in that box, America tolerated them with a strange blend of admiration and annoyance — impressed by their efficiency, irritated by their ubiquity, comforted by their silence.

Anti-India Hate: 2024 – The Mirage of Arrival

Then came the year when it looked as though the Indian-American identity had finally stepped into the American spotlight.

• Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy on the Republican debate stage.

• A Democratic nominee cautiously carrying her Indian heritage.

• Indian-origin advisers scattered across the Trump administration — Kash Patel, Sriram Krishnan, Usha Vance and more.

• A swarm of Indian-origin strategists and policy thinkers shaping decisions in Washington.

For a fleeting season, it felt like the arc of history had bent — finally — toward representation.

It hadn’t.

The Social Contract Snaps

Indian immigrants built their reputation by keeping their heads down: working hard, accumulating quietly, worshipping discreetly, apologising reflexively, avoiding confrontation even when wronged.

But America changed.

The political climate grew sharper. The internet’s outrage economy metastasized. And suddenly, even MAGA Indians — who waved the flag most enthusiastically — found themselves targets of religious and racial hostility.

• Kash Patel, after chanting Jai Shri Krishna at a hearing, was told online to return to his “land of demons.”

• The Ramaswamy family faced relentless personal attacks.

• Even Dinesh D’Souza, a longstanding conservative ally, expressed shock at the rising “vile degradation.”

• And JD Vance, with the delicacy of a man preparing for the Vice Presidency, reassured his base that he was “trying to convert” his Hindu wife to Christianity.

When even insiders became outsiders, the message was unmistakable:
The rules had changed.

The Data Behind the Backlash

Anti-India Hate: A detailed analysis by the Centre for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) tracked 128 highly viral posts attacking Indians between 22 December 2024 and 3 January 2025.

Those posts amassed a staggering 138.54 million views.

CSOH’s study reveals the architecture of the backlash:

1. Demographic Panic

The dominant theme frames Indians not as contributors but as invaders — the Great Replacement myth, repackaged with STEM degrees and H-1B visas.

2. Colonial Stereotypes Recycled

Accusations about:

• hygiene

• smell

• sanitation

• cows

• accents

• food

Old colonial prejudices revived as modern memes.

3. Reflexive Accusations of Cheating

A persistent American suspicion:
If an Indian succeeds, they must have hacked the system.

4. Verified Voices Fuel the Fire

The hate isn’t coming from the shadows.
It’s spread by:

• monetised accounts

• influential commentators

• blue-check voices

• users who know outrage pays the bills