Growing Hinduphobia in US: How ‘historian’ Audrey Truschke is fueling hate against Hindus by lying about the roots of violence in the West

Normalisation of Hinduphobia is going on in the US in full swing. From politicians, anti-Hindu lobby, media, to academics, anti-Hindu elements from all walks of life in the US are instilling, promoting and perpetuating Hindu-hate. Audrey Truschke, a notorious anti-Hindu ‘historian’ who has a history of whitewashing heinous crimes committed by the Mughal tyrants against Indians, has authored a sinister propaganda piece fuelling hatred against Hindus by lying about the roots of violence in the West.

On 23^rd September 2025, Religion Dispatches published Truschke’s propaganda piece titled: “WHAT IN THE WHAT?? Hindu Nationalism, Explained.” Laced with sheer hatred for the Hindu community in the US, this article argues that ‘Hindu nationalists’ or ‘Hindutva ideologues’ have been threatening the social fabric of America “for half a century”. The Aurangzeb fangirl claims that Hindus are influencing American politics by disguising their ‘political agenda’ as religious practice to ‘exploit’ religious liberty protections.

“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.

Six things everyone (especially Americans) should know about Hindu nationalism — The very first in Religion Dispatches's new explainer series, "Make It Make Sense."https://t.co/nPzeH40Ue5 #Hindutva

— Dr. Audrey Truschke (@AudreyTruschke) September 24, 2025

‘Social fabric of America under threat’. Sounds familiar, right? Islamo-leftists in India, too, peddle a similar ‘India’s secular social fabric under threat’ narrative. In both cases, Muslims remain the perpetual victims while Hindu nationalists are their oppressors, even as reality is its exact opposite.

According to Truschke, Hindus should allow the Islamist lobby in the US to peddle anti-Hindu hatred, Hindus should not upset a Brahmin-hating, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, whose organisation, Equality Labs, runs on the sole agenda of fuelling hatred against Brahmins and undermining Hinduism, Hindus should quietly tolerate a known anti-Hindu, antisemite, Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayoral candidate, even as he makes anti-Hindu and anti-India remarks.

Not to forget, Mamdani had claimed that there were no Muslims left in Gujarat and of labelling Prime Minister Modi a “war criminal.” In 2020, Mamdani described Hindus aligned with Modi’s party as “fascists” and berated fellow New York politicians Jenifer Rajkumar and Kevin Thomas for not denouncing Modi. Mamdani also opposed the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, appearing at a rally in 2020 where derogatory chants against Hindus were raised.

Every Hinduphobic claim Mamdani has been making in political rallies and on social media is a product of his blatant hate for Hindus and fertile imagination. Audrey Truschke is fine with Mamdani peddling blatant lies to further his Muslim victimhood narrative.

While Truschke portrays Hindutva as an unprovoked ‘Hindu supremacy’ movement, the rise of Hindutva as a movement is rather a defensive ideology born from centuries of invasions, colonial exploitation, and political subjugation of Hindus, coupled with Islamist violence in independent India. Far from supremacy, Hindutva seeks religious-cultural self-assertion for a majority that endured temple destruction by invaders, including those by Mughal tyrant, Aurangzeb, whom Truschke has been whitewashing, forced conversions, and countless injustices and atrocities endured by Hindus, which find no mention in Truschke’s works or are downplayed and justified.

Islamists have been forming Muslim ghettos and no-go zones in the US, imposing Sharia laws in Muslim-dominated areas, and declaring ‘Sharia cities’, but Audrey Truschke wants Americans to believe that law-abiding and peaceful Hindus are a threat to America’s social fabric. Over the years, Hindu temples have come under attack in American cities, Hindus have been subjected to religious and racial hatred online, but Hindus are asserting ‘supremacy’. Indian Americans, particularly Hindus, have been major beneficiaries of the H1-B visas, and yet they could not stop the Trump administration from cracking down on the H1-B visas. So much influence in politics!

Truschke further dismisses Hinduphobia as ‘non-existent’ and to do so, she relies on references from ‘scholars’ and ‘progressive’ Hindu Americans. Now, Truschke’s ‘progressive Hindu Americans’ are none other than “Hindus for Human Rights” (HfHR), a George Soros-funded anti-Hindu and anti-India outfit run by Sunita Vishwanath.

“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 reads.

OpIndia has reported earlier how Vishwanath remembers her ‘Hinduness’ only when she has to sermonise Hindus and villainise them for not being tolerant (read subservient) enough towards Islamists and their Hindu-hate. She has also been seen with 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, in which she grotesquely compared the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza to the trials of Krishna and the Pandavas in the Mahabharata, even likening Israel to Kansa. By twisting Hindu epics to justify sympathy for Hamas, a terrorist outfit responsible for massacring Israeli civilians, Sunita insulted Sanatan Dharma and whitewashed jihadist violence.

Her organisation, Hindus for Human Rights, has repeatedly used Hindu symbols to delegitimise Hindu identity. In February 2024, HfHR hosted an event at UC Berkeley titled “Zionism and Hindu Supremacy: Partners Against Pluralism, “equating Hindu identity with “supremacy” and pairing it with far-left demonisation of Zionism.

Ironically, this group of ‘progressive Hindu Americans’ was created in 2019 by the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and OFMI, Islamist advocacy groups with ties to Jamaat-e-Islami networks.

Coming back to Audrey Truschke’s verbal diarrhoea, the historian-cum-Islamist-PR-agent resorted to accusing American Hindus of indulging in violence. She attempted to give a historical context of the alleged embrace of violence by Hindu nationalists.

Predictably, Audrey invoked Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, calling it an all-male “parent group of Hindu nationalism” and Nathuram Godse, the man who killed MK Gandhi. She, however, did not care to delve into the details of how RSS has, over the past decades, done selfless service towards the nation by engaging in social service activities to help people in need regardless of their social or religious background. Trushchke claimed that a BJP operative attempted to assassinate a ‘US citizen’.

While the matter is sub judice, Tushchke suggested that it was a random US citizen and did not care to mention that this US citizen is an anti-Hindu and Khalistani terrorist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, who repeatedly organises anti-India and anti-Hindu protests, incites violence against Indian diplomats and has also been issuing threats to blow up Air India flights and bomb cricket stadiums in India.

Audrey Trushcke further villainised Tulsi Gabbard, the United States Director of National Intelligence in the rump administration. Basically, for Islamo-leftists, you are a good and progressive Hindu if you are detached from your religious teachings, are self-loathing, ashamed of your Indian roots, and support Islamist and liberal agendas, and you are a bad, extremist, and violent Hindu if you are proud of your Hindu identity, are proud of your Indian roots, are a patriot and do not align with Islamo-leftist agenda. Thus, for Truschke, Sunita Vishwanath passes as a ‘progressive Hindu’, but Tulsi Gabbard doesn’t.

Being a typical self-praising leftist, Truschke did not forget to invoke sympathy for herself and propagandists of her kind. However, in her pursuit to present herself as a ‘brave scholar’ confronting Hindu nationalists and their ideology, she subtly equated Hindus with terrorists.

“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,” Truschke writes.

Towards the end of her Hinduphobic rant, Audrey laments how several Hindu groups are ‘promoting’ Hindu nationalism globally and how this can be countered.

Normalisation of Hinduphobia in the US: The Islamo-leftist agenda at work with a renewed intensity

Hinduphobia is not a new phenomenon in the US or the West. It has always simmered beneath the surface of the so-called pluralistic and progressive Western world. In 1910, The Detroit Times published a highly derogatory article vilifying the Hindus. The piece titled “Hindoos (Hindus) Continue to Flock to the US” referred to Hindus and Indians as ‘Oriental scum’. “The dumping place for the scum of the Orient and India is San Francisco,” the article published in 1910 read.

In 1907, a mob comprising 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, the Dot Busters group in 1980s which targeted Hindus Americans based on their religious an racial identity and assaulted them, to the individual cases of religiously-motivated hate crimes against Hindus post 2001, Hindus in the US, despite being a small minority which contributed massively to American economy has been subjected to hate, bias and violence.

Earlier, these Hinduphobic attitudes found manifestation in anti-Asian racism and labelling of Hindus as ‘caste-ridden savages’ and ‘heathens’, and attacks. It manifests today in temple desecrations, school bullying, media propaganda and online hatred. A 2022 Network Contagion Research Institute report documented a 1,000% increase in anti-Hindu slurs online, blending white supremacist “replacement” fears with Islamist narratives accusing Hindus of “genocide” in India.

In fact, the California textbook controversies, Trushcke cited in her propaganda piece, demonstrate prevalent academic Hinduphobia. During the contentious process of revising California’s K-12 history-social science curriculum, a proposal was brought up to replace the term ‘India’ with ‘South Asia, arguing that “India” did not exist as a unified entity before 1947. It also pushed for stereotypical representation of Hindus and Hinduism in textbooks.

Earlier this year, White and Christian supremacists ignited the H1-B visas 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 began as an online attack slandering Sriram soon snowballed into a full-fledged campaign against H1-B visas for highly-skilled Indians. This was followed by derision and insults directed at Hindus and Hinduism.

And this anti-Indian and anti-Hindu campaign has paid off well for the bigots who partook in it as Donald Trump has backtracked from his earlier stance supporting H1-B visa and skilled immigration, and imposed a $1,00,000 fee on new H-1B visa petitions submitted by aliens outside the US. While this rule applies only to new applications, the MAGA faction saw it as a victory for its anti-Indian and anti-Hindu smear campaign. And victories, small or big, only embolden the 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, saying that America is a ‘Christian’ nation.

In an X post published on 20^th 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!”

Why are we allowing a false statue of a false Hindu God to be here in Texas? We are a CHRISTIAN nation!pic.twitter.com/uAPJegLie0

— Alexander Duncan (@AlexDuncanTX) September 20, 2025

Weeks back, 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.”

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…” Navarro said.

The Anti-Hindu lobby in the US has been actively running a sinister campaign to push a caste discrimination narrative aimed at undermining and villainising the Hindu community in the US, particularly the Brahmins. Many universities, including Harvard University, Colby College, Brown University, and California State University, have even added caste to their non-discrimination policy. In 2023, the California State Senate in the US passed legislation (SB-403) that banned caste-based discrimination in the State, although it was later vetoed. Not to forget the 2019 CISCO caste discrimination case, which was widely used to vilify the Hindu community as casteist and incompatible with American values. This case was dismissed after no wrongdoing was found.

In 2021, the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple in New Jersey was raided by the American authorities after a lawsuit alleging forced labour and caste discrimination was filed. The American legacy media targeted the Hindu temple and its authorities; however, this too turned out to be a case of all propaganda, not facts, intended to malign the reputation of Hindus in America. The US authorities recently closed the investigation in this case as none of the allegations were found to be true.

In 2024, the anti-Hindu lobby opposed House Resolution 113, which condemned Hinduphobia in the US.

In recent years, hate crimes against Indian Americans have also been on the rise. According to the FBI’s 2020 data, hate crimes against Indian Americans are up by 500 per cent.

Besides, politics and social media, even the American media and academia perpetuate anti-Hindu bias through selective outrage and erasure. OpIndia has on numerous occasions reported how newspapers like the New York Times, among others, have also been complicit in spinning and amplifying anti-Hindu narratives.

OpIndia earlier reported how DEI programs have been normalising hatred against Brahmins in the US. In their attempts to foment the same hate Nazis had for Jews, several DEI programs were creating prejudices against Hindus, particularly the so-called “upper-caste” Hindus like Brahmins, who are already at the receiving end of hate campaigns of the anti-Hindu elements.

The vandalism of Hindu temples in the US has become a new normal in the US. In September 2024, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Sacramento, California, was desecrated with anti-Hindu and anti-India graffiti. This act of vandalism came just days after a similar incident occurred at the BAPS Mandir on Long Island, New York. While Khalistani terrorists have been the frequent perpetrators of these anti-Hindu crimes, now the Christian supremacists are also intensifying opposition to Hindu symbols, statues and temples.

It was reported last year that in California, anti-Hindu incidents ranked second only to antisemitism, with 23.3% of religious hate calls tied to Hinduphobia. In July 2025, a video of a White American berating an Indian man with “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 has been a rising tide of racism and religious hatred against the Hindus in the US. While not all crimes against Indian Americans are driven by religious hatred, the online hate against Hindus has also contributed to this. It must not be forgotten that even the H1-B visas debate began with ‘Indians are taking over our jobs’, but soon turned into blatant Hinduphobia.

Today’s calls for ‘sending back’ Hindus to India, and removing Hindu idols and temples, will eventually descend to calling for the killing, even genocide, of Hindus.

The United Kingdom has seen it during the Leicester violence. Hindus were vilified by Islamists and their liberal cheerleaders. It resulted in targeted violence against the Hindu community there. In the US, now the likes of Audrey Truschke are building on innate racism in an attempt to convince Americans, and by extension, the West, that Hindus are meant to be hated. Once hate is normalised, violence will be justified.