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It could not have been a more devastating blow to the jagran jhankritis dancing and leaping on the streets of Dallas and Texas, New Jersey and New York, violating local laws and disturbing the neighborhood, to be hit by an avalanche of hate media by horrified residents. Worse, what the Hindutva heavies must have believed were their natural allies, Make America Great Again (MAGA) or President Trump’s ardent followers, were virulent and merciless as they spat invectives on social media asking Indians to go back home.
MAGA members called the festival “un-American” and asked Indians to “Get out of my country” and “Go home and worship your sand demons.”
All this even as Trump lit the traditional lamp on Diwali Day on October 21, in the Oval Office in the White House, before a small gathering of Indo-American community members. Trump’s colleagues from the community were not spared either – FBI Director Kash Patel of Gujarati descent who sent out Diwali greetings on social media was met with derision like “Hellish celebration” and “All I see is river pollution in the name of a festival that has nothing to do with USA” to – and this must have really stung – “Seek Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the light.”
Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, who follows Hinduism was also scorned at with bigoted messages of middle finger emoticons and expressions of disgust and comments like “Not my GOD.” Of course, Trump did not forget to tell his Diwali audience that Prime Minister Modi had told him he would “not buy much oil from Russia” when he called to wish Modi.
The reaction on the ground by residents have gone viral on social media – unruly scenes of fireworks late into the night zigzagging homes have led to houses being burned down in Queens, NY, and Edmonton in Canada. According to media reports, flames engulfed three houses in Queens, rendering the residents distraught and homeless as they lost all their belongings. Surveillance footage shows fireworks shooting directly into a home – it also belonged to a Muslim. Residents called the police all night and the next day saw littered streets with burned fireworks, melted vehicles and burned out houses.
In Edmonton, two wooden houses were charred to the ground, and so riled was the mood that one Canadian blasted Netflix for sending him a Diwali greeting. “I don’t give a f*** about a festival celebrated by third world immigrants invading my country.”
Revellers in Dallas, New York, Texas have run riot thronging streets and burning fireworks late into the night even as police and fire services were pulled in to control the situation.
Cinema halls have also not been spared when screenings of two Pawan Kalyan films, a Telugu superstar, had to be stopped in several halls as the audience threw popcorn, confetti and danced in the aisles, say reports. Videos show staff urging the audience to behave responsibly.
Indians living in the West have never witnessed such racist bigotry in the last 70 years when waves of migrants moved abroad to Britain, US and Europe, and it’s only in the last decade that they have been attacked for their ethnic identity. And the reasons are clear to see: celebrations of Hindu festivals have seen complete disregard for local rules and guidelines like time and place for celebrations, with uncontrolled overcrowding and parading while ignoring regulations.
While Indians are the largest among south Asians, almost 5.1 million strong as collated in 2024, and because of the highly selective nature of US immigration policy, they are high-skilled, employed in professional jobs; in tech, medicine and healthcare, banking and finance, academia; and also in small businesses and trade, like motels, newsagents, factories and retail.
Indians have been celebrating Diwali, Holi, Durga Puja, Ganesh Chaturthi, in the US, Britain and Europe for decades without any attacks. So what has changed today? Is it the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-Modi tool kit that is being let loose in the West today?
Blame it on Modi for staging the first public superstar stage show for a prime minister abroad, in Madison Square Garden arena in 2014, soon after he strode to victory to become prime minister a few months before. Modi stood on the stage which had Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon and Elvis Presley, among others, soaking in the rapturous cheers and frenzied adulation by the diaspora who came in thousands.
The big screens above the stage flashed adoring portraits of Modi in various moods of dreamy pensiveness, the 19,000 strong audience who were flown in free via a lottery and there were a series of music and dance performances as the opening act before Modi appeared. Many wore Modi t-shirts, pasted his face on their face and chest, danced in the aisles and waved placards and chanted Modi Modi and Bharat mata ki jai. He left the stage with the Star Wars greeting, “May the force be with you.”
Public meetings for Modi were now organised by event management companies, and were all about celebrityhood, media, technology and popular culture with flashy music and dance. The Madison event was emceed by a Miss America contestant and organised by the Indian American Community Foundation which was set up just before the event to pay for and mobilise the audience, in collaboration with the Overseas Friends of BJP, USA. In 2017, two of the organisers were conferred the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman by then president Pranab Mukherjee.
Many blockbuster events were to follow, from a crowd of 60,000 NRIs in London’s Wembley Stadium to the Dubai Opera House, Silicon Valley, California, Allphones Arena, Australia, Howdy Modi in Texas after his re-election in 2019, and more. Perhaps it opened the gates for the New Jagran Dabaang abroad.
Then there are the many lobbying Hindutva organisations abroad which scream ‘Hinduphobia’ the moment Hindutva – not Hinduism, please note – is picked for promoting Hindutva supremacy, nationalism, casteism, minorityism, and such like.
Sounds familiar? Secular, progressives, liberals, plural culturalists and anyone who has challenged the Hindutva narrative have been bludgeoned with name calling here as anti-Hindu, libtards, Hindu haters, Communists, and such like. There are dozens affiliated to the Hindutva cause, from the Hindu American Foundation, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh and more. These organisations lobby with US Congress, politicians, to counter criticism both in India and abroad as Hinduphobic, whether it is the human rights records, press freedom, education, anti-minority rhetoric and such like.
Unsurprisingly, any attack on the boorishness and uncouth behavior during cultural fests is seen as Hinduphobia as the many retorts in response to the “Go back to India” tweets. A report by Savera, an organisation in the US that challenges Hindutva supremacy has shown how Hindutva groups lobby feverishly with US government elected reps and officials and the funding operations of the groups.
Many associations abroad have also called for caution and have asked for respect of local laws and restrictions during celebrations, from the nine-day booming Navratri celebrations or even flash garbas whether in the Eiffel Tower or Times Square.
Perhaps all this has opened the gates for the new jagran juggernaut brimming with silicon sanatanis and Hindutva bahubalis?
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