Thread by @vjgtweets

The "Hindoo menace" is truly upon us, fellow Americans. The evidence?

Exhibit A: "...a group of some 30 Indians and Indian Americans stood outside an elementary school here to protest."

Exhibit B: "As of October 14, the group [a Hindu PAC] had raised more than $225,000..."

https://twitter.com/sonipaul/status/1322231542668693506

It is remarkable. Once you look at the actual evidence-- which is trivial-- and measure that against the pervasiveness of the narrative, it becomes clear how much of this driven by good, old-fashioned American xenophobia, and widespread ignorance about India and Hinduism

30 protesters and $200k raised-- that's it. And yet this is somehow spun into a nefarious web of Hindu nazis who want to infect American politics. It is insanity. This is nothing but the progressive left version of the Sharia paranoia that took hold of the right post 9/11.

I've made this point before, but for diaspora trying to understand what is actually driving this madness, the focus should be American history. This has nothing to do with Indian politics (if it was about Indian politics, you'd see a sincere attempt to understand it)

We have short memories, but do study what Irish Catholics, e.g., had to face in this country even through the mid 20th C; Kennedy had to plead on the campaign trail that he wasn't the "Catholic candidate" for president! This is ordinary course for upwardly mobile immigrant

groups who don't fit into the dominant protestant paradigm that shapes American culture. No use feeling sorry about it, just have to speak out and educate, because if you don't you're giving license to people like @sonipaul to define you on their terms.