Hinduphobia in North American Contexts

The recent emergence of the term “Hinduphobia” in social media and public policy has gone largely unnoticed by mainstream Western society. It is a term that appears to function as part of a spectrum of well-established terms for structural forms of racism linked to historical material practices of discrimination such as Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, and anti-semitism. However, while there certainly are many hypothetical and real examples of discrimination against Hindus by virtue of their religion in parts of the world, the attempt to include “Hinduphobia” into the lexicon of terminology arguably masks the much more immediate political and social reality that the claim silences legitimate criticism of India. In this roundtable discussion, panelists will explore several core questions and case studies involving Hinduphobia and its impact in North American, Hindu diasporic, and Indian contexts.