Hindu advocates in the United States are expressing their concern and urging temples in the country to increase their vigilance and security measures after three Hindu temples in the San Francisco Bay Area were vandalized within two weeks.
“The incidents point to a clear trend of anti-Hindu hate crimes, said Ramya Ramakrishnan of the Hindu American Foundation. “Community members are reaching out, asking, ‘Is it safe to go to the temple?'”
Excellent coverage of recent anti-Hindu hate crimes. https://t.co/Z2RgLFIM2I— Hindu American Foundation (@HinduAmerican) January 9, 2024
The entrance sign at Vijay’s Sherawali Temple in Hayward, California, was spray-painted with phrases such as “Modi is a terrorist,” referring to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and “Khalistan Zindabad,” which means “Khalistan Forever” on January 5th.
A few days before this incident, the Shiv Durga Temple in Santa Clara was burglarized in the early hours of January 1st. Security cameras captured three perpetrators stealing gold jewelry as well as donation boxes.
“It was a shock because we have this belief that nothing can happen to our temple, that our gods are very strong,” Sunil Khanna, President of the Shiv Durga Temple’s board, who stayed in the temple 24 hours after the theft to purify the atmosphere, said regarding the incident.
“The main thing that hurt all of us was how they misbehaved with the gods,” Khanna added.
It's very sad ,hope the US gov will take strict action against the culprits. If not some ' Unknown ' will appear out of the blue to take care of the culprits.
— iKiran M Gosavi (@kiranmgosavi) January 5, 2024
On December 23 last year, the Shree Swaminarayan Temple in Newark, California, was defaced with vulgar graffiti aimed at Narendra Modi.
“Based on the graffiti, we believe it was a targeted act, and it’s going to be investigated with full thoroughness,” Jonathan Arguello, Newark’s police captain, said at a news conference.
The attacks against Hindu temples in California come just months after the Indian Consulate in San Francisco was hit with vandalism and even an attempted arson, and a year after a Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Shri Tulsi Mandir temple in New York was vandalized and destroyed.
Now, many Hindu advocates are worried about this growing trend of anti-Hindu hate crimes in the United States.
“Community members are reaching out, asking, ‘Is it safe to go to the temple?'” Ramya Ramakrishnan of the Hindu American Foundation said. “This is supposed to be safe place where you go to pray and get peace of mind. But this holy and sacred space is now being violated.”
We Khalistani peoples need to donate them money so they could have cameras in theirs properties.
— Guru (@Guru35420) January 5, 2024
This chain of vandalism incidents in Hindu temples across the United States also came after the US State Department accused the Indian government in November last year of carrying out assassination attempts against Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York, which came weeks before the office of Canada’s Prime Minister accused India of assassinating Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.
Khalistan refers to a movement by Sikh separatists to create a separate homeland for Sikhs in the Indian subcontinent by creating a sovereign, ethnoreligious state called “Khalistan” in the Punjab region located in both India and Pakistan, which many Sikhs consider to be their historic home. Although the movement largely died out in India, pro-Khalistan sentiment remains among the Sikh diaspora overseas, especially in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Despite this chain of incidents against Hindu temples, pro-Khalistan vandalism has been occurring since March of 2023, when news of protesters breaking into the Indian Consulate in San Francisco and putting two small Khalistani flags inside the premises began to spread. The consulate faced another incident in the form of an arson attack, leading to an intelligence raid in Punjab.
“Vandalism or violence against diplomatic facilities or foreign diplomats in the U.S. is a criminal offense,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wrote on X (formerly Twitter) during that time, without mentioning Sikh separatism.
The U.S. strongly condemns the reported vandalism and attempted arson against the Indian Consulate in San Francisco on Saturday. Vandalism or violence against diplomatic facilities or foreign diplomats in the U.S. is a criminal offense.
— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) July 3, 2023
The Hindu American Foundation, the largest advocacy organization for Hindus in the United States, regularly shares resources with Hindu temples to aid them in taking preventative measures against vandalism, burglary, and other related incidents, such as providing them with manuals containing information on how to receive a safety assessment, as well as education on using security tools from CCTVs to alarms.
The organization also urges Hindu temples to report all incidents so that anti-Hindu hate crimes don’t remain under the surface.
For Ramakrishnan, Hinduphobia is yet to be recognized as a crime by law enforcement, and there is much work to be done at a federal level, despite efforts by local authorities to combat anti-Hindu hate crimes after recent crimes have been reported.
“We really want our Hindu community to be aware that this is happening in your backyard,” Ramakrishnan said. “Not to be afraid, but to face this. We need to be united as a community.”
