An Indian-origin doctor's "bindi" video has sparked an online backlash. She says she has never seen so much anti-India hatred in her life | World News
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An Indian-origin doctor’s “bindi” video has sparked an online backlash. She says she has never seen so much anti-India hatred in her life | World News

By WEB DESK TEAM
July 27, 2026 5 Min Read
Comments Off on An Indian-origin doctor’s “bindi” video has sparked an online backlash. She says she has never seen so much anti-India hatred in her life | World News

Being Indian in the United States is no longer a matter of diversity and celebration. Conversely, publicly revealing your Indian identity could expose you to attacks on the street and being targeted online. This is not just a hypothesis, but a proven statement. A survey in 2026 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The attitudes of the approximately 5.2 million Indian Americans living in the United States were studied. Surveys show that one in four Indian Americans have been called a slur since the beginning of 2025. The survey also noted that one-fifth of the respondents were reluctant to wear religious symbols such as bindi and tilak in public.Those who still do have goals that motivate them enough not to wear their identification in public. A case in point is an Indian-origin doctor in the United States who faced racist comments on social media for wearing a bindi. in a Instagram In the video, Dr. Karishma Reddy, a board-certified plastic surgeon with 23,000 followers on Instagram, shares an incident that happened during her rural rotation as a medical student at the College of Georgia.She was seeing a diabetic patient when his wife asked her why she was wearing a bindi. “Before I could explain, her husband was like I’ll tell you why she wore that polka dot, and when she got married, her husband scratched it off to see if he won a motel or a gas station,” the doctor said.This comment was an off-the-cuff racist remark about the doctor’s Indian identity, as many Americans believe Indians come to the states to work in any business, own or work in motels or gas stations. “Bindi is not a scratch-off lottery ticket. My husband won a plastic surgeon anyway, but this patient did make my black passenger giggle deep inside,” she wrote in the caption.In a follow-up video, the doctor said that she had never experienced this level of anti-Indian rhetoric or hatred directed at her, all over her bindi, in her life. “Earlier this week I made a video about my Bindi patient encounter and it was a lighthearted, fun memory. But wow, the comments section is crazy. I have never seen so much anti-India rhetoric in my life. I was probably naive about it because I spent most of my life in healthcare settings in hospitals and clinics, and Indians were not really considered a minority in healthcare settings,” she can be heard saying in the video.The plastic surgeon added that she has always been well-respected by her colleagues in the medical profession, so she was even more confused by the hateful comments on social media. “I bet if this guy went to your home country they would ask why he’s wearing deodorant!” one user wrote. Another added: “I’m not going to lie, this is a hilarious joke. You’re lucky you’re not in a hospital in India with cow dung on the floor and they think drinking cow urine is good for your health.”“A lot of the comments were about me going back to India. I was born and raised in the United States. I’m obsessed with cows, so, to clarify, Hindus don’t eat beef. The main reason for this is not because we have sacred texts telling us not to eat cows. Because in the past, many women died in childbirth and the babies survived on milk, so out of respect for cows, cows are given the gift of human life. We don’t slaughter cows,” she said.Reddy added that the incident saddened her and urged people to respect others from different cultural backgrounds. “I hope this at least opens your mind to Hinduism and cows and clears the air because I don’t know what happened in Ripley’s Believe It or Not that people thought we were worshiping them and doing weird things with their urine,” she concluded.

Indians have faced this rhetoric five times

In October 2025, anti-H1B hatred erupted online, with slurs targeting only Hindu gods, traditions, and names. In February, a viral X post by Carlos Turcios, a Republican activist in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, hailed Texas’ 90-foot-tall “Confederate statue” of Lord Hanuman and claimed that “Third World aliens” were slowly taking over Texas and the United States. Many other posts ranted about “demon gods” and “monkey gods,” and a best-selling author spoke out against immigrants entering the temple.Around the same time, a video of American YouTuber Tyler Oliveira mocking the Karnataka village Gorehaba festival racked up 5 million views on X. Without understanding the cultural or festival context, he criticized the video under the title “Insider of India’s Poop Throwing Festival.”In another video that went viral on The conservative media personality satirically mocked the culture’s cow worship and use of cow dung and urine, causing many Indian Americans to quit.Indian-American man Madhu Raja faces backlash for video dancing at National World War II Memorial in Washington What started as a debate about the seriousness associated with the site turned into a discussion about U.S. immigration and concerns about the man’s job loss and deportation.Additionally, there has been a recent trend of influencers and independent journalists “uncovering” alleged H-1B fraud by visiting the homes of Indian Americans and asking them questions. For example, Texas journalist Sara Gonzales confronted numerous Indians living in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the name of collecting tips and uncovering scams.

Anti-India America?

反印度裔美国？ ” msid=”132654420″ width=”” title=”Much online hate directed at the Indian community often references Hindu symbols, traditions or religious content. ” placeholdersrc=”https://static.toiimg.com/photo/83033472.cms” imgsize=”” resizemode=”4″ offsetvertical=”0″ placeholdermsid=”47529300″ type=”thumb” class=”” src=”https://static.toiimg.com/photo/msid-132654420/an-anti-indian-americabrbr.jpg” data-api-prerender=”true”/></p> <p>Much of the online hate directed at the Indian community often references Hindu symbols, traditions or religious content.</p> </div> </div> <p><span class=Indian-American individuals in the United States face racism on multiple fronts, from digital harassment to real-world hostility. The Carnegie report surveyed 1,000 Indian-American adults who said they had experienced prejudice, online racism, personal harassment and discrimination, forcing some to change the way they speak, dress or participate in public life to avoid confrontation. The report also noted that much of the online hate directed at the Indian community often references Hindu symbols, traditions or religious content.At least 71% of Indian Americans disapprove of Trump’s overall performance as president, with 55% expressing strong disapproval, the report said. “While a majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s job performance, disapproval is significantly higher among Indian Americans, both among men and women. At the same time, approval of Trump among Indian Americans has been consistently lower than approval among Americans overall. Taken together, these patterns suggest that Indian Americans view Trump significantly more unfavorably than the U.S. population as a whole,” the study said.Furthermore, by 2022, Internet Infection Research Institute Rutgers University researchers have documented a pattern in which social media is systematically weaponized, often by bots and geopolitical actors, to target Hindu communities. It also warned the Hindu community to be cautious as hate online often creeps into the real world.

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