Hate targeting Indians and other South Asians has risen sharply online in the United States, with a new report linking the increase to immigration politics, economic anxiety and the growing visibility of the community in American public life.
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The monthly volume of anti-South Asian hate posts on X jumped 240% between January 2024 and June 2026, rising from 12,904 to 43,843, according to a report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH).
The report, titled “The Rising Tide of Anti-South Asian Hate in the United States”, published on Sunday, examined online posts using the United Nations definition of hate speech. Researchers also reviewed posts to exclude criticism that did not meet that threshold.
Researchers found more than 542,000 hateful posts targeting South Asians in the US on X between January 2025 and June 2026. Five of the six months with the highest volume of such posts came towards the end of the period studied.
Indians at centre of immigration and jobs debate
More than 70% of H-1B visa holders are Indian, according to the report, making Indians a frequent target when the programme becomes part of the wider immigration debate.
Researchers found that nearly half of the hateful posts on X accused South Asians of invading the US, taking jobs or posing a demographic threat.
The slur “pajeet” and its variants appeared in 30% of hateful posts on X and 45% of such posts on fringe platforms, the report said.
Another recurring theme was portraying South Asians as dirty or unhygienic. Posts pushing that narrative increased 171% on X, the researchers found, making it the fastest-growing narrative tracked in the study.
The report also found that Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were frequently treated as one group online, while different religious communities, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, were similarly conflated.
H-1B visa row emerges as major flashpoint
Researchers linked several spikes in anti-South Asian hate to political disputes over the H-1B programme.
Last year in September, the Trump administration imposed a $100,000 payment requirement on certain new H-1B petitions.
The report said such actions can reinforce hostility towards South Asians among supporters of Trump’s immigration policies.
Researchers also pointed to Trump’s remarks at an AI summit in July 2025, in which he criticized US technology companies for outsourcing jobs to India. Anti-South Asian rhetoric sharply increased after his remarks.
The study argues that economic concerns have increasingly become intertwined with hostility towards Indian immigrants, particularly around jobs and skilled-worker visas.
From ‘model minority’ to target of economic anger
The report also examines how perceptions of Indian Americans have changed online.
Indian Americans have long been associated with the “model minority” stereotype, but researchers said some online narratives now portray them as “opportunists and cheats”.
South Asians more broadly are also being used as targets for anger over jobs and the economy.
Researchers linked this hostility to wider concerns about demographic change and what they described as anxiety among sections of the majority population over a perceived loss of status.
The report also connects some of the rhetoric to the “Great Replacement Theory”, a conspiracy theory claiming that white populations in Western countries are being deliberately replaced.
South Asian visibility in US politics
The growing presence of South Asians in American politics has also brought greater visibility.
It cites figures including Vice President JD Vance’s wife Usha Vance, politician Vivek Ramaswamy and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The report said racist attacks have targeted South Asian figures across party lines. It also documented spikes in anti-South Asian and Islamophobic abuse following Mamdani’s primary and mayoral victories.
Researchers said the online hostility reflects a broader argument over who belongs in American society.
A September 2026 Department of Homeland Security post titled “Transformers: Age of Deportations” featured a Sikh man identified as “Mr Singh” and told him to “get off our roads”.
Days later, the Department of Education posted “Make College Football Great Again” after Texas Republican Bo French complained about the presence of South Asians at a University of Texas football game.
Researchers said such rhetoric can reinforce the portrayal of South Asians as outsiders who “can never truly belong in the country”.
Online hate spills into real-world harassment
The report also documents cases in which online hostility has moved beyond posts and comments.
Researchers found X accounts publishing personal information about South Asians accused of taking jobs or committing visa fraud. Influencers have also confronted people at their homes and workplaces and posted those encounters online.
Generative AI has added another layer, with researchers finding content depicting South Asians as “filthy and unclean”, sexually predatory, culturally backward or a demographic threat.
The report said online hate does not operate separately from offline hostility.
It cited a July incident in Utah in which an Indian Muslim mall employee was repeatedly stabbed in an attack that federal prosecutors charged as a hate crime. In September, a Sikh truck driver was stabbed 17 times at a Wyoming truck stop.
“Online and offline hate can reinforce one another,” researchers wrote, arguing that stereotypes and narratives can move between social media, political discourse, media and everyday life.
For Indian Americans, the report identifies immigration, employment, race and demographic change as overlapping areas through which hostility is increasingly expressed online.
Its findings suggest that the community’s growing presence in US workplaces, politics and public life has made Indians more visible in some of the country’s most contentious debates, particularly around immigration and the H-1B programme.
