Vasant Bhatt, a 21-year-old political science major at the University of Houston, got 2.6 million views and a torrent of racist backlash Monday when he posted why he voted for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico.
Until recently, Bhatt was a conservative. He interned with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2024 campaign and with the Texas Youth Summit in The Woodlands. He’s a second-generation Indian American and a lifelong Hindu; he cleanses himself and performs a puja, which includes prayer, every morning.
In response to his viral post, Republican commentators called him disloyal to America and encouraged him to self-deport. “That reaction was disturbing, but I’m not shocked,” Bhatt said. He said that ever since debate over H-1B visas divided Republicans in late 2024, anti-Indian and anti-Hindu rhetoric within the party has grown louder.
READ MORE: At Texas Youth Summit, GOP leaders cast Paxton-Talarico Senate race as a battle against ‘evil’
“My biggest concern is the extent to which politics has become organized around just resentment,” said Bhatt, who now identifies as “politically homeless,” and expects to be voting for Democrats in the future.
The share of Hindu Americans who describe themselves as Republican doubled from 2013 to 2025, reaching 14%, according to PRRI’s religion census. But as denigration of Hindus and Indians becomes more common in online conservative spaces, some Hindu Republicans are reassessing their loyalties.
A month ago, GOP Texas Railroad Commission candidate Bo French went viral when he shared a picture of what appeared to be Indian American students cheering at a Texas Longhorns football game. “The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” French wrote, adding: “I weep for the families in Texas who can’t get into UT because they prioritize foreigners over Texans.”
A truck parked at a protest outside Frisco City Hall in June with photos of white Americans who had been killed, including Austin Metcalf and Charlie Kirk. (Staff photo, Dallas Morning News)
READ MORE: See the biggest donors backing Bo French and Jon Rosenthal in the Texas Railroad Commission race
The comments prompted some backlash from within the GOP. Republicans including outgoing U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Karl Rove, deputy chief of staff to former President George W. Bush, said they wouldn’t vote for French. President Donald Trump left French off of a Texas endorsement list he posted to social media this week, but state Republican Party officials have yet to publicly admonish French or any other candidates about anti-Hindu or anti-Indian remarks.
D’rinda Randall, chair of the Republican Party of Texas, said she didn’t want to comment on French’s post.
She said the Democratic Party hasn’t addressed “crazy” statements from their own candidates, like U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico. “They don’t have to answer for every one of the crazy things that Talarico says. I’m not going to comment on every candidate’s social media post.”
Randall also said that “Hindus are as American as you and me.” She said Hindu Americans want the same thing as other Americans, including lower taxes and a chance to live the American dream.
Sunanda Vashisht, a Sugar Land Hindu author and political commentator who has studied mass violence, worries that Hindu and Indian Americans are being “otherized” and “demonized” by people like French. She said that treatment is how bigotry grows, spreads and becomes more dangerous. “Mass violence never, never begins with an act of violence,” she said.
Vashisht cited slurs and stereotypes she’s seen used against Hindus and Hindu deities, particularly from commentators who have been bashing the 90-foot statue of Lord Hanuman at the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple in Sugar Land.
READ MORE: Hindu Temple in Sugar Land to hire security after church group’s protest of Hanuman statue
She’s grieved by the backlash against a work of art intended to symbolize the Hindu value of unity amid diversity. Hindu children are taught to pray to Hanuman to soothe their anxieties when they’re scared or entering a high-stress situation.
Now, she sees pictures of that statue in news articles about rising hate against Hindu Americans. The statue, which regularly receives protesters and had to hire 24-hour security, has become a “symbol of hatred” against her community, she said.
The concern that this hate will escalate into violence isn’t theoretical for her.
On Oct. 11, authorities arrested a 19-year-old who is accused of attempting a mass shooting at an Illinois Hindu temple. The man allegedly wrote an eight-page manifesto that used derogatory and racist slurs, according to court documents.
Vashisht said she’s equally grieved for the perpetrator, whose life is “ruined,” and for the temple’s community. All her group chats have been talking about that incident, and she said some of her friends warned their kids against posting pictures of themselves online with other Indian American people.
READ MORE: Teen accused of plotting mass shooting at Chicago-area Hindu temple
“I have lived in this country for 27 years,” she said. “I have never felt besieged like I do now.”
Vijay Pallod, the media coordinator for Hindus of Greater Houston, has lived in the metro area for 46 years. He remembers the city only having two or three Hindu temples when he arrived back in 1980, and said strangers often assumed he was Hispanic instead of Indian American.
Hindus felt invisible to their neighbors back then, according to Pallod – but not unsafe. The community has grown significantly since then; the Houston area has at least 20 temples and hosts Diwali events that draw over 10,000 people.
Pallod said he’s proud of the local Hindu community and the recognition it now receives from the city. But in the last two months, he’s seen anti-Hindu attitudes stronger than he ever imagined.
He described himself as an independent and a “conservative person” who hopes Texas will never become California or implement an income tax. “I never felt threatened by Republican Party,” said Pallod. “But lately, the way they’re behaving – I never thought that I’m going to see those days.”
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This article originally published at Houston Hindus worry they’re becoming a target. Some are giving up on the Republican Party..