Hindus and Hindutva vilified at Carnegie Mellon as student group denies Kashmir persecution and promotes anti-Hindu narrative
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States 
9 May, 2025
Case Summary
At Carnegie Mellon University, a student group painted a wall with slogans attacking Hindutva and Zionism, while calling for a “Free Kashmir” and overlooking the historical persecution of Hindus from the region. The wall was painted by a group identifying as “Students of Conscience,” who displayed the messages “Down with Zionism and Hindutva” alongside “Free Kashmir.' Carnegie Mellon University, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a private research institution. Like many American universities, it has become a site for intense political expression against Hindus.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Hate Speech against Hindus. The sub-category selected here is - Denial or mocking of genocide/large-scale persecution. Denial or mocking of genocide/large-scale persecution/ethnic cleansing refers to the act of denying or minimizing the fact of the ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus. This often involves denying the scale, mechanisms, religious intent, or even the occurrence of the ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus. Hate speech of this kind involves the dissemination of falsehoods that deny or distort established historical facts or mock the suffering of Hindus by saying that they deserved the persecution, motivated by Hinduphobia. Denying such atrocities is not only about the denial of facts or rewriting/revising history, but it also delegitimises the religiously motivated persecution of Hindus, the religious hate/motivation/animosity that led to the persecution, and dehumanises Hindus as a religious group. Such denial of ethnic cleansing and/or genocide and/or religious persecution of Hindus not only denies the suffering but also paves the way for future/present atrocities and hate speech, inciting prejudice and violence against Hindus. It also provides a justification for violence by delinking religious animosity from religiously motivated crimes committed against Hindus. Since such denial and/or mocking of genocide/ethnic cleansing/atrocities motivated by religious animosity leads to present and future ramifications of creating more hate speech, violence, dehumanisation and delegitimisation, it would be considered hate speech under this category. The other sub-category selected is - Anti-Hindu slurs, mocking faith. Anti-Hindu slurs and the deliberate mocking of the Hindu faith owing to religious animosity involve the usage of derogatory terms, stereotypes, or offensive references to religious practices, symbols, or figures. One of the common anti-Hindu slurs used against Hindus is “cow-worshipper” and “cow piss drinker”. The intention of using this term is to demean and mock Hindus as a group and their religious beliefs since Hindus consider the cow holy. Additionally, some symbols and the slurs attached to them have a historical context that exacerbates the insult, hate, stereotyping, dehumanisation and oppression against Hindus. Cow worship has been used for centuries to denigrate Hindus, insult their faith and oppress Hindus specifically as a religious group. There has been overwhelming documentation about how cow slaughter has been used to persecute Hindus with cow meat being thrown in temples and places of worship. There has also been overwhelming documentation where cow meat (beef) has been force-fed to Hindus to either forcefully convert them to Islam or denigrate their faith. Apart from cow worship, the Swastika – which holds deep religious significance for the Hindus – has also been misinterpreted and distorted to use as a slur against Hindus. Similarly, the worship of the Shivling has been used by supremacist ideologies and religions to denigrate Hindus owing to religious animosity. Such slurs and denigration stem out of inherent animosity and hate towards Hindus and their faith, therefore, it is categorised as hate speech targeted at Hindus specifically owing to their religious identity. At Carnegie Mellon University, a student group painted slogans like “Down with Zionism and Hindutva” alongside “Free Kashmir.” For many Hindu students and community members, this wasn’t just political—it felt personal and painful. By framing Hindutva solely as a force of oppression and linking it to the Kashmir issue, the messaging erased the very real history of violence, persecution, and displacement faced by Hindus in the region, especially the Kashmiri Pandit community. It flipped the narrative, turning victims into villains, and in doing so, dismissed decades of trauma. For a community that’s still seeking recognition and justice, seeing their lived experiences reduced to a slogan on a wall was deeply alienating. It sends a message that their pain doesn’t matter—or worse, that it’s denied altogether. Moreover, by linking “Hindutva” to systems of oppression and pairing it with unrelated geopolitical causes, the wall framed Hindu cultural and spiritual identity in a pejorative light. 'Hindutva' is often used as a euphemism to make the targeting of Hindus more palatable. Hindutva is essentially a unifying ideology for Hindus, which became imperative for Hindus to find and preserve their cultural identity, which was being eroded and attacked due to Islamic invasions, British colonisation, Christian theological impositions and conversions. Hindutva is not a destructive ideology, as some attempt to portray, but one that is used as a unifying edifice for Hindus. Hindutva is also often used as a euphemism to target Hindus on the whole and their religious identity and faith. It is essentially semantic jugglery to confuse Hindus into believing that their own persecution by supremacists is somehow 'justified' because the specific victims espoused an ideology (Hindutva) which deserves the onslaught. The fact that the use of 'Hindutva' is merely to mask animosity towards Hindus was evident from the "Dismantling Global Hindutva" conference held in the USA, where speakers unabashedly spoke about how Hindutva and Hinduism are indistinguishable and therefore, the "dismantle Hindutva" one would have to "dismantle Hinduism". The practices of targeting Hindus and their religious and cultural identity, and justifying that victimisation and dehumanisation by using euphemisms like "Hindutva" stem from inherent animosity and hostility towards Hindus. This is not an isolated incident but part of a troubling pattern in academia where Hindu beliefs, symbols, and historical suffering are frequently mocked, erased, or misrepresented, fostering a climate of intolerance and exclusion.
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