(RNS) — President Donald Trump’s senior trade adviser has sparked accusations of Hinduphobia after using the term “Brahmins” to criticize India’s elite, prompting Hindu American groups to call for his immediate removal.
Peter Navarro, speaking Sunday (Aug. 31) on Fox News about the administration’s new 50% tariff on Indian goods, denounced India’s trade policies before making the controversial comment.
“You have got Brahmins profiteering at the expense of the Indian people, and we want that to stop,” Navarro said, also calling New Delhi “nothing but a laundromat for the Kremlin.”
Navarro’s use of the word Brahmin — a term that refers to the highest social caste in Hindu society — launched ire in the Hindu diaspora and in India, from social media memes ridiculing Navarro’s “misunderstanding” of Indian caste dynamics, to calls for his firing.
“This is not foreign policy,” said Ajay Shah, executive chair of the lobbying organization HinduPACT, in a statement released Tuesday. “This is weaponized Hinduphobia. Dividing Hindus through colonial scripts doesn’t build relationships. It destroys them. People like Navarro have no place in American political life.”
Navarro’s comments came during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to China in seven years, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. At the end of August, Trump’s administration announced an increased tariff on Indian goods, with an added penalty for India’s purchasing of R …