India has been intricately linked with the American story, even before it was conceived. Christopher Columbus thought he was looking for India when he rolled up to the Bahamas. Columbus, who died in penury, was later held up as the “founder” of America because the Americans needed a non-British origin story so they decided an Italian sailing under the Spanish flag was the “first American”, to the point that the indigenous people of the US continued to be referred to as Indian.
A detailed analysis by the Centre for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) tracked 128 of the most-viewed posts attacking Indians on X between 22 December 2024 and 3 January 2025. Together, those posts had racked up 138.54 million views by 3 January. The detailed study of anti-Indian narratives online shows a surge in hostility across platforms. The data doesn’t just explain America’s psychology, but it does reveal the architecture of the backlash — the themes, the tropes, the fixations and the emotional logic behind the hate.
Before diving into the numbers, it helps to understand where they come from. CSOH is a US-based research collective that tracks how coordinated hate networks form and spread across social platforms. Their study categorises the most viral narratives, identifies who spreads them, measures how fast the hate travels and shows how each spike leaves behind a higher baseline of resentment.