NEW DELHI — As diplomatic tensions between Washington and New Delhi spiked in recent months, a long-buried mistrust of the United States has surged back to life in the world’s most populous country.
For older Indians, the barrage of abrasive remarks from President Donald Trump and his allies has revived painful memories of past slights, analysts said; for younger generations, it has called into question a relationship many had come to take for granted. The harsh rhetoric from U.S. officials has dovetailed with escalating hate speech online targeting Indians and Indian Americans, according to researchers, hardening the divide.
A recent surge in online invective has deepened the rupture. In a forthcoming study, the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, based in Washington, documented a fivefold spike in anti-Indian posts on X in August as compared with July.
The most widely circulated posts, according to researchers, which were viewed tens of millions of times, called for deportations, referred to Indian immigrants as invaders and accused them of taking jobs from Americans.