I don’t even know where to begin with this. I’ve had relatives reaching an almost rage state because I was wearing a keffiyeh. I’ve gone to charity walks and some random uncle asks me where I’m from (basically trying to interrogate whether I’m Muslim or “from Pakistan”). I’ve seen a temple that I’ve gone to many times suddenly allow a BJP overseas group to rent their hall. At that same event I just happened to walk in, so I took some shots with my camera only for some thug to try to physically remove my phone from my hand and push me back to the exit/door with the help of his buddies. They immediately were like “why are you wearing Muslim thing?” because I was wearing a keffiyeh (nevermind the fact that I was wearing a regular indian kurta, etc., it was even their “favorite color” orange lol).
These guys are totally foaming from the mouth hindu nationalists (actually fascists is more appropriate) and they’re not just in India, they’re in the US as well. I’ve never had any white person say anything to me when I wear a keffiyeh. In fact I’ve had ppl low key give thumbs ups or say “nice” but with these fucking uncles (and yes they are always middle-aged indian uncles) it’s like a coin toss. Some think it looks cool (and have no idea what it means), whereas others see it and immediately think I’m some sort of terrorist. And btw my family is moderately high caste Hindu, and I think caste is complete bullshit, but I only mention it because if these fucking fash uncles don’t know that ahead of time, they’ll immediatley think you’re Muslim/Pakistani/terrorist by the things you wear. I’m going to continue rocking the keffiyeh but fuck these fucks.
Comrades, keep an eye out for these shitheads.
Also would love to hear any sort of stories from other comrades about family/friends/etc who have hindu nationalist views and how you dealt with it.
