San Jose State University Must Not Ignore Anti-Hindu Component of the Recent Attack On a Sikh Student

On February 7th, near Macquarie Hall at San Jose State University, a Sikh student was targeted and assaulted by five individuals. During the attack, the perpetrators forced the victim to the ground and removed his religious symbols, including his turban (Dastaar). While the victim is Sikh, the animus behind the attack was explicitly Hinduphobic, as confirmed by university official Kathryn Kaoudis during a campus town hall, the attackers misidentified the student’s religion and used “Hindu” as a slur to shame and dehumanize him.

While the Sikh Student Association has been exemplary in their timely support and educational outreach over the past week, the university’s formal communication channels have largely failed to address the specific anti-Hindu bias that motivated this violence.

This oversight is particularly distressing given the documented rise of hate crimes targeting the Hindu community. According to the California Civil Right Department’s “CA vs Hate” data, anti-Hindu incidents now account for 23.3% of all religiously motivated hate reports in the state, making Hindus the second most targeted religious group in California. For a university that strives for inclusivity, the silence regarding this specific threat feels like a passive invalidation of the safety concerns shared by Hindu students and residents in San Jose.

As a stakeholder in this community, I believe it is my responsibility to demand transparency an proactive support from the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

As a university with a significant Hindu and Indian demographic, many of us felt let down having to learn the specific details of this threat through external media rather than our own campus communication channels.

The following is a copy of the formal email sent to university personnel to request a deeper investigation and a commitment to educating the campus on the reality of Hinduphobia today.

To: San Jose State University Administration

I am writing to you today as a concerned student to share my perspective on the unsettling events of February 7th and the broader atmosphere for Hind students on our campus. The Hinduphobic nature of this assault has intensified an atmosphere of fear, anxiety, and vulnerability within our community. It is particularly alarming that the perpetrators were not SJSU students, which indicates an external threat to our campus environment and a breach of the safe, inclusive space the university strives to maintain.

When “Hindu” is used as a slur to justify violence, it is vital that the institution provides validation and recognition of that specific bias so that students feel seen and protected. My primary concern is that failing to specifically name and condemn this rhetoric creates a vacuum of accountability, which may inadvertently embolden external actors and lead to further targeted incidents on our campus.

I stand in absolute solidarity with the Sikh victim of this assault. However, I am concerned that the omission of the attacker’s Hinduphobic rhetoric in official university communications may inadvertently overlook the specific religiou bias involved in this current incident. This mirrors a dangerous pattern of identity-based violence, such as the case of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, a Hindu man who was targeted and shot after being misidentified as Iranian—a painful reminder of how Hinduphobia and xenophobia intersect to put our community at risk.

As a university with a significant Hindu and Indian demographic, many of us felt let down having to learn the specific details of this threat through external media rather than our own campus communication channels. This feeling is compounded by the rising frequency of targeted incidents in our immediate area, including the recent repeated burglaries and desecration of local temples in Santa Clara, Newark, and Hayward.

This should not be viewed as an isolated incident. Over the past 3 years, there has been an alarming rise in hate against Hindus in California. Between December 2023 and March 2025, four Hindu temples were vandalized -including two right here in the Bay Area. A 2024 report from the California Civil Rights department shows that nearly a quarter of reported hate incidents in the religion category targeted Hindus. Anti-Jewish incidents topped the list at 36.9%, and anti-Hindu hate came in second-accounting for 23.3%. Anti-Muslim hate comprised 14.6% of the incidents.

California’s 2025 Hate crime report, showed anti-Hindu hate incidents rising for 4 straight years. Despite these documented local trends, there is a noticeable lack of substantive support or safety resources tailored to the Hindu student population at SJSU.

I am respectfully requesting that the university acknowledge the reality of this Hinduphobic incident, provide any available updates on the investigation, and work to increase campus-wide awareness to prevent future escalations of violence.

Sincerely,
Amrutha Kshitija Rachakonda

---

Amrutha Kshitija Rachakonda is a third-year Information Science major at San Jose State University.