TOI correspondent from Washington: A celebration of light, colour, diversity, and religious pluralism in Seattle turned into a brief demonstration of America’s darker side when two far-right activists gate-crashed the festivities carrying placards demanding the deportation of “dot heads” and warning of a “Hindu takeover of Christian America.”Jake Lang and Thomas Allen apparently didn’t get the memo that Diwali is a celebration of the triumph of good over evil. They turned up at a local Diwali celebration with American flags determined to underscore the evil part. They were eventually escorted out of the Seattle Center Armory after a scuffle, but not before Lang, who seems to have a particular talent for turning provocation into publicity, claimed that he and Allen had been assaulted by “Antifa and Hindus,” while blaming Hindus for the Republicans’ electoral disaster in Texas. ““Hindus flipped Texas blue. F**k them,” he complained, planting the idea in some heads that they should now be celebrating Krishna Jayanti in Texas.Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, whose Congressional district includes Seattle, condemned the disruption, saying she is beyond disgusted by this vile and racist display. “Diwali is an important holiday and our community should feel safe to celebrate it. This hateful display has no place in our city or this country,” the lawmaker, who has herself faced racist attacks asking her to go back to India, said. Suhag Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation, said she’d “laugh these losers off as clowns looking for some instagram likes if their fellow white nationalist hadn’t almost shot up a Hindu temple in Chicago.”Indeed, Lang is a familiar figure in violent far-right activism, coming to prominence after participating in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. He was accused of assaulting police officers with a baseball bat and a stolen riot shield and faced 11 federal counts, including assaulting law enforcement officers, before he was pardoned by President Trump along with other people prosecuted for offenses connected to January 6. Since then, he has built a following through confrontational demonstrations, including carrying a roasted pig outside NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence in an apparent attempt to offend Muslims and Jews.The Seattle episode is part of a broader anti-Indian and anti-Hindu campaign that has been gathering momentum, particularly in Texas, where the rapid growth of Indian-American communities has become fodder for nativist provocateurs. In Frisco, a Dallas suburb with a substantial Indian population, public meetings have been transformed into platforms for denunciations of an alleged “Indian takeover.” Residents have been branded invaders, H-1B visa holders accused of stealing American jobs, and Hindu temples, including one with a giant Hanuman statue, have been portrayed by some far-right activists as evidence of an assault on “Christian America,” an idea that is implicitly backed by the prominent people in the Trump orbit.The electoral consequences of the attack on minorities, including Indian-American, have been significant, particularly in Texas, even though Indian-Americans constitute only around 2 percent of the Texas population. Initial surveys indicate that Asian-American (who make up around 5 per cent of the population) and Latinos (who make up 40 per cent) moved sharply towards Democrats in the 2026 midterms, reversing gains Trump had made with the groups in 2024. Democrats captured the governor’s mansion and a Senate seat after decades in the wilderness, delivering a stunning blow to a Republican establishment that had spent years courting Indian-American voters while increasingly accommodating anti-Indian rhetoric.The highlight of the Republican rout was the defeat of Bo French, the Republican candidate for Texas railroad commissioner, who had used social media to complain about the presence and success of Indian Americans in Texas schools and businesses, portraying brown students at the University of Texas as evidence of a demographic problem.While Washington state, where Seattle is located, is a Democratic bastion, and Seattle itself is a haven for liberals and progressives (Jayapal polled more than 87 per cent of votes in the recent mid-terms to win a 6th term in Congress), community activists fear far right extremism is now an ever-present danger across the country. HAF’s Suhag Shukla noted that “having security precautions and an exit plan in place during religious and cultural events is today’s reality.“Ironically, while Lang’s theory of the Republican defeat is that Hindus have flipped Texas blue, in Seattle, Jayapal’s Republican challenger was also an Indian-American, Nirav Sheth, who polled the 12.17 votes to Jayapal’s 87.45 per cent. Apparently, MAGA’s Great Replacement theory is getting complicated: even the Republicans’ candidates are beginning to look like the people Lang wants deported.