(RNS) — Hindus in Los Angeles and beyond are experiencing fear and sadness and hoping for peace after the largest temple in California was vandalized with threatening graffiti over the weekend.
On Saturday morning (March 8), police deputies in the Chino Hills area of L.A. responded to a call from BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir of L.A., reporting the temple had been vandalized. According to the Chino Hills Police Department report, the temple’s marble sign, brick wall and sidewalk were spray painted by at least two unknown suspects seen on video surveillance, causing more than $15,000 worth of damage.
“It’s almost like a violation of sorts,” said Mehul Patel, a lifelong devotee and volunteer at the mandir. “Even though they did it on the external perimeter, it just opens your mind up to, like, what can happen next?”
The graffiti, reminiscent of other similar attacks, displayed the words “F*** Modi, Hindustan Murdabad,” and “Death to (Prime Minister) Modi, Hindustan.”
Graffiti at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Chino Hills, California. (Photo courtesy Mehul Patel)
The word Hindustan, a name historically given to India, translates to “land of the Hindus,” referencing Hindu identity and the Hindu people, which Patel said undoubtedly targets members of the minority religion.
On Monday (March 10), the incident was officially classified as a hate crime by local authorities and remains under investigation.
“I think people are making direct assumptions or trying to force us to make a conclusion that we are representatives of the Indian government,” Patel said. “We are not. We are a Hindu community here in the United States. We are Americans.”
The vandalism at the L.A. mandir marks the 10th reported incident of Hindu temple vandalism or burglarization in the United States since 2022, and the third targeting a BAPS congregation.
In response, the mandir held a “prayer for unity and peace” on Sunday, at which local officials and clergy congregated in front of the temple.
“The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Chino Hills, like all BAPS mandirs worldwide, serves as a symbol of peace, harmony, equality, selfless service and universal Hindu values,” said Hetal Patel, a volunteer who spoke on behalf of the organization at the event. “This mandir is home for my family.”
The Bochanaswami Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha community, considered the largest subset of Hindus in the United States, has built over 1,300 temples worldwide, including the first Hindu temple in the United Arab Emirates. Devotees of Swaminarayan, an 18th-century yogi and ascetic, and his direct disciples pay special attention to the Hindu tenet of seva, or selfless service.
Hetal Patel, left, speaks during a prayer for unity and peace event at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir on Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Chino Hills, California. (Photo courtesy Mehul Patel)
Many BAPS houses of worship, like the Chino Hills mandir and the recently finished BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham in Robbinsville, New Jersey — the largest Hindu temple in the U.S. — are architectural feats, with intricate carvings and structures that resemble many of the volunteers’ homeland.
Lenin Joshi, communications head for the BAPS Akshardham, said he was “shocked and disheartened” to hear another temple had been attacked. The last two reported vandalism incidents were in September 2024 against BAPS mandirs in Sacramento and New York. The sect’s prominence, and therefore its publicity, may have been a factor in its targeting, Joshi suggested, considering the graffiti included political grievances.
But in line with the teachings of the faith’s lineage of swamis, or teachers, Joshi said it is important to “maintain our cool” and not be reactionary. He recalled that when the Swaminarayan Akshardham in Gandhinagar, India, was attacked by terrorists in 2002, killing 33 people and injuring 80, then-spiritual head of BAPS Pramukh Swami Maharaj immediately appealed for peace, praying for all of the departed souls, including the two assailants.
“We’re not going to respond to this in any way that can harm more people,” Joshi said. “We will just keep prayer and hope that the people who are doing this, they get the right understanding to stop.”
To others in the broader Hindu American community, the influx of attacks on temples points to a disturbing trend. In California, which has the highest population of Indians in the U.S., anti-Hindu hatred was found to be the second most common anti-religion-related bias reported to the California Civil Rights Department’s non-emergency hate crime hotline, according to May 2024 data that covered the year prior.
Democratic California state Rep. Darshana Patel, the first Hindu woman to serve in the state legislature, shared a statement on X March 9, responding to the attack.
“This act is especially painful as Hindus are celebrating Holi — the festival of colors, love and spring,” she wrote. “It is a time of joy, unity and renewal — values that stand in stark contrast to hate and division.”
Suhag Shukla, executive director of the advocacy group the Hindu American Foundation, said seeing a “peaceful community targeted like this is so wholly unfair and heartbreaking.”
“BAPS is a model institution in terms of really providing the space for families to practice their tradition, but also to pass it on in the community,” Shukla said. “Broadly, they’re just seen as people who are living good, positive lives that are taking this idea of selfless service to the utmost level.”
Suhag Shukla. (Courtesy photo)
Shukla noted the attack occurred before Los Angeles is to hold a non-binding vote that would establish a Sikh homeland in the city separate from India, known as the Khalistan referendum, on March 23. The Khalistan movement generally seeks a separate homeland for Sikhs in Punjab that doesn’t fall under Hindu rule.
Khalistan movement supporters often criticize Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for its suppression of Sikh separatist activists, whom it labels terrorists and extremists. Much graffiti against Hindu temples has reflected pro-Khalistan and anti-Modi sentiments, which Shukla said has contributed to a sense of “apathy” from federal agencies due to their political nature.
Regardless of the message, however, Shukla said defacing a house of worship is undoubtedly an act of hate. With Kash Patel, who is Hindu, recently appointed head of the FBI, Shukla said she and her organization hope the government agency will pay more attention to such attacks, considering them a troubling trend rather than isolated incidents.
“Hindus are frustrated,” she said. “A place of worship should be somewhere where you come to pray, to be with community, to find peace. You shouldn’t have to be holding press conferences and having other people come and help you scrub down your walls.”