A security vehicle is parked outside of Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) Temple in Aurora, Ill., on Oct. 15, 2026. Laura Bargfeld/AP hide caption

Laura Bargfeld/AP

A 19-year-old man's alleged plot to carry out a mass shooting at a Hindu temple in suburban Chicago last month is drawing attention to a recent and steep rise in anti-South Asian and anti-Hindu hate. Police in Palatine, Ill., announced that on Oct. 11, a college student and Taco Bell cashier named Alexandros Paporakis tried to carry out the attack at the Sri Venkateswara Swami Temple in Aurora, Ill., roughly 40 miles west of Chicago. They said the plot was averted by a jammed gun.

"Something of this scale … has not been directed at South Asians before," said Rohit Chopra, professor of communications at Santa Clara University and visiting fellow at the Center for South Asia at Stanford University.

Two decades ago, the predominant narrative about Indian immigrants to the U.S.…