Georgia has become the first state in the United States to introduce a bill that would formally recognise “Hinduphobia” and anti-Hindu hate in the state’s penal code, PTI reported.

The Senate Bill 375 was introduced on April 4 by Republican Senator Shawn Still. The bill, if passed, will mean that anti-Hindu prejudice will be included in laws and regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion or national origin.

Advocacy group Coalition of Hindus of North America said that the bill would allow law enforcement authorities to account for “Hinduphobia” while dealing with alleged cases of bias and discrimination.

The draft bill defines Hinduphobia as “a set of antagonistic, destructive, and derogatory attitudes and behaviours towards Hinduism”.

Reacting to the bill, the advocacy group said that the draft legislation “proudly welcomes” the proposed legislation and called it a “historic move to formally recognise Hinduphobia and anti-Hindu hate in the state’s penal code”.

However, Hindus for Human Rights, another advocacy group, has consistently rejected the notion of systemic Hinduphobia in the US or in India “with any equivalence to Islamophobia or anti-Semitism”.

The group has said that while religiously motivated violence against Hindus “is real in some parts of the world”, mere criticism of caste, Hindutva or Hinduism itself, “especially when it comes from marginalised communities”, should not be construed as anti-Hindu sentiment.

The bill has received bipartisan support with Republican Senators Shawn Still and Clint Dixon along with Democratic Senators Jason Esteves and Emanuel D Jones joining as sponsors, The Times of India reported.

Rajeev Menon, the co-founder of Coalition of Hindus of North America, said on Monday: “This is a pivotal moment for the Hindu community in Georgia and across the United States.”

Hindus make up around 1% of the US population, according to the 2023-’24 Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study.

A group of North America-based academics who are members of the South Asia Scholar Activist Collective has previously said that while racism is a real problem for South Asian Americans, individual cases of discrimination do not amount to “Hinduphobia”.

The members of the South Asia Scholar Activist Collective cited a study on disinformation among Asian American communities as having found that the term Hinduphobia was “frequently weaponised by far-right groups to ‘silence and gaslight Dalit organisers and caste-oppressed communities’”.

“‘Hinduphobia’ rests on the false notion that Hindus have faced systematic oppression throughout history and in present times,” they added.

Also read: Hindutva is increasingly influencing the Hindu diaspora – and extending Indian politics overseas