Shiva Ayyadurai, the Indian-American political activist who has repeatedly courted controversy over his claims and political views, has now taken his attacks on Brahmins to Vivek Ramaswamy, resorting to personal abuse and bizarre claims linking “Brahmanism” with Zionism.
Ayyadurai, who has long claimed that he invented email while working as a teenager at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, has seen that claim disputed by historians and technology experts, who point to earlier email systems, including Ray Tomlinson’s work on ARPANET in 1971.
But it is his recent attacks on Ramaswamy that have drawn attention.
While Ayyadurai is running as an independent candidate for the US Senate in Massachusetts and presents himself as an anti-establishment figure who attacks both Democrats and Republicans, he has gone particularly personal in his attacks on Ramaswamy.
In one post, Ayyadurai morphed Ramaswamy’s face onto a snake and labelled him, “Vivek the F**king Snake!”
But the attack did not stop at personal insults.
Sharing the image, Ayyadurai wrote, “India has a caste system – a codified SYSTEM OF EXCLUSION – Brahmanism – similar to ZIONISM.”
He then described Ramaswamy as part of an alleged “Indian Brahmanist-Zionist cabal”, claiming that the group “run[s] India and now America” and accusing it of being “Anti-American and parasitic.”
Ayyadurai concluded the post by declaring, “That cabal must be burned to the ground.”
In another post, he shared a screenshot concerning Ramaswamy’s association with a Jewish leadership organisation at Yale and simply declared, “Brahmanism = Zionism.”
The pattern is difficult to miss. What began as an attack on Vivek Ramaswamy has quickly turned into the familiar politics of blaming an entire community for the actions or beliefs of an individual. Ayyadurai repeatedly invokes “Brahmanism”, portrays Brahmins as an organised “cabal”, and even equates “Brahmanism” with Zionism.
In that sense, his rhetoric bears a striking resemblance to the anti-Brahmin politics associated with Dravidianists where an entire community is reduced to a caricature, mocked and blamed for wider social and institutional problems.
Ayyadurai may present himself as an anti-establishment independent, but attacking a political opponent by repeatedly invoking his caste and portraying the community he belongs to as a supposedly powerful and parasitic group is the same old caste politics repackaged for an American political audience.
Ramaswamy can certainly be criticised on his politics, policies or public statements. But turning his Brahmin identity into evidence of a supposed “Brahmanist-Zionist cabal” exposes the Dravidianist background of Ayyadurai.
Take away the American politics, and Ayyadurai’s rhetoric is remarkably familiar: attack the Brahmin, blame “Brahmanism”, and turn caste into a political weapon – very much like a Dravidianist.
Vivek Ramaswamy may be the immediate target, but the repeated attacks make one thing clear; Ayyadurai has a problem with the identity itself.
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