Monday, 01 September 2025
Monday, 01 September 2025
Peter Navarro, Donald Trump’s trade adviser, has stirred controversy with remarks that “Brahmins are profiteering” from India’s oil trade with Russia.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, the US President’s trade czar accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of “bankrolling” Russia’s war machine through oil purchases.
“Brahmins are profiteering at the expense of the Indian people,” he claimed.
Navarro, who once invented a fictional trade expert named “Ron Vara” to bolster his arguments, also called India the “maharaja of tariffs” and questioned why Modi, whom he called “a great leader,” was building ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The remarks triggered a flurry of responses on X, where users criticised Navarro’s understanding of India’s caste and trade dynamics.
Before we dive into the quips and retorts, a caveat: Navarro probably meant the elite when he said Brahmins, and he probably was echoing US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who had said that some of India’s richest families are profiteering from Russian oil.
That out of the way, here’s some wisdom from the internet for Peter Navarro
“This guy just said, ‘Only Brahmins are profiting from Russian oil.’ My God, Brahmin hate has officially gone global! Someone’s clearly feeding him the script on caste politics - blame Brahmins for every single crisis. Future is indeed worrying for Brahmins!” wrote one user.
Another was a little more nuanced: “This latest jibe from Navarro - that 'Brahmins are profiteering' from Russian oil - tells us a lot about who controls narratives about India and Hindus inside the policy/intellectual spaces of America. This is derived directly from 19th century colonial jibes going back to the likes of James Mill. Edward Said's point about Orientalism is perhaps more correct for India than his original thesis on Middle East.”
A third user called Navarro’s statement a rhetorical move. “Navarro’s remark is not an accurate reflection of India’s oil trade but rather a rhetorical move rooted in colonial stereotypes of Brahmins. The tweet rightly identifies this as an example of how old Orientalist narratives continue to shape discussions of India in the West, though one should be cautious not to overstate the uniformity of such narratives across all U.S. intellectual and policy circles.”
Others reacted with humour. “Peter Navarro is never right. Someone needs to tell him that Ambanis are not Brahmins,” read one post.
The debate also inspired a wave of memes mocking Navarro’s claim about Brahmins profiting from Russian oil.
