Orange County resident Waqas Syed is part of the Coalition for Democracy and Secularism in India, which organized a protest against Hindu nationalism last month during Anaheim’s Indian Independence Day celebration.(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

By JEONG PARK / LA Times

Hundreds gathered last month at an Anaheim park to celebrate Indian Independence Day.

The holiday had special significance this year: Aug. 15 was the 75th anniversary of the end of British rule.

Attendees bought Indian food from booths and settled on the grass to watch traditional song and dance performances. Then, about a dozen people, most of whom were Indian American, marched silently past the crowd, carrying signs that read “Abolish caste” and “Protect India’s Muslim lives.”

A few men from the independence celebration charged at the protesters, grabbing the signs, breaking them and throwing them into trash cans. Some shouted obscenities in Hindi-Urdu. They called the protesters “stupid Muslims” and yelled at them to “get out of here.”

Through a microphone, an announcer led a chant: “Bharat Mata ki jai” — “Victory for Mother India.”

“We are Indian,” Rita Kaur, a protester who is Sikh and was born and raised in Southern California, said later. “We are simply speaking for Indians who are harmed relentlessly.”

Indian Independence Day means vastly different things to different people in a country shaped by religious and ethnic conflicts, as well as caste discrimination.

This story was originally published in latimes.com . Read the full story here