Rajendra Panchal: How one man’s jaw-to-fuse viral photos expose anti-India hate in US

A disturbing trend of online racism recently resurfaced, this time targeting Indians with the misuse of a personal medical image.

Rajendra Panchal, a 40-year-old helper from Pune, became the subject of several US-based social media posts that combined xenophobic messages with mockery of his disability.

The viral image shows Panchal before undergoing surgery for a rare jaw condition, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) ankylosis, which caused his jaw to fuse with his skull.

The condition originated from a jaw fracture he suffered as a one-year-old, which went untreated due to his family’s financial constraints. For decades, Panchal lived with limited jaw movement, surviving mostly on liquids and thin foods, struggling with nutrition and speech.

In 2017, Panchal received corrective surgery that significantly improved his quality of life. Post-surgery, he could finally eat solid food, speak properly, and engage in everyday activities that were previously impossible.

Despite this, old photos of Panchal resurfaced online and were repurposed in harmful ways. Some posts explicitly mocked Indians, using Panchal’s pre-surgery image to promote xenophobic stereotypes about immigrants in the US. One post, widely circulated, juxtaposed his image with a map of American tech hubs, while another claimed, “This is the face of the H-1B horde replacing real Americans.”

Fact-checkers quickly clarified that Panchal’s condition was a medical issue, unrelated to immigration or nationality. The Center for the Study of Organszed Hate (CSOH) notes that this misuse fits a larger trend of rising anti-Indian content on social media, particularly since the second term of US President Donald Trump.

Today, Panchal lives a normal life, unaffected by the condition that plagued him for decades. He had no involvement in the circulation of the posts, which turned a personal medical hardship into a vehicle for racist and xenophobic commentary.