Workers who built US’s largest Hindu temple are dying by degrees

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — Indian workers who helped construct the largest Hindu temple in the Western Hemisphere are dying of silicosis, an incurable lung disease, with at least two deaths confirmed and dozens more reported ill, The Guardian revealed Thursday.

The victims are mostly Dalit men from Rajasthan, brought to the United States on religious worker visas to carve the intricate stonework of the BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey.

Families and advocates in India say the men were provided no protection against the fine silica dust produced by cutting and grinding stone, a substance that permanently scars the lungs when inhaled.

The deaths have drawn fresh outrage from Dalit rights groups across India, who say the men were doubly exploited, denied entry into temples at home, then sent abroad to build one, only to return sick and without compensation.

A 2021 lawsuit in the United States alleged the workers were paid as little as a dollar an hour, had their passports confiscated, and were housed in trailers on the temple grounds. American federal prosecutors investigated but dropped the case in September 2025. A civil lawsuit remains active.

BAPS, the Gujarat-based Hindu denomination behind the temple, has denied wrongdoing, calling the workers religious volunteers engaged in spiritual service.

The temple opened in 2023 and is considered one of the most ambitious feats of Indian craftsmanship outside the subcontinent. The families of the men who built it are only now realizing the cost.