Civil War Echoes? Sanjeev Sanyal Warns US Resembles April 1861

Economist Sanjeev Sanyal said that domestic sentiments in the United States "resemble" those on April 11, 1861, a day before the American Civil War broke out between the southern and northern states.

The American Civil War was fought between states over the abolition of human slavery.

Sanyal, a member of India's economic advisory council to the Prime Minister of India, made the comment on X.

While Sanyal did not offer context for his comments, they came hours after the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk who co-founded the right-wing advocacy organisation Turning Point USA.

Kirk's murder is the latest in a pattern of escalating civil violence in the country.

The right-wing influencer was shot down by an unknown assailant at a TPUSA event while answering questions on gun violence in Utah Valley University's campus.

While authorities are yet to identify the killer or the motive behind the killing, US President Donald Trump on his social media platform Truth Social blamed rhetoric from the "radical left" for Kirk's killing, and said that the White House would fly flags at half mast to mourn his passing.

Trump himself has been the target of a political assassination -- in his case, the shooter was found to be a registered Republican.

Kirk was well known for being a staunch Trump supporter and being a prominent member of the American alt-right. A wave of political influencers who pushed anti-feminist, anti-immigration, anti-abortion rights, anti-LGBTQ rights and anti-racial civil rights action viewpoints.

A movement that emerged online in the 2010s, the alt right space has seen influencers like Kirk and Stephen Crowder visiting college campuses to find students to film and debate, springing premeditated talking points on young students to then clip and publish on social media, garnering virality among conservative viewers.

Kirk, who was outspoken about gun ownership rights in the US is well known for opposing gun control and was speaking on the topic when he was shot.

This latest case of high-profile political violence in the US is not an isolated incident: Reuters reported that there were 300 cases of political violence in the US between Jan. 6 2021, and the 2024 presidential election, the highest the country has seen since the seventies.

Lawmakers have also been targeted in recent times with Minnesota state representatives Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman were gunned down in their homes on June 14, 2025. Both Democrats, the two were murdered along with their respective spouses by an individual with a kill-list discovered by police, for abortion rights politicians.

Federal tensions have also cropped up in the US, with Donald Trump clashing with the states of California, New York and Washington.

The most prominent example being Trump sending the National Guard and U.S. Marines into Los Angeles, California to quell protests against his administration's aggressive anti-immigration raids. California Governor Gavin Newsom called it an "assault on democracy", with the federal court calling Trump's actions "illegal."

Trump also threatened to cut off federal funding for the state of New York with regards to his opposition to popular US mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, if he doesn't "behave himself" if elected.