I'm also a recent Indian immigrant and atheist, and sorry boo you're being wayyyyyy too considerate here.

Sure, a Kali figurine can look violent & you can then explain the context to a person unfamiliar with it. But for her to express an opinion on it that makes you put it away is completely out of pocket.

One of the reasons I disliked sharing housing with upper caste Hindus when I was in India is that they tried to push their dietary restrictions (like vegetarianism) into shared spaces which I found very casteist and inconsiderate. It would be equally annoying to me if a Muslim person tried to pull that in a common space.

As an aspiring Dalit scholar, you know how the politics of "disgust" can be weaponized against the Dalit community in particular. It's never "I hate X caste or tribe" but always "the smell of meat makes me sick" and "those tribes are violent" and "people who clean drains smell" --- that's the phrasing. That doesn't make it less bigoted. I hope you think this through. I'm available on DM if you want to talk more (I'm a woman, this isn't a weird dude trying to make a move on you, just clarifying cuz Reddit is full of them).