Perhaps at least one person was an Indian-American who is annoyed that the numeral system isn't commonly known as Hindu or at least Hindu-Arabic numerals, for nationalist reasons. I've met Indians who have expressed this opinion before.

Known as Hindu-Arabic in my country.

Way outside India's sphere

> What if they asked about "Italian numerals", "Turkish numerals" or "Turtle Numerals"?

None of those are real things. "Arabic numerals" are a fundamental concept that, at one point, were quite clearly taught in schools.

> It is possible that people just saying "No" because they don't know what they are, so assume that they aren't important.

So your argument is that these people aren't bigoted, they're just incredibly stupid?

Yes, stupidity and bigotry are both problems but they are different problems.

It sort of feels like this survey was hunting to find evidence of bigotry and pushed for that narrative. I think it is important that we don't just spin the stories we want out of crappy evidence.