India’s Hindutva movement is morphing into a transnational threat

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rise to power in 2014, there has been a phenomenal growth of Hindutva ideology or right-wing Hindu nationalism beyond India. The prevalence of a social media-enabled ecosystem conducive to the growth of misinformation and conspiracy theories has further enhanced Hindutva’s outreach outside India. Its outward growth in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, among others, undermining social and communal relations, should serve as a reminder that right-wing Hindu ideology is not an India-centric problem anymore. 

Hindutva espouses the formation of an Indian state comprised only of Hindus. It believes that the Hindu religion is central to Indian national identity and culture.

Though Hindutva began to assert itself in the UK as early as 2019, Leicester’s Hindu-Muslim tensions in September brought this trend into sharp focus. Reportedly, right-wing Hindu nationalists wearing hoods and balaclavas marched through Leicester neighborhoods chanting Jai Shri Ram, a catchphrase used by Hindutva activists in India to incite violence against Muslims. The roots of communal tensions in Leicester lie in India’s toxic and sectarian politics as well as mass organized misinformation campaigns.

Since May, tensions had been brewing in Leicester when a group of Hindutva supremacists had beaten and broken the arm of a young Muslim man after asking him to state his religion. In August, the situation in Leicester was tense ahead of an India-Pakistan cricket march, partly driven by social media rumors and messaging apps. Then in September, around 300 Hindu men gathered for an unplanned demonstration, forcing their way towards the city’s Muslim-majority neighborhood, Green Lane Road, chanting Jai Shri Ram slogans. In retaliation, young Muslim men formed a counter-protest and gathered outside a Hindu temple and clashes erupted. 

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) playbook that Hindutva mobs employ to terrorize Indian Muslims was also used in Leicester. RSS is a right-wing Hindu paramilitary group to which BJP is a political wing. In the lead up to communal riots, right-wing Hindu nationalists in Leicester played loud music and danced outside mosques during Hindu festivals, hooting horns in a provocative manner. In India, Hindutva mobs have forced Muslims to chant the Jai Shri Ram slogan, putting Hindu deities in mosques, bully them for consuming beef and allegedly slaughtering cows and beat them on accusation of love jihad, suspected interfaith marriages of Muslim men with Hindu women to convert them to Islam. 

It is typical of right-wing Hindu groups to stifle any criticism of Hindu nationalism by conflating Hindutva, the political ideology, with Hinduism, the religion.

Abdul Basit Khan

Similarly, troubling signs of Hindutva influence emerged in the US this August when Hindu supremacists brought out yellow bulldozers adorned with pictures of Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in New Jersey to celebrate India’s 75th Independence Day. Of late, bulldozers have become a symbol of intimidation against Muslims in India. Following Muslim protests in India against the BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s offensive remarks against Prophet Muhammad, homes of some Muslim protesters were demolished in different Indian states. Hindutva supporters revere Adityanath as “bulldozer baba” for demolitions. 

Likewise, last September, Hindutva activists issued rape and death threats to organizers and speakers of a three-day online conference “Dismantling Global Hindutva” to discuss global implications of Hindutva’s rise. The conference was co-sponsored by more than 53 universities, mostly from the US, and involved around 25 academicians, activists, scholars and journalists. The Hindutva activists accused the organizers of promoting Hindu-phobia and anti-Hindu hatred. They also engaged in character assassination and online harassment of the conference speakers. It is typical of right-wing Hindu groups to stifle any criticism of Hindu nationalism by conflating Hindutva, the political ideology, with Hinduism, the religion.

Similar trends have also been observed in Canada where right-wing Hindu Canadian groups have been involved in communal tensions with the Sikh community. In June, a Canadian Hindu nationalist Ron Banerjee openly called for the genocide of Sikhs and Muslim in India. Canadian academics have also faced death threats for their criticism of growing Hindu nationalism and violence against religious minorities in India. 

Hate crimes involving Hindutva activists have been on the rise in Australia as well. For instance, Vishal Jood, an international student linked to a series of attacks against Sikhs in Australia was asked to leave the country. On his return, he was accorded a hero’s welcome in India. 

In sum, Hindutva is no longer India’s problem alone-- rather the movement has gone global and taken an increasingly violent form. As Hindu nationalists have grown stronger and bolder in India, their offshoots in different parts of the world have followed suit. What transpired in Leicester or other parts of the world has been years in the making. It is just that Hindutva’s overseas franchises are exhibiting violence outside of India only recently for different countries to wake up and take notice. 

— The author is a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore.

Twitter: @basitresearcher.