Category: Hindutva

  • Transnational Repression, Hindu Diaspora, and India

    Transnational Repression, Hindu Diaspora, and India

    Tarnishing India Targeting Diaspora Hindus

    The Weaponization of Transnational Repression Narrative Against India

    TNR Narrative – Tarnishing India Targeting Diaspora Hindus. A Report by AHAD an Initiative of HinduPACT

    TNR narrative against India is a product of coordinated advocacy, ideological bias, and geopolitical strategy, rather than empirical evidence. Its propagation threatens to undermine civil liberties, disrupt diaspora engagement, and erode the rights and cultural identity of Indian and Hindu communities abroad. The report calls for vigilance, transparency, and evidence-based policy to ensure that democratic values and diaspora rights are upheld, and that India and its diaspora are not unjustly equated with authoritarian regimes.

  • Press Release: HinduPACT Releases Landmark Report Refuting Baseless Transnational Repression (TNR) Allegations Against India – Highlights Detrimental Impact on Hindu Diaspora

    Press Release: HinduPACT Releases Landmark Report Refuting Baseless Transnational Repression (TNR) Allegations Against India – Highlights Detrimental Impact on Hindu Diaspora

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

     

    August 15, 2025

    San Ramon, CA. American Hindus Against Defamation (AHAD), an initiative of HinduPACT, announced today the release of its comprehensive research report, “Tarnishing India, Targeting Hindus: The Global Weaponization of Transnational Narrative.” The report provides an evidence-based analysis that unequivocally refutes the widespread allegations of transnational repression (TNR) against India.

     

    Ajay Shah, Executive Chair of HinduPACT, stated, “Our report unequivocally demonstrates that the transnational repression (TNR) narrative against India is a dangerous fabrication, unsupported by verifiable evidence and driven by ideologically motivated groups. To equate India, the world’s largest constitutional democracy, with robust judicial oversight, to authoritarian regimes notorious for extrajudicial actions, is not only analytically flawed but serves to undermine global democratic values.”

     

    In stark contrast to the practices of authoritarian regimes like China, Russia, Iran, and Turkey, which have documented histories of assassinations, abductions, and covert coercion, India’s overseas actions are described as “legally authorized, procedurally proper, and fundamentally misrepresented” when categorized as repression. The report emphasizes that constitutional safeguards, administrative protocols, and judicial oversight mechanisms guide India’s counter-extremism measures.

     

    The report asserts that the TNR narrative against India has been “propagated by a coalition of ideologically motivated NGOs, advocacy networks, and certain state actors”. These groups, identified as including the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), Sikh Coalition, and SALDEF, seek to delegitimize India’s global standing and sever the cultural and civilizational ties of the Hindu diaspora with their homeland.

     

    Deepa Karthik, General Secretary of HinduPACT, highlighted the adverse consequences: “The weaponization of this TNR narrative has had a profound and chilling impact on Indian and Hindu diaspora communities worldwide. It fosters suspicion, fuels hate crimes and threatens to break our deep cultural and civilizational ties with our homeland. This report is an act of community self-preservation, defending the fundamental rights and identity of millions.”

     

    The report highlights an increase in hate crimes and political marginalization experienced by the diaspora since these narratives gained traction. It lists vandalism against Hindu temples defaced with Khalistani slogans and shows a clear link between the TNR narrative and its effects on American Hindus.

     

    HinduPACT has actively opposed California SB-509, a TNR bill. Deepti Mahajan, President of HinduPACT, emphasized that “SB-509, as written, functions like a Trojan Horse. Under the guise of community protection, it risks enabling profiling and discrimination against American Hindus, casting suspicion over our cultural and civic activities. It threatens to silence our voices in public life and discourage participation in the democratic processes that strengthen California. We urge elected officials to reject such politicized policy initiatives.”

     

    HinduPACT urges elected representatives to adopt evidence-based policy and maintain rigorous evidentiary standards for TNR labeling, upholding legal reciprocity and avoiding politicized or selective oversight. The organization also calls for transparency in funding sources for TNR-related research and advocacy campaigns.

     

    The report concludes that the “TNR narrative against India is a product of coordinated advocacy, ideological bias, and geopolitical strategy, rather than evidence,” and its propagation “threatens to undermine civil liberties, disrupt diaspora engagement, and erode the rights and cultural identity of Indian and Hindu communities abroad”.

     

    About AHAD (American Hindus Against Defamation): 

    Established in 1997, AHAD stands as the pioneering Hindu movement globally dedicated to combating Hinduphobia and the denigration of Hindu scriptures, deities, icons, and cultural symbols across publications, mass media, and educational materials. AHAD leverages innovative AI methods to detect and counter Hindu hatred and ensure the sanctity of Hindu heritage.  Visit https://ahadinfo.org

     

    About HinduPACT:

    The Hindu Policy Research and Advocacy Collective (HinduPACT) is dedicated to the advocacy and policy research of issues concerning the American Hindu community.  HinduPACT promotes human rights, voter education, and policies affecting American Hindus, aiming for peace and understanding through informed policy initiatives and grassroots advocacy. Visit https://hindupact.org

  • Press Release: HinduPACT AHAD Exposes Rutgers Report on Hindutva as Hinduphobic; Launches Sharp Rebuttal with “Hindutva in America: A Case for Inclusion and Representation”

    Press Release: HinduPACT AHAD Exposes Rutgers Report on Hindutva as Hinduphobic; Launches Sharp Rebuttal with “Hindutva in America: A Case for Inclusion and Representation”

    San Ramon, CA: In a decisive pushback against academic bias, HinduPACT’s American Hindus Against Defamation (AHAD) initiative has released a cutting-edge, AI-driven rebuttal to Rutgers University Center for Security, Race, and Rights (CSRR)’s  controversial report “Hindutva in America: An Ethnonationalist Threat to Equality and Religious Pluralism,”

    AHAD’s counter-report, “Hindutva and the American Dream: A Counter-Narrative to Hindutva in America Report by Rutgers University,”  uses breakthrough AI to expose “institutionalized Hinduphobia masquerading as scholarship.”

    Technology That Sees Through Bias

    The AHAD report utilized Tattwa.AI’s HinduHate Detector and Counter-Narrative Generator, which employs a model based on over 150 books, peer-reviewed studies, investigative reports, and global media archives. The system dissects sentiment, bias, narrative manipulation, fact omission, and source bias with unprecedented precision.

    Ajay Shah, Founder of HinduPACT, explains: “We’ve built AI that doesn’t just detect negative words – it unmasks systematic narrative distortion. This is about defending truth, not ideology, and holding academics accountable when they cross the line into discrimination.”

    Key Findings

    The analysis of the Rutgers report utilizes the term “Hindutva” or the essence of Hindu dharma in a consistently pejorative manner. The report also associates inflammatory labels such as “fascist” and “supremacist” with Hindu identity, without offering substantiated evidence for such claims. Despite its sweeping conclusions, not a single major Hindu organization was consulted to provide perspective or balance. The report is ideologically loaded, methodologically flawed, and designed to stigmatize an entire community, while conveniently omitting their positive civic, cultural, and humanitarian contributions that strengthen American society and interfaith harmony.  As a result of these patterns, the Hinduphobia Risk Score for the document reached the maximum danger level.

    “This report recycles colonial-era stereotypes and applies cancel-culture tactics to erase Hindu voices from public life,” says Deepti Mahajan, President of HinduPACT.

    Stigmatizing Civic Life


    AHAD analysis shows that the Rutgers report has painted ordinary Hindu community activities, temple worship, youth camps, charitable fundraising as sinister plots. Such framing is never applied to other religious communities.

    Rutgers’ proposals for U.S. authorities to monitor Hindu charities highlight troubling civil rights violations. Shah said, “To cast suspicion on our community is to undermine American pluralism and First Amendment rights. Such rhetoric divides Americans when we should build unity.”

    HinduPACT Demands

    1. Transparency in authorship of all such reports.
    2. Disclosure of funding and foreign influence.
    3. U.S. Department of Justice must launch investigations into Rutgers, Columbia University, and the University of Denver for potential Title VI civil rights violations
    4. Federal receivership for programs that exclude Hindu voices.
    5. Investigations into anti-Hindu advocacy groups’ extremist links.
    6. Oversight of groups eroding U.S. pluralism.
    7. Mandatory financial compliance for activist academic centers.
    8. Fair hiring practices for Hindu scholars and their inclusion in Hindu curriculum development.


    The Rutgers report reflects a growing pattern of using selective narratives to marginalize American Hindus, limit their democratic participation, and distort their contributions to the U.S.

    “Religious freedom is for everyone – including Hindus,” Mahajan concludes. “We will not stand by while our community is deplatformed and defamed. This is about truth, justice, and the America we believe in – a nation where all faiths have equal dignity and voice.”

  • Response to Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights Report “Hindutva in America: An Ethnonationalist Threat to Equality and Religious Pluralism”

    Response to Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights Report “Hindutva in America: An Ethnonationalist Threat to Equality and Religious Pluralism”

    Hindutva and the American Dream: A Case for Inclusion and Representation

    A Counter-Narrative to Hindutva in America Report by Rutgers University

    American Hindus Against Defamation (AHAD) response to report by Rutgers University’s Center for Security, Race, and Rights

    Hindutva and American Dream – Response to Hindutva in America Report,” serves as a systematic rebuttal to, “Hindutva in America: An Ethnonationalist Threat to Equality and Religious Pluralism.” It critically analyzes the original report’s methodologies, including its sentiment, bias, intent, and emotion analysis, arguing that it uses loaded language, false equivalences, and cherry-picking to misrepresent Hindutva. The response defends American Hindu organizations like HinduPACT and Sewa International, highlighting their humanitarian work and civic engagement as protected democratic activities rather than foreign interference or extremism. Furthermore, it asserts that Hindutva represents the cultural and civilizational essence of Hindu dharma, advocating for its accurate and dignified portrayal while challenging what it identifies as Hinduphobia in academic and public discourse.

  • Ambedkar Jayanti – Omnitude Day 2022

    Ambedkar Jayanti – Omnitude Day 2022

    HinduPACT and HMEC are jointly organizing a celebration of Ambedkar Jayanti as Ekatmata 

    Diwas or Omnitude Day on April 17, 2022 with a special HinduLounge show.  
    The show will feature two panels. Shree Ramesh Patange
    , author of Manu, Sangh and I and Shree Vinod Diwakar will participate in the first panel and discuss Varna, Jati and Cast politics from the Hindu perspective.
    Representative
    s of major Hindu organizations, including BAPS, ISKCON, Gayatri Parivar etc. will participate in the second panel to talk about social justice, equality and equity from the perspective of Hindu dharma.

    The event details:

    HinduLounge Show Special Event on Ekatmata Diwas

    Date: April 17, 2022
    Time: 11:00 AM EDT – 1:00 PM EDT (8:00 AM PDT – 10:00 AM PDT)
    URL: YouTube: @VHPAVideos https://youtube,com/vhpavideos
    Facebook: @VHPAmerica.Org https://facebook.com/vhpamerica.org
  • HinduPACT Calls for Cancellation of  Hinduphobic Conference in Toronto

    HinduPACT Calls for Cancellation of Hinduphobic Conference in Toronto

    The Hindu community of Canada has recently become aware that the Ryerson University and the Toronto Public Library have joined hands in holding an event on December 9, titled “Modi’s India: How Hindu Nationalism has Eroded the World’s Largest Democracy”

    We are deeply alarmed at this attempt by two publicly funded institutions in Canada to allow their platform to be used to spread a false and concocted narrative about the vibrant democracy of India, a country with which a vast majority of the Hindu Canadians have deep emotional ties. This is nothing short of an attempt to promote a hateful and denigrating narrative against the Hindu community in the guise of sanctimonious pontification on India’s democracy.

    The Hindu Canadians are a peaceful community, living in harmony with the society at large and making outsized contributions to all facets of Canadian life.

    However, they are extremely concerned that such a malicious event, if allowed to go forward, will promote an atmosphere of hatred against them, and as such, represents a potential risk to their material and physical well-being. The Indophobia and Hinduphobia created by events such as this have led to bullying against Hindu and Indians in schools and colleges and physical violence against Indians and Hindus in North America as evident by violent gangs like Dotbusters in the 1980s and recent attack on a Hindu man of Indian origin in Kansas, USA

    We, therefore, demand that:

    1. This event must be cancelled immediately.

    2. Ryerson University and Toronto Public Library issue an immediate apology to the Hindu community for the anguish caused by this blatantly Hinduphobic event

    3. The University and the Library set up a program to train their employees and students to understand India, Hindu Dharma and Hindu culture to make them more religio-culturally sensitive.

    Please Sign the Petition to Demand that this Event be Cancelled

    Please 

  • HinduPhobia (Hindudvesha) Conference Series Set to Take Place During Hindu Heritage Month

    HinduPhobia (Hindudvesha) Conference Series Set to Take Place During Hindu Heritage Month

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    October 13, 2021

    HinduPhobia (Hindudvesha) Conference Series Set to Take Place During Hindu Heritage Month

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The “Hindu Dharma, Hindutva and Hindudvesha” conference series kicks off this weekend in coordination with and in celebration of Hindu Heritage Month. The virtual conference will showcase the diversity of views within the Hindu world, feature friends of the Hindu community, and address a troubling trend of anti-Hindu sentiment (Hindudvesha or Hinduphobia) which has more recently plagued the Hindu diaspora in the United States, Canada and other parts of the world.

    This conference is organized by American Hindus Against Defamation (AHAD) an initiative of the World Hindu Council of America (VHPA) and Dharma Civilization Foundation (DCF). The conference will begin on Saturday, October 16, 2021, from 11AM-1PM and will help attendees understand the true nature and meaning of Hindu Dharma and Hindutva.  The second day of the conference will take place on Sunday, October 17, between 11AM-1PM EST and will focus on Hindu dharma (religion and culture) and the Hindutva Movement and Christianity, Race and the Hindu World. The entire conference will take place on every consecutive Saturday and Sunday over the course of four weeks.

    “Hindudvesha is a global phenomenon, stemming from a disdain for Hindu practices and traditions,” explained HinduPACT Executive Director Utsav Chakrabarti. “It is now becoming increasingly visible in the public square and in academia as Hindu communities around the world decolonize and express themselves. Our effort is to understand, analyze and counter it in an informed manner.”

    In a joint statement, Kalyan Viswanathan, President of the Hindu University of America and VHPA Vice President Dr. Jai Bansal said: “Hindus are a deeply spiritual and peace-loving community. At one billion strong globally and roughly four million in the US, they represent a growing immigrant minority community in the United States. Historically, Hindus have never invaded, conquered, or enslaved others nor confiscated land or property. On the contrary, Hindus have repeatedly been victims of colonization and invasions. Perhaps their greatest characteristic is that they live and let live. At the core of Hindu dharma is a certain foundational embrace of plurality which honors diversity and fosters co-existence. Unfortunately, as they are being repeatedly and increasingly maligned in unprecedented ways, it is important that Hindus speak up to set the record straight to contest the lies and misinformation circulated by those seeking to undermine them.”

    Convenor of AHAD and HinduPACT Ajay Shah said, “Hindu hate is either due to ignorance of Hindu dharma or hatred towards it.  Attacks on Hindutva, or essence of Hindu dharma is a new weapon of choice for those who are against the universal ideals of freedom and peace espoused by the Hindu dharma.  This conference is an opportunity for those who seek to learn about Hindu dharma and the drivers for Hindu hatred.”

    To register for the conference, click here.

    For media inquiries, contact adelle.nazarian@hindupact.org