Unpacking Hindu Nationalism: Its Influence and Islamophobic Narratives in the American Context

In episode 18 of Unpacking Islamophobia, Bridge Associate Director Mobashra Tazamal speaks with Safa Ahmed, the Associate Director of Media & Communications for the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), and Pranay Somayajula, the Organizing and Advocacy Director for Hindus for Human Rights, on the topic of Hindu nationalism in the United States.

While there has been much discussion about Hindu nationalism in India, as it is the ideology of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), there’s been little information on how Hindu nationalism manifests outside of India and how it impacts communities in the west. In this episode, Ahmed and Somayajula discuss two recently released reports: Survey: Detrimental Effects of Hindu Nationalism on Indian American Muslims by the IAMC and ReThink Media, and HAF Way to Supremacy: How to Hindu American Foundation Rebrands Bigotry as Minority Rights by We are Savera. The survey by the IAMC looks at how Hindu nationalism has led to fractures within the Indian American community, finding that out of the 950 individuals surveyed, a staggering 80 percent noted that they feel less comfortable in Indian American cultural spaces since the rise of the BJP in India. HAF way to supremacy by We are Savera looks at the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), a non-profit advocacy organization that the report finds has worked to whitewash the discriminatory policies of the Modi government in India, allied with far-right actors, spread Islamophobia, and worked against efforts to tackle caste discrimination.

Click here for IAMC’s Survey: Detrimental Effects of Hindu Nationalism on Indian American Muslims.

Click here for We are Savera’s HAF Way to Supremacy: How to Hindu American Foundation Rebrands Bigotry as Minority Rights.

Featuring

Safa Ahmed is the Associate Director of Media & Communications for the Indian American Muslim Council. She has written on Hindu supremacy and human rights in India for Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, Jacobin, Progressive Magazine, and several others.

Pranay Somayajula is an Indian-American writer and organizer, based in Washington, DC. He currently serves as Organizing and Advocacy Director for Hindus for Human Rights, an organization that was founded in 2019 to provide a Hindu voice of resistance to caste, Hindutva (Hindu nationalism), and all forms of bigotry and oppression. In his organizing and his writing, Pranay works to bring together diverse histories and struggles for justice to build solidarity between movements and peoples—from South Asia to Palestine and beyond. His writing has been featured in Jacobin, The Nation, and The Drift, as well as on his Substack blog, Culture Shock. He is also the host of Return to Bandung, a podcast that explores questions of imperialism, resistance, and internationalist solidarity throughout history and into the present day.

Mobashra Tazamal is the Associate Director of The Bridge Initiative. Her work focuses on the impact of the War on Terror discourse and state-sponsored Islamophobia around the globe. Given her expertise, she serves as a resource for educators and journalists, and her analysis has been cited in global media outlets such as the New York Times, NBC, Salon, Washington Post, and Al Jazeera. In addition to publishing articles and reports for Bridge, her analysis has also been featured in The Independent, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Truthout, The New Arab, and Byline times. She holds a Master’s degree from SOAS, University of London.