New report exposes Hindu American Foundation’s ties to Hindutva : Valley Vision

A new report, jointly published on Wednesday by Political Research Associates (PRA) and the Savera: United Against Supremacy coalition, sheds light on the far-right associations and agenda of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) in the United States.

The report, titled “HAF Way to Supremacy: How the Hindu American Foundation Rebrands Bigotry as Minority Rights,” finds that HAF’s messaging and advocacy throughout its existence has reflected a zero-sum approach to civil rights, in which “the civil rights and religious freedoms of Hindus are framed in opposition to, and at the expense of, those of other communities.”

Through its alignment with Hindu-right actors and supremacist movements in the US, HAF plays a key role in spreading Islamophobia, casteism, and other forms of bigotry within Indian American communities with the aim of undermining solidarity between communities of color and pulling Hindu Americans toward an increasingly multiracial far-right.

In attacking the extension of civil rights protections to caste-oppressed groups, spreading hateful stereotypes about Muslims, and working to shield the Modi regime from accountability, HAF has also found common cause with a constellation of other far-right actors, said the report

As the report shows, HAF’s right-wing alignment is no recent accident, but rather explained by its history. The project of a second generation of Hindutva activists who cut their teeth in older and more openly bigoted Hindu supremacist organisations, HAF sought to present a more palatable version of Hindutva that would be capable of garnering mainstream legitimacy. Nevertheless, it has maintained strong ties with Hindu supremacist organisations like the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHP-A), but has sought to keep them covert, the report says.

Through this subterfuge, HAF sought to exploit a broader lack of awareness about far-right strands in the Indian diaspora to find space in mainstream American civil society, who invited HAF into their interfaith and multicultural coalitions under the assumption that they were including a legitimate representative of the Hindu American community, the report claimed. And yet, as its far-right record has accelerated, HAF has increasingly moved away from these very spaces, responding to their inclusion with exclusionary lobbying. As the multiracial far-right grows, it is imperative that US civil society recognises the threat HAF presents to building a true multiracial democracy, it said.

“The Hindu supremacist movement is a dangerous and increasingly influential force within an emergent multiracial Far Right in the United States,” said Tarso Luís Ramos, Executive Director of Political Research Associates. “The Hindu American Foundation has cleverly exploited the general lack of awareness in this country about Hindu supremacism to present itself as a civil rights organisation. This report sets the record straight: HAF is a stalking horse for Hindutva and must be understood as an extension of the Indian Far Right.”

“With this report, our third on the Hindu supremacist ecosystem in the United States, we have presented the most comprehensive treatment of how diasporic far-right networks are also a key part of the authoritarian movement in the U.S. This report is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand what the far-right is shaping up to be,” said Sunita Viswanath, Cofounder and Executive Director of Hindus for Human Rights.

“The report clearly illustrates how HAF has facilitated hate-mongering and supremacist politics,” said Chaitanya Diwadkar of Ambedkar King Study Circle. “Even as Hindu supremacists in India demonise minorities, in the USA, they advance their supremacist agenda in the very language of minority rights. In doing so, they deny the existence of caste discrimination in the U.S., an issue that affects marginalised communities within the Hindu minority. Hindu supremacy is a significant threat to democracy and requires immediate attention at all levels.”

“Savera’s new report compiles evidence of what many South Asian and Muslim civil rights groups have known for a long time: that HAF rejects protections for caste-oppressed groups, aligns with a foreign regime’s efforts to target our Sikh siblings, and joins in the xenophobic demonisation of Muslims. As Savera connects the dots between these harms and the new alliances the far-right is building, the world will know this too,” said Rasheed Ahmed, Executive Director of the Indian American Muslim Council.