August 19, 2025

Hindutva in America: A Threat to Equality and Religious Pluralism, (Episode 40)

53 minutes

In this episode, Sahar Aziz is in dicussion with Dr. Audrey Truschke and Dr. Dheepa Sundaram about the new groundbreaking report published by CSRR entitled Hindutva in America: A Threat to Equality and Religious Pluralism, which is available for download at csrr.rutgers.edu

Audrey Truschke is a Professor of History and Director of Asian Studies at Rutgers University-Newark. She is the author of numerous books about India published by Columbia University Press, Stanford University Press and Princeton University Press. She just released her fourth book with entitled India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent.

Dheepa Sundaram who is an assistant professor at Denver University where she teaches courses in Hindu studies, critical theory, and digital religion. Professor Sundaram is a cultural theorist whose research examines the formation of South Asian digital religious publics. Her current book project is entitled “Globalizing Darsan: Virtual Steriology and the Making of a Hindu ‘Brand’” and has written articles critically examining Hindutva’s influence on both India and the United States’ stated commitments to equality and pluralism.

The two experts explain the difference between the global religion of Hinduism and the right wing ethnonationalist ideology of Hindutva.

In India, Hindu nationalists advocate a strict form of ethnonationalism that reimagines the secular Indian republic as an exclusively Hindu nation and seeks to relegate religious minorities–especially Muslims–to an inferior status. Hindu nationalism is distinct from Hinduism, notwithstanding Hindutva proponents’ erroneous claims of representing all Hindus. In the United States, Hindutva proponents seek to silence the voices of Indian Americans and others who disagree with their ideology, promote harmful policies favorable to India’s Hindu nationalist political parties, and control knowledge about South Asia’s diverse, multireligious history.

Listen to the conversation about this transnational political movement that is threatening the civil rights of Muslim, Sikh, Christian communities of South Asian origin in the United States.

#Hindutva #Islamophobia #Populism #India #Equality #

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By Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR)

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