American Kahani: A Republic in Ruins: How Some Indian American Hindus Use Hindutva to Attack Constitutional Values in America

By Safa Ahmed

Apart from blatant attacks on the values of pluralism and tolerance, there are concerted efforts by Hindu supremacists to weaponize American city and state legislatures against Muslims.

Celebrating India’s Republic Day in America is a surreal experience. Some of us — Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Hindu, and otherwise affiliated — commemorate by wearing traditional clothes, attending Republic Day BBQs, and taking pictures in the sun with the Indian flag. Some send WhatsApp forwards about the importance of the Indian Constitutional values of justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity. Many post reminders that in India right now, these values are being ground to dust by the now-mainstream Hindu supremacist movement.

The lead-up to Republic Day 2024 has proved as much: swaths of far-right Hindus in both India and the U.S. are more focused on celebrating the Ram Mandir as a monument to a new age of Hindu supremacist rule in India.

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