By CJ WERLEMAN / TRT World
Fascism has arrived in the United States, but from an unlikely source – a growing segment of the Indian migrant community, specifically those who have become radicalised by the far-right, ultranationalist political ideology of Hindutva.
It’s a scourge that had gone largely undetected until the Indian Business Association (IBA) organised an India Independence Day rally in Edison, New Jersey, which featured a bulldozer adorned with the posters of leading Hindu nationalist figures, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The bulldozer not only symbolises the unlawful demolition of Muslim homes and businesses, but also the newest weapon in the Indian government’s quest for Hindu supremacy. This so-called “bulldozer justice” has been described as a tool of genocide, and now it’s being feted by Hindu nationalist forces on American streets.
Attendees at the rally in Edison also witnessed Indian expatriates chanting, “Jai Sri Ram”, a pious veneration of Lord Rama which has been weaponised by Hindu nationalists to intimidate and threaten India’s religious minorities, as the bulldozer rolled through the streets. “Jai Sri Ram” are typically the last words a Muslim hears before being assaulted and even lynched.
We are witnessing the infiltration of the Hindutva ideology among the Indian diaspora in the US, an ideology that borrows its hateful and genocidal beliefs from European fascist movements of the 20th century, including the Nazi Party. But this infiltration of the country’s political and civic spaces is happening totally undetected.
One can only imagine the public outcry, from all levels of American society, that would follow a rally held by Nazis, who chanted, “Heil Hitler,” while marching to the goose step, but not a single national-level political leader has condemned the celebration of Muslim persecution and dispossession by Hindutva radicalised Indian migrants in Edison.
In fact, the rally was attended by state- and national-level political leaders, including New Jersey Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and Democratic Congressperson Frank Pallone, despite the rally constituting an overt celebration of religion-based persecution in India, and despite the US government recently expressing concern over the rise in human rights abuses against religious minorities by government functionaries in India.
Moreover, the ugly scenes witnessed in New Jersey cannot be dismissed as the actions of a fringe minority, but rather a reflection of the same kind of hateful and discriminatory policies espoused and enacted by the far-right, Hindu nationalist government in Delhi, given the event was supported by Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) – the foreign agent of India’s ruling party – with the motormouth BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra appointed grand marshal of the parade.
It’s self-evidently obvious that both the event’s organisers and supporters intended to send an unmistakable and chilling message to Indian-American Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and other minorities: that you are not safe from persecution even here in the US.
The Hindutva project pursues exclusion because its adherents in government aim to transform India’s secular and multicultural identity into one of absent non-Hindu minorities, and no tool is being left off the table to achieve this aim, including the bulldozer.
Hindu nationalists are legislating discriminatory laws, while encouraging violence in the streets to fulfill this objective in both India and abroad, as illustrated by an attack committed by Hindu nationalists against Indian American protesters in Anaheim, California, who were raising awareness about the persecution of Muslims and Dalits in India on August 15.
This story was originally published in trtworld.com . Read the full story here
