"When you claim that your civilization is superior, is older, is the mother of democracy, is the mother of science....you antagonize others". Christophe Jaffrelot, French Political Scientist, speaking to Indian journalist Karan Thapar after BAPS Hindu leader’s recent visit to Eiffel Tower.
In an article published by Carnegie Endowment, Jaffrelot explained that "the majoritarian inferiority complex is to some extent irrational—in India like elsewhere. The Hindu complex of inferiority vis-à-vis others (including the Muslims) crystallized in the 19th century when the British not only emphasized the division of Hindus along caste lines and sectarian lines but also invented communal stereotypes". He has noted that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has close ties to BAPS which is building massive temples around the world. Many of these temples have been inaugurated by Mr. Modi.
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| BAPS Guru’s Photo at Eiffel Tower, Paris, France |
There has been a powerful backlash against Indian Hindu groups in the West after BAPS, an Indian Hindu religious group, demanded that women be kept out of sight during the Eiffel Tower visit by their leader. Arnaud Bertrand, a French Journalist, expressed the outrage shared by many in the West in an X post, excerpted below:
"Long story short, they just opened a new mega-temple in France - specifically in Bussy-Saint-Georges (30km away from Paris) - presented as "the biggest Hindu temple built in continental Europe in a traditional style". Their guru was there for the inauguration and, as you do, wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower while in France. But, thing is, his doctrine dictates that women must not be in his presence. And here is where it gets unreal: when his entourage requested a private visit, the Eiffel Tower's management actually agreed to the terms and ordered all female employees - including subcontractors - to hide. This was on Saturday and, France being France (in a good way), on Monday the women who'd been told to make themselves invisible made themselves very, very visible: the staff went on strike and shut down the Eiffel Tower. So there you have it, unreal but true: the Eiffel Tower, symbol of the French Republic, is closed because a 93-year-old Hindu guru refuses to be in the presence of women".
Another top Hindu Indian leader Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of Hindu Nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has also been in the news recently. He visited New York as part of his organization's outreach in the West. During his August, 2026 North America tour, Bhagwat faced major accusations of duplicity and deception. Bhagwat delivered the keynote address at the "One World, One Humanity" interfaith event in New York City on August 29, 2026, as part of his multi-nation tour across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Various US faith leaders invited to meet him said they were misled into attending an RSS-affiliated event in New York. Critics called his speech at Madison Square Garden (MSG) in New York hypocritical and a public relations strategy that contrasts sharply with the divisive politics and violence linked to Hindu nationalist groups in India. The RSS is considered the ideological parent organization of India's ruling BJP party.
Multiple polls indicate that the Indian diaspora supports Prime Minister Modi and the RSS/BJP ideology. Hateful Hindutva ideology is spreading rapidly among the Indian diaspora. Individuals and organizations connected to the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) are actively working to promote India's divisive Islamophobic politics among the Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and their children. Hundreds of the RSS shakhas (branches) are now found in at least 39 countries around the world. Hindutva is a Hindu supremacist ideology inspired by 20th century Fascism and Nazism in Europe; it is very different from the ancient Hindu faith, according to American history professor Audrey Truschke who teaches Indian history at Rutgers University in the US state of New Jersey. Top Indian economists have raised alarm about it.
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| Global Hindutva Sangh Parivar. Source: Audrey Truschke |
False narrative of victimhood underlies Hindutva ideology. Indian historian Aditya Mukherjee characterizes the Hindutva victimhood as follows: “The great achievements of the past are then contrasted with a false sense of victimhood, the concept of a great threat the majority is supposedly facing from the minority. This is how fascism works, globally". "Hindutva was never meant to be understood as bounded by national borders; his (Savarkar's) ambition was always planetary", writes Vinayak Chaturvedi, author of "Hindutva and Violence". "He (Savarkar) gained notoriety for his programme to “Hinduise Politics and Militarise Hindudom” while also arguing for permanent war against Christians and Muslims", Chaturvedi adds.
Many liberal Indian intellectuals dismiss what is happening in India today under Hindu Nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership as a temporary aberration, not the norm. They long for a return to "Indian liberalism" which according to anthropologist Sanjay Srivastava "did not exist". Others, such as Indian anthropologist Sanjay Srivastava, sum up the current situation as follows:
"Our parents practiced bigotry of a quiet sort, one that did not require the loud proclamations that are the norm now. Muslims and the lower castes knew their place and the structures of social and economic authority were not under threat. This does not necessarily translate into a tolerant generation. Rather, it was a generation whose attitudes towards religion and caste was never really tested. The loud bigotry of our times is no great break from the past in terms of a dramatic change in attitudes – is it really possible that such changes can take place in such few years? Rather, it is the crumbling of the veneer of tolerance against those who once knew their place but no longer wish to accept that position. The great problem with all this is that we continue to believe that what is happening today is simply an aberration and that we will, when the nightmare is over, return to the Utopia that was once ours. However, it isn’t possible to return to the past that was never there. It will only lead to an even darker future. And, filial affection is no antidote for it".
In 2022, Dr Saiba Varma, Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of California in San Diego (UCSD), came under fire for hiding her familial ties to to a top RAW official while working on her book "The Occupied Clinic: Militarism and Care in Kashmir". “As an upper-caste and upper-class Indian citizen and subject, I have actively and passively internalized anti-Muslim racism my entire life. I am complicit in the colonization of Kashmir and other regions forcibly incorporated into the Indian nation-state", she acknowledges in her book released in 2021.
In summary, what the world witnessing is a divide among the Indian elite over how India's identity should be projected abroad: whether its global prestige is best served by asserting its unique majoritarian civilizational heritage, or by reinforcing the pluralistic, secular democratic standards valued by international liberal institutions.
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