Last month marked the third anniversary of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, when a mob of more than 2,000 insurrectionists stormed into the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., in support of then-President Donald Trump. The images from that day are still shocking: militia members in MAGA hats scaling walls; U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern hauled around like a trophy; a rioter in a buffalo-horned hat and patriotic face paint shouting skyward. One image, however, drew more confusion than outrage: an Indian flag, held high among the insurrectionists amid a sea of red, white, and blue.
Analysis by the Indian journalist Mohammed Zubair found that the man waving the flag was Krishna Gudipati, an Indian-American Trump supporter who had previously been outspoken in his support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s ruling far-right, Hindu supremacist party. Gudipati, a local leader in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHP-A), remains active in far-right political events in the Washington, D.C. area. Most recently, in December 2023, he led a car rally in support of the consecration of a deeply polarizing Hindu temple, which was built on a plot of land where a Hindu militant mob demolished a historic mosque in 1992. Celebrations of the temple, a key rallying point for Hindu supremacists, have often centered on displays of aggression towards Muslims and other minorities.
The fact that a Hindu supremacist organizer stood out at the January 6 insurrection represents a phenomenon that threatens the future of global democracy: the growing convergence between white supremacy and Hindu supremacy.
Although most Americans are painfully familiar with white supremacy, there is far less awareness of Hindu supremacy, also known as Hindu nationalism or Hindutva, despite the strong support it enjoys among a segment of the Indian American diaspora. Hindu supremacy is a century-old political ideology that aims to turn India from the world’s largest democracy into a Hindu ethno-state, accomplishing this through the violent expulsion of Muslims, Christians, and other minorities whom it deems to be foreign.
Hindu supremacy aims to turn India from the world’s largest democracy into a Hindu ethno-state, accomplishing this through the violent expulsion of Muslims, Christians, and other minorities whom it deems to be foreign.
Just like white supremacists in the United States, Hindu supremacists have historically drawn inspiration from the ethno-fascist movements that wreaked havoc across Europe in the early-to-mid-twentieth century. Hindu supremacists in modern India have been responsible for countless massacres, mob lynchings, assaults, demolitions of minority places of worship, and violent riots. A number of India’s most prominent Hindu militant groups have overseas branches operating in the United States, including the VHP-A, the organization Gudipati represents.
Many U.S.-based Hindu supremacist groups claim to be nonviolent cultural organizations charged with protecting “culture” and “heritage.” In practice, however, they often spread Islamophobia, anti-Blackness, anti-progressivism, and openly disdain democratic values like freedom of speech. These groups have also taken up causes that further the antidemocratic agenda of the American right; several, including the VHP-A and affiliated groups, celebrated the end of affirmative action, lobbied fiercely against civil rights laws that would prevent caste-based discrimination, openly supported Zionism and Israel amid its war crimes in Gaza, and engaged in harassment campaigns targeting academic free speech.
With so many overlapping ideals, American Hindu supremacist groups have directly collaborated with prominent white supremacists within the U.S. far-right ecosystem. Robert Spencer, described as “one of America’s most prolific and vociferous anti-Muslim propagandists” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has been featured on VHP-A affiliated platforms and regularly amplifies Hindu supremacist propaganda against Muslims. Pamela Geller, Marvin Belsky, and Stuart Kaufman—all authors who have penned viciously racist, fear-mongering books about the “threat” posed by Islam and Muslims—have actively co-sponsored and supported protests organized by VHP-A.
Jamie Glazov, founder of the staunchly anti-Muslim TV show “Glazov Gang,” has been featured in interviews on World Hindu News, a news portal whose Editor in Chief is VHP-A member Rahul Chandra. Americans4Hindus, a separate organization, has also invited a range of white supremacist leaders to its events, including Laura Loomer, a prominent conspiracy theorist who has been banned from Facebook, Instagram, and X for violating hate speech policies.
What’s more, the Hindu far right is already incubating a new generation of far-right American politicians: former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has repeatedly expressed his close ties to the VHP-A and openly praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s implementation of Hindu nationalism. Ramaswamy—along with presidential candidate Nikki Haley and, to a lesser extent, former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard—pander to white Christian nationalist values to court Republican voters while simultaneously offering the party a facade of inclusivity and diversity.
By aligning with Hindu nationalism, the U.S. far right is no longer the exclusive domain of white supremacists, but has become a much more dangerous amalgamation of conservative and supremacist movements.