Opinion

The RSS’s interfaith photo op tried to hide the truth

(RNS) — Oneness is not a word you say but a record you build.

The official Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) X account posted this group photo of Mohan Bhagwat with other faith leaders at Madison Square Garden on Aug. 29, 2026, in New York. (Photo via X/@RSSorg)

Harman Singh and Sunita Viswanath

September 9, 2026 

RNS

(RNS) — On Aug. 29, the chief of the Hindu nationalist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mohan Bhagwat, headlined the stage at Madison Square Garden for an event billed as a “Universal Oneness Celebration.” 

The RSS was founded in India in 1925 with the mission of creating a Hindu nation. Since then, the organization has promoted a militant form of Hindu nationalism that ties Hinduness to Indian identity. 

Bhagwat’s tour stop in New York exposed the RSS’s public relations attempt to present itself and its Hindu nationalist ideology in a way that would impress donors and followers in the Indian diaspora and also be palatable for Western (especially interfaith) audiences. Now a growing number of American political leaders and civil society groups are distancing themselves from the movement Bhagwat leads and rejecting the cynical and hypocritical instrumentalization of interfaith collaboration he attempted.

Before the event, a broad coalition argued that the RSS did not deserve the benefit of the doubt, given the organization’s record on violence against minorities. This begins with some of its founding members who drew inspiration from Nazi Germany’s repression of minorities. M.S. Golwalkar, an early RSS leader, praised aspects of Nazi Germany’s treatment of minorities and articulated an exclusionary, Hindu-first Indian state in his 1939 book, “We, or Our Nationhood Defined.”

The RSS’s ideology bred a century of violence against Muslims, Sikhs and Christians in India by its cadres and affiliates. International human rights groups documented the involvement of the RSS and its affiliates in the 2002 Gujarat pogroms that killed over 1,000 people, the majority Muslims. The RSS’s record surrounding the 1984 anti-Sikh massacres is equally troubling. Survivors have accused RSS members of helping organize and facilitate the violence, while a senior RSS ideologue defended the carnage in its aftermath. In its 2026 annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom named the RSS directly, recommending targeted sanctions, asset freezes and entry restrictions against some of its officials for their “responsibility and tolerance of severe violations of religious freedom.” In August, USCIRF separately called for Bhagwat’s U.S. visa to be revoked.

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RELATED: Mohan Bhagwat’s US visit puts RSS’s vision of Hindu unity in spotlight

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None of that record was addressed at Madison Square Garden (as a Christian leader demanded it should be). Instead, attendees heard Bhagwat speak in broad, milquetoast platitudes at odds with the RSS’s past and present records.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat addresses students during an India International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) event in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Moreover, the organization of this event should alarm anyone who cares about the integrity of interfaith work. In the days since, three interfaith leaders who attended the event have come forward with public statements explaining they were misled into appearing on that stage. They describe a pattern of omission and deception: At least a dozen email invitations were extended not by the RSS or its well-known affiliates but by innocuous-sounding entities like the “World Council of Religious Leaders” and the “Center for Responsible Leadership.” These invites reportedly left blank a section on the program that listed a “Guest of Honour” and repeatedly urged invitees to wear their “traditional attire” to the gathering — all pointing to the fact that the RSS was primarily out for a photo-op to confer interfaith legitimacy on themselves without confronting their own record against pluralism.

This cynical approach is precisely why the opposition to Bhagwat’s visit mattered, and why it should not be mistaken for the reflexive or tangentially related activism of any single aggrieved community. The coalition that convened to oppose the RSS visit in the lead-up was not improvised for the occasion: It was built over years of relationship-building and shared action across communities that do not always agree on everything but have worked to show up for one another. That is a truer expression of pluralism than anything spoken from the stage inside. 

The RSS and its affiliates can speak in as many Janus faces as ever, mount all the deceptions that their funding can sponsor and float all the front organizations they desire. But because they have no real interest in the fundamental tenets of pluralism and interfaith work, they will never grasp a basic truth: Oneness is not a word you say, but a record you build. An organization cannot claim the mantle of universal brotherhood while its cadres have been accused of organizing pogroms, while its American wings fan hate speech and while its political influence in India through the ruling BJP presides over the destruction of churches and impunity for anti-Muslim violence across India. 

The aftermath has been swift, and it has not been confined to activists and clergy. In the days following the rally, at least 90 elected officials and candidates across the United States publicly pledged to reject campaign donations tied to the RSS. This is a signal that the RSS’s American political project, built over decades through affiliated organizations that shape how U.S. institutions engage with South Asia, is colliding with people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds. The RSS came to Madison Square Garden to project strength and legitimacy on American soil. By doing so in a typically insidious but ham-fisted manner, it is instead leaving behind a widening circle of American political and religious leaders whose openness to engagement was misused, and who are now publicly explaining why they want nothing to do with it.

The State Department’s own history offers the clearest benchmark for what should come next. In 2005, it revoked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visa for nine years, holding him responsible, as Gujarat’s chief minister, for the 2002 anti-Muslim violence in the state. Modi, like Bhagwat, spent years as a full-time RSS organizer. The same scrutiny that was once applied to Modi should now be applied to Bhagwat — and to the broader network of American organizations that lent the RSS chief’s tour its interfaith cover and conjured its air of legitimacy by hook and by crook

In 1939, Madison Square Garden hosted a rally organized by the pro-Nazi German American Bund, drawing thousands under a banner of racial supremacy. Eighty-seven years later, the same arena hosted the leader of a movement whose own founding drew on that same ideology. 

The difference this time is that the deception used to dress the event in the language of unity did not survive contact with public scrutiny. The work to fight Hindu supremacy, build real interfaith ties and strengthen a multi-racial democracy does not end with Bhagwat’s departure: It demands continued due diligence, not the deference and whitewashing his tour was designed to manufacture.

(Harman Singh is the executive director of the Sikh Coalition and Sunita Viswanath is the executive director of Hindus for Human Rights. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)

SEE   Hinduism Is Fascism

INTERVIEW

Eiffel Tower row exposes BAPS Hindu group as 'spearhead of Modi's soft power'

A row over the treatment of female staff at the Eiffel Tower has put a Hindu movement at the centre of a controversy in France. An India specialist told RFI that BAPS, which has close ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has become an important vehicle for his soft-power diplomacy abroad.


Issued on: 10/09/2026 - RFI 

The new BAPS Hindu temple in Bussy-Saint-Georges, near Paris, which opened on 6 September 2026. © Nicolas Feldmann / RFI

The controversy began after around 100 people linked to BAPS – the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha – made a private visit to the Eiffel Tower on Saturday.

Female employees were asked to leave their workstations as the delegation passed so that men could take their places, a staff representative said. Employees protested on Monday, temporarily closing the monument.

Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire announced an investigation, and the Eiffel Tower reopened on Tuesday.

BAPS denied making a gender-based request and apologised for any hurt or inconvenience caused.

The visit came a day before BAPS inaugurated a large new temple in Bussy-Saint-Georges, east of Paris. Modi joined the inauguration by video link.

The movement has a relatively small following within Hinduism but a large international network, particularly among the Gujarati diaspora – people from the western Indian state of Gujarat.

India specialist Christophe Jaffrelot, a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), told RFI about BAPS's growing role in Modi's push to project Indian influence abroad.

RFI: BAPS is accused of promoting an ultra-conservative vision of society. Where does the movement come from and what does it represent today?

Christophe Jaffrelot: It is first and foremost an organisation from Gujarat, where it was founded in the early 20th century and which remains its stronghold. In India, there are very few BAPS temples outside Gujarat. There is one in New Delhi, the capital, which serves somewhat as a showcase, but that's about it.

However, Gujaratis have spread around the world and make up the largest Indian diaspora, so there are BAPS temples everywhere – from southern Africa to Canada, as well as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. That is where you find the major BAPS temples.

In terms of numbers, BAPS represents relatively few people. The vast majority of Hindus do not follow the movement. But its closeness to India's political elite makes all the difference today. Its followers may not be very numerous, but they are highly influential.

RFI: Does BAPS's conservative vision of society align with Modi's Hindu nationalism?

CJ: Modi, who comes from Gujarat, has had close relations with BAPS for 40 years. BAPS priests endorsed and legitimised him when he came to power in 2014. Modi subsequently defended and protected them.

When the 2001 earthquake destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes in Gujarat, he became the state's chief minister and relied on the movement for reconstruction. BAPS is very wealthy and rebuilt in its own way, putting its temples at the centre of villages and ensuring that Dalits, formerly known as “untouchables”, and Muslims were excluded.

It is a mutually beneficial relationship. Modi receives religious blessing and legitimacy, while these religious figures strengthen their position in Gujarati society thanks to his support.

Modi has used this movement as a representative of Hinduism for his soft-power policy. BAPS is the spearhead of that policy, which is why he personally inaugurates BAPS temples around the world. Modi travelled to Abu Dhabi to do so in 2024. For the French temple, he participated by video link, but he still took part.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, centre, after inaugurating the first BAPS Hindu temple in the Middle East, at Abu Mureikha, 40 kilometres north-east of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, on 14 February 2024. © Kamran Jebreili / AP

There is a kind of promotion of Gujarat as a nation of Hinduism, particularly among the diaspora, backed by the Indian state. We also saw the very strong involvement of the Indian embassy in Paris in the Bussy-Saint-Georges temple. It followed the construction work throughout. India's ambassador to Unesco, who is also based in Paris, was involved at every stage of the project.

So we have a community that is small in demographic terms but politically influential, and that can be seen through India's international activities.

RFI: Mixing religion and politics is nothing new in India, particularly with Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP. Can BAPS also be considered a political weapon?

CJ: It aims to be a political weapon in terms of influence. We have seen this more dramatically elsewhere, in the UK and the US. BAPS temples are places where American and British government officials are invited. King Charles III himself was invited six months ago to the largest temple in England, north of London.

It is a way of showing political elites in host countries that Hinduism has a form of soft power, that it represents a civilisation that should be recognised and cultivated. That is what BAPS is seeking above all.

Why was such a huge temple needed in Paris, where there are so few Hindus? Because it is a symbol. It shows that even there, Hinduism can plant a kind of flag. And why go to the Eiffel Tower, which has nothing to do with religion? Precisely because it is a symbol – a trophy to be won.

So it is effectively a kind of armed wing of a policy of cultural and civilisational expansion. Both the Indian government and BAPS talk constantly about Hindu civilisation.

RFI: The Eiffel Tower incident appears to have caused some embarrassment for BAPS and the Indian government. What impact could it have?

CJ: In India, it has received a lot of attention among the few remaining independent media outlets. It has attracted considerable attention within what is still a limited ecosystem. But the major Indian newspapers have also reported the incident, as have online media. It will not go any further than that in India.

The problem is more significant internationally. This affair has received considerable attention in the UK, in Germany, where temples are being built, and in Australia.

Everywhere, there is growing unease over this diaspora, which does not integrate, which increasingly seeks to assert the superiority of Hinduism as a civilisation, which rejects regulations concerning caste discrimination and which also opposes realistic descriptions of India in history or social science textbooks.

So tensions are growing. And this affair has received even greater media attention in countries with large Hindu diasporas where that unease is mounting.

RFI: In the UK, which has a large Indian community, could BAPS pose a threat to society similar to that associated with political Islam in the 2000s?

CJ: Yes. The British were shocked when riots between Hindus and Muslims broke out in the English city of Leicester in 2022 following a cricket match between India and Pakistan. At that point, it became clear that on both sides – among the Muslim minority and the Hindu minority – people were organising and arming themselves, and investigations are still underway.

This is where influence plays an essential role. The Hindu nationalist movement has acquired such influence over British political power that the investigations are making little progress. And that is one of the major issues in all these cases – how far can this movement neutralise the rule of law?

It is one of the major issues France should pay attention to, because the question arises here too. How was the construction of a temple of this kind authorised in the country of laïcité, the French principle of secularism? What kind of chain of command are we dealing with?

RFI: Given their economic and strategic ties with India, how difficult is it for countries to confront BAPS directly? How should France and other countries respond?

CJ: We need to protect ourselves against this kind of attempt to gain influence from within and apply French laws, which require the separation of religion and politics. In French society, religion belongs in the private sphere. With the construction of this temple, we therefore find ourselves in a fairly unprecedented situation, with political figures approving a religious operation conducted by a foreign state.

Perhaps an investigation should have been carried out beforehand. It is common knowledge that BAPS priests cannot associate with women. That is the rule. So the fact that this issue emerged through an incident at the Eiffel Tower and created the problem we now know about nevertheless reflects a lack of preparation.

There is another issue that explains the size of the temple near Paris – its proximity to Disneyland. The objective is fairly clear. When Indian tourists visit Europe and can afford it, they generally make a point of going to Disneyland. Well, now they will also make a detour to the Bussy-Saint-Georges temple.

RFI: Is BAPS and its vision gaining ground in India and abroad?

CJ: Yes, it is a movement that is gaining momentum because it is very close to those in power in India. One example illustrates this. In 2024, Modi inaugurated a Hindu temple in Ayodhya, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, built on the ruins of a mosque that Hindu nationalists destroyed in 1992.

The architectural model for this temple is that of the BAPS movement. The Narayan [BAPS] model is becoming, in a sense, the standard that embodies Hinduism.

BAPS is seeking to position itself as the representative of Hinduism, even though it is a very small strand of the religion. It wants to become the reference point. You can see this nationally in India.

Internationally, it is clearly expanding as Gujaratis gain social and economic influence in different countries. One example among many is that American motel chains are principally controlled by Gujaratis who, in large part, are members of BAPS.

This article is based on an interview in French by Christophe Drevet.

Internal inquiry opened after Eiffel Tower 'sexist' closure prompts strike

The Eiffel Tower reopened on Tuesday after staff walked out over the removal of women colleagues during a visit by a Hindu religious group which later apologised. The operating company has acknowledged it was wrong to accept the conditions and has opened an internal investigation.


Issued on: 08/09/2026 - RFI

Cover image: Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Hindu monks take part in a religious ceremony in front of the Eiffel Tower before a ceremonial river parade on the river Seine in Paris on 3 September 2026.

 AFP - KENZO TRIBOUILLARD

The operating company that runs the Paris landmark, SETE, acknowledged that the Hindu delegation had requested the visit on Saturday be organised so as to limit "interactions with women" but said afterwards that "these conditions should not have been accepted".

SETE president Ariel Weil, who is also an elected official in Paris, told public broadcaster Francinfo on Tuesday that the incident, which occured on Saturday, was "totally shocking and unacceptable".

Weil maintains he was unaware of the instructions issued by the group of Hindu visitors.

"Some overly zealous operational managers apparently took it upon themselves to strictly enforce these guidelines, failing to exercise the judgment needed to recognise that they were inappropriate," he explained.

The results of an internal investigation would be known "in the coming days," he told French news agency AFP.

"We are going to shed light on what happened, and we will draw the necessary conclusions," he said.

The Eiffel Tower, which says it receives nearly seven million people a year, was closed on Monday, when SETE said it held a meeting between striking staff and management.

It reopened on Tuesday morning.

The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) spiritual movement apologised for "any pain or inconvenience caused" by the incident.

"To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower," the organisation wrote on social media platform X.

"Due to the size of our delegation, the visit was arranged in conjunction with the Eiffel Tower team at the start of normal operating hours to avoid disrupting or inconveniencing others."

Eiffel Tower staff condemned "professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex" during the visit by the delegation.

Female employees made invisible

"Instructions were given to female employees of the Eiffel Tower and to female employees of contractors to make themselves invisible in order to welcome this delegation," the staff said in a statement, adding they were shocked to have been put in such a situation.

"Some were asked to leave their posts and withdraw to other areas. In some posts they were replaced by men. And all female employees were instructed not to go through or cross certain areas while the delegation was present."

BAPS, which is close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling conservative Hindu nationalist party, opened its first major temple in France on Sunday, near Paris.

BAPS spiritual leader Mahant Swami Maharaj, 93, consecrated it himself.

The BAPS organisation claims a worldwide network of more than 1,300 temples, some of which have been inaugurated by Modi himself.

France's gender equality minister Aurore Bergé voiced indignation after the Eiffel Tower incident.

"In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves," she said.

Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said the exclusion of female workers was "unacceptable" and contrary to the "values that the Eiffel Tower stands for".

Candidates in next year's presidential election also weighed in.

Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen also criticised the incident, saying France would "never accept that women's presence be 'limited'".

Gabriel Attal, a centrist rival to become head of state, said: "In France, no culture, no belief, no religion, nothing and no one can come and dictate to women what their place should be."

(with AFP)

How a former BAPS temple worker in the US got his freedom, but still seeks justice


The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Hindu sect at the heart of the Eiffel Tower strike made headlines in France during the inauguration of its latest temple near Paris. In the US, BAPS came under the spotlight when Indian stone workers were rescued from a temple construction site. One former worker recounts his journey and fight for justice.


Issued on: 10/09/2026
FRANCE24
By: Leela JACINTO

File photo of the BAPS temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey, taken November 19, 2023. © Ted Shaffrey, AP

More than eight years ago, when Rajeev Y.* first heard about a job in the US from a local contractor in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, the stone carver was thrilled.

“When we heard about the work opportunity, we thought it would be great – a good job outside India, a better life. It sounded like a dream,” said the stone worker who asked for his name to be changed for fear of retaliation and to protect his family in India.

But Rajeev’s American dream soon turned into a nightmare.

He was one of many Indian workers, mostly Dalits from the lowest rungs in India’s social hierarchy, who would go on to file a class action lawsuit in a US court against the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS). The Hindu sect made headlines in France this week when Eiffel Tower staff went on strike to protest the removal of female employees from the Paris landmark during a private visit by BAPS religious leaders and members.

Back in 2018, when Rajeev landed in the US, little was known in the West about the conservative Hindu sect whose fortunes – and opulent temples – have flourished since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.

By 2021, American audiences would be better informed as US media detailed allegations of forced labour, abuse, trafficking and violations of immigration laws against BAPS. The Hindu sect has consistently and strenuously denied the charges.

While public awareness has now increased, Rajeev is still seeking justice. Since he arrived in the US eight years ago, the 35-year-old father of three has not been able to hold or play with his children in India. For his kids, “Dad” has turned into a virtual figure on video calls, the one who is working hard abroad, and often against the odds, to provide them with a better life.

‘Just stones, stones, stones’

Rajeev’s American nightmare began shortly after he arrived at a massive BAPS temple construction site in Robbinsville, New Jersey.

“First, they took our passports. Then they told us that if we ever try to go out of the compound, and if we get in trouble, without our passports the police will take us away and put us in prison,” he said in Hindi during a phone interview from the US.

The temple site, though, was a “central prison” for the workers, said Rajeev, using the term in English. “The life in America looked very nice. But not for us. Our work was within the temple, no going out, no talking to people. We had no freedom – only do the stonework, just stones, stones, stones.”

The state of Rajasthan is renowned for its skilled stone carvers. Its sandstone hills in varying shades of ochre ranging from salmon pink to deep red provide colour and grace to some of India’s most iconic landmarks. The capital, Jaipur, also called “the Pink City”, is a walled city on the UNESCO World Heritage List with spectacular structures such as the Hawa Mahal, or “Palace of Winds”. For centuries, Rajasthan’s stone carvers have excelled at jali, or latticework, that gives stone the appearance of the finest lace. The carving expertise and skills are passed on within families through the generations, making Rajasthan a hiring ground for temple constructors.

It’s a skillset in high demand for BAPS, a religious institution renowned for its mega temples across the world built in the traditional style. The BAPS temple in a Paris suburb, which was inaugurated over the weekend, is just one of more than 1,300 temples and more than 5,025 centres managed by the Hindu sect across India, North America, Europe, West Asia, Africa and Australia.

An interior view of the stonework inside the BAPS temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey.

 © Ted Shaffrey, AP

But there is a darker side to the production of these stones of wind and light. India has high rates of silicosis, a deadly respiratory disease caused by exposure to fine silica dust. Most of the victims are workers from impoverished, marginalised communities toiling in quarries, mines and the construction industry, according to numerous studies.

Health problems, many of them undiagnosed, chronically plague these workers. It was a health crisis on the New Jersey temple construction site that caught the attention of US authorities, according to rights groups.
A death and an FBI raid

In October 2020, a stone worker named Mohan Lal died in the temple premises. Rajeev, now a member of the Indian Stone Workers Alliance of America (ISWAA), remembers those dark days clearly.

“He was already sick, you know, but he was never admitted in a proper hospital or anywhere outside the construction site,” recounted Rajeev. “He was kept in a trailer that they used for sick people. They used to give us Indian medicines, but the medicines were not working. Mohan Lal kept saying, ‘I need treatment, put me in hospital’. But they never did that,” he said.

The workers – who spoke little or no English and were confined to a work site in an unfamiliar new country – watched with growing anxiety as Lal’s condition deteriorated.

When Lal passed away, “everyone got very scared. We were all thinking, what’s happening here? What if something like this happens to us?” said Rajeev.

BAPS’ attempts to downplay the incident fueled worker unrest, ultimately leading to a May 2021 FBI raid of the premises that rescued more than 100 workers, according to rights groups.

Shortly after the FBI raid, six workers filed a lawsuit in a New Jersey court accusing BAPS of luring them from India, confining them to the temple grounds and paying them the equivalent of about $1 an hour to perform grueling labour in near servitude.

The 42-page class action suit took particular note of the workers’ low caste status. BAPS “recruited workers from the Scheduled Caste, also known as Dalit, and other marginalized communities in India”, it reported. “At the temple in New Jersey, temple leadership did what they could to remind these marginalized workers of their place in the social hierarchy.” The workers were paid the equivalent of around $450 per month in Indian rupees. But they were only paid $50 in cash, with the rest deposited in accounts in India, the complaint said.

BAPS officials denied the charges. “I respectfully disagree with the wage claim,” Kanu Patel, the chief executive of BAPS, told The New York Times. A BAPS spokesman also disputed the accusations, saying the men did complicated work connecting stones that had been hand-carved in India. “They have to be fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. In that process, we need specialized artisans,” he told the newspaper.

Months later, lawyers for the Indian workers filed an amended lawsuit with the New Jersey federal court increasing the number of plaintiffs and expanding the scope from the Robbinsville site to other temples near Atlanta, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles.
‘We don’t follow their god’

Following the FBI raid, the workers rescued from the New Jersey site were housed in hotels for a month before their cases were assigned to various service provider agencies and social welfare agencies across the US.

“It was 100 times better than what we were facing at the temple,” said Rajeev. “Back home in India, we had to work hard, but we had our families, we could see them. We earned money and we could spend it. Here we were stuck, with no freedom.”

The lawsuit claimed the temple workers were presented to US immigration officials as religious volunteers trained to do specialised work, qualifying them for religious, or R-1, visas.

Rajeev scoffs when asked about his “volunteering” for BAPS. Like most of the workers, he had signed forms and documents in English that he didn’t understand.

“My passport says I’m Hindu. But I follow Bodh dharm,” he said emphatically, using the Hindi words for Buddhism. “We are Dalits, we don’t follow their god,” he added, referring to BAPS members. “We never worship Swaminarayan,” he maintained, referring to the Hindu sage venerated by BAPS. “We make temples. That’s our work. The temple is for them. For us, we were given a separate tent for our worship. The temple is not for us, we were not allowed to worship inside.”

Qayam Masumi, advocacy and programme director for Dalit Solidarity Forum (DSF), a US-based NGO working on Dalit rights, questions how underpaid, subsistence workers could even afford to volunteer their services. “It was a whole scam to bypass labour laws, protections, insurance. They were actually working as daily wage labourers. And they were paid around $1.20 per hour, way below the minimum wage rate.”
A case dropped, but the fight continues

With NGOs and lawyers now on the workers’ side, Rajeev and his fellow plaintiffs felt assured that the criminal case was making its way through the legal process – until they received news of a setback.

In September 2025, months after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) closed the workers’ criminal case.

BAPS North America welcomed the move, noting in a statement that the US government’s “decision to end this investigation sends a clear and powerful message” that their temple is “a place of peace, service, and devotion”.

Masumi says the Dalit Solidarity Forum, which was helping the workers, heard about the case closure from a BAPS lawyer, not the DOJ. “We got to know that the criminal investigation got closed without filing any charges. And there was still no statement, no public document available from DOJ explaining why there were no charges filed,” he explained.

Like many activists following the case, Sunita Viswanath, co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights, criticises the decision to drop the case. “This is the same Trump administration under which the DOJ, for instance, exonerated Eric Adams,” she said, referring to the former New York City mayor whose criminal corruption case was dropped last year, sparking the resignations of Manhattan's top federal prosecutor and six other Justice officials. “We don't believe that the dismissal of this case means that the BAPS temple is exonerated. They haven't made any kind of statement that apologises for their treatment of the workers,” Viswanath noted.

In a joint statement released with five other US-based NGOs, the Dalit Solidarity Forum expressed “deep concern over reports that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has closed its criminal investigation” and demanded “full accountability and justice for these workers and their families”.

While the criminal case was dropped, a civil wage theft case, however, “remains fully intact and is actively moving forward,” the statement added.

Since the FBI rescued more than 100 workers from the New Jersey temple site, many of them have returned to India due to family emergencies and personal issues. Following their rescue, the workers were granted T visas for victims of “severe” human trafficking. Since T visa-holders face extensive paperwork if they leave the US and want to return, many of the workers over the past five years have opted to return to lives and families in India.

But Rajeev and a few other workers remain in the US for a cause. “We want justice, that’s what we want,” he said simply.

When asked if he and his fellow stone workers had heard about the Eiffel Tower controversy surrounding BAPS, Rajeev was vague about the news, but clear about the interests of his loved ones.

“I don’t pay much attention, we did hear about the news in France. But no one from my family and my village worked on that site,” he said. “Those are other workers, they need to earn a livelihood, they have no other option,” he said. “But me, I will never work for BAPS.”

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Hinduism Is Fascism

Eiffel Tower reopens following staff strike after female employees 'made invisible' for Hindu group visit

Copyright Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

By Gavin Blackburn

Published on 08/09/2026 - 

The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Hindu temple in Paris released a statement apologising for "any pain or inconvenience caused."

The Eiffel Tower reopened on Tuesday after staff staged a walk-out the day before over the removal of women colleagues during a visit by a Hindu religious group which later apologised.

The operating company that runs the Paris landmark, SETE, acknowledged that the Hindu delegation had requested the visit be organised so as to limit "interactions with women" and said that "these conditions should not have been accepted."

It said the landmark would open its doors again following a meeting between staff and management.

The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) spiritual movement apologised for "any pain or inconvenience caused" by the incident.

"To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower," the organisation wrote on X.

"Due to the size of our delegation, the visit was arranged in conjunction with the Eiffel Tower team at the start of normal operating hours to avoid disrupting or inconveniencing others."

Fireworks and drones illuminate the Eiffel Tower in Paris on the eve of Bastille Day celebrations, 13 July, 2026 AP Photo

Eiffel Tower staff said in a statement that it condemned "professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex" during the visit by the delegation.

"Instructions were given to female employees of the Eiffel Tower and to female employees of contractors to make themselves invisible in order to welcome this delegation," the staff said in their statement, adding they were shocked to have been put in such a situation.

"Some were asked to leave their posts and withdraw to other areas. In some posts they were replaced by men. And all female employees were instructed not to go through or cross certain areas while the delegation was present."

Paris' Mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire, promised an investigation "as soon as possible."

Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the National Assembly, condemned the incident on Monday.

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"I refuse to accept that women should be told to step aside to meet the demands of foreign visitors," she said.

"Welcoming others never means giving up our values. In France, women are fully present in public life. No one tells them to become invisible there."

The Eiffel Tower's website said the landmark was closed on Monday due to "exceptional circumstances."

It advised visitors with tickets to check their emails and apologised for the inconvenience.

Eiffel Tower closes as staff strike after female employees 'made invisible' for Hindu group visit

By Nathan Rennolds

Published on 07/09/2026 - EURONEWS

The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Hindu temple in Paris has released a statement apologising for "any pain or inconvenience caused."

Staff at the Eiffel Tower staged a walkout on Monday, forcing the closure of the iconic Parisian landmark after female employees were said to have been moved out of sight during the visit of a Hindu religious group.

The row began after the visit of around 100 people linked to the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Hindu movement, which inaugurated a new temple in France over the weekend.

Diane Davoine, a union representative, told French TV that female workers had been "moved away from their workstations as the delegation passed by" during a visit on Saturday.

Eiffel Tower employees have condemned in a statement what they described as "professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex."

SETE, the company that runs the tower, has acknowledged that the Hindu delegation requested the trip be organised so as to limit "interactions with women," adding that "these conditions should not have been accepted."

In a statement released on Monday evening, the BAPS Hindu temple in Paris said it took the concerns raised "very seriously" and apologised for "any pain or inconvenience caused."

"Due to the size of our delegation, the visit was arranged in conjunction with the Eiffel Tower team at the start of normal opening hours to avoid disrupting or inconveniencing others," it said.

"To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower," it continued, adding that it believed in the "universal values of mutual respect and service."

In a post on X, Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said he was "aware of the outcry among the employees of the Eiffel Tower" and that it was "unacceptable" that such conditions were agreed to.

"These are not my values, nor are they the values that the Eiffel Tower should uphold, where everyone must be able to move about and act freely, without distinction between women and men," he wrote, adding that an investigation into the incident would be launched.

Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the National Assembly, has also condemned the incident.

"I refuse to accept that women should be told to step aside to meet the demands of foreign visitors," she said. "Welcoming others never means giving up our values. In France, women are fully present in public life. No one tells them to become invisible there."

The Eiffel Tower's website says the landmark is closed on Monday due to "exceptional circumstances."

It advises visitors with tickets to check their emails and apologised for the inconvenience.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Hinduism Is Fascism

HINDUTVA

World’s Largest Far Right Paramilitary Rallied in NYC. It Should Alarm Everyone.

Five thousand people attended a rally in New York City led by the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

By Samantha Agarwal ,

Truthout

September 1, 2026

New Yorkers rally outside of Madison Square Garden to condemn Mohan Bhagwat and the RSS on August 29, 2026.Samantha Agarwal

On February 20, 1939, the Madison Square Garden arena in New York City hosted a chilling spectacle. A portrait of George Washington hung at the center of the arena, flanked by U.S. flags and swastikas. Over 20,000 people packed the stands to hear Fritz Kuhn, leader of the German American Bund — one of the most prominent U.S.-based organizations aligned with the Third Reich — project his vision of a “white, Gentile-ruled United States.” Outside, 100,000 anti-Nazi protesters clashed with police on Eighth Avenue, determined to stop the legitimization of European fascism on U.S. soil.

Eighty-seven years later, global leaders in ethno-fascism and their sympathizers returned to Madison Square Garden.

On August 29, 2026, 5,000 people gathered at Madison Square Garden to hear Mohan Bhagwat, the sarsanghchalak (Supreme Leader) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). As the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the RSS is the world’s largest far right paramilitary organization, with an estimated 4 million members spread over 73,117 branches across India. Just as the Bund attempted to leverage the image of George Washington to legitimize Nazism in their rally of 1939, the RSS used this invite-only event — apparently attended by 180 religious leaders from 30 countries — to sanitize a century-old project of Hindu fascism. Obscuring its extremist agenda, the RSS cloaked the gathering in the rhetoric of liberal multiculturalism, branding it with the theme “Universal Oneness.”

In his 42-minute keynote, the septuagenarian Bhagwat played the part of a playful but discerning uncle, dispensing meandering aphorisms about an “innate, eternal oneness” that connects humanity and nature. Rooting these concepts in the Atman (soul) and India’s civilizational values, Bhagwat painted a picture of a nation that champions “unity in diversity.” In a jarring contrast to his movement’s actual record, he claimed that India chooses to tolerate its enemies rather than subjugate them — elevating the country as a global exemplar of enlightened governance.

While Bhagwat spoke inside, an interfaith and anti-caste coalition protested outside. It consisted of groups like SALAM (South Asian Left), Hindus for Human Rights, and the Indian American Muslim Council, along with members of some of the 66 organizations that signed on to a statement earlier this week condemning Bhagwat’s visit. Their speeches exposed the hypocrisy of Bhagwat’s claim to “unity in diversity,” demonstrating how the RSS and its massive network of Hindu supremacist partners — including nearly a thousand nonprofit organizations, cultural organizations, paramilitary groups, unions, and political parties, collectively known as the Sangh Parivar (or the Family of the Sangh) — routinely practice the exact opposite of what Bhagwat preaches.

Here’s How the Hindu Supremacist Movement Is Infiltrating US Politics
As the 100-year-old movement in India celebrates a key victory, a new report reveals its ties with the US far right. By Samantha Agarwal , Truthout February 2, 2024

Speakers pointed out how the RSS’s notion of unity is, in fact, exclusively reserved for Hindus — and only for those who are wealthy and upper-caste. Shree Baphna from SALAM talked about how Hindutva (or the Hindu supremacist movement) attempts to divert mass anger “away from those in power and towards those communities who are exploited and oppressed.”

Baphna added:


When a Dalit [lower caste person] demands land, dignity and the annihilation of caste, Hindutva says, ‘forget caste – you are Hindu. When an Adivasi [Indigenous person] defends jal, jungle, zameen [water, forests and land] against mines, dams and corporations – Hindutva says, ‘forget your history – you are a vanvasi – a child of the Hindu nation.’ Shame!

Ritu Gupta from the nonprofit Hindus for Human Rights, noted that Mohan Bhagwat is here “pretending to spread the message of oneness.” But this is not the message Bhagwat’s supporters spread in India, Gupta retorted. “In India they say, ‘Hindus only – everybody else, get out!’ These Hindus who support the message of purging India of its minorities do not represent all Hindus. There could be no bigger hypocrisy than this!”

Demonstrators display signs reading, “RSS Out of NYC.”

646onrecord

Others, including a spokesperson for the Palestinian organization Pal Awda, extended the critique of Bhagwat’s rhetorical “oneness” to India’s role as a regional colonizer in Kashmir and partner to genocidal Israel. “We have a responsibility to stand against genocide whenever, and wherever,” the Pal Awda representative, who requested anonymity, said. “The RSS has deep ties to Zionism and has worked to create an Israel-like vision for India based on [an] ethnonationalist state and subjugation of minorities.” Moreover, the “Hindutva-Zionism relationship is not merely ideological,” the spokesperson added, explaining that the relationship is constructed through diplomatic links, military cooperation, and corporate capital flows.

As one striking example of this strategic alliance, in 2022 the Adani Group owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, a personal friend to Modi, purchased 70 percent of the Haifa port. Today, the Indian flag flies next to the Israeli flag in Israel’s second largest port. The Indian and Israeli governments also cooperate heavily on military equipment, counterterrorism, and surveillance technology, including software partnerships. Another speaker on August 29 added, “The Hindutva politics that normalizes repression in Kashmir is a mirror image of the Zionist state — carrying out the same occupation and dispossession in Palestine.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a number of New York City council members have also publicly opposed the RSS rally. Additionally, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the U.S. government to sanction the RSS due to its violent attacks on religious minorities.
Hindu Supremacy’s Enduring Ties to European Fascism

To fully understand the significance of Bhagwat holding court at Madison Square Garden — and the intensity of the counter-protests — one must grasp the bloodline that binds his organization to the very regime the German American Bund was celebrating in 1939. The founders of the RSS, which was created in 1925, met with and drew direct lessons from the European fascists.

In 1931 BS Moonje, a Hindu nationalist and mentor to the first Supreme Leader of the RSS, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, traveled to Italy to meet with Benito Mussolini and tour various military academies and militant youth organizations such as the Opera Nazionale Balilla and the Avanguardisti. Moonje wrote in his diary that he was inspired by these fascist organizations and intended to reshape the RSS along these organizational lines. It is said that under Hedgewar the RSS adopted many of their core features — such as their targeted recruitment of young boys (beginning at age 5), use of paramilitary training, and the total subordination of the organization to a supreme, lifetime leader — from Moonje’s accounts of the Italian Balilla.

Further, in 1939 M.S. Golwalkar — the RSS’s second Supreme Leader, whose portrait Bhagwat still routinely garlands — wrote in his manifesto, We, or Our Nationhood Defined, that Germany’s ethnic cleansing of the Jewish people was a model for India “to learn and profit by.” In that same text, he characterizes Muslims as historical “despoilers” and “murdering hordes” who destroyed Hindu kingdoms, arguing that they should either be forced to assimilate to Hinduism. If they refuse, he argues, they should be “wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges.”

Today, under Bhagwat’s leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 12-year reign, Golwarkar’s 1939 blueprint has become de facto state policy. In 2019, the RSS-backed Modi regime passed a slate of controversial laws effectively dismantling what was left of India’s secularism, tying citizenship to religion, explicitly excluding Muslims. This legal subordination works in tandem with extralegal vigilante violence committed by partners of the RSS like the Bajrang Dal.

Lynchings and mob attacks on individuals or small groups of people constitute a kind of slow-burning structural violence that has led Brown University political scientists Ashutosh Varshney and Connor Staggs to compare Hindu nationalism to America’s Jim Crow South. There has been a steady rise in such incidents since 2014, disproportionately in BJP-ruled states. In just the first year of Modi’s third term (2024-2025), the Association for Protection of Civil Rights recorded 602 such hate crimes. Of these, 173 involved physical violence against minorities, resulting in 25 deaths — every one of them Muslim.

Punitive home demolitions and evictions are also surging. According to the Housing and Land Rights Network, evictions across India climbed from 107,625 in 2019 to 222,686 in 2022, before reaching 515,752 in 2023 — a 379 percent increase over five years. The network’s data also reveals that Muslims are vastly overrepresented among those whose homes are destroyed.

Waging sustained opposition to the regime on any of these counts has become nearly impossible. Critics — including peaceful activists, academics, media, and dissident politicians — are routinely persecuted under draconian laws like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, which eliminate standard burdens of proof to permit the indefinite pretrial detention of political opponents. This systematic criminalization of dissent has led the prestigious V-Dem Institute to classify India as an electoral autocracy, dropping the country’s democratic freedom ranking from 65th in 2016 to 106th in 2026 — the bottom 20 percent globally. Even more alarming, Genocide Watch has repeatedly warned of an impending genocide against India’s 250 million Muslims, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ranks India at the “second-highest risk of a new mass killing.”

Yet, despite this grim record, the highest leader of this fascistic movement was handed one of the world’s most coveted stages — welcomed to preach and court donors in the heart of the U.S.’s financial capital.
Bhagwat’s Event Was the Culmination of a Decades-Long Strategy to Influence U.S. Politics

Just as the German American Bund sought to build a fifth column in the U.S., the RSS has for five decades worked to build material power in the diaspora. To organize its Madison Square Garden rally, the RSS drew on sophisticated, multi-layered clandestine networks, the mechanics of which were exposed in a new, multi-part investigative series on the RSS’s “Vishwa Vibhag” or “Overseas Department” by Savera, a U.S.-based coalition against supremacy.

In this series Savera tracked the shell organizations facilitating the RSS’s U.S. activities. Bhagwat’s event was formally hosted by the innocuous-sounding American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue (also known as “AHEAD Forum”), which poses as an independent diaspora group.

The Savera series shows that this is a bald-faced lie. AHEAD Forum was, in fact, incorporated in California in May 2025 by Khanderao Kand, a long-time RSS operative and founder-president of the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies. Kand’s deep ties to the RSS and the BJP were exposed when the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies was implicated in a potentially illegal lobbying effort to influence the U.S. Congress. When Kand became a public relations liability, his name was quietly scrubbed from AHEAD Forum’s paperwork and replaced by a colleague. AHEAD Forum’s other directors are similarly embedded in the “American Sangh,” the network of U.S.-based RSS affiliates.

At the top of this hierarchy sits Saumitra Gokhale. Gokhale is listed on tax forms for the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh — the U.S. wing of the RSS — as a yoga instructor earning $36,000 a year, according to Savera. But researchers found no record of Gokhale teaching yoga. In reality he is a senior RSS pracharak (full-time missionary) and the global coordinator of the Vishwa Vibhag.

The Savera series reveal how the Vishwa Vibhag — or the “largest far right network in the world”— operates across 1,600 branches in 55 countries, utilizing organizations like the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America to weave a dense web of “transnational entanglements.” Contrary to claims that they operate independently of the RSS, the series shows how they in fact are so closely intertwined that Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh leaders are made to attend regular RSS training camps in India. They employ the same terminology (“shakhas”) to refer to branches, borrow from RSS’s prayers and paraphernalia, and pay obeisance to portraits of RSS leaders, including none other than Golwalkar himself. Sewa International is the main fundraising arm of the Vishwa Vibhag — and rakes in millions of dollars of revenue each year.

Ideologically, the American Sangh appropriates the language of Western multiculturalism, global peace, and even decolonizationto shield its majoritarian, proto-fascist project. This was on full display at the Madison Square Garden event. At the same time, it openly allies itself with white nationalists and Zionists — as seen in Trump’s 2019 “Howdy Modi” mega rally in Houston or in the Republican Hindu Coalition formerly chaired by Steve Bannon.

These two faces of the Sangh are not solely fixated on India; they actively intervene in U.S. politics. For example, they have waged aggressive, well-funded campaigns to rewrite California school textbooks to reflect right-wing nationalist histories. They recently spearheaded a successful push to kill a civil rights bills aimed at banning caste-based discrimination — culminating in an infamous veto by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom). Taking a page from the Zionist Anti-Defamation League’s playbook, they weaponize U.S. civil rights rhetoric framing any criticism of the RSS or the BJP’s human rights record as “Hinduphobia” to intimidate lawmakers and silence academics.

The Hindu right wields this outsized political and lobbying muscle despite the fact that only a minority of Indian Americans actually support the BJP. Affiliates like the Hindu American Political Action Committee and Hindu American Foundation have spent years embedding themselves within Washington and local municipalities. Federal Election Commission reports show them donating handsomely across the aisle to Democrats such as Raja Krishnamoorthi and Shri Thanedar alongside Republicans such as Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek Ramaswamy, and many more.

Typically, the use of front organizations has worked to hedge against accusations of operating on behalf of a foreign agent. However, recently, for reasons that are still unclear, the RSS has also sought to deepen its directinfluence over U.S. politicians. In late 2025, an investigation by the U.S.-based news outlet Prism revealed that the RSS had hired Squire Patton Boggs — one of Washington’s most powerful lobbying firms — to influence U.S. lawmakers. The firm was paid $330,000 during the first three quarters of 2025.

Bringing RSS on as a domestic client rather than registering it under FARA was likely in violation of federal transparency norms. After the Prism report was published, thus, Squire Patton Boggs hastily amended its congressional disclosures, scrubbing the RSS from the paperwork and claiming that its “ultimate client” was actually Vivek Sharma, a Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical executive.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the RSS’s shadowy lobbying initiative and Bhagwat’s visit come at a moment when the Modi regime is facing an unprecedented crisis. Economic stagnation, recurring labor unrest, Hindu temple scandals, and mass student protests have mired Modi’s third term and substantially weakened his domestic standing. Bhagwat’s liberal-sounding message thus appears aimed at restoring a more palatable “brand” for the Sangh Parivar, laying the groundwork for global cooperation under a future leader. This is also a stark reminder of who, in fact, controls the levers of power — the parent RSS — no matter the ultimate fate of Modi or even the BJP.

But if the RSS believes it can quietly secure its legacy, the communities resisting it tell a very different story. Outside the venue, Safa Ahmed of the Indian American Muslim Council spoke directly to Bhagwat’s underlying anxiety, saying:


Islam and Muslims have been in India for 1,400 years, and they will [remain] here after another 1,400 years and even beyond that. So long as we exist, we will never be erased from India. But you — Mohan Bhagwat, and your fascist … fan pals — the masks are off for you. You are being mocked by the youth of India. You are being mocked by New York City. You are afraid of losing it all … And it’s you who will be remembered as a sad, insecure group of people who could only take pride in your identity via the erasure of another — that is, if you are remembered at all

!

Protesters hang garlands of shoes around effigies of Narendra Modi (left) and
Mohan Bhagwat (right)Samantha Agarwal

Ahmed’s prophecy will ultimately bear out, but we cannot afford to passively wait for it. We cannot leave our Muslim, Adivasi, Dalit, and left comrades on the front lines in India to fight this battle alone. Rallies, social media mockery, and the construction of broad, intersectional coalitions like we saw on Saturday are a strong start. But sooner than later we need to go beyond symbolic protest to challenge the Sangh at its root.

This will require disrupting Hindutva diasporic organizations wherever they operate, ruthlessly exposing these “cultural organizations” as fronts for the spread of fascism. It means cautioning the public about the bad-faith weaponization of “Hinduphobia” — which the Hindu right uses to shield itself from criticism — and impeding the Sangh’s ties to global right-wing players like MAGA and Israel. It means educating the nascent Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) movement on the violent reality of the Sangh, so it compels DSA-elected officials to act. Finally, just as global movements boycotted the Nazis, the apartheid-era Afrikaners, and now Israel — the left needs to develop creative strategies to choke off the Sangh from its financial lifelines in the U.S. A first step would be to scrutinize its various alliances with big capital, including in the tech and defense sectors, and examine how these partnerships enable funds to flow into India via charitable fronts like Sewa International, IDRF, and Ekal Vidyalaya.

The 1939 Bund rally is remembered today as a sinister moment in U.S. history — a time when New York allowed the most violent political current in the globe to claim a major stage in our financial capital. Mohan Bhagwat’s 2026 visit must be recognized as its modern equivalent. To avoid repeating the horrors of interwar fascism, we must urgently build a transnational, intersectional bloc capable of defeating the American Sangh.

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Samantha Agarwal
Samantha Agarwal is an Assistant Professor at School of Labor and Urban Studies at City University of New York. Her writing and research focus on neoliberalism, social movements in India, and the rise of authoritarian ethnonationalism globally.