Augusto F. Menezes/Home News Tribune/AP Photo
Dignitaries and public officials march in a previous year’s Indian Independence Day Parade, organized by the Indian Business Association, in Edison and Woodbridge, New Jersey, August 2007.
In August, the Indian Business Association (IBA), a collection of Indian business owners in Edison, New Jersey, hosted an Indian Independence Day Parade. The event featured the typical floats and local business showcases, along with Indian flags to celebrate 75 years of independence from the British Empire.
But midway through the parade, footage shows a yellow wheel loader, emblazoned with a picture of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (leader of the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP) and the controversial Indian politician Yogi Adityanath, also known as “Bulldozer Baba.” This vehicle, a symbolic stand-in for a bulldozer, is a signal of support for Hindutva, a far-right ethnonationalist ideology that calls for purging non-Hindus from India.
Days after the Edison incident, the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NJ) and the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) condemned the bulldozer’s appearance. “In India, 200 million Muslims are at risk of mass violence from a radicalized majority population,” IAMC said. “Marching with these bulldozers shows support for forced homelessness and mass violence against a vulnerable minority.”
CAIR-NJ asked local officials “to condemn these acts of hatred and block Hindu nationalists and the BJP’s attempts to interfere in local New Jersey politics.” Edison’s Mayor Sam Joshi, himself an Indian American, responded: “I want to be clear that any symbol or action that represents discrimination is unwelcome in Edison Township as we are committed to celebrating and working in harmony with people from all cultures.”
In response, the IBA offered its “sincere apologies” because the bulldozer is a “blatant divisive symbol” for Indian American minority groups across New Jersey and the rest of the United States. The letter ends by committing to never allowing such symbols in the future. New Jersey Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez issued a joint statement condemning the use of the bulldozer. “The bulldozer has come to be a symbol of intimidation against Muslims and other religious minorities in India, and its inclusion in this event was wrong.”
This parade gone wrong in New Jersey illuminates how Democrats across the country have struggled to navigate a polarizing religious and political environment among the Indian American community, whose fractures have forced Democrats to jockey between competing groups. Sources tell the Prospect that during a nationwide Democratic Party Asian American Pacific Islander call, a question over how to address Hindu nationalism while maintaining Indian American support was contentious, with this parade highlighted.
The Prospect reached out to Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) office for an interview on this question, but got no response. The Prospect also attempted to reach out to Michigan state Rep. Padma Kuppa, who is currently running for a state Senate seat. Her office declined an interview request.
But even as Democrats across the country quarrel about the issue, in New Jersey, home to one of the largest Indian American populations in the country, the parade has become a flashpoint of controversy. On one side of the issue are coalitions of Hindu, multi-faith, and other secular groups decrying Hindu nationalism spreading on American shores. The other side claims that such attempts to classify Hindu organizations as right-wing extremists are anti-Hindu in themselves, perpetuating bigotry and division.
The way the India Day parade played out in a corner of northern New Jersey is instructive of the delicate nature of the politics.
It’s difficult terrain for candidates to navigate with one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in America.
ACCORDING TO THE CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE, as American society has polarized between Republicans and Democrats, Indian Americans have not been immune to the trend. Indeed, polarization seems worse among this demographic, because political and religious divisions from India are making their way to the United States.
Afreen Fatima, a Muslim student activist in India, recalled in Time earlier this year how after months of her using her family’s home as resource center for Muslim activists, her family was arbitrarily imprisoned by city and state authorities, her house deemed illegal, and finally demolished outright. “They destroyed our home and telecast it live,” Fatima wrote.
Hindutva is a recent political ideology—unlike Hinduism, whose history goes back thousands of years. Audrey Truschke, a historian at Rutgers University, traces the ideology’s roots to the 1920s, through the formation of the extremist paramilitary group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Hindutva used to be much more controversial in the West. In 2005, for instance, Bush administration officials denied Modi a visa to enter the U.S. under the International Religious Freedom Act, citing his “severe violations of religious freedom” from when he served as chief minister of the state of Gujarat and was implicated in sparking riots in which thousands of Muslims were massacred. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2014 that Modi was the only foreigner denied a visa under the law. But by 2019, Modi joined President Trump for a “Howdy Modi” rally in Houston, with 50,000 in attendance.
The propulsion of far-right governments across the globe has worked in Modi’s favor. A Foreign Policy column from 2020 connected far-right European governments to India because of a “shared hostility toward immigrants and Muslims, and couched in similar overarching nationalistic visions.”
The way the India Day parade played out in a corner of northern New Jersey is instructive of the delicate nature of the politics. The Teaneck Democratic Municipal Committee (TDMC), in a community near Edison, passed a resolution as a response to the bulldozer incident. The resolution identified several Hindu nationalist groups for their ties to the RSS, including Hindu American Foundation, Vishva Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA), and others. The criticism centered on VHPA’s invitation of Yati Narsinghanand, a Hindu priest who openly calls for violence against Muslims, as a keynote speaker for a previous event.
The resolution asked federal law enforcement to investigate the listed organizations, state Democratic officials to strengthen visa restrictions against potential extremists visiting the United States, and to pass a resolution that condemns civil rights violations in India.
The Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) retaliated with a copy-pasted mass message calling the resolution an attempt to “demonize the entire Hindu community, their activities, their beliefs, and their political participation in New Jersey.”
The CoHNA statement also smears its Muslim critics as affiliated with terrorism. “It is also ironic,” the statement says, “that the organizations and groups behind the Hinduphobic resolution are painting Hindu organizations as funding terror and hate when some of them … have been indicted by the US Government for their ties to or support of terrorist organizations and individuals,” referring to post-9/11 persecutions of Muslim rights groups.
Although CoHNA’s letter focuses on discrimination against Hindus, Truschke points out, this kind of rhetoric treats “Indian and Hindu identities” as synonymous, thereby “maligning Muslims” of Indian descent as inherent outsiders—foundational principles of Hindutva.
One Democrat who toed the CoHNA line was Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who represents Teaneck and other cities in North Jersey. He called the resolution “anti-Hindu” and disappointing.
Hindu organizations with sympathies for the groups listed in the TDMC resolution went further than Gottheimer. American Kahani, a lifestyle publication for Indian Americans, published a “Millennial Perspective” to the resolution called “Fake Accusations: Democratic Party of New Jersey Risks Losing the Support of Hindu Americans.” By the end of September, almost 60 Hindu American organizations had signed on to a letter decrying the resolution, darkly suggesting that the TDMC “may simply be a pawn” to “malign and denigrate the Hindu American community.”
Hindu American leaders such as Tejal Shah, a New Jersey resident and coordinator for Hindu Mandir Executives’ Conference (HMEC), a coalition of over 1,100 Hindu temples across the United States, called for disbanding the TDMC, which he called a “bigoted committee.” The pressure worked. Days after Shah’s comments, the New Jersey Democratic State Committee issued a statement condemning the resolution as divisive and anti-Hindu bigotry.
One group that stuck up for the TMDC, however, was the New Jersey chapter of the NAACP. It released a statement referring to the bulldozer incident that said: “US-based groups that adhere to this hate-filled ideologies have been known for their connections with India’s Nazi-inspired fascist organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), whose offshoots and affiliates carry out mass violence against India’s religious minorities, especially Christians and Muslims, as well as lower-caste Hindus.”
A coalition of Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Palestinian, and other secular groups also backed up the TDMC with a letter stating: “Hindu nationalism, also known as Hindutva, is a 100-year-old political ideology that is premised on Hindu supremacy and the exclusion of non-Hindus.” It urges elected officials to learn more about the Hindutva ideology before “US-based Hindu supremacists [attempt] to browbeat TDMC for its courageous resolution.”
Selaedin Maksut, the executive director of CAIR-NJ, told the Prospect that the resolution is simply about raising awareness about Hindutva in New Jersey and across the country. Aside from the bulldozer incident, Maksut said Hindutva manifests through employment discrimination against Muslims, particularly those of South Asian descent. “In the political arena,” according to Maksut, people running for office who are sympathetic to CAIR-NJ’s work on combating extremism face backlash simply for their affiliation with anti-extremist organizing.
Maksut characterized condemnation of the TDMC resolution as “unfortunately” made out of ignorance. “There’s no issue with Hinduism at all,” Maksut said. “Hindutva is a political ideology that is fueling a far-right-wing movement in India … It’s fascism. It’s anti-democratic. It’s discrimination.” When I asked Maksut if he had heard from Booker, Menendez, or Gottheimer regarding the TDMC resolution, he said, “I don’t think so. I’m not aware of anything.”
Sens. Booker and Menendez and Rep. Gottheimer did not respond to the Prospect’s request for comment on whether or not they supported the TDMC resolution or if they had contacted IAMC, CAIR-NJ, or other groups supporting the resolution.
Maksut suggested that elected officials should look upon the onslaught of far-right Hindu nationalist attacks against Truschke. “She has exposed Hindutva to be a violent ideology that justifies the persecution of minority groups in India.” Maksut continued, “Whether it’s Sen. Cory Booker, President Joe Biden, or the council in Teaneck, we need to understand what’s happening on the ground in India … We need to allow that conversation to unfold and then we can make decisions.”
