WASHINGTON — Nikhil Mandalaparthy is the former deputy executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, a human rights nonprofit that advocates for pluralism and civil and human rights in South Asia and North America. He spoke with Jody Hassett Sanchez in Washington during Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s state visit. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Hassett Sanchez: You have said you do not think the prime minister should have been invited for this state visit to the U.S.

Mandalaparthy: I think it’s a mistake. The Biden administration, like the Obama and Trump administrations, has made strategic calculations that it needs to counter China. They are focused so strongly on India’s geopolitical role that they turn a blind eye to domestic matters.

I want a strong Indian-U.S. relationship. But friends should also be able to hold each other accountable. This administration talks about human rights and uplifting democracy, but its biggest blind spot is India. Inviting Mr. Modi to a state dinner is just a historical blunder.

If you are invested, as the U.S. is, in seeing India as a vibrant democracy, then you have to take steps to ensure all citizens have equal freedoms, which is not happening. I don’t want to see the U.S. cut ties with India, but I think if you are going to put peace, justice and pluralism at the center of your ideological partnership, then you have to be clear to Mr. Modi that his actions are not taking India in that direction.

Sanchez: What does this trip mean for him and his supporters?

Mandalaparthy: This is the victory lap, a huge win for Hindu nationalists who were upset when he was denied a visa in 2005 and is now being welcomed into the White House. It’s a big PR victory for him, and it is such a slap in the face of the people who died in the riots he presided over, which is why he was denied a visa that first time.

Sanchez: Your primary focus is on the growth of Hindu nationalism in the U.S. What does that look like today?

Mandalaparthy: This ideology of Hindu nationalism isn’t just threatening Indian democracy but also here in the U.S. We know that on Jan. 6 at the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Hindu nationalists were present along with Christian nationalists. There are photos of at least one specific individual who is active with U.S. Hindu nationalist groups, waving an Indian flag, and there were likely others.

Sanchez: How is Hindu nationalism playing out across the U.S.?

Mandalaparthy: Ideologically, this is having real implications on the ground in American communities and in the ways that neighbors interact. Hindu nationalist groups are trying to prevent mosques from being built in their communities. They paint all Muslim groups as Islamists. This then creates a whole new constituency for far-right white nationalists who can say, “See, brown-skinned people are agreeing with us. Islam is dangerous.”

Sanchez: Can we realistically expect local officials to understand the difference between Hindus as a religious group and Hindu nationalists who have a political agenda?

Mandalaparthy: It’s a tricky situation. Many of these Hindu nationalist groups have been around since the 1970s and 1980s and have acted as community hubs for recent immigrants. They’ve launched a lot of positive community initiatives: food drives and neighborhood clean-ups. The problem is that they’ll also organize events and invite radicals to come and speak. So, what do you do when they are doing good but also inviting extremists to come and speak? That’s where a lot of elected officials are in a tricky spot. If they disagree, the local group can accuse them of Hinduphobia.

Hindus have to speak up. Today only 40% of Indian American Hindus agree that Hindu majoritarianism is threatening India, which means 60% believe it’s a good thing or are indifferent.

That’s why my group was started. Aligning with Hindu nationalism isn’t the only way to be Hindu.  We are up against decades of community organized groups that have been working with city governments.

Sanchez: You mention “Hinduphobia,” and that it’s been weaponized by Hindu nationalists in the U.S. Would you go into more detail?

Mandalaparthy:  There’s a real power in the American context when it comes to centering victimization as a core power of your identity and experience. Hindu Americans after 9/11 have seen the rise of Islamophobia in the U.S. For a community that’s similar in size, there’s a deep sense of insecurity and almost envy that Muslims have made victimization their narrative — that they all face discrimination and are under attack. Hindus also see how conservative members of the Jewish community have been able to rally around antisemitism and gain a powerful voice.

But it’s critical to understand who is using these terms and ask whether they are actually coming from persecuted communities. The term is now used to silence any critique of Hindu nationalism and those who speak out against the Hindu right. Any criticism of the Indian government or Modi’s party or ideology is called hate speech against Hinduism. So that is the troubling weaponization of this term. It’s not to say that Hinduphobia doesn’t exist. but that’s not what is happening in the U,S.

Sanchez: To clarify, discrimination against Hindus does exist, correct?

Mandalaparthy: Absolutely. Hindus face discrimination around the world on two different levels. One level is what you see in countries bordering India: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan ,where there is state sponsored discrimination, forced conversion and the destruction of temples.

The other level is what Hindus like me face in the U.S., being a racial minority, facing racism and xenophia. But there’s a wide world between these two experiences. What Hinduphobia does is conflate the two and say this is the experience of being a Hindu.

What’s the harm? It overexaggerates what being a Hindu American is like. I’m not facing the same kind of discrimination. It does a disservice to those actually facing religious discrimination.

Sanchez: You also suggest this conflation of the Hindu faith and Hindu nationalism is playing out on U.S. college campuses?

Mandalaparthy: Hindu nationalists have invested in creating a national network on campuses. It’s called the Hindu Students Council. It has a strong appeal to younger Indian Americans looking for an identity, looking for campus groups where they can celebrate Diwali and other Hindu traditions.

But the Hindu Students Council is not benign. This group has very close ties to many Hindu nationalist groups in this country. They are organizing screenings of divisive films and discussing Hindu persecution as an argument for Islamophobia. These are the kinds of conversations they are sparking.

I know several members of these groups who didn’t know this connection when they joined. Once they realized this, they disaffiliated from the national organization and started their own different group.

Sanchez: Why should Americans who are neither Indian nor Hindu care about any of this?

Mandalaparthy: Most Americans know something about religious nationalism, especially seeing what’s happened in this country, in the U.S., over the last few years. Hindu nationalism has been ravaging India’s pluralistic secular democracy. The country is being threatened by really violent, extremist ideas of who belongs, who is a true Indian and all of this is being decided through a lens of hard extremist religious nationalism. 

And so many of the freedoms that we in the U.S. hold dear — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of expression — these are under threat in India right now under a Hindu nationalist government.

Jody Hassett Sanchez, director of Pointy Shoe Productions, is a documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Washington, D.C. She previously covered religion, culture and education for ABC’s World News Tonight and Nightline. Jody also worked as CNN’s State Department producer and was senior producer of CNN’s Cold War Postscript series.