From pride to radicalization: How Hindutva extremism reshapes India’s diaspora 

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — As India observes Diaspora Day on Friday, the celebration arrives shadowed by an uncomfortable reality.

For decades, the Indian diaspora symbolized migration success. Engineers in Silicon Valley, doctors in the United Kingdom, entrepreneurs in Canada, professionals across Europe, and Australia brought laurels.

Since 2014, that image has steadily eroded.

Following the rise of a Hindu nationalist government in New Delhi, sections of India’s diaspora have become deeply radicalized. What was once cultural pride has, in many cases, turned into an organized vehicle for Hindutva-based hate politics, majoritarian supremacy, and ideological extremism across Western democracies.

Rather than acting as bridges between societies, parts of the diaspora now lobby lawmakers, fund political networks, amplify Islamophobia, and export a form of civilizational nationalism closely aligned with the ruling ideology of Narendra Modi.

This transformation has reshaped diaspora politics from the inside out.

Traditionally, overseas Indian organizations revolved around language, religion, festivals, and professional networking. Temples, alumni groups, cultural associations, and charities formed the backbone of diaspora life.

After 2014, many of these spaces became politicized.

Cultural events increasingly began to mirror India’s domestic political conflicts. Images of Indian leaders appeared alongside religious symbols. Policy debates from New Delhi were reproduced abroad. Expressions of loyalty to India became inseparable from ideological alignment with Hindutva.

Ashok Swain, professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University, describes the shift as a fundamental rupture.

“Over the past decade, especially after Narendra Modi came to power, parts of the Indian diaspora have become far more politically mobilized and polarized,” he says.

“Earlier, diaspora engagement was largely about culture, business, or soft advocacy for India. With Hindutva becoming the guiding ideology of the Indian state, many diaspora networks began actively defending the government, amplifying nationalist narratives, and framing criticism of India as anti-Indian or anti-Hindu.”

According to Swain, this mobilization has come at a cost.

“Diaspora spaces increasingly turned into arenas where loyalty to the ruling ideology mattered more than democratic debate, and dissenting voices within the community were often marginalized or attacked,” he says.

Money, influence and the RSS ecosystem

The Indian diaspora’s financial power has played a central role in this transformation.

Through donations and organized fundraising, overseas Indians send millions of dollars each year to causes connected to India. 

While some funding supports humanitarian or development work, concerns have grown over the scale and structure of diaspora links to organizations aligned with the ultra-Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS.

Investigative reports have found that seven Sangh-affiliated charitable groups in the United States spent at least $158.9 million between 2001 and 2019, with large sums sent to organizations operating in India.

Swain says the influence extends well beyond money.

“What we see is a broad and sustained ecosystem rather than a single funding pipeline,” he explains. “Diaspora organizations often raise money for charity, education, or development projects, but many of these activities operate in close proximity to organizations linked to the RSS.”

They also provide political legitimacy.

“They host speakers, normalize ideological narratives, and lobby politicians in Western countries while presenting themselves as representatives of the Indian community as a whole,” Swain says. “This combination of funding, access, and narrative control has helped reinforce majoritarian politics in India without always appearing overtly political abroad.”

Howdy Modi and mainstreaming of extremism

Few moments symbolized this shift more clearly than the mass diaspora rallies celebrating Modi abroad.

Events such as “Howdy Modi” in the United States were framed as cultural showcases. In reality, they marked the global mainstreaming of Hindutva politics. Stadium-sized crowds, nationalist slogans, and political messaging transformed diaspora pride into a platform for ideological mobilization.

These events also laid bare a growing alliance with Western far-right politics.

During the presidency of Donald Trump, sections of the Indian diaspora launched campaigns such as “Hindus for Trump.” Modi shared a public stage with Trump at a diaspora rally, urging overseas Indians to back him with the slogan “Abki baar, Trump sarkar.”

The message was unmistakable. Hindutva politics abroad had found common cause with exclusionary, supremacist movements in the West.

The ideological export did not stop at speeches.

Symbols associated with state power, punishment, and exclusion in India have increasingly appeared at diaspora events overseas. Bulldozers, widely recognized in India as tools used to demolish Muslim homes, have featured in parades in the United States. In the United Kingdom, Hindu nationalist mobilization has been linked to episodes of communal unrest.

These acts are not symbolic accidents.

They represent the export of a political culture that normalizes intimidation, collective punishment, and exclusion. Diaspora politics, in this sense, does not merely mirror developments in India. It amplifies and legitimizes them abroad.

Digital radicalization and global Islamophobia

Much of this mobilization now unfolds online.

Hindutva-aligned diaspora networks have become aggressive spreaders of Islamophobic content, targeted harassment, and coordinated disinformation campaigns. Digital platforms allow diaspora actors to function as transnational amplifiers of hate, targeting Muslims far beyond India.

Since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, Hindutva supporters online emerged as some of the loudest promoters of the Israeli government’s narrative. While Western societies witnessed mass protests over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, many Indians abroad openly celebrated Israel’s actions on social media and at anti-Palestine rallies.

Indian digital spaces are filled with memes and propaganda framing collective punishment and ethnic cleansing as civilizational defence. Diaspora accounts played a central role in amplifying these narratives.

Swain sees this as part of a broader convergence.

“There has been a visible convergence between some Hindutva-oriented diaspora groups and Western far-right movements,” he says. “This overlap is clearest around Islamophobia, hardline views on immigration, and civilizational nationalism.”

Despite different cultural contexts, he adds, these movements increasingly speak the same language of demographic threat and cultural siege.

Myth of selective victimhood

One of the starkest contradictions within Hindutva-aligned diaspora politics lies in how identity and rights are invoked.

In Western democracies, these groups frequently present themselves as vulnerable minorities demanding constitutional protection. Yet many of the same actors openly support or justify the persecution of minorities in India, including Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and dissenting Hindus.

“The contradiction between demanding minority protections in Western democracies while supporting majoritarian politics in India becomes clearer when seen through power rather than principle,” Swain says.

“In Western countries, diaspora groups seek minority rights because they face discrimination and exclusion. In India, some of the same actors endorse majoritarian rule because it places their preferred identity in a dominant position.”

Rights, he argues, become conditional rather than universal.

Reckoning on Diaspora Day

As Diaspora Day is observed on Friday, the moment demands more than celebration.

The Indian diaspora is no longer a passive extension of its homeland. It has become a powerful political actor, shaping narratives, funding ideological movements and influencing democratic discourse across borders.

Whether it continues to function as a vehicle for Hindutva-based extremism or confronts the damage caused by exporting hate politics remains an open question. What is no longer in doubt is that post-2014 diaspora radicalization has already left a deep imprint, both abroad and in India itself.