Is it true that “every” American Hindu politician faces “bigoted attacks”? “Outside forces have done things,” complained (now former) Michigan State Representative Padma Kuppa in a July 2022 interview with the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) about her experience running for office. “A man by the name of Pieter Friedrich published an advertisement with lots of propaganda about where my money[Read More…]
City council unanimously rescinds proclamation for Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh The City of Manteca, California made history on 3 August 2022 when it unanimously voted to rescind a proclamation it had issued to the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) following controversy that erupted the previous month over HSS’s ties to India’s Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh paramilitary. The special meeting, which included[Read More…]
It is no coincidence that a wave of schools in Karnataka suddenly began banning students from wearing hijab at the exact same time that the state government was passing a so-called “anti-conversion” law to criminalize freedom of religion. About the hijab ban, we might well ask: what’s next? Will beards be banned? Will the Sikh dastar be done away with?[Read More…]
From politicians to academics, Americans who speak against Hindutva face harsh backlash, protests, and violent threats. When US Senator and then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders criticized then President Donald Trump’s “failure of leadership on human rights” for having dismissed the issue of the February 2020 anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi as “up to India,” it was not long before a senior leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya[Read More…]
PF: Hi, this is Pieter Friedrich, and today I’m speaking with Dr. John Dayal. Dr. John Dayal, who is 74, is a former newspaper editor, a researcher and author, and one of India’s senior human rights and freedom of faith activists. We are going to be discussing the issue of persecuted Christians in India. So, thank you for joining me, Dr.[Read More…]
Today is the third day of my seven-day hunger-strike for the persecuted Christians of India. It has now been over 60 hours since I ate anything. CLICK TO VIEW ON YOUTUBE One thing that makes the situation of persecuted Indian Christians particularly unique is that they live in the only democracy in the world — in fact, aside from China,[Read More…]
Today is the second day of my seven-day hunger-strike for the persecuted Christians of India. As I said yesterday, 2021 was the most violent year on record for Indian Christians. In total, they suffered nearly 500 attacks — more than one every day. That’s almost four times as many attacks on Christians as were reported in 2014, the first[Read More…]
On 15 December 2021, I continued my “HSS is RSS” tour by speaking in respectful rebuke at the Roseville, CA City Council meeting for their recent platforming and honoring of a local branch of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), the international wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). This speech marked my fourth city council appearance in three states in two[Read More…]
American Enterprise Institute fellow spins conspiracy theory about my criticism of Hindu nationalism When I woke on the morning of 7 December 2021 to discover that right-wing think-tank American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Senior Fellow, Dr. Michael Rubin, had published a blistering attack on me, I was soon honored to learn that Rubin is a “neocon luminary” — that is, one of those[Read More…]
A team of Congressman Tom McClintock’s constituents visited him on 8 November to register dissent against US Ambassador Atul Keshap’s recent meeting with the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a paramilitary with a violent and powerful presence in India. McClintock, a Republican from the Greater Sacramento area of California, spent the better part of an hour hearing the group’s[Read More…]
Speech against Irving Police Department’s honoring of RSS’s international wing After the City of Irving, Texas’s Police Department welcomed and honored a local branch of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, the international wing of India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) paramilitary, on 21 September, I attended the very next city council meeting to explain how and why that sent a chilling message[Read More…]
“My constituents have raised concerns about our country fostering a relationship with the RSS and its leaders given the group’s painful history of violence and destruction,” wrote US Congressman David Trone (Democrat-Maryland) to immediate-past Acting Ambassador to India Atul Keshap on 30 September. Trone’s letter follows weeks of swirling controversy provoked by Keshap’s 8 September meeting with the chief of the Rashtriya[Read More…]
Ambassador Atul Keshap’s meet with RSS’s Mohan Bhagwat “sent a terrible message,” says HRW’s Asia Advocacy Director “Meeting with the head of a paramilitary, ideologically-driven organization that promotes extraordinarily racist and, some might say, even autocratic ideas, is highly troubling,” declared Human Rights Watch’s Asia Advocacy Director John Sifton in regards to US Ambassador Atul Keshap’s 8 September 2021 meeting[Read More…]
Imam Malik Mujahid (IMM): US Ambassador Atul Keshap is a temporary ambassador to India. He is Indian–American. He has met the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — RSS, that is — its chief, Bhagwat. That’s a serious issue, but it seems to have not created any noise in America. It’s like American ambassador in Germany meeting Hitler before he came into power. But[Read More…]
Letter issued to Democratic National Committee to repudiate Hindu American Foundation’s attacks I am humbled and deeply touched by the outpouring of support as eight South Asian groups have issued a letter to Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez in support of me in repudiation of a letter attacking me which Hindu American Foundation had sent to Perez in September[Read More…]
US leadership of India’s fascist movement backs Texas Democrat In August 2019, Congressman Khanna charted a new course for the Indian-American diaspora when he commented on reportage about Tulsi Gabbard’s RSS links, stating: “It’s the duty of every American politician of Hindu faith to stand for pluralism, reject Hindutva, and speak for equal rights for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist, and Christians.”[Read More…]
Yesterday, the 20th of December, marked the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s release from prison after a failed attempt to seize power. While he was behind bars, he wrote his manifesto. After he was released, Hitler published Mein Kampf in 1925. In the same year, the RSS — a fascist paramilitary — was founded in India with the goal of establishing[Read More…]
When Nazi Germany passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, they made it illegal for non-Germans to be citizens. Germans to prove that they had Aryan ancestry. India’s Citizenship Amendment Bill mirrors those Nazi laws. Instead of segregating people by genetics, it segregates them by religion. It makes religion the basis for citizenship. CAB is only the latest in a line[Read More…]
On September 17, 2019, I attended the Houston City Council meeting to speak against the upcoming “Howdy Modi” event and urge city officials to decline participation. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be visiting Houston, TX on September 22 for a mega-rally dubbed “Howdy Modi.” City leaders, including Mayor Sylvester Turner,[Read More…]
When I was a child, I used to watch these films. Films about an evil force that rose to power and swept across Europe. Films about wicked and powerful men who believed that they were better than everyone else. Films about armies invading and occupying. Films about soldiers patrolling the streets and demanding: “Ihre Papiere, Bitte” — Your Papers, Please.[Read More…]
Terror grips the most militarized zone in the world after India’s Central Government terminated Jammu and Kashmir’s 70-year-old “special status” as the first step towards stripping the disputed region of statehood entirely. Internationally infamous as the world’s hottest potential nuclear flashpoint, J&K originally acceded to India in 1947 only on the condition that the newly-formed country be restricted from interfering[Read More…]
Following his official visit to Indian organization revering Nazi ideology, 2500 sign petition to recall Germay’s ambassador in New Delhi Amid international media fallout after German Ambassador Walter Lindner’s 17 July 2019 visit to the headquarters of the RSS — a volunteer organization that has enshrined Nazi and Italian fascist ideology — calls are increasing for Lindner to resign. In[Read More…]
“In the west, we have labels,” commented journalist François Gautier on WION TV, during a panel about the results of India’s 2019 general election. “Right, left. Far-right, far-left. We keep applying them to India, where they’re not applicable. We cannot apply to India labels we use in the West. To say that the BJP is far-right is completely wrong.” The[Read More…]
India is having its first national election in five years. Partisanship in India is no better than in the United States. Probably much worse. Political party choices polarize families, friends, and whole communities and every election season can be a very divisive time. No wonder then that the U.S.’s nearly 4.5 million Indian-Americans watch India’s elections with sharp eyes. A[Read More…]
White Nationalist Terrorism “I have read the writings of Dylan Roof and many others, but only really took true inspiration from Knight Justiciar Breivik,” says Brenton Tarrant, the 28-year-old white Australian terrorist who gunned down 50 Muslims in New Zealand on March 15, 2019. Roof is the white man who gunned down nine black Christians in South Carolina on June[Read More…]
While the bodies of the 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troops who died in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Valentine’s Day are only just now being laid to rest, unrest prevails throughout the Indian subcontinent in the wake of the deadliest attack on Indian security forces in the world’s hottest nuclear flashpoint in 30 years. Sabers[Read More…]
In early September 2018, I spent four days in the Chicago, Illinois region in order to protest the World Hindu Congress (WHC). Here’s why. On September 6, I participated in a panel at the University of Chicago which formed to “Stop Hindu Fascism.” On September 7, I was honored to be invited to join a delegation which visited U.S. Congressman[Read More…]
Our Global Water Crisis 
3.5 Million March Across France Opposing Macron’s Pension Reform 
Election Commission of India must question the presence political nominees on BEL’s and ECIL’s Boards 
Ihan Omar Introduces Legislation to Combat Islamophobia 
Narendra Modi’s Cricket Coup 
The Big Picture And The Small 
Prophesies, Then and Now – My Life at World’s End 
How the Cuban Government and Its People Collaborated on the Family Code 
Stop Criminalizing Journalism and Human Rights Activism: Release Irfan Mehraj and Parvez Khurram 
Politics of Bhagat Singh’s trial 
The Tragedy of Footpaths: Impressions of a Pedestrian in Bangalore 
Altruism exists in nature, Reciprocal altruism in humans 
U.S. Trying To Cover Up Its Role In Nord Stream Sabotage, Says Seymour Hersh 
Open Letter To Rahul Gandhi, Indian National Congress Party 
Future Scenarios in Ukraine 
West Sends Depleted Uranium Weapons to Ukraine: MEP to Warmongers – “You Make Me Sick!” 
Sri Lanka’s unconvincing response to Universal Periodic Review’s forthright findings 
Kisan Mahapanchayat stages massive rally in Delhi 
The betrayers of Julian Assange 
The Truth About Our Failure to Curb Carbon Emissions 
They’re liars, Mexico’s President on U.S. 
Grameena Pedala Sangham, Telangana State conference, is an important mile-stone 
Imperial Visits: US Emissaries in the Pacific Enough is enough. Restore parliament 
Disgrace at the New York Times 
‘Israel is (Not) Back to Africa’: How African Countries are Challenging Israeli Plot on the Continent 
A Highway to Peace or a Highway to Hell? The Vast Power of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex 
Accelerating Change on United Nations World Water Day 2023 
Defence Daredevilry 
Selling One’s Soul – The betrayal of Christ and Constitution 
Climate Crisis Has Caused Increasingly Irreversible Losses, Says UN Report 
Yarrow Mamout Masjid Dedicated at Georgetown University 
Adolf Hitler, Carl Orff & Sophie Scholl 
Algeria’s Gas vs. Rightwing Ideology: Will Italy Change Its Position on Jerusalem? 
From Balloons to AUKUS: The War Drive Against China 
Paul Keating’s criticism of Australia’s AUKUS deal is damming but not “astonishing”, – in fact, timely! 
In memory of 20th anniversary of the Iraq War 
CBI investigation against Harsh Mandar’s NGO is nothing but travesty of justice 
Concept of Gram Swaraj (‘Village Self-Reliance’) and Its Increasing Relevance for Our Times Indian Democracy & Chaos in Parliament! 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
