Demonstrators gathered outside Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday to protest against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a far-right Indian paramilitary Hindu nationalist organization with close ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The leader of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, was holding a rally inside the arena to launch a global speaking tour marking the 100th anniversary of the RSS.
The RSS’s “explicitly stated mission, its purpose, is to create a Hindu Rashtra, a Hindu nation — to take the India that is a secular and inclusive democracy and transform it into a country that is just for Hindus, where Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and other minorities are basically erased,” says Sunita Vishwanath, co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights Action. ”RSS affiliates, these Hindu right-wing organizations, exist in growing numbers in the diaspora, especially in America.”
“In 1939, [Madison Square Garden] hosted a Nazi rally with swastikas hung from the banners
around a portrait of George Washington. They said they wouldn’t do something like that again, and yet here they were hosting Mohan Bhagwat, spouting a similar fascist ideology,” says Brad Lander, a Democratic nominee for Congress from New York City, who joined Saturday’s protest.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Democracy Now! | Radio Free (2026-09-02T12:49:20+00:00) “Stand Up for Multifaith Democracy”: U.S. Activists, Lawmakers Protest India’s RSS & Hindu Supremacy. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2026/09/02/stand-up-for-multifaith-democracy-u-s-activists-lawmakers-protest-indias-rss-hindu-supremacy-2/
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