The Narendra Modi government frequently posits India as a ‘Vishwaguru’ or world leader. How the world really sees India is often lost in this branding exercise.
Outside India, global voices are monitoring and critiquing human rights violations in India and the rise of Hindutva. We present here fortnightly highlights of what a range of actors – from UN experts and civil society groups to international media and parliamentarians of many countries – are saying about the state of India’s democracy.
Read this fortnightly roundup for February 1-15, 2024.
International media reports
The Intercept, USA, February 1
An investigative report reveals how Bhavini Patel, a local politician in Pennsylvania, is mobilizing right-wing Hindu groups and pro-Israel Jewish organisations to “take down the progressive Squad” within the Democratic Party.
The Progressive Magazine, Madison (Wisconsin), USA, February 7
Safa Ahmed writes about the threats to democracy emanating from the “growing convergence between white supremacy and Hindu supremacy”, and the spread of Hindu nationalist groups through overseas branches in the US.
The Guardian, London, February 8
In an opinion piece, Yohann Koshy says the violence in Leicester in September 2022 was the first “large-scale violent enmity” between Hindus and Muslims in the city’s history; a sign to many that “India’s often violent, sectarian politics were playing out on Britain’s streets”.
Experts say
The Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide [Washington DC, February 2024] highlights alarming trends of discrimination and the potential for mass atrocities against religious minorities in India.
A joint investigation by Global Witness and the Internet Freedom Foundation [US and India, February 1] reveals that two tech platforms -YouTube and Koo- are “failing to act” on complaints against hate speech on their platforms against women and marginalised groups, “enabling a toxic information ecosystem in a critical election year”.
Amnesty International [London, February 7] has released a report and briefing paper on “bulldozer injustice in India” which is targeting Indian Muslims. The report analyses demolitions of 128 Muslim properties in five states “instigated by senior political leaders and government officials”; the paper calls out the company providing the bulldozers for “misuse of their machines in punitive demolitions of Muslim peoples’ properties”.
Genocide experts and scholars across the world has written a letter [many countries, February 7] to President Droupadi Murmu expressing their “utmost concern” that India’s proposals for development projects on India’s Great Nicobar Island threaten “genocide” of the island’s indigenous Shompen people.
Indian diaspora groups protest
Savera, a US-based diaspora coalition of civil rights groups, has published [USA, February 2] a comprehensive report on the genesis and growth of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), in both India and America (the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America), “arguably its two largest and most politically significant chapters”.
The report has been publicised (here and here) following its publication.