{{Short description|American Hindutva organization}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}} {{Infobox organization | name = Hindu American Foundation | full_name = | image = HAF_Logo_2019_color.svg | image_size = | purpose = Promotion of Hindutva | abbreviation = HAF | formation = {{start date and age|2003|09|22}} | founders = Sanjay Garg, Nikhil Joshi, Mihir Meghani, Nagendra Rao, Aseem Shukla | headquarters = 910 17th St NW Washington, D.C.{{Cn|date=March 2026}} | location = | region_served = United States | status = 501(c)(3) non-profit | tax_id = 68-0551525<ref name="guidestar">{{cite web |title=Hindu American Foundation Guidestar Profile |url=https://www.guidestar.org/profile/68-0551525 |website=Guidestar |access-date=6 January 2019 }}</ref> | leader_title = Executive Director | leader_name = Suhag Shukla | affiliations = Sangh Parivar | website = {{URL|https://www.hinduamerican.org}} }}
The '''Hindu American Foundation''' ({{Small|abbr.}} {{Abbr|'''HAF'''|Hindu American Foundation}}) is an American non-profit Hindutva advocacy organization founded in 2003. The organisation has its roots in the Sangh Parivar, a collection of Hindutva organisation led by the paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and more specifically in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad America and its student wing Hindu Students Council.
The HAF's activism aligns with the Hindu nationalist ideology of Hindutva, alongside impinging on academic freedom. The organization alleges that its advocacy focuses on protecting rights of Hindus in the United States, drawing attention to Hindu persecution abroad, pushing back against the cultural appropriation of yoga, and opposition to laws prohibiting caste-based discrimination. However, these efforts largely function as an attempt to rebrand Hindutva as "Hindu rights" in order to better suit the mainstream politics of multiculturalism in the United States.
== Establishment == The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) was founded in September 2003 by Mihir Meghani, an emergency care physician; Aseem Shukla, an associate professor in urologic surgery; his wife, Suhag Shukla, an attorney; Nikhil Joshi, a labor law attorney; and his wife, Adeeti Joshi, a speech therapist.<ref> {{cite news |author=Melwani |first=Lavina |date=April 2009 |title=Meet the Young Hindu American Foundation |url=https://www.hinduismtoday.com/magazine/april-may-june-2009/2009-04-meet-the-young-hindu-american-foundation/ |newspaper=Hinduism Today}}</ref> Describing itself as a human rights and advocacy group, it emphasized upon the "Hindu and American ideals of understanding, tolerance and pluralism".{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2007|p=159}} Vinay Lal, a professor of South Asian history at the University of California, Los Angeles noted that the organization appeared to have banked on the enormous goodwill created by Mahatma Gandhi in the West.{{sfn|Vinay Lal|2012|p=123}}
Previously, in 1991, Meghani had founded the University of Michigan's chapter of the Hindu Students Council (HSC), a nationwide network of student societies affiliated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad America (VHPA).{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2007|pp=145-146}} He went on to serve on the governing council of VHPA and authored an essay for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP){{Efn|Meghani critiqued the "denigrations of Hindu traditions" and "pseudo-secularism" practiced by the Indian National Congress and went on to warn Muslims about the need of adjusting to a Hindutva-ized Bharat. Meghani claims to have changed his views on the subject in the years since publication; the essay was, apparently, a part of his academic coursework and he professes ignorance about how it came to the BJP.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McDermott |first=Mat |date=2021-05-27 |title=Letter to the Editor of India Abroad from Mihir Meghani, April 2006 |url=https://www.hinduamerican.org/blog/letter-to-editor-india-abroad-mihir-meghani-april-2006 |website=Hindu American Foundation }}</ref>}} comparing Hindus, a religious majority in India, with Jews, Black Americans, and colonized groups, whose bottled-up anger, for over a millennium, allegedly found a channel of outburst in the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the demolition of the Babri Masjid.<ref name="Frontline"> {{Cite news |author1=Raqib Hameed Naik |author2=Divya Trivedi |date=16 July 2021 |title=Sangh Parivar's U.S. funds trail |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/sangh-parivars-us-funds-trail/article35117629.ece |newspaper=Frontline}} </ref>{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2007|pp=145-146}}{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2007a}}{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2007|p=145}}
Coalition Against Genocide (CAG), a platform established in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots against Hindu nationalist violence directed at Muslims,<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Kurien |first=Prema |date=26 July 2016 |title=Majority versus minority religious status and diasporic nationalism: Indian American advocacy organisations: Majority versus minority religious status and diasporic nationalism |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nana.12255 |journal=Nations and Nationalism |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=109–128 |doi=10.1111/nana.12255|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}} stated that the formation of the HAF has been the outcome of Meghani's parleys on the governing council of the VHPA and an effort to rebrand the Hindutva agenda{{Efn|Hindutva is the term used for the strand of Hindu nationalism in the present day context, which covers the present ruling party of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party, its parent organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and dozens of affiliated organisations that are collectively termed the Sangh Parivar.}} as "Hindu rights" to suit mainstream American politics.<ref name="Hindu rights"> {{harvp|Coalition Against Genocide|2013|loc=Sec. 2}}: 'With the VHP-A led by first-generation immigrants who are unable to penetrate the mainstream American political framework, Meghani's creation of the HAF provided a hitherto unavailable opportunity to bridge the gap between the Hindutva agenda and mainstream American politics. By situating the HAF's work within a framework of American multiculturalism, Meghani effectively gained the ability to push the VHP-A's Hindutva agenda as an issue of "Hindu rights".' </ref> They further note most of the HAF office bearers to have been drawn from HSC activists.{{sfn|Coalition Against Genocide|2013|loc=Sec. 2: "[Meghani's] trajectory as a "second generation" leader of the U.S. Sangh is also notable for the fact that Meghani utilized a rich crop of young Sangh activists like himself to build the HAF. Meghani's team of volunteers/staff who went on to become the founding leadership of the HAF (and continue to be its leaders today) are largely drawn from within the ranks of those placed exactly like him, individuals with established credentials as members of one or another American Sangh organization or initiative. Thus Rishi Bhutada came out of the HSC at University of Pennsylvania, Sheetal Shah served as the Southeast Regional Coordinator for the HSC, Suhag Shukla was active with organizing HSC's regional conferences in the same region, Kavitha Pallod out of the VHP-A’s American Hindu Youth Camp, Padma Kuppa with the VHP-A's Hindu Temple Executive Council, and Ramesh Rao with the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), a fund-raising arm of the VHP-A."}} The HAF rejected that their founders had any ties with Hindu Nationalist politics and accused CAG's "leaders and member organisations" of "espousing Marxist ideology or fringe Islamist positions, openly advocating anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-India views".{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}}
== Activism == The HAF was the first American Hindu advocacy organization to have a professional organizational structure as well as full-time staff and is widely considered to be the most prominent organization in the Hindu advocacy field.<ref name="NYT">{{cite news |date=27 November 2010 |title=Hindu Group Stirs a Debate Over Yoga's Soul |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/nyregion/28yoga.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&sq=yoga&st=cse&scp=2 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}} The organization was heavily aided by Jewish advocacy groups during its development; it continues to work with the Anti-Defamation League.<ref>{{Cite news |author=Niraj Sheth |title=Jews, Hindus in Bay Area discover common ground |newspaper=East Bay Times |date=2007-08-20 |url=https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2007/08/20/jews-hindus-in-bay-area-discover-common-ground/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Gopalan |first=Aparna |title=The Hindu Nationalists Using the Pro-Israel Playbook |newspaper=Jewish Currents |date=28 June 2023 |url=https://jewishcurrents.org/the-hindu-nationalists-using-the-pro-israel-playbook}}</ref>
=== Highlighting Hindu persecution === During 2004–05, the organization held events to educate legislators about issues of concern to Hindu Americans. These included the abuse of Hindus in the Muslim-majority regions of South Asia, including Kashmir, Bangladesh and Pakistan;{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2007a}} since then, they have continued to publish regular "Hindu Human Rights" reports.{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}} The HAF critiqued Pakistan's treatment of Hindus and advocated for better assimilation and integration of Pakistani Hindu migrants and refugees in India.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Raheja |first=Natasha |date=1 September 2018 |title=Neither Here nor There: Pakistani Hindu Refugee Claims at the Interface of the International and South Asian Refugee Regimes |url=https://academic.oup.com/jrs/article/31/3/334/4922733 |journal=Journal of Refugee Studies |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=334–352 |doi=10.1093/jrs/fey013 |issn=0951-6328|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The organization also supported strong ties between India, Israel, and the US to create an axis of countries against Islamic terrorism.{{sfn|Vinay Lal|2012|p=122}}
=== Advocacy for Hindu rights in the United States === In 2004, the HAF unsuccessfully challenged the public display of the Ten Commandments in Texas, appearing as amici curiae in ''Van Orden v. Perry'' in the United States Supreme Court; they argued that the display represented an "inherent government preference" for Judeo-Christian religions over others and hence, violated the state's obligation to maintain religious neutrality.{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2007|p=1}}{{sfn|Vinay Lal|2012|pp=122-123}} In 2008, the HAF, along with a coalition of other religious groups, filed a lawsuit and blocked the issuance of Christian-themed license plates in South Carolina.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Lawsuit filed over 'I Believe' plates in S.C. |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna25270095 |newspaper=NBC News |date=2008-06-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Jon Hood |title=Religious License Plate Banned in South Carolina |newspaper=Consumer Affairs |date=5 November 2009 |url=https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/11/sc_plates.html}}</ref>
In 2015, as a part of the Hate Crimes Coalition, the HAF participated in the drafting and submission of edits to an FBI manual to track hate crimes against Hindus specifically.<ref>{{cite news |author=Sunita Sohrabji |title=FBI Adds Hindus, Sikhs to New Hate Crime Tracking Manual |newspaper=IndiaWest |date=26 March 2015 |url=https://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/fbi-adds-hindus-sikhs-to-new-hate-crime-tracking-manual/article_a092d0ca-d412-11e4-ba4e-e73a618932a6.html |archive-date=11 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181111134012/https://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/fbi-adds-hindus-sikhs-to-new-hate-crime-tracking-manual/article_a092d0ca-d412-11e4-ba4e-e73a618932a6.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> However, scholar Azad Essa has stated that the HAF has exaggerated the hate crimes faced by Hindus in America.<ref name=":15">{{Cite book |last=Essa |first=Azad |title=Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel |publisher=Pluto Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-0-7453-4505-5 |jstor=jj.168341}}</ref> Essa found the HAF's alarmist statements about a "rise" in Hinduphobic hate crimes in 2019 to not correspond with reality — out of the 7,120 hate crimes which were reported to the FBI in 2018, only fourteen concerned Hindus; the years before, this count was stable at eleven and ten.<ref name=":15" />
In 2016, the HAF along with Indiaspora and other organizations convinced the United States Postal Service to issue a stamp commemorating the festival of Diwali.<ref> {{cite news |date=23 August 2016 |title=Diwali stamp to be released by the United States Postal Service on 5 October |url=https://www.americanbazaaronline.com/2016/08/23/diwali-stamp-to-be-released-by-the-united-states-postal-service-on-october-5416558/ |newspaper=American Bazaar}}</ref>
=== Pro-India advocacy === In 2002, Gujarat witnessed a communal riot against Muslims under the Chief Ministership of Narendra Modi; the incumbent government, have been widely blamed for active complicity.<ref>{{Cite book |author1=Hermann Kulke |author2=Dietmar Rothermund |chapter=The Republic |title=A History of India |date=2016 |edition=6 |pages=287 |doi=10.4324/9781315628806-8 |isbn=978-1-315-62880-6 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781315628806-8/republic-hermann-kulke-dietmar-rothermund |publisher=Routledge}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author1=Kenneth Bo Nielsen |author2=Alf Gunvald Nilsen |chapter=Hindu nationalist statecraft and Modi's authoritarian populism |title=Routledge Handbook of Autocratization in South Asia |publisher=Routledge |date=2021 |pages=99 |doi=10.4324/9781003042211-10 |isbn=978-1-003-04221-1|s2cid=245165294 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=R. Santhosh |chapter=Muslims in Contemporary India |editor=Knut A. Jacobsen |title=Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India |pages=393 |publisher=Routledge |date=2015 |doi=10.4324/9781315682570-31 |isbn=978-1-315-68257-0 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781317403586/chapters/10.4324/9781315682570-31}}</ref> In 2005, when the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association invited Modi for an address, activists, including '''John Prabhudoss''', lobbied the United States Congress to introduce a resolution criticizing him for his role in those riots.{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}} Joseph Pitts and John Conyers introduced House Resolution 160 to such effects.<ref>{{Cite web |title=IMC-USA applauds Congressional Resolution condemning persecution by Modi |publisher=IAMC |url=https://iamc.com/imc-usa_applauds_congressional_resolution_condemning_persecution_by_modi/ |access-date=2023-08-15}}</ref> The HAF opposed this resolution, deeming it "Hinduphobic" and criticizing the Congressmen for making India the "focus of a resolution condemning religious persecution in South Asia" while ignoring Pakistan and Bangladesh.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-08-24 |title=Hindu American Foundation Condemns Hinduphobic Resolution in House of Representatives |publisher=Hindu American Foundation |url=http://www.hinduamericanfoundation.org/media_press_release_pitts.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824040612/http://www.hinduamericanfoundation.org/media_press_release_pitts.htm |archive-date=2007-08-24}}</ref>{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}} Nonetheless, the State Department denied Modi a visa two days after the bill was introduced.{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Janmohamed |first=Zahir |title=U.S. Evangelicals, Indian Expats Teamed Up to Push Through Modi Visa Ban |newspaper=India Ink, New York Times |date=2013-12-05 |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/u-s-evangelicals-indian-expats-teamed-up-to-push-through-modi-visa-ban/ }}</ref>{{efn|Modi would qualify for a visa and visit the United States only after becoming Prime Minister of India in 2014.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Obama invites Modi to visit U.S. despite past visa ban |work=Reuters |date=2014-05-16 |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-modi-obama-call-idINKBN0DW1NY20140516}}</ref>}}
In 2013, the HAF again opposed a fresh bill by Pitts that commended the 2005 visa denial, encouraged the federal government "to review the applications of any individuals implicated in religious freedom violations under the same standard", and urged for the repealing of anti-conversion laws in several Indian states.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Their Master's Voice In Washington |newspaper=Outlook |date=4 February 2022 |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/their-masters-voice-in-washington/289551 }}</ref> The HAF mounted fresh criticism, arguing that the bill ignored the impact of Islamist and Maoist terrorism in the country, and selectively targeted Hindus; a few Indian activist groups who supported the bill were denounced for supposedly being unpatriotic.{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}}
In 2016, the HAF hosted briefings for legislators about Pakistan’s support for terrorism in Kashmir and raised concern about how US aid might be diverted against India.{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}} In August 2019, after the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, which took away the autonomy of the province and rendered it a union territory, the HAF published a "Reporter’s Guide" which emphasized about how the new regulations would ensure equal property rights for women, protections for the queer community, and better opportunities for Dalits in the region.<ref name=":15" />
In 2025, the HAF was named in a complaint to the Department of Justice, alleging that the HAF operates as an unregistered foreign agent of India's BJP and is in a "fiduciary" relationship with the Indian Embassy in D.C., as per embassy-provided documents.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Murky Relationship Between the Hindu American Foundation and an Indian Embassy |newspaper=Mother Jones |date=2 July 2025 |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/07/hindu-american-foundation-haf-fara-foreign-agent-complaint-doj-adl/ }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=DoJ urged to investigate US group accused of working as Modi-backed 'foreign agent' |newspaper=The Guardian |date=9 June 2025 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/09/sikh-gurdwara-india-modi }}</ref> The HAF dismissed the charges as motivated by "pro-Khalistan" groups.<ref>{{Cite news |title='We receive no money from Indian government': Hindu American Foundation slams allegations, says 'pro-Khalistan' gurdwara filed false complaint |newspaper=Times of India |date=3 July 2025 |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/we-receive-no-money-from-indian-government-hindu-american-foundation-slams-allegations-says-pro-khalistan-gurdwara-filed-false-complaint/articleshow/122233428.cms }}</ref>
=== Anti-conversion laws and Hinduisation === The HAF has been a vocal defender of anti-conversion laws enacted by several Indian states, contending that such statutes shield socioeconomically vulnerable populations which includes children, the poor, and the illiterate from being induced into changing religion in exchange for medical aid, education, or employment.<ref name="LOC anti-conversion">{{Cite web |title=State Anti-conversion Laws in India |publisher=Law Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/anti-conversion-laws/india.php |access-date=25 April 2026}}</ref> In practice, these laws have been used overwhelmingly against Christians and Muslims; the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has documented their role in enabling vigilante attacks on pastors and the arbitrary detention of religious minorities.<ref>{{Cite web |title=USCIRF Calls on the U.S. Government to Urge Indian Officials to Hold Perpetrators of Targeted Violence Accountable |publisher=United States Commission on International Religious Freedom |date=February 2026 |url=https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statements/religious-minorities-india-suffer-escalating-attacks}}</ref>
Critics have accused the HAF of asymmetric advocacy on the issue of conversion. Writing in ''Byline Times'', columnist CJ Werleman noted that while the HAF actively promotes anti-conversion legislation in India, it has remained silent on forced conversions ''to'' Hinduism and on the "Hinduisation" or ''ghar wapasi'' (homecoming) campaigns conducted by affiliates of the Sangh Parivar, in which Christians and Muslims are pressured or coerced into adopting Hinduism.<ref name="Byline">{{Cite news |author=CJ Werleman |title=Under the Radar: How the Hindutva Lobbying Campaign Has Extended to the US |newspaper=Byline Times |date=21 October 2021 |url=https://bylinetimes.com/2021/10/21/under-the-radar-how-the-hindutva-lobbying-campaign-has-extended-to-the-us/}}</ref>
In November 2013, a bipartisan group of fourteen U.S. Representatives introduced House Resolution 417, which praised India's religious diversity but urged the Indian government to act against violence directed at religious minorities, criticised Narendra Modi's role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, and called for the repealing of state anti-conversion laws.<ref name="Savera">{{Cite report |author=Savera |title=HAF Way to Supremacy: How the Hindu American Foundation Rebrands Bigotry as Minority Rights |publisher=Political Research Associates |date=15 October 2024 |url=https://politicalresearch.org/2024/10/15/haf-way-supremacy}}</ref> The HAF mobilised against the resolution, lobbying every co-sponsoring office and pressuring several lawmakers to withdraw their support; a Congressional staffer told a journalist that the HAF was working to undermine the bill, and the resolution ultimately stalled.<ref name="Savera" /><ref name="Harpers">{{Cite news |author=Andrew Cockburn |title=The Hindutva Lobby: How Hindu nationalism spreads in America |magazine=Harper's Magazine |date=18 September 2024 |url=https://harpers.org/archive/2024/10/the-hindutva-lobby-hindu-nationalism-america-andrew-cockburn/}}</ref>
Investigations into the HAF's role within the broader U.S.-based Hindutva network have characterised the organisation as part of a movement that seeks to relegate Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits, and Adivasis to a subordinate status in India.<ref name="Savera" /><ref>{{Cite news |author=Simi Kadirgamar |title=Hindu American Foundation accused of weaponizing victimhood |newspaper=Prism |date=9 December 2024 |url=https://prismreports.org/2024/12/09/hindu-american-foundation-hinduphobia-savera/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |author=Raqib Hameed Naik |title=US-based Indian groups got millions in taxpayer-backed loans |newspaper=Al Jazeera |date=2 April 2021 |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/2/us-based-indian-groups-got-millions-in-taxpayer-backed-loans}}</ref> In its 2013 report, the Coalition Against Genocide described the HAF as part of a constellation of U.S. front organisations for the ideology behind the persecution of Christians, Muslims, Dalits, and other minorities in India, language that the HAF later sued to retract. Adjudicating that suit, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that statements characterising the HAF as supportive of Hindutva were opinions that could not plausibly be alleged to be "verifiably false", and dismissed the action.<ref>{{Cite court |litigants=Hindu American Foundation v. Viswanath |reporter=United States District Court, District of Columbia |opinion=21-cv-01268 |date=20 December 2022 |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-dis-crt-dis-col/2108830.html}}</ref>
The HAF has additionally been criticised for defending actors associated with anti-Christian and anti-Muslim mobilisation in India. The Savera report, summarised in ''Harper's Magazine'' by Andrew Cockburn, documents that HAF leaders have defended Hindu nationalist figures implicated in communal violence and have publicly attacked human rights documentation by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch of abuses against Indian minorities.<ref name="Harpers" /><ref name="Savera" /> Reporting by ''The Intercept'' similarly described the HAF as deterring members of Congress from taking critical positions on India's treatment of religious minorities.<ref>{{Cite news |author=Ryan Grim |author2=Murtaza Hussain |title=Hindu Nationalists Helped Trump's Election. Now They Are Looking for Payback. |newspaper=The Intercept |date=4 March 2020 |url=https://theintercept.com/2020/03/04/india-modi-hindu-nationalism-rss/}}</ref> Audrey Truschke, a historian at Rutgers University, has argued that this pattern reflects the HAF's broader function as an apologist for Hindu majoritarianism rather than a defender of pluralism.<ref name="Truschke Oxford" />
=== ''Take Back Yoga'' campaign === In 2010, the HAF launched the "Take Back Yoga" campaign as a reaction to alleged cultural appropriation and secularization of yoga by popular press and neo-gurus who according to the HAF "abstained from discussing the origins of yoga in Hinduism and corrupted a Hindu philosophical practice to a mere collection of physical postures".<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Meera Nanda |title=Not as Old as You Think |date=12 February 2011 |url=http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/living/not-as-old-as-you-think |magazine=OPEN Magazine |author-link=Meera Nanda}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |author=Farai Chideya |title=Has Yoga Strayed Too Far From Its Hindu Roots? |work=NPR |date=24 March 2011 |url=https://www.npr.org/2011/03/24/134822766/Has-Yoga-Strayed-Too-Far-From-Its-Hindu-Roots}}</ref>{{sfn|Andrea Jain|2014}} Particular emphasis was laid on the Hindu nature of yoga manuals across centuries to corroborate claims of yoga being a Hindu form of spiritual quest.{{sfn|Andrea Jain|2014}}
Andrea Jain, a professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University, located the HAF's claims within a polemical discourse of religious fundamentalism that unwittingly borrowed from and mirrored the West; while the HAF spoke about the inevitable Hinduization of anybody who chooses to practice Yoga in its "true essence", the Christian far-right had denounced Yoga as a satanic act which in their view took practitioners away from Christ into the fold of Brahmins.{{sfn|Andrea Jain|2014}} Furthermore, Jain found the HAF's essentialist discourse on Yoga to be ahistorical; according to him, Yoga was a fluid tradition made and remade by different socio-religious cultures across different times with different connotations.{{sfn|Andrea Jain|2014}} Other scholars reiterate Jain's observations;<ref>{{Cite book |author=Stephanie Corigliano |title=The Routledge Handbook of Hindu–Christian Relations |chapter-url=https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781003139843-6 |chapter=Orientalism and postcolonial theory in Hindu–Christian encounters |date=31 December 2020 |pages=54–66 |publisher=Routledge Handbooks Online |isbn=978-0-367-00070-7 |doi=10.4324/9781003139843-6|s2cid=229427069 }}</ref> Christopher Patrick Miller, a professor of Yoga Studies at Loyola Marymount University, found it ironic that to defend against perceived Christian ingressions, the HAF had to borrow from Christian (and colonial) notions of what constituted a Yogic canon.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Christopher Patrick Miller |title=The Routledge Handbook of Hindu–Christian Relations |chapter-url=https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781003139843-27 |chapter=Christian and Hindu responses to Christian yoga practice in North America |date=31 December 2020 |pages=280–293 |publisher=Routledge Handbooks Online |isbn=978-0-367-00070-7 |doi=10.4324/9781003139843-27|s2cid=229449147 }}</ref>
=== Caste === In 2010, the HAF issued a report titled "Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste" alleging that Christian missionaries were able to push their proselytizing agenda only because of the prevalence of caste discrimination in India; it went on to argue that caste cannot be considered to be an intrinsic definitional aspect of Hinduism due to a lack of theological sanction in its most sacred texts and urged for reforms led by Hindus themselves.{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}} This led to a flutter in conservative Hindu circles in India and the following year, the HAF toned down their report; they even cautioned against the trend of passing resolutions against caste discrimination adopted by various global organizations and held caste to be an internal affair of a sovereign India.{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}} The HAF has since portrayed castes as occupational guilds which had brought stability to premodern India before being reified under British colonial rule; it has vehemently opposed drawing parallels between caste-discrimination and racism — arguing that it belittles the brutality faced by African Americans — or even any depiction of the caste-system as a rigid birth-determined pyramid of hierarchy.{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2016}}{{sfn|Prema Kurien|2022}}
In 2021, on the heels of prolonged transnational activism by Dalits, "caste" was added as a protected category to California State University's anti-discrimination policy.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Nani Sahra Walker |title=Cal State system adds caste to anti-discrimination policy in groundbreaking decision |work=Los Angeles Times |date=20 January 2022 |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-20/csu-adds-caste-to-its-anti-discrimination-policy}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Lakshman Sriram |title=Group opposes protection from caste discrimination in California Varsity's faculty union |work=The Hindu |issue=24 January 2022 |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/group-opposes-protection-from-caste-discrimination-in-california-varsitys-faculty-union/article38319866.ece}}</ref> The HAF perceived such policies to have the potential to enable the malicious targeting of Indian Hindu academics and lodged stiff opposition; their office-bearers argued caste to be a "stereotype" that was imposed upon South Asians under British rule.<ref name="TIME">{{cite magazine |author1=Rohit Chopra |author2=Ajantha Subramaniam |title=Caste Discrimination Exists in the U.S., Too—But a Movement to Outlaw It Is Growing |url=https://time.com/6146141/caste-discrimination-us-opposition-grows/ |magazine=TIME |date=11 February 2022}}</ref> In October 2022, the HAF provided legal representation to two University of California professors who sued their employer to prevent the implementation of caste-based protections.<ref>{{cite web |date=20 October 2022 |title=California State University professors sue over caste policy, allege discrimination |url=https://religionnews.com/2022/10/20/california-state-university-professors-sue-over-caste-policy-allege-discrimination/}}</ref> The month before, they unsuccessfully sued the California Civil Rights Department for allegedly misrepresenting caste as intrinsic to Hinduism in its submission to the Cisco caste discrimination lawsuit.<ref>{{Cite news |title=HAF Sues California for 'Misrepresenting' Hindu Beliefs, Practices |url=https://thewire.in/world/haf-sues-california-for-misrepresenting-hindu-beliefs-practices |date=25 September 2022 |newspaper=The Wire}}</ref>
Ajantha Subramaniam, a professor of South Asian Studies at Harvard University, rejected the HAF's charges concerning anti-caste legislations and questioned their accusations of being discriminated based on religion; she and other scholars emphasized on the depth of scholarship that has held caste to be a reality of central significance from premodern South Asia to present-day India including in the diaspora.<ref name="TIME" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Not Even Indian Students in American Colleges Can Escape Caste Discrimination |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/csu-caste-indian-students-california-state-university-policy/ |newspaper=VICE |date=3 February 2022 }}</ref><ref name="Sailaja Krishnamurti">{{Cite book |last=Krishnamurti |first=Sailaja |title=The Routledge Handbook of Hindu–Christian Relations |date=31 December 2020 |publisher=Routledge Handbooks Online |isbn=978-0-367-00070-7 |pages=180–192 |chapter=Race, representation, and Hindu–Christian encounters in contemporary North America |doi=10.4324/9781003139843-18 |quote=Despite claiming to have no affiliations with transnational Hindu groups like the VHP, however, the HAF has earned a reputation as a conservative group supporting a nationalist Hindu politics. At best, the version of Hinduism promoted by the HAF is homogenous and simplistic, as Bauman and Saunders (2009) suggest. |chapter-url=https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781003139843-18 |s2cid=229400060}}</ref>
==== SB403 ==== In early 2023, the HAF was among several Hindu-American organizations that opposed the SB 403 bill, which aimed to explicitly add caste into the definition of ancestry under anti-discrimination laws in California.<ref name="POLNewsom">{{cite news |author=Eric He |title=Newsom vetoes a proposed ban on caste discrimination in California |newspaper=Politico |date=7 October 2023 |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/07/newsom-veto-caste-discrimination-00120495 }}</ref> The proponents of the bill insisted that an explicit ban on caste discrimination was needed to raise awareness of this bias, but the HAF contended that this proposal unfairly targeted Hindus;<ref name="NYTOct7">{{cite news |author=Amy Qin |title=Newsom Vetoes Bill Banning Caste Discrimination |website=The New York Times |date=7 October 2023 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/07/us/california-caste-discrimination.html|quote="Hindu residents and organizations who had argued that the proposal unfairly targeted them because the caste system is most commonly associated with Hinduism"}}</ref> and may result in racial profiling against Hindu Americans.<ref name="SacBee-Recall">{{cite news |last=Hatch |first=Jenavieve |title=Republican-backed recall committee forms against Bay Area Democratic Sen. Aisha Wahab |website=The Sacramento Bee |date=3 May 2023 |url=https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article274935271.html}}</ref>
In May, the California State Senate passed the bill after a divisive debate.<ref>{{cite news |author=Sakshi Venkatraman |title=California Senate passes bill that would make caste discrimination illegal |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/calif-state-senate-passes-bill-make-caste-discrimination-illegal-rcna83981 |website=NBC News |date=11 May 2023}}</ref><ref name="BBCCaste">{{cite news |title=The divisive debate over California's anti-caste bill |website=BBC News |date=June 9, 2023 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65819688 }}</ref> However, in October 2023, after sustained lobbying by the HAF, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill, agreeing that "caste discrimination [was] already prohibited under existing civil rights protections".<ref name="NYTOct7" /><ref>{{Cite web |author=Andrew Cockburn |title=The Hindutva Lobby: How Hindu nationalism spreads in America |website=Harpers |date=18 September 2024 |url=https://harpers.org/archive/2024/10/the-hindutva-lobby-hindu-nationalism-america-andrew-cockburn/ }}</ref>
== Attacks on academic freedom == Audrey Truschke, a historian of South Asia at Rutgers University, notes the HAF to have "prioritized attacks on higher education".<ref name="Truschke Oxford">{{citation |author=Audrey Truschke |chapter=The Hindu Right in the United States |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.1070 |publisher=Oxford Univer Press |year=2022}}</ref> Truschke's view is widely supported by scholars and academics.
=== Textbook revisionism in California === {{Main|California textbook controversy over Hindu history|2016–17 California textbook controversy over South Asian topics}} In March 2006, the HAF filed a lawsuit against California's Curriculum Commission's decision to reject most of the edits proposed by the Vedic Foundation and Hindu Education Foundation, two groups linked to the RSS, a Hindutva paramilitary organization, to the textbooks taught in the state.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Bose |first=Purnima |date=2008 |title=Hindutva Abroad: The California Textbook Controversy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40339280 |journal=The Global South |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=11–34 |issn=1932-8648}}</ref> The suggested changes had sought to downplay the salience of caste in Indian history, reject Indo-Aryan migrations in favor of Indigenous Aryanism,{{Efn|The HAF has also critiqued ''The Story of India'' for showcasing the theory of Indo-Aryan migrations.<ref>{{Cite web |title="Story of India" Misses the Mark: Press Release by HAF |url=https://www.harekrsna.com/sun/news/01-09/news2455.htm |date=12 January 2009}}</ref>}} and not describe the declining status of women in ancient India, arguing that such portrayals would humiliate Hindu children in classrooms. Multiple Indologists, including Romila Thapar, Michael Witzel, Harry Falk, Robert P. Goldman, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Sheldon Pollock, Patrick Olivelle and Madhav Deshpande, and other South Asian activist groups opposed the changes.<ref name=":12" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Visweswaran |first=Kamala |last2=Witzel |first2=Michael |last3=Manjrekar |first3=Nandini |last4=Bhog |first4=Dipta |last5=Chakravarti |first5=Uma |date=2009 |title=The Hindutva View of History: Rewriting Textbooks in India and the United States |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43134195 |journal=Georgetown Journal of International Affairs |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=101–112 |issn=1526-0054}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Witzel |first=Michael |display-authors=etal |date=8 November 2005 |title=Letter to California State Board of education |url=https://safarmer.com/textbook.petition.2005.pdf}}</ref> The court ruled against the HAF and chose to retain the textbooks;<ref name=":13"> {{Cite news |date=9 September 2006 |title=US text row resolved by Indian |url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2006-09-09/india/27800566_1_aryans-textbook-affidavit |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120715082709/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2006-09-09/india/27800566_1_aryans-textbook-affidavit |archive-date=15 July 2012 |newspaper=The Times of India}} </ref> it found the HAF's accusations of a biased and negative portrayal of Hinduism unpersuasive.<ref>{{Cite book |last=LaSpina |first=James Andrew |title=California in a Time of Excellence: School Reform at the Crossroads of the American Dream |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4384-2512-2 |pages=129}}</ref>
In 2016, the HAF lobbied against the replacement of the word "Indian" with "South Asian" in middle school history textbooks in California, arguing that the change was essentially an erasure of India itself. These efforts were protested by South Asian academics and activists belonging to India's minority groups, who said that those on the side of the HAF sought to whitewash California's history textbooks to present a nativist, blemish-free view of how the Hindu caste system was enforced in India. They also argued that the term "South Asia" correctly represents India's collective history with countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh. A letter to the California State Board of Education about this issue, which garnered thousands of signatures, was headed by the HAF.<ref> {{Cite news |first=Jennifer |last=Medina |title=Debate Erupts in California Over Curriculum on India's History|work=The New York Times |date=4 May 2016 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/us/debate-erupts-over-californias-india-history-curriculum.html}} </ref>
=== Censorship of Wendy Doniger === In 2009, Wendy Doniger — the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of History of Religions at the University of Chicago — published ''The Hindus: An Alternative History'', to rave reviews in mainstream media.<ref name="Michael Jerryson">{{Cite web |author=Michael Jerryson |title=Policing Academic Freedom: A Book, a Controversy, and the Ominous Aftermath |website=Religion Dispatches |date=2014-04-10 |url=https://religiondispatches.org/policing-academic-freedom-a-book-a-controversy-and-the-ominous-aftermath/}}</ref> However, soon it drew ire from the Hindu Right who alleged Doniger's work to be stigmatizing of Hinduism.<ref name="Michael Jerryson" />
The following year, as the National Book Critics Circle shortlisted her work for its 2010 annual awards, the HAF protested the choice.<ref name="Michael Jerryson" /> They alleged Doniger's scholarship to be laden with numerous inaccuracies and an anti-Hindu bias. The HAF also accused her of offering "offensive, shocking, and gratuitous deconstruction of some of the most important [Hindu] epics" and providing "pornographic depictions" of Hindu deities.<ref name="Michael Jerryson" /> Suhag Shukla, director of the HAF and also an ex-student of Doniger, went on to criticize the American Academy of Religion for coming out in support of Doniger and supporting the academic freedom of scholars to "offer any interpretation" of any religion.<ref name="Michael Jerryson" />
=== Defamation suit against academics and activists === In May 2021, the HAF filed a defamation lawsuit against Sunita Viswanath and Raju Rajagopal of Hindus for Human Rights, Rasheed Ahmed from the Indian American Muslim Council, Prabhudoss, and Truschke.<ref name="Scroll"> {{Cite web |author=Anisha Sircar |title=Explained: The Hindu American Foundation's defamation case against Hindus for Human Rights founders |newspaper=Scroll.in |date=24 May 2021 |url=https://scroll.in/global/995560/explained-the-hindu-american-foundations-defamation-case-against-hindus-for-human-rights-founders}} </ref><ref name=RNS> {{Cite news |author=Mythili Sampathkumar |title=Hindu American Foundation files defamation suit against Hindu rights nonprofit |newspaper=Religion News Service |date=20 May 2021 |url=https://religionnews.com/2021/05/20/hindu-american-foundation-files-defamation-suit-against-hindu-rights-nonprofit/}} </ref> It alleged statements in two ''Al Jazeera'' articles that characterized the HAF as having "ties to Hindu supremacist and religious groups" and with the RSS as defamatory.<ref name="Scroll"/> A diverse group of intellectuals and academics, Akeel Bilgrami, Amitav Ghosh, Anita Desai, Cornel West, Martha Nussbaum, Nandini Sundar, Noam Chomsky, Romila Thapar, Sudipta Kaviraj, Sheldon Pollock, and Wendy Doniger among others, condemned the HAF's tactics as a SLAPP, designed to silence critics and push forward Hindutva.<ref name="Scroll" /><ref name="repudiate"> {{Cite web |title=Over 300 Writers, Academics and Scholars Repudiate HAF's Attempt to Silence Hindus for Human Rights |url=https://www.hindusforhumanrights.org/en/blog/for-immediate-release-300-academics-and-scholars-express-their-solidarity-with-hindus-for-human-rights-and-its-allies-in-the-lawsuit-filed-by-the-hindu-american-foundation-py7je |access-date=18 July 2021 |website=Hindus for Human Rights}} </ref>
On 15 March 2022, Judge Amit Mehta stayed the defendants' motions to dismiss the suit since he deemed one of their arguments about whether the HAF had satisfied the second requirement of invoking diversity jurisdiction, by proving the amount of monetary loss to have exceeded 75,000 USD, as a "substantial question" of procedure, that needed to be settled before adjudication on merits.<ref name=":4">{{Cite Pacer|plaintiff=Hindu American Foundation|defendant=Sunita Vishwanath|title=ORDER staying the pending motions to dismiss in this matter for a limited period of jurisdictional discovery as to the amount in controversy.|doc-number=48|date=15 March 2022|pacer-number=230928|case-state=DC|case-division=1|case-year=2021|case-type=cv|case-sequence=01268}}</ref> Mehta accepted the HAF's new evidence to pass muster and ordered discovery. On 20 December 2022, he dismissed the suit since the HAF had failed not only to establish any cause of action, even assuming that their allegations were factually accurate,{{Efn|Judge Mehta rejected that the HAF had provided any evidence to support that the defenders were acting with malice, which is integral to maintainability of a defamation suit.}} but also to provide any evidence that the court had personal jurisdiction over the defendants except one.<ref name="Scroll" />{{Efn|HAF requested discovery to bolster its jurisdictional claims; Judge Mehta denied the request for being a "fishing expedition, [..] not made in good faith." As to the lone defendant - Prabhudoss - over whom the Court had jurisdiction, Judge Mehta ruled that his statements were opinions that could not be plausibly alleged to be "verifiably false" and hence not litigable.}}
=== Opposing ''Dismantling Global Hindutva'' conference === During August–September 2021, the HAF launched a protest campaign against a virtual conference, ''Dismantling Global Hindutva'': ''Multidisciplinary Perspectives'', organized by a conglomeration of American universities.<ref name="Guardian" /> It accused the conference of platforming activists with "extensive histories of amplifying Hinduphobic discourse ... [who] equate the whole of Hinduism with caste bigotry, deny the subcontinental indigeneity of Hindus ... and deny the resulting genocides and ethnic cleansings of Hindus".<ref name=":15" />{{Efn|On the politics of the deployment of the term "Hindu genocide" and its (lack of) historical accuracy, see {{Cite journal |last=Subrahmanyam |first=Sanjay |date=2023-01-02 |title=Inventing a ‘Genocide’: The Political Abuses of a Powerful Concept in Contemporary India |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25785648.2022.2153974 |journal=The Journal of Holocaust Research |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=102–107 |doi=10.1080/25785648.2022.2153974 |issn=2578-5648|url-access=subscription }}}}
Multiple academics and activists involved in the conference reported receiving death threats and being subject to other forms of intimidation.<ref name="Guardian"> {{Cite news |title=Death threats sent to participants of US conference on Hindu nationalism |newspaper=The Guardian |date=9 September 2021 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/09/death-threats-sent-to-participants-of-us-conference-on-hindu-nationalism }} </ref><ref> {{Cite web |author=Raqib Hameed Naik |title=US academic conference on 'Hindutva' targeted by Hindu groups |newspaper=Al Jazeera |date=7 September 2021 |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/7/us-academic-conference-dismantling-global-hindutva-hindu-right-wing-groups}} </ref> In response, the American Historical Association condemned the attacks against academic freedom, and the Association for Asian Studies noted Hindutva to be a "majoritarian ideological doctrine" different from Hinduism, whose rise to prominence had accompanied "increasing attacks on numerous scholars, artists and journalists".<ref> {{Cite web |title=AAS Statement on the Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference |website=Association for Asian Studies |date=10 September 2021 |url=https://www.asianstudies.org/aas-statement-on-the-dismantling-global-hindutva-conference/}} </ref><ref> {{Cite web |title=AHA Releases Statement on Threats to Academic Conferences |date=September 2021 |publisher=Americal Historical Association |url=https://www.historians.org/news-and-advocacy/aha-advocacy/aha-statement-on-threats-to-academic-conferences-(september-2021)}} </ref> The conference went ahead as scheduled and without any significant disruptions.<ref> {{cite news |title=Explained: What is 'Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference', and why has it triggered a row? |work=The Indian Express |date=14 September 2021 |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/global-hindutva-conference-us-7501478/}} </ref>
The HAF has since complained to the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights against the University of Pennsylvania for violating Title VI requirements — they alleged that the University, co-sponsored a "one-sided" conference, promoted negative "stereotypes and slurs" about Hindu academics, and discriminated against them.<ref name="Daily Pennsylvanian">{{Cite news |author=Tori Sousa |title=Penn faces federal complaint for participation in conference discussing Hindu nationalism |newspaper=The Daily Pennsylvanian |date=26 October 2021 |url=https://www.thedp.com/article/2021/10/hindu-foundation-penn-complaint-us-department-of-education }}</ref><ref name="Philadelphia Enquirer">{{Cite news |author=Susan Snyder |title=A Hindu foundation has filed a complaint against University of Pennsylvania, saying an online conference perpetuated stereotypes |newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=17 October 2021 |url=https://www.inquirer.com/news/hindu-foundation-penn-civil-rights-complaint-hindutva-20211017.html }}</ref> However, multiple professors at the University who identify as Hindus rejected the accusations and highlighted how the HAF had weaponized Hindutva to stifle free speech.<ref name="Daily Pennsylvanian" /><ref name="Philadelphia Enquirer" /> Dheepa Sundaram, a religion and digital culture scholar at University of Denver, found the lawsuit to leverage "the rhetoric and tactics of social justice activists" in "pursuit of an oppressive ideology".{{sfn|Dheepa Sundaram|2023}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sundaram |first=Dheepa |date=2023-06-23 |title=Hindutva 2.0: How a Conference on Hindu Nationalism Launches a Change in Strategy for North American Hindutva Organizations |url=https://academic.oup.com/jaar/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jaarel/lfad028/7205785 |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |volume=90 |issue=4 |pages=809–814 |doi=10.1093/jaarel/lfad028 |issn=0002-7189|doi-access=free }}</ref>
== Funding Controversies == The HAF's funding sources have drawn scrutiny in this context. In April 2021, ''Al Jazeera'' reported that the HAF was one of five U.S.-based organisations linked to Sangh Parivar networks that had together received approximately $833,000 in federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advances during the COVID-19 pandemic; the HAF received the largest individual share, around $378,064 in PPP funds and an additional $10,000 in EIDL Advance.<ref name="AJ PPP">{{Cite news |author=Raqib Hameed Naik |title=Hindu right-wing groups in US got $833,000 of federal COVID fund |newspaper=Al Jazeera |date=2 April 2021 |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/2/hindu-right-wing-groups-in-us-got-833000-of-federal-covid-fund}}</ref> The reporting placed the HAF alongside Sewa International, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, and Rajiv Malhotra's Infinity Foundation,entities described in the article as having documented links to organisations that have been associated in India with violence against Christian, Muslim and Dalit communities.<ref name="AJ PPP" /> The HAF rejected this characterisation and subsequently filed the defamation action.
Tax filings reviewed by ''Frontline'' and other outlets indicate substantial donor overlap between the HAF and U.S. foundations that fund Sangh-affiliated groups in India. The Bhutada Family Foundation, whose principal Ramesh Bhutada has served as a national vice-president of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (the U.S. arm of the RSS), donated $362,242 to the HAF between 2005 and 2018 while contributing more than $1 million during the same period to Sangh-affiliated organisations including Sewa International, Ekal Vidyalaya, the HSS and the VHPA, according to publicly filed IRS Form 990 records.<ref name="Frontline" /> Several of these recipient organisations, particularly Ekal Vidyalaya, which operates schools in Indian tribal areas, have been documented by scholars and journalists as participating in ''ghar wapasi'' and "Hinduisation" programmes among Adivasi and tribal communities, including in regions where Christian populations have subsequently come under attack.<ref>{{Cite news |author=Aarefa Johari |title=New report shows how Hindutva groups operate in US, send money to India |newspaper=Scroll.in |date=2 July 2014 |url=https://scroll.in/article/668870/new-report-shows-how-hindutva-groups-operate-in-us-send-money-to-india}}</ref><ref name="Savera" />
The HAF has also lobbied against United States legislative measures that drew attention to anti-Christian violence in India. In addition to its 2013 campaign against H.Res. 417, the HAF opposed the 2019 resolution introduced by Representative Pramila Jayapal urging India to lift its Kashmir communications blackout and end mass detentions, and has issued statements criticising the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom for placing India on its Country of Particular Concern recommendation list which was a designation USCIRF has based in part on documented violence against Christians, including the destruction of churches during the 2023 Manipur violence.<ref name="Harpers" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=USCIRF Calls on the U.S. Government to Urge Indian Officials to Hold Perpetrators of Targeted Violence Accountable |publisher=United States Commission on International Religious Freedom |date=2026 |url=https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statements/religious-minorities-india-suffer-escalating-attacks}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Violence Against Tribal Christians in Manipur, India |publisher=United States Commission on International Religious Freedom |date=22 June 2023 |url=https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/uscirf-spotlight/violence-against-tribal-christians-manipur-india}}</ref> Writing in ''Harper's Magazine'', Andrew Cockburn observed that the HAF's pattern of advocacy has functioned to insulate the Indian government from sustained Congressional engagement on its religious-freedom record, even as the conflict in Manipur produced documented attacks on Kuki-Zo Christians and the destruction of more than three hundred churches.<ref name="Harpers" /><ref>{{Cite news |title=Indian Christians Observe Second Anniversary of Manipur Violence |publisher=International Christian Concern |date=5 May 2025 |url=https://persecution.org/2025/05/05/indian-christians-observe-second-anniversary-of-manipur-violence/}}</ref>
== Reception == Scholarly consensus is that the HAF purveys a politics embedded in Hindutva. Sailaja Krishnamurti, a professor at Saint Mary's University (Halifax) who specializes in religious traditions of the South Asian diaspora, summarized that the HAF has "earned a reputation" of being a conservative group purveying Hindu nationalist politics.<ref name="Sailaja Krishnamurti" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jenkins |first1=Laura Dudley |last2=Teater |first2=Kristina M |chapter=Hindu perspectives on the right to religious freedom |title=Routledge Handbook of Freedom of Religion or Belief |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2020 |pages=102–116 |doi=10.4324/9780203732625-11 |isbn=9780203732625 |s2cid=228820013 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203732625-11/hindu-perspectives-right-religious-freedom-laura-dudley-jenkins-kristina-teater }}</ref> Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, a historian specializing in South Asian religions at the University of Vermont, qualified the HAF as a "deeply conservative" outfit.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fuerst |first=Ilyse R. Morgenstein |date=28 June 2022 |title=Survivals: The Stakes of Religious Literacy |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/mtsr/34/5/article-p435_2.xml |journal=Method & Theory in the Study of Religion |volume=34 |issue=5 |pages=435–445 |doi=10.1163/15700682-bja10078 |issn=0943-3058 |s2cid=251185536|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Sangay K. Mishra, an assistant professor of political science at Drew University, argued that the HAF had remolded Hindutva-leaning politics into the language of "Hindu rights" to be palatable in the American mainstream.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Mishra |first=Sangay K. |title=Desis Divided : The Political Lives of South Asian Americans |date=1 March 2016 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-8115-0 |pages=101–103, 215}}</ref> Truschke finds the HAF to be an integral component of the "wider Sangh Parivar" and Hindu right in the United States.<ref name="Truschke Oxford" />
Sundaram found among the group's aims to sanitize the exclusionary nature of Hindutva, in part by borrowing from decolonial vocabulary, misleadingly portraying terms like "Hindutva", "Brahminism", etc. as oriental pejoratives.{{sfn|Dheepa Sundaram|2023}} Chad Bauman, a professor of religion at Butler University, contended the HAF's portrayal of Hinduism to be misleadingly monolithic and in service of a political agenda.{{sfn|Bauman|Saunders|2009}} Nishant Upadhyay, a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, specializing in gender and sexuality studies found the group's queer-friendly portrayal of Hinduism to be embedded within a discourse of Hindutva homonationalism.{{sfn|Nishant Upadhyay|2020}}
The BBC has noted that the HAF has lobbied support in favor of Narendra Modi, the incumbent Prime Minister of India, amongst the diaspora.<ref name="Bridge Initiative"> {{Cite web |title=Factsheet: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) |url=https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-rashtriya-swayamsevak-sangh-rss/ |access-date=11 July 2021 |website=Bridge Initiative}} </ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=28 April 2022 |title=Why the West is reckoning with caste bias now |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-61241849 |access-date=4 May 2022 |work=BBC News }}</ref> Georgetown University's Bridge Initiative found the HAF board member Rishi Bhutada to have also served as the official spokesperson of "Howdy Modi", a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed rally in support of India's incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi held in Houston, Texas in 2020.<ref name="Bridge Initiative" /> They — as well as several journalists — documented numerous anti-Muslim statements made by the HAF board members, past and present.<ref name="Frontline" /><ref name="Bridge Initiative" /><ref> {{Cite news |author=Ram Vishwanathan |date=29 October 2020 |title=How the American Sangh hopes to win the 2020 US elections |url=https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/how-the-american-sangh-hopes-to-win-the-2020-elections |website=The Caravan}} </ref> Academics and journalists have also investigated money trails linking the HAF to other Sangh Parivar groups via their donors.<ref name="Frontline" />
=== Response === The HAF denies these charges, claims to be non-partisan, and has unsuccessfully filed defamation suits against a wide range of organizations and individuals that alleged its links to Hindutva.<ref name="RNS" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Menon |first=Vandana |date=14 June 2022 |title=A mysterious new report tells you who funds Hindu nationalism in US, and with how much money |url=https://theprint.in/features/a-mysterious-new-report-tells-you-who-funds-hindu-nationalism-in-us-and-with-how-much-money/995680/ |access-date=7 August 2022 |website=ThePrint }}</ref> However, Arun Chaudhuri, an anthropologist of religion and politics at York University, cautions that such disavowals should not be taken at face value but rather as efforts at distancing the HAF from the overtly negative connotations of Hindu nationalism. Sonia Sikka, an academic specializing in the intersection of religion and politics, too rejects the HAF's claims of non-partisanship.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Sikka |first=Sonia |date=12 July 2022 |title=Indian Islamophobia as Racism |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-923X.13152 |journal=The Political Quarterly |volume=93 |issue=3 |pages=1467–923X.13152 |doi=10.1111/1467-923X.13152 |issn=0032-3179 |s2cid=250515835|url-access=subscription |doi-access=free }}</ref>
== Notes == {{Notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
===Sources===
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==External links== {{Wikiquote}} * [https://www.audreytruschke.com/documentshafslapp Documents from the HAF’s Lawsuit], audreytruschke.com, January 2023.
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Category:Sangh Parivar Category:2003 establishments in the United States Category:Advocacy groups in the United States Category:2000s controversies in the United States Category:2010s controversies in the United States Category:2020s controversies in the United States Category:Hindutva harassment of scholars