A Global PR Campaign Cannot Hide India’s Rising Hate By Habib Siddiqui

 

A Global PR Campaign Cannot Hide India’s Rising Hate

By Habib Siddiqui

In recent months, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – has intensified its outreach efforts in the United States and Europe. Senior RSS functionaries have been meeting lawmakers, think-tank analysts, and diaspora groups in Washington, London, Berlin, and Brussels. The timing is not coincidental. It reflects a strategic attempt to shape global perceptions at a moment when India’s democratic credentials are under unprecedented scrutiny.

At the heart of this campaign lies a simple question: What is the RSS trying to achieve abroad while the situation for minorities at home continues to deteriorate?

The answer begins with the growing international concern about India’s human-rights trajectory. For the sixth consecutive year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that India be designated a Country of Particular Concern – a label reserved for the world’s most severe violators of religious freedom. In its latest report, USCIRF urged the U.S. government to adopt a firmer stance: to impose targeted sanctions on individuals and entities, including India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the RSS, for their role in or tolerance of serious violations; to link future security cooperation and trade engagement with measurable improvements in religious freedom; and to enforce Section 6 of the Arms Export Control Act to halt arms sales to India in light of continued intimidation and harassment of U.S. citizens and religious minorities..

Reports from independent watchdogs, academic institutions, and civil-society groups consistently document rising hate speech, mob violence, and targeted intimidation and lynching of Muslims, Christians, and Dalits. One example is the work of India Hate Lab, which monitors, documents, and analyzes hate speech, disinformation, and conspiracy theories targeting religious minorities both online and offline. Its 2025 report recorded 1,318 hate‑speech events across 21 states, one union territory, and the National Capital Territory of Delhi – an average of four incidents per day. This represents a 13 percent increase from 2024 and a staggering 97 percent increase from 2023, when 668 such incidents were documented. As expected, states governed by the BJP accounted for 88 percent of these events. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh topped the list with 266, 193, and 172 incidents, respectively.

The 2025 Report, released on January 13, 2026, says: “Patterns of inflammatory rhetoric in 2025, benchmarked against earlier years,  revealed a steady progression toward more overt incitement. The report notes the persistent prevalence of dangerous speech (defined as speech that elevates the risk of violence) with political leaders and far-right figures openly using dehumanizing language, urging economic boycotts, calling for the destruction of minority-owned properties and places of worship, and issuing explicit appeals for Hindus to arm themselves given the threat of Muslims… As in the preceding year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliates such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal were central drivers of in-person hate speech events.”

Against this backdrop, the RSS’s global charm offensive is best understood as an image-management exercise. India aspires to a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and seeks deeper strategic partnerships with Western democracies. But reputational damage threatens these ambitions. The RSS’s international campaign aims to reassure Western policymakers that India remains a stable, pluralistic democracy – even as evidence on the ground suggests otherwise.

The RSS insists it is merely a cultural organization devoted to social service and national unity. Yet its influence on Indian governance is unmistakable. Many of the BJP’s most senior leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were trained in the RSS from their youth. The organization’s worldview – rooted in the ideology of Hindutva, often described by scholars as a form of Hindu civilizational nationalism and, by some critics, as exhibiting features of Hindu fascism – shapes policy, public discourse, and institutional behavior..

To describe the RSS as “cultural” is to overlook its political reach. It provides ideological direction, cadre training, and grassroots mobilization. The BJP, in turn, provides the political power to implement that vision. The two function as parallel arms of the same movement, even if they maintain a formal separation on paper. This symbiosis is central to understanding India’s current political trajectory.

Critics argue that the consequences of this ideological alignment are visible in the lived experiences of India’s minorities. The rise in hate speech and vigilante violence is not an abstract claim; it is documented across multiple states and corroborated by journalists, scholars, and human-rights organizations. Genocide Watch and other atrocity-prevention experts warn that India exhibits several indicators of the early stages of genocide or mass-atrocity processes. Genocide is not a sudden eruption of violence; it is a process marked by dehumanization, impunity, and the steady normalization of hate that makes mass violence thinkable.

In a country where nearly 300 million people belong to minority communities, the stakes could not be higher.

The RSS’s international outreach must therefore be read in the context of this domestic reality. Western governments are increasingly aware of the contradictions between India’s democratic self-presentation and its internal policies. The situation in Kashmir, the use of bulldozer demolitions against Muslim neighborhoods, the shrinking space for dissent, and the prosecution of journalists and activists all raise serious questions about the health of India’s democracy.

More recently, allegations of transnational repression – including attempts to target Sikh activists abroad – have further strained India’s credibility. These developments complicate the RSS’s efforts to portray India as a responsible global actor committed to pluralism and rule of law.

So what message is the RSS trying to convey to Western policymakers? At its core, the organization seeks to reassure the world that India remains a reliable partner – economically, strategically, and ideologically. It wants to counter the narrative that India is sliding toward majoritarian authoritarianism. It wants to persuade Western governments that concerns about minority rights are exaggerated or politically motivated. And it wants to ensure that India’s global partnerships remain insulated from domestic criticism.

But trust cannot be manufactured through public-relations campaigns alone. It must be earned through consistent democratic behavior. Western policymakers are not blind to the contradictions between rhetoric and reality. They see the growing polarization, the erosion of institutional independence, and the normalization of hate speech. They see the consequences of a political ideology that seeks to redefine India not as a secular republic but as a Hindu nation.

The RSS’s outreach campaign is, therefore, a defensive maneuver – an attempt to manage perceptions at a time when the world is paying closer attention. But the deeper question is whether India’s leaders are willing to confront the underlying issues that have triggered this scrutiny.

A nation’s global reputation is ultimately shaped not by what its representatives say abroad, but by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens at home.

For India to reclaim its moral authority on the world stage, it must reaffirm its constitutional commitment to equality, secularism, and human dignity. It must ensure that the rights of minorities are protected not only in law but in practice. It must restore the independence of its institutions, safeguard press freedom, and reject the politics of division.

Civil society, both within India and across the diaspora, has a crucial role to play. Scholars, activists, journalists, and community leaders must continue to document abuses, challenge misinformation, and advocate for pluralism. International partners must engage India with honesty and clarity, recognizing both its strategic importance and its democratic responsibilities.

The RSS’s global outreach may succeed in shaping narratives temporarily. But the world is watching India more closely than ever. And no amount of diplomatic charm can obscure the fundamental truth: a democracy is judged by how it treats its minorities. India’s future, its stability, its global standing, and its moral authority depends on whether it chooses to uphold that principle.

[My forthcoming book – ‘Modi-fied’ India: the Transformation of a Nation – is scheduled for publication by Peter Lang in 2026. This essay draws on the author’s recent interview with Asia One News, Perspectiva.]