By Shayan Shaukat
Hindutva is no longer a primarily domestic project: it has become one of the world’s most globally embedded far-right movements. Fusing majoritarian ideology with neoliberal governance, diaspora lobbying networks and digital surveillance capitalism, the BJP–RSS ecosystem now shapes culture-war politics and geopolitical alignments far beyond India. This essay maps Hindutva as a transnational form of twenty-first-century fascism, and what confronting it demands from the left worldwide.
Introduction
Fascism no longer arrives in uniformed battalions; it emerges through digital ecosystems, diaspora networks, global capitalist infrastructures and civilisational identity myths. Hindutva (long misread outside India as a primarily domestic nationalist project) is today one of the most globally embedded and internationally consequential far-right movements in the world. Its ideological foundations draw on European fascism; its contemporary consolidation is inseparable from neoliberal capitalism and surveillance technology; and its geopolitical ambitions and transnational propaganda networks position it at the centre of a global right-wing realignment.
Across the United States (US), Europe, Israel, the Gulf, and increasingly Africa, the BJP-RSS combine collaborates with right-wing Christian nationalists, Zionist movements, anti-Muslim think tanks, tech corporations, and diaspora lobbying groups to carry Hindutva’s culture-war politics into Western legislatures, school boards, media spaces and foreign policy debates. The ‘Howdy Modi’ mega-rally with Donald Trump, the Overseas Friends of the BJP’s role in mobilising diaspora disinformation campaigns during the 2020 and 2024 US elections, the lobbying of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) on Capitol Hill, the RSS–Likud ideological affinity in India–Israel relations, and Hindu nationalist pressure groups in the United Kingdom (UK) targeting Labour politicians, all reveal a movement that is not simply reshaping India, but also actively reshaping global far-right politics.
This essay examines Hindutva not just as a local authoritarian turn but as a global case study in twenty-first-century fascism, a project rooted in transnational networks, legitimised by neoliberal governance, amplified by diaspora infrastructure, and enabled by digital surveillance capitalism. Its ideological, geopolitical, ecological, and civilisational implications extend far beyond India, offering lessons for activists and left movements confronting the far-right worldwide.
This story was originally published in tni.org. Read the full story here.
