By Ankur Singh

hen I pulled into the parking lot of the Hanuman Temple of Greater Chicago on a Saturday evening this past April, the first thing I noticed was a man standing in front of a parked car adorned with the flag of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the far-right Hindu nationalist party that has held power in India since 2014. The temple, which is located in the northwest Chicago suburb of Glenview, Illinois, was at standing-room-only capacity that evening, the space packed with hundreds of devotees. The audience, which included grandparents, adults with children in their laps, and bored teenagers scrolling on their phones, rose from their seats to applaud and chant the nationalist slogan “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”—“Victory to Mother India”—as the guest of honor arrived.

Glenview is an average middle class suburb that overwhelmingly voted against Donald Trump in the 2024 election, which is why it was alarming to see a crowd of hundreds cheer enthusiastically for Sadhvi Rithambara, a far-right Hindu nationalist whose rhetoric over the past four decades has incited violence against ethnic and religious minorities in India. In the 1990s, Rithambara traveled the country delivering fiery speeches that ultimately incited violent mobs to demolish the Babri Masjid, a Mughal-era mosque in the state of Uttar Pradesh. In January 2024, just months prior to India’s national election, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP celebrated the grand opening of a new Hindu temple where the mosque once stood. A year later, Rithambara is touring the United States to share the tale.

Subjugation of Muslims, Christians, Dalits

The BJP subscribes to Hindu nationalism, an ideology which aims to transform the secular government into an explicitly Hindu one, leading to the subjugation of Muslims, Christians, lower-caste Dalits, and other minority groups in India. This ideology has a growing presence in the United States, where Indian diaspora groups are funding Hindu nationalist projects in India and increasingly influencing U.S. political leaders. The Hindu Republican Coalition, founded by an Indian-American businessman in suburban Chicago who donated nearly $1 million to Trump’s 2016 campaign, even has Steve Bannon as a co-chair.

Rithambara’s tour coincided with a time of rising ethnonationalism across the world, as well as growing alliances between the far-right movements of India and the United States. In attendance for her April talk in Glenview were members of the Overseas Friends of the BJP, the Chicago Indian consulate, and Bharat Barai, a major supporter of Modi who has also stumped for President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance was preparing for his first official trip to India, during which he hoped to strengthen economic and geopolitical ties between the two countries. 

Despite dozens of organizations and individuals signing on to a letter demanding the temple cancel the talk, Rithambara’s event went on as planned. Her talk didn’t quite resemble a political stump speech, so much as a yarn of her campaign to demolish the Babri Masjid. With pride, she described her daring escapes from police and whipping up crowds of supporters while riding trains and walking streets, mythologizing herself like a hero in a folktale. 

I had many questions for the people around me. If they found the presence of BJP imagery and members of the Indian Consulate at what was supposedly a spiritual event to be significant. But I couldn’t bring myself to ask.

“I once climbed to the rooftop of a college, and as soon as I shouted, “Jai Shri Ram,” something remarkable happened,” Rithambara told the audience. “Millions of people emerged from their homes, responding with the same powerful chant: “Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram.” At that moment, I realized that when you are truly determined, nothing can stop you from succeeding.”

This story was originally published in americankahani.com. Read the full story here.