Rebranding Bigotry As Social Justice

Rajshekar founded and edited Dalit Voice magazine, which was in circulation from 1981 to 2011. He was notorious for his incendiary writings on the intersections of religion, politics, and society; and was arrested multiple times for fanning communal tensions within India.  

While most of his work was rooted in the Indian context, he also frequently descended into hateful antisemitic tirades, usually weaving venomous conspiracy theories about supposed Brahmin-Zionist connections. His work reflected some of the worst excesses of antisemitic propaganda, from the medieval blood libel narratives of Czarist Russia to modern-day conspiracy theories accusing Zionist Jews of orchestrating the 9/11 terror attacks.

In this, Rajshekar in fact stood strikingly afar from the vast majority of Indian intellectuals and activists including those who may have shared his politics and worldview on other issues. In other words, not only did he seek to pollute the discourse on caste and social justice in India with his inflammatory rhetoric, but he also sought to introduce a foreign strain of hate—virulent antisemitism—to which traditional Indian intellectual thought has largely been immune.

Here’s a sample of some of Rajshekar’s most alarming statements:

• “His [Hitler’s] holocaust proved to be a big bundle of lies.” (Source: Ready Reference to Revolutionaries, Page 59)

• Hinduism is not a religion but a fake and filthy business venture.” (Source: Jews of India: Getting Closer to Jews, Page 11)

• “Slavery has religious sanction under Hinduism.” (Source: Aggression on Indian Culture, Page 10)

• “This is Hinduism, a religion of hate which is the staple diet of Hindus.” (Source: Brahminism, Page 122)

• “Brahmanism [pejoratively Hinduism] is not only the father of racism but fascism, nazism, and even zionism.” (Source: Brahminism, Back Cover)

• “…the Ramayana and Mahabharat, was the first attempt to fool the original inhabitants of India and thereby enslave them.” (Source: Caste: A Nation Within the Nation, Page 113)

Rajshekar passed away in November 2024 at the age of 92, his words consigned to the garbage of history where they rightly belong and his ideas rendered largely irrelevant in 21st century India. In North America, however, his words and ideas seem to inspire the foundational beliefs of organizations such as Equality Labs and Hindus for Human Rights. For instance, in this video we hear the founder of Equality Labs make similar claims to that of Rajshekar that the “Nazis aren’t Germans in f*king Europe, they’re actually upper caste Indians”.  

Even more horrific is the championing of these rankly anti-Hindu statements by a group like Hindus for Human Rights that claims to speak for Hindus. Since HfHR is inspired by a bigoted man like Rajshekar and his assertions on Hinduism being “a fake and filthy business venture”  and the source of slavery, then we can expect this to be what they push in their Hinduism training. Why would policymakers and educators platform a group with such self hate?

This is deeply worrying. CoHNA urges policymakers, advocates, and educators in North America to confront the poisonous ideological roots of these groups that claim to fight for justice. Beneath their progressive facade lies a Hinduphobic, hate-filled agenda that must find no place in public policy, educational curriculums, or social justice initiatives.

CoHNA also urges other Hindu organizations and advocates to continue to challenge the malicious distortions pushed in the name of civil rights and equity, present evidence-based perspectives, and build broader coalitions to counteract the spread of Hinduphobia.

The time to act is now—to ensure that public discourse is driven by truth, mutual respect, and a commitment to genuine social justice, not by bigotry masquerading as social justice.