Who Speaks for American Hindus?
Not groups like HfHR, whose focus is Indian politics — a framing that leaves an immigrant-heavy community exposed to charges of “dual loyalty”
We did the math. Here are the receipts:
Over the past six years, Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) posted 4,204 times about Indian politics, compared with 1,261 posts about Hindu culture, and just 721 concerning the Indian diaspora in North America.
Why does this matter? Because HfHR seeks standing in American public life as a Hindu civil-rights voice and as an authority on the concerns of American Hindus. Yet, look at what they track and post: clearly, their primary focus is on Indian political issues. HfHR is free to advocate for whatever causes it chooses. But when an organization whose work is shaped primarily by the political debates of a foreign state, applies that same ideological lens to American Hindu life, it distorts the concerns of a diverse American Hindu community that has roots in many different countries. Worse, it reinforces the suspicion that American Hindus—our civic participation and our advocacy—are extensions of foreign political conflicts, further exposing an immigrant-heavy community to allegations of dual loyalty, foreign influence, and transnational repression (TNR).
1. HfHR’s social media presence:
CoHNA analyzed 9,693 posts published by HfHR on the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) between 2019 and 2026, sorted by primary subject. Indian politics was the largest category by a wide margin, at 43.4 percent. Posts categorised as ‘Hindu culture’ were only at 13 percent, followed by US politics and government at 9.7 percent, the Indian diaspora at 7.4 percent, ‘caste’ at 6.1 percent, the conflict in the Middle East at 5.9 percent, and media bias at 1.1 percent.
So, why did we do this count and sort? Because it’s important to know if the label that is given to an organization matches the work that it does or the agenda that it claims. And right now, it seems they are all mixed up!
For example, see how HfHR is described in media reports. In July 2026, news covering HfHR campaigns on the latest Indian political issue called it, variously, a “US-based Hindu rights group,” an “Indian diaspora group in the US,” and a “US-based advocacy group.”
These labels—‘Hindu,’ ‘Indian’, ‘South Asian’, ‘Diaspora’—may overlap in some cases, but they are not interchangeable. When these distinctions disappear, an organization focused heavily on Indian politics can be understood as representing American Hindus simply because it operates in the United States and carries “Hindu” in its name.
2. How HfHR presents itself:
Notably, HfHR does actively seek such a role in American public life. In 2024, while opposing a Congressional resolution concerning Hinduism in America and anti-Hindu bigotry, it described itself as “a major Hindu civil rights organization.” It argued that the resolution did not address the real concerns of American Hindus and criticized its sponsor for failing to consult HfHR and other “major stakeholders.”
However, on its website, HfHR outlines a considerably narrower mission for itself: prioritizing efforts to “educate elected officials and the public in North America about civil and human rights issues in South Asia” and representing Hindus opposed to “Hindutva and caste”. In fact, if one were to go by HfHR’s posts on X, its focus is even narrower than its South Asia mandate: Indian politics is, by far, the largest category in its public output. And by its own admission, HfHR represents only one sub-group of Hindus—who share its ideological beliefs and Indian political preferences.
3. Who advises HfHR?
HfHR’s advisory board is heavily connected to Indian public life. Fifteen out of 20 members are based in India. Several held senior official Indian state positions, such as Harsh Mander, who served on the Prime Minister’s National Advisory Council from 2010 to 2012 and as Special Commissioner to the Supreme Court of India from 2005 to 2017; Syeda Hameed was a member of the Planning Commission of India from 2004 to 2014 and of the National Commission for Women from 1997 to 2000; Mallika Sarabhai holds a government appointment as chancellor of Kerala Kalamandalam.
HfHR advisor Swara Bhaskar called Hindus a “brain & soul dead society” while Teesta Setalvad is out on bail against charges of misappropriating funds, forgery, and placing false evidence. This is a clear window into what kind of organization HfHR is. Another telling sign – almost none of the hundreds of Hindu temples and organizations that dot America, ever partner with this supposed American Hindu group.
How HfHR harms American Hindus
1. Forcing an Indian political agenda on the community
American Hindus are a diverse group. While many came to the US from India, others came from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean, Mauritius and various African countries, Southeast Asia, Oceania and elsewhere. Many were also born and brought up in the west. Their religious identity does not automatically connect them to India, much less to a particular electoral preference in Indian politics.
But when an India-centered political framework is applied to American Hindu life, it results in ordinary civic and religious activity here being recast as part of a foreign struggle. A temple event becomes a question of Indian influence. Hindu community groups engaging with their policymakers routinely face allegations of being agents of the Indian government. An American entering public life can find their fitness for office assessed through alleged ties to Indian governments or political parties—as seen in HfHR’s treatment of Tulsi Gabbard and Shri Thanedar. HfHR’s India lens for American issues reinforces the trope of dual loyalty that American Hindus have long had to confront: that our temples, organizations, and political participation are all extensions of a foreign country, or that pride in our religious identity makes us less “American.”
And that’s not all.
2. Suppressing and justifying anti-Hindu violence in the US
Since 2023—more than 10 Hindu temples in the US have faced physical attacks—from vandalism by Khalistani extremists all the way to gun shots in one case. One would expect a Hindu human rights group to take this up with utmost seriousness. Instead, HfHR reframed and downplayed the incidents as the result of disenchantment with the Indian government, even though the temples attacked included those run by Hindus from Fiji, from Utah, and elsewhere.
This matters beyond ideological preferences. When a police department, or even a school board, a civil-rights office, or newsroom evaluates a Hindu community’s complaint, a dismissal coming from an organization with “Hindus” in its name can carry unusual authority; and American Hindus have to fight doubly hard for their experiences to be taken seriously. HfHR is well aware of this and it could be one of the reasons it has included Hindu in its name.
The same pattern appears around religious expression. Joyous Hindu festivals such as Diwali and Holi, draw people from all backgrounds through their sheer joy, beauty and focus on togetherness, and so HfHR repeatedly turns these occasions into vehicles for Indian political messaging. It has promoted the false claims that Holi commemorates the burning of a Bahujan woman and is a prime supporter of the “Holi Against Hindutva” campaign. Its Diwali programming has similarly foregrounded caste, Hindutva, and political bickering instead of the stories of Hindu deities.
Hindu traditions are not beyond criticism, but there is a difference between engaging them critically and repeatedly converting ancient festivals from occasions of celebration into platforms for a current political sloganeering. It forces apolitical Hindus and non Indian Hindus into taking positions on Indian politics versus focussing on their spiritual observances and rituals.
How HfHR fails Hindus in South Asia
HfHR’s has sought to justify its non-American focus by stating it cannot ignore human rights violations and oppression elsewhere, particularly in “South Asia” which is part of its mandate. Its record in speaking out should, therefore, be examined against that claim.
Each year in Pakistan, many young Hindu, Christian, and Sikh girls are kidnapped, raped, forcibly converted, and “married” off to their abductors, often with institutional support from the courts and police. Hindus in Pakistan also routinely face attacks on their temples, homes, and businesses. But HfHR has rarely spoken about the human rights abuses in Pakistan against Hindus and other minorities.
In Bangladesh, Hindus face steady, unrelenting persecution, punctuated by massive spikes in violence, such as those witnessed during Navratri in 2021 and 2024, as well as the wave of pre-election violence from December 2025 to January 2026. The percentage of Hindus in the country has declined from 22% to 8% over the span of eight decades. Yet HfHR has sought to suppress those raising the concerns of Bangladeshi Hindus; labelling them, too, as agents of Hindutva.
The case of Bipin Joshi shows the same pattern. Joshi was a Nepali Hindu student who was taken hostage during the October 7, 2023 terror attack in Israel and later killed. HfHR posted 572 times about that conflict in the Middle East, but CoHNA’s review found no post about him. This raises the question: within an organization claiming to speak from Hindu values and advocate for human rights across South Asia, which Hindu victims receive attention—and which do not?
No organization, CoHNA included, speaks for every American Hindu. That is precisely why distinctions matter. But journalists, lawmakers, universities, and interfaith groups should describe HfHR accurately. It is an India-focussed group that represents, at best, one ideological current and political preference among Hindus in the US. Like its Advisory Board, the majority of its work is focussed on Indian and non-Hindu issues.
The religious, cultural, and civic concerns of Hindus dealing with life and representation in America is an obvious afterthought and their inputs on our lives need to be treated as such as well.
Methodology
CoHNA reviewed 9,693 posts published by Hindus for Human Rights on X between Dec 2019 and May 2026. Grok AI and Claude were used to analyze and classify posts on X based on their primary subject into mutually exclusive categories.
- Published on August 7, 2026