Hindu Nationalism and Its Circulation and Challenges in the United States

In this keynote presentation I examine the complex circulation of Hindu nationalism in the United States and the challenges to it from within the fold. I begin with the complicity and entanglements of contemporary Hindu nationalism with racism and its erasure of the struggles of BIPOC people in the United States as it does in India. I then situate it within the history of progressive Indian nationalism and contemporary challenges to it by groups such as Hindus for Human Rights who explicitly work within a framework of solidarity with anti-racist and social justice movements across race, religion, and ethnicity concluding with the possibilities of such political work.