Hindu American divide deepens as protests rage over India’s citizenship law

On one side stand progressives and pluralists who see Indian PM Narendra Modi as having ‘bigoted’ policies that are tearing the country apart

Others call such criticism a betrayal of the community, and see the strongman leader of the BJP as the protector of all Hindus

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Attendees react to a speech given by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Howdy Modi Community Summit in Houston, Texas, in September. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 6:00pm, 24 Dec 2019Updated: 7:50pm, 24 Dec 2019

When images of mass protests against India’s amended citizenship law went viral on social media last week, thousands of miles away, Indian Hindus in the US were divided.

The law, which fast-tracks citizenship for non-Muslim migrants facing religious persecution in neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, has been hugely controversial, slammed as anti-Muslim and part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s increasingly hardline Hindu nationalist agenda.

The protests it engendered swept across the country, with authorities scrambling to contain the situation as more than 20 people were killed – many in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where 18.5 per cent of the population are Muslim.

One US-based commenter, posting on Twitter under the handle @HinduAmericans to a following of more than 30,000 – including India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman – predicted that the “biggest winner politically” from the protests would be Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“Indian voters are terrified by Islamist mobs destroying property and trains and buses, and innocent police. Indian voters will throw out all anti-BJP forces,” the post reads.

Others, such as US-based advocacy group Hindus for Human Rights, saw the protests as a call to action – taking to Twitter to “call on everyone with a platform – Hindus especially – to stand” for truth and justice.