Hindu Nationalism is a political ideology; it is a majoritarian project that is based on Hindu supremacist ideology. It attacks the very idea of a diverse and multicultural India. The Indian diaspora is statistically the largest and one of the most distributed in the world. Mr. Edward T.G. Anderson’s book Hindu Nationalism In The Indian Diaspora provides conscientious documentation of the complexities of the diasporic experience and its critical connection with India. In each chapter, the author stresses key aspects of Hindu nationalism in Britain and beyond. The book comprises six chapters.

Anderson reveals how Hindutva ideology capitalizes on diasporic nostalgia, transforming cultural displacement into political allegiance, a strategy that risks reinforcing exclusionary nationalism.

In Chapter 1, “From Videsh Vibhag to Vishawa Vibhag and now Vishwa Sangh’: Establishing Hindu Nationalism Abroad, from East Africa to Britain,” the author provides the preliminary development of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Parivar abroad. From their early days, “the group has sought to reinforce, and in many ways manufacture, connectivity, and devotion to India” (p.25). This represents the roots of Hindu nationalism, how diasporic Hindu nationalism evolved, and its relationships with organizations and ideology both in India and elsewhere in the diaspora.

The author explores why Hindutva (extremist ideology) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have reverberated specifically with diasporic Hindus. Conditions of the Indian diaspora have created a fertile environment for the development of Hindu nationalism. Various dislocations, personal, cultural, and social, caused by migration have strengthened nostalgia for ‘home’, creating a nationalist romanticism” (p.76).

The second chapter of the book, “Training Camps and the Development of a Global Pariwar (Family)”, highlights two branches of RSS, the Shakha and Sangh. In this chapter author discussed the training camps of Hindu Nationalists, and their conferences were held in the diaspora and India. These camps provide a path of linkage between the homeland and global networks of fellow Swayamsevaks (volunteer members), organizers, and the mother organization. He underlined two innovative forms of training camps that act differently for the development of the organization and its intervention in India.

The first was the Sangh Internship Programme (SIP), “aimed at young male and female adults and focuses on ‘leadership’ and ‘self-improvement’, with only limited resemblance to traditional RSS residential training camps” (p.80). The other was the Vishwa Sangh Shibir; both camps provided distinct and dynamic insights into the Hindutva ideology but adapted to the specific requirements of the Indian diaspora.

The instrumental use of charity and public service by Hindu nationalist groups raises troubling questions about the blurring of humanitarian work and ideological indoctrination.

Chapter 3 and 4 deal with the Hindutva network and Indian diaspora in foreign communities, “Transnational Hindutva Networks: The Indian” and “Emergency (1975–7) and the Evolution of Homeland Diaspora Relations From Milton Keynes to Ayodhya: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Global Campaign for the Ram Temple” in these chapters author explain how Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) plays a vital teaching role it seeks to give an emotional and cultural bond to the homeland.

Co-education was also significantly introduced by the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS). “The Hindu nationalist networks that began to interest scholars and journalists at the end of the twentieth century were developed and transformed by political struggles in the 1970s, connecting expatriate communities intrinsically to the political landscape of India”(p.126).

The author has elaborated that the Sangh’s multinational networks have also enabled the ‘back-pedal’ sway of the diaspora in India. He recalls the two events that are examples of this influence, the Indian Emergency and the Ayodhya Ram Temple dispute. The former was a movement at the time of postcolonial India when Prime Minister Indra Gandhi in 1975 suspended elections, banned various civil societies, jailed thousands of opponents (especially Hindu nationalists), and imposed excessively harsh and severe measures.

The term ‘Emergency’ has been referred to as the ‘democracy’s turning point’ and also ‘India’s first dictatorship’. “It can be seen as a turning point in the electoral prospects of Hindu nationalism, allowing the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (Indian People’s Organisation), the principal Hindu nationalist political party at the time and the forerunner to the present-day BJP, to enter mainstream politics through its participation in the anti-Emergency coalition and the subsequent Janata government”(p.127).

Another critical event that reached the crescendo is the Ram temple dispute. Both events played a significant role in terms of influence, engagement, public opinion support, and financial support for the diaspora. “The crusade to construct the Ram temple, by contrast, was exclusively Hindu nationalist and, initially at least, represented the concerns of a much narrower base of supporters in terms of region and caste” (p.164). In Britain, these types of issues require the exposition of global moments, with lasting effects upon the Sangh Parivar abroad, and the Indian diaspora more broadly. “It represented a successful attempt to promote Hindu achievement to wider publics, as well as within ‘the community’ itself” (p.184).

The mainstreaming of Hindu nationalism in Britain, under the guise of cultural identity, exposes the subtle but dangerous normalization of supremacist ideology in multicultural societies.

Furthermore, the author explores charity and public service areas in chapter 5, “Charity, Sewa (Service), and the Model Minority,” in which Hindu Nationalists in the diaspora were engaged actively and with appreciable success; however, they have also caused various controversies. The Sewa (charity or service) has been a focal point of Hindu Nationalist movements in India from its starting days. Public service and various forms of charity are a means for expansion, support, visibility, and membership. But Sewa also serves as a way of achieving the goals of Hindutva ideology, and a considerable transformation of society can be achieved. “Through wages, the Indians abroad are understood to intervene in the life of the homeland. Various Hindu nationalist groups and individuals have raised and sent funds to India” (p.209).

The capital flow of Diaspora-to-homeland is considered as ‘long-distance nationalism’, the author has underlined the development of Hindu Nationalism out of the ‘traditional’ boundaries of the Sangh, exploring the swaddle relationship between philanthropy and acts of public service both in the karmabhoomi (land of action) and the matrubhoomi (motherland). “Sewa Day was launched as an annual, multi-location, multi-event day of voluntary projects. To a great extent, it constitutes a new trajectory for British Hindu and Hindutva organizations” (p.210).

He discusses the controversies related to the global fund collection after the Gujarat earthquake, which impacted Britain’s large Gujarati diaspora, in which a large amount of capital was collected by organizations connected with the RSS, outside of India. “These communities raised large sums of money for aid relief efforts in India, some of which provoked scrutiny and allegations of impropriety” (p.210).

In the last chapter, “Neo-Hindutva’: Hindu Nationalism Goes Public,” The author explores how Hindu nationalism has grown beyond the ideological and institutional boundaries of the Sangh Parivar. “Hindu diaspora has played a role in the mainstreaming of Hindu nationalism, both within Hindu communities and in society at large” (p.265). He has stressed how British Hindu-ness has become increasingly politicized and conflated with Indian diasporic identity.

Diaspora-led campaigns like those supporting the Ram Temple illustrate how transnational networks can distort democratic processes in the homeland through emotional, financial, and political pressure.

The diaspora has emerged as a progressively important, but also different, facet of the Hindu nationalist movement itself. “Various campaigns and lobbying efforts, sometimes highly performative, have visibilised Hinduism and become a significant aspect of Hindu public representation in twenty-first-century Britain” (p.270).

This book offers Anderson’s study of right-wing Hindu nationalism in Britain and how the ‘Hindu’ identity in India and abroad became connected, through the HSS, whose political party is ruling India. This book is an insightful read for students of International Relations, Cultural Studies, and Civilizations. It is a study to understand the regional complexities because of extremist ideologies in the region.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.