Powerful Hindutva Lobby Flexes its Muscle in California

[Riaz Haq]

Last year, California lawmakers voted 31-5 to approve the first state-wide bill (SB 403) explicitly banning caste discrimination. The bill, enjoying broad support among California voters, was sponsored by Senator Aisha Wahab.  It was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom under pressure from wealthy political donors belonging to the Hindutva lobby.  

Senator Aisha Wahab with Supporters of California Law to Ban Caste Discrimination

Hindutva Lobby:

The Hindutva lobby's opposition to the California anti-caste discrimination bill was spearheaded by Ramesh Kapur, a wealthy Massachusetts entrepreneur.  “If you want to be our next president, veto the bill”, Kapur told the governor in no uncertain terms, according to a recent investigative piece written by British journalist Andrew Cockburn and published in the Harper magazine.  Here's an excerpt from the article: 

"The ultimatum was decisive. Kapur said that Newsom emailed him three hours before going public: “I’m going to veto it.” Newsom’s move dashed the hopes of all who had fought for the bill, but it seems likely to reap him rich rewards. “Now that he has made that decision, he has become the champion of the Hindu cause,” Kapur told me over the phone from California, where he was busy organizing the first in a series of fundraisers for the governor in Silicon Valley, Chicago, and New Jersey. “Newsom is hot in the Indian-American community!”" 

In recent years, Hindu Americans have become the highest-income group in the United States. Most of them support Hindu Nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP party. There are many billionaires among them, and they are willing to use their wealth to influence the US political process. They see AIPAC, the Israel lobby, as their inspiration. 

California AB 3027:

California bill (AB 3027) banning transnational repression was introduced in response to the attempted assassination of an American Sikh leader. The US government believes that the assassination was plotted by agents of the Indian government. This bill is strongly opposed by the Hindutva lobby which calls it "Hinduphobic". It is supported by law enforcement agencies in the state. The bill would provide an improved sense of personal security to many Indian Americans who are facing threats for opposing the Modi government in India. It is currently stalled in California Senate committees. Hindutva supporters see Zionists as useful allies in their effort to draw parallels between antisemitism and “Hinduphobia.”

California Hindutva Group Marches with Zionists in Support of Israel's Gaza Genocide

Donor Power: 

Gavin Newsom's veto of the bill to ban caste discrimination illustrates the power of the donors crushing popular will, making a mockery of democracy. The power of the Israel lobby (AIPAC) backed by rich Jewish-American donors is the most egregious example of this, as is the power of the gun lobby (NRA). 

Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans oppose US shipment of weapons to Israel while it slaughters tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians, mainly children and women. But the Biden administration continues to send arms, ammunition and explosives to the Israeli government. Both Biden and Harris pay lip service to the need for an immediate ceasefire but refuse to stop giving Netanyahu the bombs that he is using to sustain the Gaza genocide. 

Similarly, the majority of Americans want laws to restrict gun ownership in the country. Polls after each mass shooting confirm broad support for gun control laws. But the US politicians refuse to pass such laws because of the power of the US gun lobby. 

American Muslim Vote:

There are enough Muslim voters in battleground states, particularly Michigan, where their vote can make a difference to the outcome of this year's presidential contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. But there is little difference between their positions on Gaza. Both have expressed strong support for Israel, thanks to the power of AIPAC and its wealthy billionaire donors. Nonetheless, it is interesting to look at the numbers. Here is an excerpt from the Harper piece on this:

"Since October 7—coincidentally the same day that Newsom announced his veto—the ongoing slaughter in Gaza has brought electoral peril for the Democrats. Polls report withering support across important components of the coalition that brought Biden to victory in 2020, especially among the Muslim community, which gave him up to 85 percent of its votes in that election, according to some polls. Although Hindus were less supportive of Biden than Muslims were in 2020 (25 percent went for Donald Trump, according to certain estimates, a slight uptick from 2016), some see their votes as the perfect replacement for the Democrats’ faltering Muslim coalition.  “We can make the difference!” Kapur exclaimed, brandishing a state-by-state breakdown of Hindu and Muslim populations to show that his fellow Hindus could deliver votes as well as money. Muslims outnumber Hindus in America, 3.5 million to 2.5 million. But in key swing states, the numbers Kapur presented to me, drawn mostly from 2014 data, almost balance out: Pennsylvania is home to 130,000 Hindus and 150,000 Muslims. In Georgia, the state’s 172,000 Hindus outnumber its 123,000 Muslims, while the 110,000 Hindus in Michigan provide some counterweight, Kapur implied, to the quarter million Muslims, many of whom are outraged by the Biden Administration’s support for Israel. In Nevada, Hindus outnumber Muslims by almost three to one, while in Virginia, Hindus have an edge of 200,000 to just under 170,000. During the 2021 Virginia governor’s race, both the Democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe, and the Republican, Glenn Youngkin, paid attention to this voter pool and dutifully visited Hindu temples, but Youngkin reportedly made the stronger impression—he “listened deeply” to their concerns, as American Hindu Coalition chairman Shekhar Tiwari put it, especially their complaints about local schools’ efforts to promote diversity by modifying admissions policies at their expense. And Youngkin was not the first Republican to cultivate and enjoy Hindu support. In 2015, the Chicago billionaire industrialist Shalabh Kumar set up the Republican Hindu Coalition, which describes itself as “modeled after the highly successful Republican Jewish Coalition”; Steve Bannon was an honorary co-chair of the group. Kumar and his wife poured money into Trump’s 2016 election campaign, which was making major media buys in swing states. Trump even recorded a message in Hindi". 

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[Riaz Haq]

The Curious Case of a Temple Sweet: How Food Increasingly Divides India - The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/26/world/asia/india-temple-laddu.html

It was a sensational charge in a country where food is yet another marker of political, religious and caste divides.

But the politicization of food has become more pervasive with the rise of Hindu nationalism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Vegetarianism and cow protection are now a staple of the political discourse. Mere accusations of eating or transporting beef — mostly against Muslims — can result in lynchings by cow-protection vigilantes and right-wing organizations.

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It was a sensational charge in a country where food is yet another marker of political, religious and caste divides.


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For centuries, the Tirupati temple in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has given laddu, a ball-shaped sweet, to devotees. The temple is the richest Hindu holy site in the world, with revenues each year of hundreds of millions of dollars, and it is spending about a million dollars a month just on ghee to fry the laddu in, according to M.K. Jagadish, an official at a state-owned dairy.

Last month, the state’s newly elected chief minister, a Hindu named N. Chandrababu Naidu, accused his Christian predecessor of allowing the temple’s laddu to be made in ghee, a clarified butter, that was adulterated with other animal fats. A majority of the temple’s devotees are vegetarian; Mr. Naidu’s allegation called into question the sanctity of the temple itself.

The case of the temple sweet shows how India’s food cultures have become increasingly politicized. In a nation where cows are viewed as sacred by most Hindus, many states have banned the slaughter of cows and made the transportation of beef a punishable offense. In some, even the cooking of eggs has drawn official condemnation. Restaurants are closely monitored for any mixing of vegetarian and nonvegetarian food. Some states have ordered the owners of food stalls to display their names clearly so consumers are aware of their religious and caste identity.


Cultural sensitivities surrounding food are not new in India. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British was ignited by allegations that rifle cartridges, which had to be manually loaded by biting off the end, were greased in beef tallow and pig fat, antagonizing both Hindu and Muslim soldiers in the British Army.

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Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which has traditionally drawn support from upper castes, has presented the notion of “pure vegetarianism” as a nationalist ideology since it took power in 2014. That push is intended to shape a monolithic Hindu identity that paints over caste divisions, analysts say.

Increasingly, those who do not conform to these ideas of food purity or who question them — including religious minorities like Muslims, lower-caste communities and political activists — have come under attack. Some are trolled and shamed online. Others have had their homes bulldozed or even been lynched.