AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Anjali Kamat.

ANJALI KAMAT: Demonstrators gathered outside Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday to protest against the RSS, a far-right Hindu nationalist paramilitary organization with close ties to India’s ruling BJP party and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The leader of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat, held a rally inside Madison Square Garden to kick off a global speaking tour marking the 100th anniversary of the RSS. The RSS has long sought to turn India from a secular nation into a Hindu state.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended that the U.S. impose sanctions against the RSS for their, quote, “responsibility [for] and tolerance of” violent attacks against religious minorities, including Christians, Dalits, Muslims and Sikhs.

On Monday, nearly a hundred political officials in the United States publicly pledged to reject any campaign donations linked to the RSS. They include Indian American Congressmembers Ro Khanna and Pramila Jaypal, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and New York congressional candidate Brad Lander.

AMY GOODMAN: Brad Lander joins us now. He recently defeated incumbent Congressman Dan Goldman in the Democratic Party primary for Congress. He was also at the protest against the RSS in New York. And we’re joined from Iowa City by Sunita Viswanath, the co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights Action, one of the groups that helped organize the pledge for U.S. lawmakers to reject political money linked to the RSS. The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is a member of the RSS.

Let’s begin with our guest in Iowa City. Sunita, if you can just lay out very quickly why you are so concerned about the RSS, what it represents, for a global audience, many of whom have never even heard of it?

SUNITA VISWANATH: Thank you so much, Amy and Anjali, for having me.

I’m Sunita Viswanath, and I am a Hindu progressive organizer against every form of injustice and religious extremism. The RSS, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is not a religious organization. It’s a 100-year-old political organization that has birthed and spread this ideology called Hindutva. Its explicitly stated mission, its purpose, is to create a Hindu Rashtra, a Hindu nation — to take the India that is a secular and inclusive democracy and transform it into a country that is just for Hindus, where Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and other minorities are basically erased, are second-class citizens, or don’t exist.

This is extremely concerning to anybody who cares about justice and human rights. But especially as a Hindu, a Hindu of conscience, the fact that this is happening in this very cynical way, in the name of my religion, in my name, is the reason that I am this dedicated to mobilizing Hindus to say, absolutely no, the RSS and its thousands of affiliate organizations around the world do not represent me.

ANJALI KAMAT: And, Sunita, the RSS is an Indian organization, but it has, you know, as you said, chapters across the world and nearly 300 here in the U.S. Can you talk about why you organized this pledge? How much political money is coming that’s linked to the RSS into the American political system? Why was it important for lawmakers here to sign this pledge?

SUNITA VISWANATH: This ideology, this Hindutva, or Hindu nationalist, Hindu supremacist ideology, can be written off as something that’s happening in a land far, far away, but there are so many reasons why we should be concerned. India at this point has overtaken China in terms of the most populous nation in the world. And so, if its democracy falls, that is something that affects the whole world.

And Hindutva RSS affiliates, these Hindu right-wing organizations, exist in growing numbers in the diaspora, especially in America. The fact that this pledge that we have announced at the same time as Mohan Bhagwat’s tour around the world, the timing is incredible. Over 90 elected officials from coast to coast of America have signed it. They have said that they will not take RSS-affiliated money, Hindutva money, and they have said that they will return that money, if they have taken any, or redirect it to pro-democracy organizations.

The research — when we say RSS-affiliated money, the money that we’re talking about, the way that we know how a donation might be RSS-affiliated is based on research that has come out of Sciences Po. It’s called “Seeing the Sangh.” It’s a database. And they have unearthed about 113 RSS-affiliated organizations definitely operating in the United States.

One of them is the Hindu Republican Council, which boasts Steve Bannon as its co-chair. The linkages between the democracy that is being decimated right here in our country, in America, and the Hindu right and its tentacles all through the diaspora are unmistakable. There were Hindu nationalists who participated in the January 6th attack on the Capitol. So, it is — it is imperative that Americans who care about democracy open their eyes to the harm that is being done by Hindu nationalism here in this country and throughout the world.

ANJALI KAMAT: I want to bring in Brad Lander, congressional candidate for Lower Manhattan, parts of Brooklyn. Brad, you participated in the protest at Madison Square Garden. You spoke at a press conference before. Why did you sign this pledge? I mean, we have information from an upcoming report that the top 50 Hindu nationalist donors have poured $17 million into the last six election cycles. And it’s not just to Republicans. Ro Khanna just said he’s going to return $6,000 he got from RSS-linked money. Why did you sign this pledge?

BRAD LANDER: It’s great to be on with the three of you.

You know, as Sunita’s last point about Steve Bannon makes clear, those of us who care about multifaith, multiracial democracy have got to stick together against right-wing, too often fascist forces — you know, here in the United States, like Steve Bannon; in India, like the RSS; and, of course, for me, this goes along with rejecting money from AIPAC, as well, trying to, you know, push the U.S. to keep funding Netanyahu’s wars. These struggles are linked, and we work together to stand up for multifaith, multiracial democracy.

Hindus for Human Rights, which Sunita is one of the leaders of, I’ve worked together with as a proud Jewish New Yorker to stand up for the rights of immigrants right here in New York City. We’ve done a lot of work together. And so, when she — 

AMY GOODMAN: In fact, you got arrested, Brad Lander — 

BRAD LANDER: — reached out to say, “I want to tell you about what’s going on” —

AMY GOODMAN: Brad, you got arrested as you were trying to defend immigrants at 26 Federal Plaza. Let me ask you something.

BRAD LANDER: That’s right, twice, actually.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you something. You likened, at the news conference, the rally at Madison Square Garden this past weekend to the 1939 Nazi rally that was also hosted at Madison Square Garden.

BRAD LANDER: That’s right. Yeah, you know, sometimes Madison Square Garden hosts great things, like the Knicks championship that brought New Yorkers together. But in 1939, they hosted a Nazi rally with swastikas hung from the banners around a portrait of George Washington. They said they wouldn’t do something like that again, and yet here they were hosting Mohan Bhagwat, spouting a similar fascist ideology.

ANJALI KAMAT: And, Brad, you know, you’ve spoken out so much about Israel-Palestine, speaking out as a Jewish New Yorker. What do you see as the similarities between what you’re doing on Israel-Palestine and this struggle that we see somebody like Sunita talking about from Hindus for Human Rights?

BRAD LANDER: Yeah, I really feel solidarity with Hindus for Human Rights and Sunita. Look, as a Jew, I feel furious when my religion, when my faith, when my history, when my tradition is perverted to support ethnic cleansing or exclusion or supremacy or discrimination. So I speak out about it. And I think it’s important for Jews to do that and make clear we’re proud of our tradition, of our history, we care about and we fight against antisemitism, but we won’t let it be warped or weaponized. And so, you know, to hear what’s happening with Hindutva, I really feel solidarity for what Sunita is doing, joining with Muslim organizations, with Dalits, with Sikhs, with Christians to build a multifaith movement.

AMY GOODMAN: Brad Lander, we want to thank you for being with us, New York Democratic congressional candidate representing Lower East Side and parts of Brooklyn, and Sunita Viswanath, co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights Action, joining us from Iowa City.

That does it for our show. I’ll be in Madison, Wisconsin, Saturday night at the Barrymore Theatre, and in Chicago for two events Sunday. Details at democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Anjali Kamat.