Hindu nationalist leader spurs protests and calls for sanctions ahead of New York City speech

An event Saturday in New York City, featuring the head of a Hindu nationalist group instrumental in putting India’s ruling party in power, is being met with protests, a denunciation from the city’s mayor and a call for sanctions from a U.S. panel on religious freedom.

Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, widely considered the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is scheduled to address about 5,000 members of Indian American groups in the Infosys Theater, located in Madison Square Garden. Titled “Universal Oneness Celebration,” the event is being organized by American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been a polarizing figure in that country and the diaspora, emerged from the group known as RSS, a right-wing paramilitary group founded a century ago. Critics have accused the group of promoting the political ideology of Hindutva, which means “the essence of being Hindu,” and seeks to define Indian culture and national identity in terms of Hindu values.

The party and its branches have also been accused of fostering a culture of intolerance and committing human rights violations such as mob lynchings, targeting minority places of worship and razing Muslim-owned properties with bulldozers.

This week, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani publicly declared his opposition to the event, labeling RSS ideology as exclusionary and contrary to the pluralistic views of the city.

The event’s organizers did not respond to The Associated Press' interview requests.

The group's news release says the event is a collaboration among more than 200 Hindu American organizations and is built around the ancient Sanskrit phrase “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,” which means “the world is one family.” Expected attendees include entrepreneurs, educators, artists, youth leaders, faith leaders and public officials as well as representatives from temples and yoga centers.

This event, organizers said, also builds on the message of the Hindu festival of Rakshabandhan, which marks the bond between brothers and sisters, using the occasion “to broaden the idea of mutual responsibility from family to communities, nations, humanity and the natural world.”

On Wednesday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan federal body, urged the U.S. government to consider sanctions against RSS members and to revoke Bhagwat’s visa over the alleged religious freedom violations in India. The Ministry of External Affairs in India quickly rejected the commission’s remarks, calling the body biased and lacking in credibility.

Several interfaith and civil rights groups — including Hindus for Human Rights, the Indian American Muslim Council and the Interfaith Center of New York — held a news conference outside New York City Hall on Tuesday calling for the event to be canceled.

Sunita Viswanath, executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, said her group is one of 61 interfaith and secular organizations that signed an open letter protesting Saturday’s event. She said many of the groups' supporters will show up in person with the message that “the RSS and their Hindutva ideology do not represent us.”

Even if a majority of the diaspora doesn’t support Hindu nationalism, Viswanath said not enough are speaking against it.

“So, our only option is to show up again and again with love and with the intention that our love should drown out the hate of these people and their organizations,” she said.

There are, however, stark divisions among Indian Americans regarding Modi and his party, which have strong support in the U.S. as they do in India. RSS has over 250 centers and youth groups in the U.S.

The Hindu American Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for U.S. Hindus, has issued an alert urging those attending the event “to be situationally aware, vigilant and maintain civility.”

The foundation, in a statement Wednesday, called out Mamdani for taking a stance on the event, urging him “to remember his sworn duty as Mayor to protect everyone in New York City, regardless of their national origin, religion or even political beliefs.”

Safa Ahmed, an Indian American and Muslim activist, planned to travel from North Carolina to New York to protest outside the venue Saturday. She is alarmed that thousands support Bhagwat’s “politics of hate.”

“That is very disturbing to me as an Indian American Muslim,” she said.

Ahmed is heartened by the pushback against Hindu nationalism in recent years from progressive Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Dalits, members of the former untouchable caste in India who have historically faced discrimination.

Some view Bhagwat's U.S. visit as part of a larger public relations campaign by RSS to repair its image. Bill Drexel, senior fellow with the Hudson Institute who specializes in U.S.-India relations, said Bhagwat has recently toned down some of his comments.

In an international context, Drexel noted that RSS seems so idiosyncratic to India and has such a complex history that it is difficult to compare it to other, more familiar political and religious movements in the U.S. and elsewhere.

“We’re seeing a new chapter in terms of how they are relating to the outside world,” Drexel said. “They’ve been growing as a grassroots movement for many decades. Now, that the political party they spawned is in power, it imposes a different kind of responsibility on them.”

Sunil Ambekar, RSS’ national spokesperson, said in a statement on X that Bhagwat will “communicate with a diverse, multicultural, and multifaith audience.”

“Organized in the spirit of open dialogue and mutual respect, the event reflects Bharatiya (Indian) ethos which is fundamentally inclusive and welcoming to all,” he said. “This initiative is in line with the longstanding tradition of engagement by RSS with varied communities across India and the world fostering understanding and shared purpose.”

However, critics such as Viswanath don’t believe RSS is engaging in good faith.

“I just don’t buy it,” she said. “It’s still the same Hindutva ideology.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India gives a speech during a reception by the Indian community in honor of his visit to the United States at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File)

FILE - Youths participate in a Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) shakha in Ahmedabad, India, April 8, 2024. Shakhas, or local units, induct boys by combining religious education with self-defense skills and games. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File)

FILE - Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat addresses students during an India International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) event in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)

FILE - Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteers march through a street in Kochi, Kerala, India, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in front of a poster of Mahatma Gandhi displayed as part of celebrations marking 100th year of Gandhi assuming office as the Indian National Congress party president. (AP Photo/R S Iyer, File)

FILE - Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat offers prayers at Sangam, the confluence of the rivers Ganges and the Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers, at the annual traditional fair of Magh Mela in Prayagraj, India, Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of protesters are rallying Friday on the National Mall in support of voting rights and racial justice ahead of the midterm elections, following a wave of changes to voting laws and redistricting that civil rights groups have condemned as detrimental to Black Americans.

The 2026 “Defend the Vote” March on Washington, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, echoes the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 march. The event follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark April decision in Louisiana v. Callais that reinterpreted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, allowing Southern states to redraw their congressional maps in a way that erodes equal representation in Black communities.

“We’ve been doing these marches for years, but this is probably the most important because this is the first year we are marching that the voting rights bill has been nullified by the Supreme Court,” Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

This year’s march, which Sharpton's group is co-hosting with King's Drum Major Institute, a progressive think tank and community action group, features dozens of speakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Friday’s event harkens back to King Jr.’s historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, when more than 200,000 people gathered at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. That march, an inflection point in the Civil Rights Movement, came at a fraught moment, when economic headwinds, civil unrest, political division and the Vietnam War bitterly divided Americans.

King III told the AP that the work of the Civil Rights movement “is further eroding” in the wake of the high court's April ruling.

He said his father would be disappointed with the state of the country, but current civil rights advocates should be undaunted.

“Had he lived, we’d be on a totally different trajectory,” the younger King said. “These would not be issues; they would have been resolved. I don’t think he would be surprised because he understands our history and understands those who are trying to retain power. But the challenge is challenging our communities to engage even more.”

Ray Turner, a 65-year-old retiree from Maryland, sat Friday on the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial. He came independently, carrying a sign that read “(Puny) Hands off our elections.”

Turner said he was “disturbed” by the Trump administration’s actions toward voting rights.

“The lies about the 2020 election being stolen continue to be sounded, even though they’ve been disproved,” Turner said, adding, “Now they’re trying to use this to prevent people who are legal citizens, legal voters, from voting.”

Bill Gruen, a 75-year-old former U.S. history teacher, attended the march in an Uncle Sam costume he created 50 years ago for class debates. Gruen said that while the rally was about voting rights, it was important to focus on what the Trump administration was doing, too.

“We got to focus on voting rights, and Trump’s desire to save America for himself as opposed to itself,” Gruen said.

Sharpton said the Trump administration’s immigration policy for Haitians and white South Africans, as well as cuts to social programs like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health subsidies, are unifying policies for this year's diverse march attendees. But the redistricting efforts by Republican-led states set to reduce the number of Black lawmakers in Congress loom large.

“This march is about people who refuse to be counted out. When the courts and the legislature broke apart District 6, they did not just redraw lines,” Rep. Cleo Fields, D-La., said in a texted statement. “They told hundreds of thousands of Black families from Baton Rouge up through the Delta that their voice could be taken away at any moment.”

Fields was the central character in the Supreme Court decision that hollowed out the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The court ruled that his district, created just one term ago to permit a second majority-Black district in a state where Blacks make up 33% of the population, was unconstitutional because it relied too heavily on race.

The court has held that maps can be redrawn for partisan reasons.

Louisiana's legislature rushed to redraw the district after the decision, reshaping Fields’ district to cluster it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana.

Fields has opted not to seek reelection to Congress and instead is pursuing a seat in the state Senate.

Rep. Shomari Figures, an Alabama Democrat whose majority-Black district was targeted by the state’s Republican-led redistricting effort, said the original voting rights fight required local movements, national figures, lots of coordination and strategy. He sees this year's march as a continuation of that legacy.

“My district includes Montgomery, which was the birthplace of it all. It started with a bus boycott in 1955 and that, ultimately, morphed into a broader struggle for civil rights and led to a more broad Civil Rights Movement,” Figures told the AP.

“It led to a Civil Rights Act, led to the Fair Housing Act, led obviously to the Voting Rights Act, and the voting rights movement,” Figures added.

Ahead of Friday, organizations participating in the march filed new claims in their federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump's executive order restricting mail-in voting. The Supreme Court cleared a path Monday for possible implementation of the order, though it remains unclear how much can be put in place before the midterms.

In an interview with AP, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats could still win a majority in the U.S. House despite GOP-led redistricting efforts in Southern states.

“We’re going to win all across the country, up and down the ballot,” Jeffries said. “We only have to flip about five or six seats, and that’s really what we’re going to do. It is a call to action.”

Associated Press writers Gary Fields in Washington and Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed.

Demonstrators shout to speakers during the March on Washington, near the Lincoln Memorial, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Demonstrators pose for a photo near the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Demonstrators listen to speakers during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Demonstrators listen to speakers during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A demonstrator holds a sign in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A demonstrator wears "Vote" earrings near the Lincoln Memorial before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Demonstrators listen to speakers during the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A demonstrator shields herself from the sun with a fan before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A young demonstrator takes photos near the Lincoln Memorial before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Demonstrators gather near the Lincoln Memorial before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A demonstrator holds a sign near the Lincoln Memorial before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Members of the National Guard walk past the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool before the March on Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Workers installing bulletproof glass around the podium at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in preparation are made ahead of tomorrow's anniversary of the March on Washington, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Workers installing bulletproof glass around the podium at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in preparation are made ahead of tomorrow's anniversary of the March on Washington, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)