PARSA DISTRICT, BIRGUNJ, NEPAL — Samsad Ali was at his grocery shop in April on the day of Hanuman Jayanti, a Hindu festival that celebrates Lord Hanuman, a central figure in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana. It was the third year of the festival here. Then a rally, organized by the right-wing Hindu nationalist group Vishwa Hindu Parishad, began.
Young people on motorbikes performed stunts near Ali’s shop. Another group of young people entered a nearby Muslim neighborhood and began shouting in front of a mosque.
“Jay Shri Ram,” they yelled. The phrase honors Lord Rama, a major Hindu deity. In recent years, the traditional devotional chant has become political. As they shouted, a DJ blared music. The noise went on for an hour, Ali says.
“The tables and chairs inside the shop were shaking,” he says. “The youths who were shouting slogans were carrying swords and sticks, which created a frightening atmosphere.”
The situation deteriorated when someone threw stones at the crowd, and the Hindu young people turned violent, Ali says. They vandalized shops, including his, and burned motorbikes.
In the end, 39 people were injured, including police officers, local police say. Police fired 149 rounds of tear gas, and an indefinite curfew was imposed beginning at 7:30 p.m., police told Global Press Journal. The military was deployed to maintain order.
The scene was a harbinger of what was to come. Massive protests early this month in Kathmandu left 73 people dead and government buildings heavily damaged. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned and was quickly replaced by Sushila Karki.
The protests were sparked by anger at a government ban on numerous social media sites. Tied into the reaction to that ban was rage over government corruption and nepotism.
But there was another element: a yearning among some Nepalis to return to a monarchy that would likely reinstate Hinduism as a national religion.
Increasingly, riots like the one in Birgunj in April have played out at festivals organized by Hindu nationalists.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the group that plans the rallies, is affiliated with India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent organization of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda.
That Hindu nationalist ideology, known broadly as Hindutva, is seeping across Nepal’s open border with India, with the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, the Nepali branch of the RSS, leading the way. (The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is under the umbrella of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh.)
The ideology is leading to increasing violence, both in India and Nepal. The situation is widely tracked in India. Less so in Nepal. But in cities and towns all along the border with India, Hindu nationalist gatherings have turned into riots.
Some who have participated in these rallies deny that they’re violent.
The rallies in Birgunj and other places “have added to the beauty of the place,” says Guddu Shah, who has participated. “Religion is actively practiced here, and we believe it pleases the gods. These events have become the main way in which we call upon God.”
But parliamentarian Amresh Kumar Singh, a Hindu, says the violence is designed to intimidate Muslims.
“They claim that a secular government endangers Hinduism, which forces Hindus to take a stand and defend it,” he says. “They argue that establishing a Hindu nation is the only way to resolve the conflict.”
Singh and others see this ideological infiltration as a challenge to Nepal’s sovereignty and security, as well as its secular, pluralistic values.
The number of Muslims in Nepal, though still a small minority, is growing. In 2020, Muslims — most of whom are Sunni — made up about 4.4% of the population, according to data from the United States Department of State. Just three years later, that number was 5.1% and growing. Though most of the country — about 81% — is Hindu, the growth of the Muslim community alarms Hindu nationalists.
“Muslims are increasing their numbers, and in the coming years, they may drive the Hindus out of Nepal,” says Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh activist Ranjit Shah, adding that Muslims are the ones fomenting violence. “Wherever the Muslim population increases, there comes unrest, which is characteristic of them.”
Meanwhile, the violence threatens lives and livelihoods as those who practice minority religions try to defend themselves — or fight back.
A Hindu kingdom
Hinduism has been practiced in Nepal since ancient times, along with Buddhism and other religions. But it was during the Third Great Awakening, the widespread Christian revival that occurred in the US and Europe in the 1850s and into the 1900s, when missionaries began to push into Asia. During Nepal’s Rana period, which overlapped with that revival, Hindu identity was reinforced through laws banning the slaughter of cows and prohibiting foreign missionaries.
Nepal was reaffirmed as a Hindu Kingdom under the 1990 constitution, a move that helped the RSS, founded in 1925, gain influence there. The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh was formed in 1991.
The Hindu nationalist monarchy crumbled in 2006 after a protracted civil war with Maoist groups — a conflict that arose in part because of long-simmering tensions between minority religious groups and the Hindu elite. The new government declared the nation a secular democratic republic in 2006 — a move formalized in 2008.
Indian leaders associated with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party — a Hindu nationalist party — were quick to weigh in.
“The BJP would not appreciate a situation were Nepal loses its true identity and buckles under the Maoist pressure,” said Shri Rajnath Singh, now India’s defense minister, in 2006.
Since then, the RSS has actively pushed for a return to a government that would recognize Hinduism as the state religion. It’s not just outside forces that are pushing for Hindu supremacy; a movement to return to a Hindu monarchy is gaining steam. While Nepali political leaders and their constituents largely seek a distinct identity from India, many welcome the RSS influence in pushing for a Hindu government.
Protests and riots
While violence has broken out between religious groups in Nepal for decades, the 2006 fall of the monarchy opened the door to more. That year, protests erupted in Kathmandu, and riots broke out in Birgunj, where an estimated 6,000 Hindus demanded the restoration of a Hindu state. The Sangh Parivar, the umbrella organization under which multiple RSS-backed Hindutva groups operate, warned that secularism would foster Islamic extremism.
Now, Hindu nationalist gatherings often take place in Muslim-majority neighborhoods, says Bhaskar Gautam, a researcher at Martin Chautari, a think tank in Nepal. The demonstrators wave saffron flags, a symbol of Hindu nationalism.
“The youth have become increasingly aggressive, raising anti-Muslim slogans and creating tension,” Gautam says. “They transform these neighborhoods into displays of saffron symbolism, thereby increasing communal unrest and the risk of violent clashes.”
Hindu leaders deny that they provoke violence. On the contrary, they say, Nepali people are better off because of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh.
“Our primary focus is on building individuals,” says Kalyan Timilsina, former Additional Inspector General of Police and currently the National Coordinator for Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh. “We do selfless social service and actively engage with communities.”
The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh is responsible for opening 1,032 schools across 67 remote areas, with around 300,000 students enrolled, Timilsina says. They’re Ekal schools — single-teacher facilities that operate for two hours every day with curriculum based on Hindu values that align with RSS ideology. The organization also runs 26 Pashupati Shiksha Mandirs, private religious schools, and claims to have between 270 and 280 pracharaks, people who devote their lives to the work of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, working throughout Nepal.
“It’s about developing personality and strengthening the foundation of children,” Timilsina says.
Provincial Assembly member Rahabar Ansari says the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh’s schools and other efforts are a ploy: “They enter society under the guise of social service and religion but spread division.”
The Hindu nationalists “mobilize and brainwash” youth to commit crimes, he says. “Their activities do not constitute real social service.”
But Timilsina says the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh’s work is happening in the face of adversity: “Hindus are being attacked and attempts are being made to convert them.”
Proselytizing, or taking any action that undermines another religion, is prohibited under Nepal’s Constitution. That’s a law the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh employs regularly. The organization has registered police reports and seen people prosecuted and even imprisoned, Timilsina says.
All of this plays into the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh’s goal of uniting Nepal and India.
“Geographical boundaries separate the two countries, but culturally we are the same and should remain that way,” Timilsina says.
“Guardians of Hinduism”
As RSS-backed Hindu organizations gain strength, Nepal’s government is cautious about damaging its relationship with India.
During the monarchy, the kings acted as “guardians of Hinduism,” says Gautam, the researcher.
But when the monarchy fell, Gautam says, the RSS stepped in and “intensified its efforts to build a Hindu nation.”
There is precedent for concern. In 2015, the government approved a constitution to replace an interim one. That constitution protects religious traditions practiced since “time immemorial,” while also ensuring religious and cultural freedom. It also declared Nepal a secular state.
Days after that constitution was promulgated, Nepal’s Madhesi group — who are primarily Hindu and culturally tied to India and who largely opposed the constitution — enacted a blockade, with unofficial support from the Indian government and its police force.
Though the Indian government denied any involvement, the ruling BJP party is widely understood to have influenced the Madhesis. At the same time, Indian Hindu groups pressured Nepali leaders to reconsider the notion that Nepal could be a secular country.
The Madhesis lifted the blockade — which pushed Nepal’s economy to the brink of collapse — after five months, when the constitution was amended to guarantee their increased political and economic representation.
When the RSS, and the Indian government by extension, takes a strong stand, the Nepali government worries that it could face retaliation if it doesn’t comply, says political analyst Krishna Hachhethu.
Religion or riots?
Birgunj is a city of about 270,000 people — the fifth-largest in the country — and a main border crossing with India. It was here where the 2015 blockade took effect, and here where the April riots occurred.
Now, there are near-weekly Hindu rallies, locals say.
Hindu youth enter Muslim neighborhoods under the guise of religious activities but instigate riots instead, says Mohammad Zafaran, a resident. With music blaring, he says, the rioters shout slogans: “Drive out Muslims, and let Hindustan live forever!”
It’s nonsensical, says Ali, whose shop was vandalized in April.
“The judiciary, the police, even the ministers — all are Hindus. And yet they say, ‘We feel unsafe,’” he says. “Are 81% of Hindus really afraid of just 5% of us?”
