Voice of the Hindu Right: Kajal Hindusthani’s Rise and the Political Firestorm in New York

In the sweltering heat of July 2025, New York City’s political landscape was thrust into a new controversy when Mayor Eric Adams abruptly canceled his scheduled appearance at a Queens event featuring Kajal Hindusthani, a Hindu activist whose inflammatory rhetoric has sparked outrage across religious communities in both the United States and India.

The Canceled Appearance

According to reporting by Arun Venugopal of Gothamist, Adams was initially billed as the “guest of honor” for a July 16 event in Fresh Meadows, Queens, organized by the Gujarati Samaj of New York alongside other local Hindu and Indian-American groups. The event was part of the organization’s 50th anniversary celebrations, and Adams had attended similar gatherings in the past, including Diwali celebrations.

However, five days after agreeing to attend, Adams withdrew from the event without explanation, according to Harshad Patel, president of the Gujarati Samaj of New York. City Hall staffer Zachary Nosanchuk would only confirm that the event was not on Adams’ official schedule and that the mayor did not endorse Hindusthani’s views.

Who is Kajal Hindusthani?

Kajal Hindusthani, who also goes by the name Kajal Shingala according to her personal website, has emerged as one of the most controversial figures in contemporary Hindu nationalism. She identifies herself as an entrepreneur, research analyst, debater, social activist, and nationalist and a ‘proud Indian’ on her Twitter bio and has more than 92,000 followers including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and is a regular at events organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Outlook India reported.

The Hindu activist has drawn international attention for her inflammatory statements targeting Muslims. The well-known Hindu activist has drawn fire for calling Muslims “bloodthirsty zombies” in a speech earlier this year. Hindusthani also faced criticism for purportedly urging Hindus to boycott Muslim businesses during an appearance in Dallas last month, according to Gothamist’s reporting.

Hindusthani’s controversial statements extend beyond recent speeches. In a 2021 Instagram video, she alleged that young Muslim men “get money from the madrasa to entrap Hindu girls” into marriage, using the term for an Islamic school. “You get trapped with these jihadis and in the end, you will either be found chopped up in a suitcase or burnt alive or according to New York Focus.

Her activities have not gone unnoticed by hate speech monitoring organizations. A coalition of more than two dozen local community organizations from the South Asian diaspora and the city’s interfaith network issued a letter citing a report from the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C. 

The letter, as reported by Gothamist, stated that Hindusthani “owns the dubious record of giving more hate speeches in 2023 than any other Hindu supremacist figure.”

The report noted that Hindusthani “delivered an anti-Muslim hate speech” in India claiming that “Muslim fruit vendors and eateries were injecting medicines that were increasingly rendering Hindus impotent and infertile.”

Legal Troubles in India

Hindusthani’s rhetoric has led to legal consequences in India.’ Gujarat Court Sends Right Wing Activist Kajal Hindusthani To 14-day Judicial Custody’ was the headline from Outlook India in January 2024, following her arrest on charges of hate speech.

“Hindu community leaders have criticized Mamdani for his rebuke of India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he’s called a ‘war criminal.’”

According to Indian news reports cited in the Gothamist story, Indian authorities arrested Hindusthani on charges of “wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot” and “deliberate or malicious act intending to outrage religious feelings,” after a communal clash erupted following a speech she gave in 2023.

Community Response

The controversy occurs against the backdrop of New York City’s increasingly diverse South Asian political landscape. The city’s upcoming mayoral race features Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblymember and Muslim who won last month’s Democratic primary, running against Adams, who is running as an independent.

The political dynamics have created unprecedented tensions within New York’s 450,000-strong South Asian community. As the Gothamist report notes, “Hindu community leaders have criticized Mamdani for his rebuke of India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he’s called a ‘war criminal.’”

The Hindusthani’s planned appearance sparked immediate backlash from interfaith and civil rights organizations. The July 10 letter was signed by Hindus for Human Rights, India Civil Watch International, the Indian American Muslim Council, Riverside Church and Islamic Center of Long Island, among other groups.

Zainab Tanvir, the co-director of the New York chapter of Muslims for Progressive Values, told Gothamist that Hindusthani’s appearance in New York exacerbated religious tensions in the city and placed Muslim New Yorkers at risk. “The hateful ideology promoted by Kajal Hindusthani does not exist in a vacuum — it actively contributes to an atmosphere of bigotry that endangers lives,” Tanvir said.

Sunita Viswanath, the executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, expressed deep concern about the “level of vitriol” being injected into the mayoral race. “I’m very ashamed and I’m very worried,” Viswanath told Gothamist. “It really behooves the person running the city to really pour water on the hate right now.”

Dheepa Sundaram, an assistant professor of Hindu Studies at Denver University, provided context for Hindusthani’s appeal, telling Gothamist that her statements “appeal to a particular segment of the broader South Asian community in the United States, but particularly in New York, where we’ve seen a small plurality of folks that have expressed these kinds of thoughts about Zohran Mamdani.”

The controversy surrounding Hindusthani’s planned appearance reflects broader tensions within New York’s diverse South Asian community and the increasing politicization of religious identity in American politics. As Democratic political strategist Amit Singh Bagga noted in the Gothamist report, “If you’re the mayor of New York City, you know what’s going on in India. It’s just not credible that you would accept such an invitation without having had at least a couple of people vet it first.”

Despite Adams’ withdrawal from the event, the controversy has highlighted the challenges facing political leaders in navigating the complex religious and political dynamics within immigrant communities, particularly as hate speech and religious tensions continue to influence electoral politics in one of America’s most diverse cities.

The incident serves as a reminder of how local political decisions can intersect with international religious and political conflicts, forcing American politicians to grapple with the global implications of their local community engagements.