RSS was founded in the 1920s, taking direct inspiration from the original Nazi party in Germany (NSDAP), and today considers Israel as the ideal model ethnostate to achieve in India. The growing ideological, economic, and political alliance between India’s ruling class and Israel has culminated in the Indian state becoming the top purchaser of Israeli weaponry. And especially since the current Prime Minister of India came into power, the escalation of state violence and patterns of occupation and militarization — targeting Kashmiris, Muslims, Sikhs, Dalits, and Adivasis — has been modeled on the Zionist settler-colonial regime.

Zionism and Hindutva are two ethno-nationalist ideologies which are related to Nazi fascism. Both have found a home in the Euro-settler societies of the imperial core.

Recent incidents in academic spaces highlight how the RSS’ efforts to spread Hindu supremacist ideology within the U.S. imitate the overall strategy successfully utilized by Israel’s political advocates for decades. To dismiss and denounce anyone critical of Hindutva, RSS elements have begun to deploy the term “hinduphobia,” emulating the Zionist playbook of accusing anti-Zionists of being “anti-semitic.”