As Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Mohan Bhagwat took the stage at New York Metropolis’s Madison Sq. Backyard on Saturday to ship a message of “common oneness”, a gaggle of practically 90 American politicians was getting ready a unique memo: they’d not settle for political contributions from entities linked to the Hindutva organisation he leads.
The pledge, introduced Monday by Hindus for Human Rights Action and SACRED Acts, commits elected officers and candidates throughout eight American states to reject contributions related to the RSS and its associates. The signatories embody members of Congress, state legislators, mayors, native elected officers and candidates from each Democratic and Republican circles.
The six-page pledge additionally asks politicians to reject political violence and intimidation; and return cash from RSS entities and supporters or redirect it to organisations supporting democracy.
Among the many most distinguished signatories are members of the US Home of Representatives Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Ro Khanna of California and Robin Kelly of Illinois. Michigan’s newly-elected Democratic nominee for the Senate race Abdul El-Sayed was amongst those that signed on, as was New York’s Brad Lander, a Democratic congressional nominee who additionally attended protests towards Bhagwat’s speak within the metropolis on Saturday.
“I’m proud to guide on this pledge and re-assert my dedication to beat the RSS and their assaults on international democracy,” Khanna mentioned.
Returning contributions
For some politicians, the pledge was accompanied by a right away monetary motion.
On the forefront of this was Khanna, who mentioned he was returning a $6,600 contribution he not too long ago obtained “from a pro-MAGA, billionaire with ties to the RSS”.
Khanna mentioned he wouldn’t permit the RSS to “create a PAC or affect elections within the US”, he mentioned. Within the US, a PAC or political motion committee is a personal group that swimming pools cash from members, donors or workers to fund political campaigns.
Since he was elected to Congress in 2016, Khanna has had shut ties with the Hindu-American neighborhood and its advocacy teams.
Early in his political profession, for instance, he attended gatherings organised by the Hindu American Foundation.
The Hindu American Basis has opposed efforts to explicitly recognise caste discrimination in US legislation. Nonetheless, it describes itself as a nonpartisan Hindu civil-rights organisation and has denied any affiliation with the RSS.
PRESS STATEMENT| HAF has filed a reply transient within the Ninth Circuit in search of to take away procedural limitations in its case towards California’s @calcivilrights, difficult its enforcement strategy linking “caste” claims to Hinduism and Hindu, Indian, and South Asian Individuals.…
— Hindu American Basis (@HinduAmerican) April 14, 2026
Khanna has additionally obtained vital marketing campaign contributions from Hindu-American donors who’ve supported Hindutva causes.
In 2023, The Nation reported that Khanna – who pushed for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk on the American Congress that yr – obtained over $110,000 from Hindutva supporters within the US over the previous 12 years.
In response to those findings, Khanna mentioned that he had 1000’s of South Asian donors and didn’t ask every of them about their views on Indian politics.
The identical yr, Khanna took a extra cautious place on a problem that had turn into a significant fault line between Hindutva organisations and anti-caste activists: California’s Senate Bill 403.
It might have added caste as an explicitly protected class in California’s civil-rights legal guidelines. Dalit and anti-caste advocates argued that current classes didn’t adequately handle caste discrimination and that naming caste explicitly was essential to make such discrimination seen and enforceable.
Hindu-American organisations, together with the Hindu American Basis, opposed the invoice, calling it “discriminatory” and “unconstitutional”.
Khanna didn’t endorse the invoice.
When requested about it in 2023, he mentioned he “strongly opposes any type of caste discrimination” however that laws wanted to be “pretty enforced” in order that it didn’t “selectively profile any neighborhood”.
The invoice in the end handed the California state legislature however was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom in October 2023, who mentioned current protections already prohibited caste discrimination.
Days earlier than Bhagwat’s look, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the Trump administration to think about sanctions towards RSS members and to bar RSS leaders from getting into the USA. The fee’s suggestion was non-binding.
Now, the marketing campaign towards RSS affect is shifting into one other enviornment: American marketing campaign finance.
However this isn’t new.
PRESS RELEASE: India Should Be Held Accountable for Spiritual Freedom Violations https://t.co/bzY1hlUREF
— USCIRF (@USCIRF) August 26, 2026
SACRED Acts, a collective working to show “extremist South Asian American teams” within the US, launched its Nonviolence Pledge in Illinois in 2023 with the help of the Indian American Muslim Council, Asian American Midwest Progressives, India Civil Watch Worldwide and Hindus for Human Rights. Since then, practically 90 officers and candidates have signed up throughout federal, state and native races.
“Over the previous decade, in Illinois alone, people tied to the RSS have funnelled at the least $2.5 million into political campaigns throughout each events [Democratic and Republican] selling their anti-democratic, extremist agenda that doesn’t symbolize the beliefs of the overwhelming majority of South Asian Individuals,” mentioned Pushkar Sharma, the Govt Director of SACRED Acts, within the letter.
The pledge’s organisers say the problem isn’t confined as to if particular person politicians formally settle for cash from the RSS itself. Their dedication extends to associates and people they determine as related to the organisation.
Nonetheless, monitoring how such funds transfer by means of American political and social circles is troublesome.
Political donations in the USA can transfer by means of political motion committees, particular person donors, affiliated organisations and different entities. In different phrases, funds related to the RSS can’t merely be recognized by looking a politician’s campaign-finance information for the organisation’s identify.
“For much too lengthy, RSS-affiliated organisations and people have represented themselves as the one advocates for Hindu Individuals in US politics,” mentioned Ria Chakraborty, the Govt Director of Hindus for Human Rights Motion. “This pledge and its adoption by nearly 100 political leaders is a historic rebuke to the RSS’s misrepresentation of South Asian and Hindu American communities.”
Canada grievance
On the identical day as this pledge was launched, and as Bhagwat headed to the following vacation spot of his journey, Canada, a gaggle in that nation introduced actions to analyze RSS-related funding.
Just Peace Advocates, a Canadian human rights organisation, mentioned they’ve filed a grievance with the Canada Income Company asking it to look at the charitable standing of 21 registered Canadian charities. They embody the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Canada, Ekal Vidyalaya Basis of Canada, Vishwa Hindu Parishad of Ontario.
The announcement cites a examine by Sciences Po’s Center for International Research that claimed that about $46 million moved between RSS-affiliated organisations in Canada, and $21.5 million was despatched from Hindutva organisations to RSS-linked teams overseas.
