Does Britain really have a Hindu extremism problem?

The report suggests that British Hindu extremists are allying themselves with the far right, interfering with British elections and stoking tensions with Sikh and Muslim communities. It follows a Home Office report that called Hindutva – a form of extreme Hindu nationalism – an ‘extremism of concern’. This movement supposedly helped spark the clashes and rioting in Leicester between Hindus and Muslims back in 2022. But how worried should we be? Does Britain really have a Hindutva problem?

Hindutva is certainly a potent ideology in India, with prime minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pushing parts of its agenda. Indeed, Modi’s BJP is the political wing of a hard-right Hindutva group called Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The rise of Hindutva has impacted religious minorities within India, such as Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, and there are regular outbursts of violence between Hindu extremists and other religious groups. In 2002, intercommunal riots, triggered by the murder of 60 Hindu pilgrims, resulted in over a thousand people killed, most of them Muslim.

Outside of India, however, Hindutva ideology doesn’t pose anywhere near the same threat. The Indian government has boasted of its willingness to assassinate its critics abroad, and has been linked to the death of a Sikh pro-Khalistan nationalist in Canada. However, none of this means Hindutva is a pressing danger to the UK or that British Hindus are wedded to this ideology. Certainly, no one could reasonably compare Hindutva with the problem of Islamist extremism, which time and again the British state fails to properly tackle.

When it comes to domestic terrorism, the main threat comes from Islamism, which comprises three-quarters of MI5’s terror caseload. ‘Extreme right-wing’ terrorism represents around a quarter. Referrals to Prevent, the UK’s de-radicalisation programme, also provide an indication of the various threats our country faces. Data for 2023-24 show 19 per cent of referrals were related to the ‘extreme right wing’ and 13 per cent were ‘regarding Islamist extremism’. Incel-related extremism also appears among referrals highlighted. But Hindutva does not feature.

In fact, Hindus are underrepresented in all types of crime. Government statistics up to March 2024 indicate that Hindus make up two per cent of the general population in England and Wales, but there are only around 350 prisoners who identify as Hindu – a proportion so low that the Home Office lists this as ‘zero per cent’ of prisoners.

Despite this, the idea that Hindutva is a significant threat to the UK seems to be pervasive in security circles. Just as in the NPCC report, the Hindu-Muslim Leicester riots are routinely cited as evidence for this. But this is disputed, too. A 2022 Henry Jackson Society report by Charlotte Littlewood found that protesters from the Hindu side had no clear links to the RSS or BJP. Moreover, most were largely unaware of Indian politics in general.

That disorder, it appears, was more likely to have been triggered by complaints about anti-social behaviour among a more recent wave of Indian migrants, as well as by tensions after an India vs Pakistan cricket match. These tensions were then amplified by the dissemination of disinformation. In parliament last month, Conservative MP Bob Blackman noted that, although the leaked NPCC report ‘blamed Hindu extremism’, ‘during the [Leicester] riots, 105 Hindu homes were attacked, but no Muslim homes, and two Hindu temples were attacked, but no mosques’.

The NPCC report also points to a chant popular among Hindutva activists, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ (‘Hail Lord Ram’) as creating tensions between Hindus and the Muslim and Sikh communities, particularly when ‘used to assert religious dominance’. But the context is important here. The chant was indeed used by Hindus in Leicester (just as ‘Allahu Akbar’ was used by Muslims), but it is by no means an indication of extremist leaning. In fact, it is routinely used by British Hindus while praying, as a greeting or during religious festivals.

Another unconvincing claim made in the NPCC report is that Hindutva activists have been interfering in British elections. Apparently, during the 2019 General Election, Britain’s Hindu community was targeted on WhatsApp and instructed not to vote for Labour, but for the Conservatives instead. Behind this campaign, the report says, were Modi supporters who saw then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as anti-Hindu. Whatever the truth of these claims, this can hardly be said to constitute a major threat to security or election integrity. A few anti-Labour WhatsApp messages shouldn’t be keeping intelligence chiefs awake at night.

Tensions between British Indians and Pakistanis could easily swell again following the jihadist attack in Pahalgam in Kashmir, which is certainly cause for concern. But the idea that Hindutva ideology is a threat comparable to either Islamism or the far right isn’t just wrong – it’s reckless. The British state is already struggling to address the genuinely lethal threats to our national security – like Islamist terrorism and violent, unstable killers like Axel Rudakubana. Pursuing phantom threats will only make matters worse.

Hardeep Singh is a writer based in London. Follow him on X: @singhtwo2