Modi’s Hindu Nationalism is a Threat to International Peace

Violence abroad cannot but have roots in violence at home

Part III of our mini-series on Kurt Campbell is coming, but first, assassination, man. SMH.

You may have seen some shocking news that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just accused the Narendra Modi government in India of playing a role in the June 18 assassination of Singh Nijjar, an ethnically Sikh Canadian citizen on Canadian soil (gunned down in British Columbia).

Trudeau said:

Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the Government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Trudeau says he had words with Modi on the sidelines of the G-20 recently, an event that did not seem to go well for anyone—especially India. He went on to warn that:

Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty. It is contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open and democratic societies conduct themselves.

What’s shocking here is not Indian state violence, but rather that 1) Canada is calling India out on its bullshit, and 2) the Cold Warriors of the Anglosphere didn’t see Indian violence coming one way or another.

As I’ve said many times, Modi’s brand of ethnonationalism—which Arundati Roy and others describe as Hindu fascism—is violent and repressive. The Modi regime’s track record is much longer than even China’s at this point, and is part of the emergence of a global far right, which represents one of the greatest security problems in our time.

India, in short, may just be a revisionist power. And not only does the United States fail to recognize the problem—its “great-power competition” with China makes the situation worse.

Let me explain.