Religious freedom commission urges accountability for India violators after leader’s U.S. visit

Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a prominent Hindu nationalist volunteer organization accused of targeting Christians, visited the U.S. in late August.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is calling for government officials to hold religious freedom violators in India accountable after the leader of the country’s Hindu nationalist party visited the U.S.

“Religious‑freedom conditions in India continue to deteriorate as violence and incitement are increasingly used to target minority faith communities,” USCIRF Chair Asif Mahmood said in an Aug. 26 statement, issued after Mohan Bhagwat — chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a prominent Hindu nationalist volunteer organization accused of targeting Christians — visited the United States Aug. 25–29.

“We urge the U.S. government to consider targeted sanctions against RSS members and Indian officials complicit in religious freedom violations, including revoking the visa issued to Mohan Bhagwat and making him ineligible for future entry into the United States,” Mahmood said.

Bhagwat’s tour also extended to Canada and the United Kingdom, part of the RSS’ effort to strengthen ties with overseas Hindu communities during its centenary year.

“The U.S. government has an opportunity to hold India accountable and signal that the United States stands for religious freedom for the people of India,” Vice Chair CeCe Heil said in the release. “Without this accountability, religious freedom will only deteriorate further, as vigilante mobs continue to attack religious minorities and their houses of worship under the guise of enforcing anti-conversion laws and other harmful policies.”

In a May USCIRF briefing on Capitol Hill, witnesses called for U.S. intervention to end ongoing persecution of religious minorities in India amid warnings of escalating attacks against Christians in India, including mob violence and property destruction. The Catholic population in India is about 23 million, about 1.6% of the country’s population, according to the Vatican.

USCIRF recommended in its 2026 annual report that the U.S. State Department designate India as a country of particular concern.