Har Har ‘Thames’: Hindutva's Performance of Religion Abroad

On September 13, London witnessed a baffling event – visuals of Ganga aarti on the river Thames. Chinmaya Mission UK organised an event, ‘Ganga Aarti on the Thames: A ceremony of Light’, at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. The night was a collaborative event with Totally Thames 2026, an annual celebration of the river with a wide range of activities including arts, environmental initiatives, and heritage, cultural and educational programmes.

A sizeable crowd gathered in the area to offer prayers, drawn by the promise of celebrating culture on a foreign land. The Chinmaya Mission planned and advertised the event as bringing the old Vedic ritual of offering prayers to Ganga Mata (Mother Ganges) to the river Thames.

The worship of the Ganges originated from both its religious significance (its mythological origin from the head of Shiva) and practical necessity (its role in supporting civilisations along its banks). Performing the same ritual on a river with no such significance cannot be viewed in isolation. I wonder if more than an act of worship, it is an act of assertion. A loud, deliberate performance of an inclusive and progressive Hindu identity gift-wrapped for the global stage.

The Chinmaya Mission is known to facilitate a range of religious events. While it appears to celebrate culture, history rarely makes it to the flyer. Swami Chinmayananda, founder of the Chinmaya Mission, was also a co-founder of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right-wing Hindutva platform. The VHP is a hyper-nationalist organisation that is often accused of violence against minorities (Muslims and Dalits), moral policing and inciting communal crimes.

Among the lamps and music, this discriminatory politics of Hindutva is what the soft culture stands on. A Ganga aarti on the Thames is not independent from that ideology.

The cultural context for the occasion – sold in London as “an evening open to all — no background, belief, or prior practice required” – is also exclusionary in its reality. Signs reading ‘non-Hindu prohibited’ on the ghats of Haridwar, Muslims being arrested for eating chicken biryani on a boat in Varanasi, Dalits being confined generation after generation to the task of cremation on the ghats, tell a very different story of the Ganga. The one that Hindutva actually practices – policed and hierarchical.

Hindutva's danger lies precisely in this selective politics of being inclusive abroad and discriminatory at home, paired with a record of violence. The hypocrisy is hard to miss – taking pride in celebrating a Hindu festival on foreign soil as an example of inclusiveness while continuing to scrutinise Muslim citizens at home over their religious practices.

The controversy around the kanwad yatra, a pilgrimage centred around the Ganga, on requiring food stall owners along the route to display their names, as a way to identify and exclude Muslim vendors, is yet another example of this selective sacredness.

The complexities develop precisely when the two clash, where the polished, inclusive version meets the real exclusionary reality.

The system of oppression is not confined to India. Caste discrimination has been documented within the diaspora communities in the UK, US and elsewhere, from workplace bias to social exclusion. The recent case of BAPS in Paris is another crucial example.

Days after Prime Minister Modi virtually inaugurated the new BAPS temple outside Paris, a delegation from the organisation made a visit to the Eiffel Tower where female staff were reportedly instructed to leave or avoid certain areas. This discrimination led the employees to strike and the landmark to shut down entirely for a whole day. The same organisation was accused of exploiting Dalit labour in New Jersey.

These incidents are not isolated; they are consequences of allowing forms of injustice, once embedded in culture, travel across borders without being challenged. Hindutva creeping into the global diaspora has only made the problem more serious. Caste hierarchies and gender discrimination gain legitimacy from the rigid religious and political structure that Hindutva promotes.

The Ganges in India chokes on pollution and toxicity, but the performative ritual of worshipping it symbolically thrives overseas. One of the largest and most culturally significant rivers of India is a paradox of purity and pollution today.

“No items, including flowers, idols or offerings — will be placed in the River Thames during or after the ceremony,” the event flyer mentioned in bold letters. Comparing that to rituals as practiced on Indian banks, where flowers, idols and offerings are routinely tipped into the river, the contradiction goes beyond civic sense. The performance of symbolically worshiping the sanctity and purity of a river overseas while showing no urgency to save it at home is alarming.

With many people having attended the event, the growing attachment of the diaspora to religious events abroad while keeping a blind eye to the situation in India is proof of the insidious effect that the selective politics surrounding Hindutva can have. The idea of religion, of the Ganga, one that is celebrated and sold abroad, is not the one followed at home.

Culture, as they say, travels easily. It assimilates, becomes convenient when needed. Caste identity does not, non-Hindu signage does not, gender roles do not. As one lives in a rigged society, the question we must ask is whether we will confront the biased and violent politics of Hindutva or simply just repackage it for the world, until it is too late to realise the danger it brings along.

Raman holds a degree in media, communication and development from LSE. Her master's research explored how the media participates in the Hinduisation of Dalit identity and its implications for caste consciousness. She currently works with children with special needs.

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