On November 27, Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF), a Hindu supremacist group based in Frisco, Texas which is a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit organization, organized a fundraiser, among other causes, for forced religious conversions of Christians and demolishing churches in Tirupati, a city in the southern part of India.

GHHF adheres to Hindu supremacism, a political ideology also known as Hindu nationalism/Hindutva. Rooted in the European fascist movement of the 1930s, the Hindutva ideology seeks to transform India into an ethnoreligious nation known as the Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation), where religious minorities, especially Christians, are oppressed and reduced to second-class citizens.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) follow Hindutva ideology. BJP is the political offshoot of 100-year-old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a fascist paramilitary group that is the progenitor of Hindutva ideology.

GHHF eulogizes RSS and shares a common vision of decimating Indian Christians. And towards that end, since its inception in 2000, the group has been spewing anti-Christian venom, sending money to India for forced conversion of Christians and Muslims, advocating for demolishing churches, stripping their minority status as well as making blasphemous remarks against Jesus Christ

And GHHF is not alone in this. On its website, the group shares admiration for other US-based Hindu supremacist groups like Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh (US wing of RSS), Hindu American Foundation (HAF), Sewa International and Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA). HSS, VHPA, and Sewa International are international affiliates of RSS. HAF was started by one of the members of VHPA.

GHHF President Prakasrao Velagapudi was invited to deliver a keynote at Hindu Mandir Executive Conference organized by VHPA. In September 2022, GHHF President Prakasrao Velagapudi was invited to deliver a keynote at Hindu Mandir Executive Conference organized by VHPA, where he gave a hateful and disinformation-filled speech, targeting religious minorities and falsely claiming that Hindus in India are being “attacked, stabbed and suffocated.

Ohio State senator Niraj Antani, an outspoken supporter of Hindu nationalism, attended and was a co-speaker at the event.

GHHF works closely with officials of the Indian government and the members of the RSS to push their interests in the US and rally the Hindu Americans behind the Hindu nationalist agenda.

In April 2022, the GHHF president met Ram Madhav, the National Executive Member of RSS, and former General Secretary of BJP, Ram Madhav in Dallas during a programme organized by the local chapter of HSS to garner support for the Indian government. Velagapudi held a closed-door meeting with Madhav to brief him about his anti-minority projects in India.

In June 2022, GHHF hosted an event with Sri Jaya Kumar, an RSS leader. Can wespreading In October 2022, GHHF collaborated with Sewa International to organize an event in Dallas. Earlier in 2015, GHHF gave Sanatana Dharma Excellency Award to Sridhar Talanki, Board Member of Sewa International. GHHF also works with the Overseas Friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party (OFBJP-USA), the registered foreign agent of India’s ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the US. GHHF has hosted India-based Hindu supremacist and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy several times for events in various states across the US. The group in coordination with OF BJP Dallas chapter organized an event for Swamy in 2015.

History of spreading anti-Christian hate and bigotry

The Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF) has an extensive history of hate speech against Christians, as well as intolerance for Christian practices and beliefs. Combined with fear-mongering propaganda claims that Indian Hindus are under attack and that Hinduism’s future is in danger, GHHF uses this narrative to attract donors, gain support from other US-based Hindu supremacists, whip up communal sentiments against minorities and implement various anti-minority programs in India.

GHHF’s Activities and Accomplishments July to December 2020 post summarizes their mission: “Global Hindu Heritage Foundation is working closely with likeminded people to do two things to stop the Christian menace: 1. Stop the conversion of innocent Hindus into other religions, [and] 2. Welcome back those who were converted to Christianity through deception, force, fear, and allurement.”

A thorough exploration of GHHF’s website, which has posts dating back to 2002, reveals that similar anti-Christian and anti-Muslim rhetoric has been a consistent theme for the past several years.

In dozens of articles on their website, GHHF expresses hatred for Christians and Christianity. Prakasarao Velagapudi, president of GHHF and main writer for its website, frequently describes Christians as “exploitative,” associating them with “cruelty, hatred, deception, and brainwashing.” Several articles paint Christianity as uniquely oppressive, sexist, and violent, attempting to back up their claims by quoting critics of Christianity and Bible verses out of context.

In December 2020, Prakasrao Velagapudi, president of the GHHF, in an interview, said that Christianity spreads “through deception, force, killings, rapes, torture, stoning, insulting other faiths, attacking other religious God images and Places of worship.” In another article, he said that the “Bible is full of hateful verses and commands stoning to death their own rebellious children.”

The same year, GHHF hosted an event in Plano, Texas, where the group called for stripping Christians of their minority status and the benefits associated with it.

In September 2022, GHHF published an article on its website calling Jesus “vicious, detestable, despicable, angry, wrathful, hateful, and a killer.”

“Christianity practiced in India is an insult to humanity. It is the most violent, ridiculous, and bloody religion ever infected the earth,” the article reads.

Notably, in September 2022, GHHF posted a two-part article series demonizing Christianity. In the first article, which includes “[Jesus’] wrath, hatred, killings and intolerance toward Idol worship, parents and humanity” as part of the title, GHHF makes the following claims:

“[Anybody] who reads Bible, he will never be a Christian… The Bible is so nasty… [it] is filled with cruelty, murder, plunder, debauchery, obscenity, offensive (sic), and torture. Christianity made many people illogical, irrational, and less objective… I call it mankind’s single immortal blemish.”

“Christianity hates and abhors Hinduism. Every day, Christians talk about converting mostly illiterate, ignorant, selfish Hindus into Christianity to wipe out Hinduism. If we look at all three major religions, Hinduism talks about [nonviolence], tolerance, forgiveness, love, mutual respect, pluralism, freedom and independence. Other two religion [Islam and Christianity] speak about destruction, rape, killing, stoning to death, deception, allurement, breaking the idols, killing the nonbelievers and converting Hindus to their fold.”

In the second article, titled “Did JESUS forgive or promote Rapes, destruction, Addiction, stoning to death, hatred, etc.,” GHHF makes several more derogatory comments about Jesus:

“Jesus says that he came only to create division, enmity and hatred. He came with [a] sword to create havoc in the society. He wanted to create divisions in the family – daughters against mothers; sons against fathers and so on.”

“[Jesus] is not an embodiment of love, compassion and a forgiven personality, but he is vicious, detestable, despicable, angry, wrathful, hateful, and a killer.”

In a video titled “Is Christianity a Tolerant Religion?” Velagapudi bashes Christian police officers in India’s Andhra Pradesh state, saying, “They should be punished by appropriate authorities for celebrating Christmas with police uniform on the police station grounds.”

“Police Officers are either lying about Jesus, deceiving people to accept Jesus, concealing the hatred toward Hinduism or they have not read the Bible. Like others they may have been either bribed or forced. If they read the Bible in total, they would not make such foolish statements saying that Jesus epitomizes peace and tolerance,” Velagapudi said.

Other posts with anti-Christian rhetoric include a video claiming the Christianization of Andhra Pradesh state, an event titled “Why Christianity’s Days Are Numbered,” and another event titled “Why Christian Conversions are a Threat to Hinduism.” The description for the latter promises an explanation of “what goes on in the Churches, how they attract the Hindus, tactics used to convert Hindus, Bible passages that they use to convert, methods used to retain the converted Christians to remain in their fold and aggressive attempts to expand their bases.”

Anti-Muslim Hate & Bigotry 

GHHF has posted a number of articles dedicated to hate speech against Islam and Muslims. Several of these posts make the claim that Hinduism cannot coexist with Islam.

In 2015, a year after Modi was elected as Indian Prime Minister, GHHF posted a 2-part article series lambasting President Barack Obama for “equat[ing] tolerant Hinduism with intolerant, violent Christianity and Islam.” 

In response to a statement made by President Obama, “No religion is responsible for terrorism — people are responsible for violence and terrorism,” GHHF poses several Islamophobic and anti-Christian claims:

“If religion is not responsible and only people are responsible, then why did he say that ‘India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along lines of religious faith, splintered along any lines and it is unified as one nation??’  If he believes that religion is not responsible for terrorism, then why did he not say that India will succeed as long as it is not splintered along lines of people who are responsible for violence and terror?”

“Second question is why would anybody resort to terrorism and violence? They must have read somewhere, and learned somewhere. Or they must have been taught somewhere. Since Muslims go to mosques and listen to the Mullahs about what is written in their HOLY QURAN, it is only logical to assume that whatever is written in Quran is the source of their belief that translated into action – violence, terror, torture, beheading and killing.”

“It is unfortunate, outrageous, deceptive, prejudiced, unwarranted and totally misleading to imply that Hinduism is involved in acts of intolerance… President Obama is failing in his responsibility to clearly look at the horrific history of the Abrahamic religions and to equate them with Hinduism, the most tolerant religion the humanity has ever seen or experienced.” 

In 2016, GHHF posted a 4-part article series calling for India to implement a “Two-Nation Theory or Declare Benign Dictatorship” to prevent a “Hindu Holocaust.” 

GHHF justified its overtly fascist stance by quoting a number of Islamophobic or Orientalist authors and politicians. The articles contain the following quotes:

“It is time to discuss, debate and dialogue the consequences of appeasement policies toward Muslims… Hindus being silent, indifferent, tend to postpone the discussion and they are unable to publicly name the Muslims as the enemies of democracy, as terrorists, and as the traitors of India.”

“Hindus must recognize that Islam and Hinduism are incompatible in their ideologies, values, practices, human rights, inclusiveness, women’s rights, tolerance toward each other, marriage customs, and democratic principles.” 

“Islam would not recognize the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and it is incompatible with the human rights, dignity and respect. Unless these rights are couched in Islamic doctrine, they are unacceptable.  In fact, Muslims have no rights; Quran emphasizes only the obligations to his Allah.”

In an article series posted in May 2020, titled “Muslim menace decimating secular India,” Part 1 and Part 2, GHHF claims that Islamic’s ideals are “terror, intolerance, injustice, and authoritarianism based on Allah’s teachings” and that Hindus are at risk of a “genocide.”

In addition to echoing common Hindutva propaganda about Muslims enjoying government “appeasement” for centuries, the articles contain the following quotes:

“Our utter failure to name the Islam as the enemy of the humanity, our inability to quell the rising terrorism, our intentional overlooking of the verses in Quran which advocated the killing of nonbelievers, failure to recognize the Islamic intention of breaking India into three Muslim countries, incapability to enforce the law to stop the incessant atrocities committed against Hindus, and our powerlessness to enforce uniform civil code, are only a few examples that will inspire Muslims to commit even more heinous crimes against Hindu lives than before.”

“It is the ideology of Muslims to dominate the whole world into Islamic countries through their sword and by their numbers. People in India would soon have to decide either to be killed or to be converted. Hindus will soon witness a blood bath that might pale the genocide of Hindus during partition. Once this rampage starts there is no place for Hindus either to hide or flee.”

Similar rhetoric is repeated multiple times throughout both articles, implying that GHHF’s leadership believes Islam to be anti-Hindu due to its monotheistic values. Claims about Muslims seeking world dominance are paired with out-of-context verses of the Quran and quotes from religious extremists to appear more credible. 

During the height of the pandemic in 2020, GHHF wrote a statement of outrage over non-Indian Muslim travelers who were allowed to quarantine in a temple: 

“Hindu religion and Islamic religion are totally different. One stands for violence… They despise Hinduism, desecrate Hindu Gods, destroy Hindu Temples, vowed to convert India into an Islamic Country, swore to kill Hindus in few minutes without police interference, and promised to wage jihad against Hindus.”

“Any negative words like killing, burning, strike of heads, etc., you find in Quran may have created many negative vibrations in one of the most sacred place for Hindus… By selecting only Hindu Temple Guest houses for Muslim who believe in annihilation of non-believers, you may be accepting, either knowingly or unknowingly, their method of treating Hindus as Kafirs to be sacrificed.”

In July 2022, GHHF posted a defense of Hindu supremacist icon V. D. Savarkar, who was an open supporter of fascism, Hitler, Nazism, and the Holocaust. 

Anti-Christian Campaigns in India

Despite expressing hatred for Christian missionaries, GHHF regularly holds its own mission trips throughout India, including in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, and Tamil Nadu. The main purpose of these trips is “Ghar Wapasi,” or to forcibly convert Christians and Muslims to Hinduism.

While missionary trips from any faith group are not inherently dangerous, GHHF explicitly states that they view conversions away from Hinduism as a threat to Hindu people as a whole. One post from 2020 states: “As you are all aware, Hindu population is declining due to massive Christian efforts to convert as many people as possible.”

Another post claims: “Unless we concentrate on the ground level and know the extent of conversion going on, we may be blinded by lack of information about the facts and how rampant Christian menace is spreading in certain areas. Your support will at least blunt the Christian efforts and bring back those who left us without realizing the damage to their family members and how Christianity creates divisions among their relatives.”

Thus, GHHF uses hate speech and fear-mongering to target Christians in rural areas – many of whom converted to Christianity to escape the Hindu caste system.

In January 2020, GHHF began a campaign to ban Christian nurses from working in a hospital in Andhra Pradesh state.

“On January 10, 2020, GHHF submitted the names of the Christian employees working at BIRRD hospital… to see that they are removed from their positions. No action has been taken to investigate the authenticity of their faith and did not take any action to terminate their employment.”

The campaign remains ongoing in 2022. In a follow-up petition, GHHF reiterated this demand: “Please implement what was discussed and adopt a strategy to identify the Christians and remove them from being employed… Investigate the faith of the Christians, the names of which we provided to your office and terminate them immediately if they are practicing Christianity.”

In January 2022, GHHF stopped a Dalit Christian from benefitting from India’s reservation system. India’s current laws seek to punish Dalits who have converted away from Hinduism to escape the caste system by denying them government benefits. GHHF claimed that the individual was “abusing” the reservation system, despite the fact that Dalits of all faiths remain the most underprivileged groups in India.

The same month, GHHF went to Sri Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna temple at Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh state and met temple officials seeking the expulsion of Muslim vendors from outside the temple. The GHHF involved local police and got 13 shops belonging to Muslims closed.

In April 2022, GHHF posted that their workers had stopped missionaries from visiting patients in a public hospital and “chased them out.” Later in the month, GHHF workers convinced Hindu residents of a rural village to put up a sign saying “Only Hindus Live Here” in response to Christian missionaries, who are labeled by GHHF as “aggressive” and “menaces.”

In May 2022, GHHF erected another anti-minority signboard in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district, reading, “Hindus only Live Here. Non-Hindu Missionary Activities are Prohibited.” Christians were then chased out of the village.

The same month, GHHF submitted a memorandum to a district head in Sonabarighat, Assam state to close down slaughterhouses in various areas including Muslim localities.

In September 2022, GHHF held a Ghar Wapasi (forced religious conversion) in a city in Andhra Pradesh state, during which 44 Christians were converted to Hinduism and then told to show hostility to other Christians.

“[They were told,] if they are coming to convert our Hindus, we should drive them away. We should not even allow them to talk about their religion… All of them said they would protect [Hinduism] and would resist the Christian aggression,” recounts a post on the event.

The same month, GHHF submitted a letter to the chief of the Sri Hanuman Temple in Telangana state not to allow any Christians and Muslims to bid to operate shops in front of the temple and threatened them with mass Hindu protest if they were allowed.

In October 2022, GHHF workers in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam city shut down the use of loudspeakers in all six of the city’s churches by claiming noise pollution, calling local police on church authorities, and rounding up Hindu residents to sign a petition claiming that hearing church prayers caused “inconvenience” and “health problems.” Pastors were also forced to write letters stating that they would “never use the loudspeakers, never inconvenience the people, and would not disturb peace” – broad terms that can easily be weaponized by Hindu supremacist groups over minor issues.

GHHF also encourages vigilantism against Muslims. The organization has made a number of posts encouraging cow vigilantism, which often results in the public beatings and mob lynchings of Muslim men, by labeling it as a “war against cow butchers.” GHHF also lauds Hindu extremists’ move to ban the broadcasting of the Muslim call to prayer in a number of states across India. 

Also in October 2022, GHHF urged authorities in Andhra Pradesh’s Tirupati city to label churches as “illegal” and “demolish” them “as per [the] law.” While GHHF attempts to frame this campaign as a matter of law and order, anti-Christian rhetoric is prominent throughout its article detailing the campaign.

“As you know, there are more than one hundred churches operating in Tirupati. Why would Hindus and Hindu organizations allow the sacred city to be filled with churches who demean Hindu Gods day in, day out?” the post asks.

In November 2022, GHHF held a fundraiser in Frisco, TX, with the intent of sending funds to demolish churches in India. Though the fundraiser has been widely condemned by US-based civil rights groups and Indian American Christians, GHHF has continued to defend its anti-Christian campaign.

GHHF Board of Directors:

Satya Dosapati; Vinay Boppana; Murali Alloju MD ; Veeraiah Choudary Perni MD; Vishnu Kalidindi MD; Srivas Chebrolu MD; Avadesh Agarwal; Sudheer Gurram MD; Rajendrarao Gavini MD; Srinath Vattam MD; Ravi Gandhi, Ramadevi Vadali; Kishore Kancharla; Ranjith Kumar Rikkala; Satish Kodeboyina; Dr. Ghazal Srinivas

GHHF Dallas Team:

Srinivas Pamidimukkala; Sitaram Panchagnula; Vasanth Suri ; Phani Aduri; Konda Srikanth; Siva Agnoor