A planned float featuring a Hindu temple at the upcoming India Day Parade in New York City has sparked controversy, with multiple groups denouncing it as anti-Muslim and demanding its removal from the event. The float depicts a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Lord Ram, built earlier this year on a site in Ayodhya, India, believed to be his birthplace. This site, however, has a deeply contested history, as it was once the location of a mosque that was demolished by a Hindu fundamentalist mob in the early 1990s.
Several U.S.-based organizations, including the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Indian American Muslim Council, and Hindus for Human Rights, have penned a letter to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, condemning the float as anti-Muslim and alleging it glorifies the mosque’s destruction. They argue that the float’s presence reflects an attempt to conflate Hindu nationalist ideology with Indian identity, contradicting India’s status as a secular nation.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, the group organizing the float, counters that it merely represents a Hindu place of worship and aims to celebrate a deity considered a significant part of Indian and Hindu identity. The Hindu American Foundation also defends the float as an exercise of free speech. The Federation of Indian Associations, responsible for organizing the Sunday parade, emphasizes that the event showcases India’s cultural diversity and will include floats representing various communities.
Mayor Adams, during a press conference, declared, “There’s no room for hate,” adding that any float or individual promoting hate should be excluded from the parade. However, his office later clarified to the Associated Press that the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech prevents the city from denying a permit or altering a float’s message simply due to disagreement with its content.
The controversy surrounding the float stems from a long-standing dispute over the land in Ayodhya. Hindus believe the site was sacred to them long before Muslim Mughals built the Babri mosque there in 1528, which was subsequently destroyed in 1992. The mosque’s destruction led to widespread riots across India, resulting in the deaths of approximately 2,000 people, primarily Muslims. In 2019, the Indian Supreme Court awarded the land to Hindus.
Human rights experts have noted an increase in attacks, including violence and discrimination, against minorities in India under the leadership of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, allegations he denies. The annual New York City India Day parade is scheduled to take place three days after India’s Independence Day.
