Sangh

This ideological web is centered around the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an almost century-old collective inspired by European-style fascism.

After her general-election victory in 2012, which made her the first Hindu American member of Congress, Gabbard continued to show up at fundraisers hosted by Sangh Parivar–affiliated organizations and by the Hindu American Foundation, a nonprofit that has explicitly lobbied American politicians on behalf of Modi’s party’s interests.

Since her entry into national politics, Tulsi Gabbard has cultivated and benefited from ties to United States chapters of the Sangh Parivar, an India-based network of Hindu nationalist advocacy organizations that attempt to influence policy in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the U.S.

Born in 1950 to a lower-caste family in western Gujarat state, as a young boy Modi joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a paramilitary, right-wing group which has long been accused of stoking hatred against Muslims.

“We never imagined that we would get power in such a way,” said Ambalal Koshti, 76, who says he first brought Modi into the political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the late 1960s in their home state, Gujarat.