Gothamist: Mayor Eric Adams canceled an appearance next week in Queens with a controversial Hindu leader who for years has faced charges of fomenting anti-Muslim hate in the United States and India, where she was once jailed on charges of hate speech.
Adams was billed as the “guest of honor” in online flyers promoting the joint appearance on July 16 with Kajal Hindusthani in Fresh Meadows. The well-known Hindu activist has drawn fire for calling Muslims “bloodthirsty zombies” in a speech earlier this year. Hindusthani also faced criticism for purportedly urging Hindus to boycott Muslim businesses during an appearance in Dallas last month.
But Harshad Patel, president of the Gujarati Samaj of New York, which organized the event with a number of other local Hindu and Indian-American groups, said the mayor had agreed to attend only to pull out five days later without offering any explanation.
Mamdani’s campaign and outreach have galvanized voters in immigrant neighborhoods, leading to noticeably higher turnouts, including among segments of the 450,000 South Asians who live across the five boroughs. But those voters are no monolith. Hindu community leaders have criticized Mamdani for his rebuke of India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he’s called a “war criminal.”
In a statement to Gothamist, Mamdani said, “It’s troubling, though unsurprising, that it required scrutiny from the press and pushback from community organizations for Mayor Adams to cancel his guest of honor appearance at an event for Kajal Hindustani. We should be bringing New Yorkers together, not stoking division.”
Hindusthani, who also goes by the name of Kajal Shingala, according to her personal website, promoted the event on social media, with an image of herself alongside that of Adams and a brief comment: “New York… I am coming.” She did not respond to messages seeking comment.
The July 10 letter, signed by Hindus for Human Rights, India Civil Watch International, the Indian American Muslim Council, Riverside Church and Islamic Center of Long Island, among other groups, stated that Hindusthani “owns the dubious record of giving more hate speeches in 2023 than any other Hindu supremacist figure.”
According to Indian news reports, Indian authorities arrested Hindusthani on charges of “wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot” and “deliberate or malicious act intending to outrage religious feelings,” after a communal clash erupted following a speech she gave in 2023. But she has also courted controversy in the United States.
Dheepa Sundaram, an assistant professor of Hindu Studies at Denver University, said Hindusthani’s past statements related to Muslims “appeal to a particular segment of the broader South Asian community in the United States, but particularly in New York, where we’ve seen a small plurality of folks that have expressed these kinds of thoughts about Zohran Mamdani.”
Zainab Tanvir, the co-director of the New York chapter of Muslims for Progressive Values, a signatory of the letter to Adams, said Hindusthani’s appearance in New York exacerbated religious tensions in the city and placed Muslim New Yorkers at risk.
