CARE Director shapes national conversation on Hindutva ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Aotearoa

As Aotearoa New Zealand prepares to host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 10 and 11 July, the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister in almost forty years, CARE Director Professor Mohan J Dutta’s scholarship on Hindutva has anchored the national media conversation on what the visit means for democratic life in Aotearoa.

Writing in The Post, Professor Dutta laid out the analytical foundations in his essay “What is Hindutva and why should New Zealand care?” The essay draws on over two decades of culture-centered research on Hindutva, the political ideology of Hindu nationalism, distinguishing it from Hinduism and tracing how the ideology travels through diaspora infrastructures. The piece was featured in the Democracy Project’s national news briefing as part of the lead coverage of the Modi visit.

Speaking with Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB Drive, Professor Dutta raised concerns about the “Kia Ora Modi” community reception planned at Spark Arena, organised by the Indian High Commission with some 12,000 attendees expected. He noted that the event combines ceremonial components with messaging that projects India’s arrival on the global stage as a Hindu nation, a framing that speaks directly to the mobilising registers of Hindutva.

The Post followed up by putting the question directly to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who confirmed he would attend the Spark Arena event and stated he was not concerned about Hindutva. The exchange, reported under the headline “‘Concerned about Hindutva? No’: PM will be at controversial Narendra Modi party,” registers precisely the tension Professor Dutta’s scholarship names: the mainstreaming of a supremacist political ideology through the infrastructures of trade diplomacy and community celebration.

In RNZ’s IndoNZ feature on the visit, Professor Dutta described the visit as significant and welcome, noting that the relationship between Aotearoa New Zealand and India matters and that extending manaakitanga to a visiting head of government is exactly what Aotearoa should do. The question the visit raises, he argued, is the distinction between welcoming India’s Prime Minister and platforming Hindutva. He observed that opposing Hindutva and opposing anti-Indian racism in Aotearoa require the same commitment, because both reject the idea that any community’s belonging is up for negotiation. The task, he told RNZ, is to hold two things at once: extend a full diplomatic welcome and decline to mainstream the ideology that travels with him.

Professor Dutta’s analysis also featured in Newsroom’s reporting on the political rise of Indian candidates ahead of the November election and the racist backlash they face, where he cautioned against treating Indian voters in Aotearoa as a monolith. The Indian diaspora, his research documents, is plural, spanning caste, religious, linguistic, and political differences, and this plurality is precisely what Hindutva seeks to erase.

The coverage reflects CARE’s ongoing commitment to public scholarship that builds voice infrastructures for communities at the margins, holding together the critique of Hindutva with the struggle against racism in settler colonial Aotearoa.

Coverage links

The Post — What is Hindutva and why should New Zealand care?: https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/361037019/what-hindutva-and-why-should-new-zealand-care

Newstalk ZB — Concerns raised over Hindutva event ahead of PM Narendra Modi’s visit: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/audio/mohan-dutta-massey-university-professor-and-hindutva-researcher-speaks-ahead-of-prime-minister-narendra-modis-visit/

The Post — ‘Concerned about Hindutva? No’: PM will be at controversial Narendra Modi party: https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/361038323/concerned-about-hindutva-no-pm-will-be-controversial-narendra-modi-party

RNZ — More than 10,000 expected to welcome Modi in Auckland: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/indonz_featured/660996/more-than-10-000-expected-to-welcome-modi-in-auckland

Newsroom — The political rise and racist backlash facing NZ’s Indian candidates: https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/06/the-political-rise-and-racist-backlash-facing-nzs-indian-candidates/