Audrey Truschke: A Demagogue With A Megaphone

News18

17-07-2025

Last Updated:
With Professor Audrey Truschke's latest work -- 'India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent' -- now in circulation, the stakes have never been higher
On the streets of New York, Audrey Truschke — then Assistant Professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University — stood with a megaphone and declared to a crowd: 'Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his political party, the BJP, openly adhere to Hindutva."
She then launched into her historical comparison: 'Hindutva came about roughly 100 years ago… It was inspired in its early days by Nazism. Did I say Nazis? Yeah, I said Nazis." She emphasised: 'I want to be clear that I am talking about real, actual, historical Nazis."
Then came the most inflammatory claim: 'Early Hindutva espousers openly admired Hitler… They praised Hitler's treatment of the Jewish people in Germany as a good model for dealing with India's Muslim minority."
With this inflammatory rhetoric, she branded India's ruling BJP and its adherence to Hindutva as Nazi-like — by extension tarring the hundreds of millions of Indians who democratically elected this government, as fascists. It wasn't scholarship; it was street theatre designed to demonise an entire community. For Hindus across America, this wasn't just academic discourse — it was public vilification. To rub salt into the wound, the department of history at Rutgers gleefully posted Truschke's diatribe on their Facebook feed with the endorsement: 'That's what we call public history."
Now, with her latest book India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent hitting shelves this month, Truschke's troubling methodology is reaching an even wider audience. The timing couldn't be more urgent for examining what happens when academic platforms become weapons of ideological warfare.
THE HITLER ANALOGY: HISTORY STRIPPED OF CONTEXT
Truschke's accusation draws from a controversial passage in We or Our Nationhood Defined, published in March 1939 and attributed to MS Golwalkar of the RSS. The reality is more complex than her megaphone moment suggests.
The book wasn't authored by Golwalkar but paraphrased and translated by him. The historical context matters crucially: in 1939, the full extent of Nazi atrocities against Jews was not yet known. The Holocaust — the systematic extermination of six million Jews — wouldn't begin until 1941. For many colonised peoples worldwide, including some Indians, Hitler was viewed primarily as an enemy of Britain — their colonial oppressor.
To draw parallels between Hindutva and Hitler isn't just inflammatory — it's a moral inversion of history that anachronistically applies knowledge of the Holocaust to judge a misattributed quote from an earlier period — and then use that nearly 100-year-old aside to define a contemporary political movement. This is not academic history; it is political pamphleteering.
A PATTERN OF DISTORTION
This isn't an isolated incident. Truschke's 2017 book Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King whitewashes a well-documented record of temple destruction, discriminatory taxation, and forced conversions. Despite abundant evidence from Aurangzeb's own firmans (imperial decrees) documenting systematic iconoclasm and forced conversion of Hindus, she claims he 'simply left temples alone" and was a protector of Hindus, dismissing documented destructions as merely following 'an Indian stance dating back, at least, to the Chalukyas and Pallavas".
This false equivalency ignores a crucial theological distinction. When Aurangzeb's contemporary sources praise him for hitting against the 'infidels" and spreading Islam through 'holy war," these aren't political calculations — they're expressions of religious doctrine. In Islamic theology, idol worship is the gravest sin, making temple destruction an act of piety. Hinduism contains no such mandate. Political motivations aren't identical to doctrinal imperatives.
Truschke dismisses scholars like Jadunath Sarkar as unreliable while downplaying Persian sources that contradict her narrative. Her approach isn't history — it's revisionism designed to obscure inconvenient truths.
Her recently published India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent promises more of the same: selective citations, interpretive sleights, and wholesale demagoguery. We can expect the 600-page tome to follows the familiar pattern — Hinduism cast as irredeemably oppressive, Islam framed as emancipatory. There's little interest in balance, complexity, or competing narratives. It is only in the politicised ghetto of 'South Asian Studies", where practicing Hindus have little voice, that an academic would get away with this level of propaganda.
At a recent Georgia Tech event, a Hindu student described confronting Truschke at Princeton about her portrayals. Instead of engaging his respectful questions, she dismissed his concerns as 'Hindutva propaganda" and shut him down. The room fell silent — a moment of intimidation, not academic exchange.
Hindu students at Rutgers report similar experiences: hesitating to speak in her classes, fearing they'll be branded bigots for defending their faith. Many now avoid her courses entirely. In 2021, students petitioned against her teaching Hinduism, citing her claim that the Bhagavad Gita 'rationalises mass slaughter" and her suggestion linking Hindus to the January 6 Capitol riot.
Rutgers defended her academic freedom and promised dialogue with the Hindu community. That dialogue never materialised.
THE DOUBLE STANDARD PROBLEM
American universities rightfully crack down on antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Black racism. Yet when Hindu students raise similar concerns, institutions often look away, or worse, actively endorse such writing.
Truschke positions herself as the victim of 'Hindu nationalist trolls" while sidestepping legitimate concerns from students who feel unsafe in her academic spaces. When she tweeted that Lord Rama was a 'misogynistic pig" — later claiming scholarly translation — even Robert Goldman, the scholar she cited, publicly rejected her framing. One wonders how the academy would react if a professor used the same language about a different revered figure, say Prophet Mohammad.
The damage spreads beyond academia. Hindu students report being mocked as 'cow piss drinkers", stereotyped as 'Brahmin oppressors", or casually equated with fascists. When they respond, they're accused of extremism — silenced not by force, but by fear.
This isn't about suppressing legitimate criticism of Hindutva politics. It's about distinguishing between scholarly critique and rhetorical abuse.
Truschke's defenders, including Romila Thapar and Sheldon Pollock, argue that attacking Hindutva isn't Hinduphobia. In practice, targeting Hindutva often disguises targeting Hindus.
When Truschke abuses Rama, she is attacking an iconic figure in the Hindu tradition, revered across the length and breadth of India. There can be no better evidence of what her target is.
Would such treatment be tolerated toward any other faith community?
The answer is obvious. Hinduism, as a non-Abrahamic tradition, remains open season in many Western academic spaces. This double standard isn't just unjust — it's intellectually dishonest.
THE PATH FORWARD
Universities must confront this hypocrisy. If 'safe spaces" truly exist for all, Hindu students deserve the same dignity afforded every other community. That means distinguishing between legitimate academic inquiry and inflammatory demagoguery — whether delivered through peer-reviewed journals, street megaphones, or 600-page histories now being peddled as the history of India.
Academic freedom must be balanced with academic responsibility. Scholars have the right to challenge religious and political traditions, but they also have an obligation to maintain scholarly standards, engage in good faith, and create inclusive learning environments.
With Truschke's latest work now in circulation, the stakes have never been higher. Her interpretive framework isn't confined to specialised academic journals — it's shaping how a new generation learns about Indian civilisation.
Until universities address this imbalance, the promise of inclusive academia remains hollow. Hindu Americans will continue raising their voices — not to suppress debate, but to demand what every community deserves: fairness, intellectual honesty, and basic respect.
The megaphone may be loud, but truth has a voice of its own.
(Sankrant Sanu is the CEO of Garuda Prakashan and tweets at @sankrant. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views)
tags :
Adolf Hitler Hinduism Hindutva Narendra Modi Nazism religion
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Location :
New Delhi, India, India
First Published:
June 16, 2025, 21:08 IST
News opinion Opinion | Audrey Truschke: A Demagogue With A Megaphone
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