France got a crash course on the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a Hindu sect at the heart of an Eiffel Tower strike this week. But for Indians in France who have been trying to raise awareness of far-right Hindu groups, it comes too late. As the 2027 election campaign goes into high gear, some fear the issue will be politicised by the French far right.
On Saturday, September 5, as members of a Hindu sect were set to make a splash visit to the Eiffel Tower, an organisation of progressive Indians living in France held a public meeting in Paris to shed some light on the religious group and the international spread of Hindu nationalism, which has been turbocharged during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure.
