On October 11, 2026, an attempt on the lives of Hindu worshippers at the Sri Venkateswara Swami (Balaji) Temple in Aurora, Illinois, one of the largest Hindu temples in the United States, was foiled. The temple is about 40 miles west of downtown Chicago. According to prosecutors, the suspect's AR-style rifle, a lightweight, magazine-fed, semi-automatic firearm freely available in the US, jammed.
Prosecutors say Alexandros Paporakis, a 19-year-old US citizen, planned a mass shooting at the temple. At his home, police found a rifle without a serial number, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a tactical vest and a patch bearing Nazi symbolism.
According to the Associated Press, Palatine Police Chief William Nord said a red Acura RDX registered to Paporakis entered the temple parking lot around 12:25 pm on Sunday, October 11, and left less than 15 minutes later. Paporakis told a colleague that his gun had jammed and that he had left quickly but intended to "retry". He also sent the colleague a video showing an AR-style rifle and a photograph of himself in a tactical vest. The colleague passed this information to the police, who acted swiftly and arrested him the same day.
Police did not immediately release details, to avoid panic during Navratri, the nine-day Hindu festival. Indian media and the Ministry of External Affairs reported the matter only on October 15.
Further investigation brought more disturbing details. Prosecutors said Paporakis had shared an eight-page document titled "Why I Fought: A.K.A.: (Aurora Shooter's Manifesto)". In it he described himself as a white supremacist and neo-Nazi, used racist slurs against all non-white people, and outlined a plan to kill as many of them as possible. [Reuters, 'Police say Chicago suburb suspect in alleged mass shooting plot had white supremacy manifesto', October 15, 2026.]
India's Ministry of External Affairs condemned the plot as "racist hostility" and "anti-India hate". Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the incident highlighted growing concerns about hate crimes and racial discrimination against Indian communities in the US, and demanded that US authorities "thoroughly investigate the matter, bring those responsible to justice, and take all necessary measures to prevent such incidents". Several US lawmakers and advocacy groups also condemned the plot, warning that anti-Indian and anti-Hindu rhetoric could fuel violence against minorities.
It is worth noting that the RSS in India, and its more than 20 affiliates in the US such as the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, have not publicly reacted to the alleged plot. Had the same plot targeted a minority in Pakistan or Bangladesh, with a Muslim as the perpetrator, the reaction in India would likely have been far louder.
The Ideological Borrowing
The intended victims were Hindus in the US. But a crucial dimension should not be overlooked: Paporakis represents an ideology akin to that of the RSS, the cleansing of minorities such as Muslims and Christians from India.
The RSS founder, K.B. Hedgewar, broke with the Indian National Congress led by M.K. Gandhi, which held that Hindus and Muslims were not two nations but parts of one inclusive Indian nation. Hedgewar saw India as an exclusively Hindu nation. M.S. Golwalkar, the RSS's most prominent ideologue, who led it after Hedgewar's death in 1940, wrote "We, or Our Nationhood Defined" (1939), a foundational text for RSS cadres. In it he declared: "Hindusthan is the land of the Hindus and is the terra firma for the Hindu nation alone to flourish upon…" [p. 45]
What was to be the fate of Muslims and Christians, followers of "foreign" religions? Golwalkar pointed to the treatment of Jews under Hitler and Mussolini as the model. He wrote:
"German Race pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races—the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by." [pp. 34-35]
In the 1960s Golwalkar wrote a chapter titled 'Internal Threats' in "Bunch of Thoughts", naming Muslims and Christians as the first and second threats. [Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 193.] This hostility remains the core of Hindutva today. After Narendra Modi, a longtime RSS worker, became prime minister in 2014, a leading figure of an RSS-linked group declared: "Our target is to make India a Hindu Rashtra by 2021. The Muslims and Christians don't have any right to stay here… So they would either be converted to Hinduism or forced to run away from here." ["Mail Today", Rajeshwar Singh, 'We will free India of Muslims and Christians by 2021', December 19, 2014.]
Breivik's Admiration for Hindutva
Even serious researchers have overlooked a crucial episode in Europe. Anders Behring Breivik, the neo-Nazi who killed 77 people in Norway on July 22, 2011, released a 1,518-page manifesto. Roughly 102 pages dealt with Hindutva. It expressed support for "Sanatana Dharma movements and Hindu Nationalists" and called Hindu nationalism a key ally in a global struggle against democratic, multicultural governments.
The manifesto proposed cooperation between European neo-Nazi movements and Indian Hindu nationalists, saying they should "learn from each other and cooperate as much as possible" because "our goals are more or less identical". It named the RSS and its affiliates, including the BJP (political wing), the ABVP (student wing) and the VHP. It also pledged support "to the nationalists in the Indian civil war and in the deportation of all Muslims from India" as part of a campaign to overthrow Western European multicultural governments. ["The Hindu", 'Norwegian mass killer's manifesto hails Hindutva'.]
Earlier Warnings
There were earlier warning signs. In an editorial titled 'Deadly Alliances Against Muslims' (October 2014), "The New York Times" wrote:
"The world has not bothered to take any notice of a new terrorist network developing fast in India and its neighbourhood between RSS and the two ultra nationalist Buddhist groups of Myanmar and Sri Lanka against minorities (Muslims and Christian) in the region.
"On his 79th birthday in July, the Dalai Lama appealed to Buddhist extremist groups in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to stop instigating attacks against Muslim minorities that have killed scores. Instead, in an affront to Buddhism's core message of compassion, leaders of those groups announced an alliance to make common cause against Muslims.
"'The time has come to ally internationally,' Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, the leader of the radical Sri Lankan Buddhist group Bodu Bala Sena, announced at a convention held in Colombo last month. The guest of honour was Ashin Wirathu, a Buddhist radical whom "Time" magazine put on its July 1 cover as 'The Face of Buddhist Terror.' The government of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa ignored pleas by Sri Lankan Muslim and Christian civil groups, fearful of more anti-Muslim violence, to deny Mr. Wirathu a visa. Granting Mr. Wirathu a visa can only reinforce the fears of many Muslims that the government, and perhaps more powerful regional allies, back Bodu Bala Sena, which translates as Buddhist Power Force.
"Last week, Mr. Gnanasara claimed he was in discussions 'at a high level' with the right-wing Indian Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to form what he called a 'Hindu-Buddhist peace zone' in South Asia. An RSS spokesman, Ram Madhav, promptly denied that there were any such discussions. But Mr. Madhav, now general secretary of India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party, has written comments sympathetic to Bodu Bala Sena and Mr. Wirathu's group 969 in Myanmar on his Facebook and Twitter accounts.
"It is folly for the governments of Mr. Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka, President Thein Sein of Myanmar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India, or their political allies, to give even the appearance of tolerating these Islamophobic groups in a region that has too often been convulsed by religious sectarian violence. They should condemn this mad alliance before it can spread further." ["The New York Times", editorial, October 2014.]
Shared Enemies
The RSS's critics argue that it opposes equality, democracy, socialism, gender justice and a casteless society. Those who stand for egalitarianism are dismissed as "woke", as neo-Nazis and supremacists do the world over.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat used his Vijayadashami speech on October 24, 2023 to attack "cultural Marxists or woke" people. He called them "selfish, discriminatory and deceitful forces" that, after taking control of the media and academia, were pushing the nation into "confusion, chaos, and corruption". ["India Today", October 26, 2023.]
Modi has also used labels such as "Urban Naxals", "cultural Marxists" and "anti-national" for his critics. The RSS is active at international anti-woke forums. According to "The Guardian", gatherings such as the National Conservatism (NatCon) conferences and the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) have increasingly brought Hindu nationalist figures from the RSS into a broader global coalition of cultural nationalists. ["The Guardian", June 18, 2026.]
Conclusion
Paporakis's target was Hindus in the US. But his hatred of minorities and "others" echoes the RSS principle of cleansing India of Muslims and Christians. The fight against Paporakis and neo-Nazis everywhere cannot succeed unless the ideology of hatred against minorities, which the author believes has its main centre in India, is confronted and defeated.
---
*Retired academic and author of several works on religious extremism and minority rights, writes on issues of social justice and communal harmony
Comments