The Caste Pigeonhole and The Controversy Of The BAPS Temple Investigation

A chilly early morning in a wooded suburban neighborhood. Federal agents from multiple US Government organizations armed with assault weapons quietly descended on a place of worship. Hundreds of hostages with bated breath are waiting to be rescued by these daring special forces.

 These are not scenes from the latest Mission Impossible movie or a description of the US rescue attempts in Syria, Iran, or Afghanistan. Instead, these are media headlines describing the raid on the BAPS Swaminarayan temple in New Jersey, US, which was simultaneously raided by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Department of Homeland Security, and the US Department of Labor. The CIA, NSA, and DOD may have been involved according to some sources, a shocking revelation in a case which treads on thin ice, violating Hindu Human Rights to religious freedom. 

 On May 11, 2021, the abovementioned raid was conducted, and ninety so-called “hostages” were freed by the armed federal agents. Over three years have passed since then, and these three federal agencies have yet to provide a status (or any status at all) on the findings of their ongoing investigation. 

 In the subsequent trial by media, academia, and activists, BAPS was accused of “rampant” caste discrimination, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was implicated for having “close ties” with BAPS. If any other religious structure in New Jersey like say, a Mosque had imported cheap labor from Turkey, no one would have raised the caste bogey - in all possibilities, it would have been filed as a human trafficking violation case. 

 Similarly, no one would have dragged the name of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan into the case, insinuating that Erdoğan personally hired low-caste “Pasmanda” Muslims and sent them to New Jersey to be discriminated against by upper-caste “Ashraf” Muslims to build their Mosque. These would have rightly caused consternation and outrage.

 However, such bizarre allegations are par for the course against Hinduism. Whether caste or caste discrimination laws exist (or not) in New Jersey or the US would have had absolutely no bearing on the prosecution of the guilty and adjudication of the case.

The BAPS case, too, has been investigated (for the last three years) under human trafficking laws, but it was compulsory to add caste discrimination to prove that Hindu crimes are more abhorrent than others and are actively supported by the Hindu Nationalist Government in India. This is of course, without necessary substantiation.

 As per the latest court document dated July 12, 2024, The BAPS case is being investigated under human trafficking laws, and if anyone is found guilty, they should be punished to the most possible extent under US laws.

But in the meantime, the questions to be answered are:

1.  Why was it falsely presented as a caste discrimination issue?

2. Why did it require three federal agencies with assault weapons to conduct an early morning raid on a Hindu temple?

3. What have these three federal agencies been doing about their investigation for the last three years?

 The American public, whose taxpayer dollars are funding these federal agencies, would like to know the outcome of the BAPS case and why it is taking three-plus years for three federal agencies to conduct and conclude their investigation. If they find evidence of wrongdoing, they should punish the guilty. If not, they should give a clean chit to BAPS. In either case, existing US human trafficking laws would be more than enough to bring culprits to justice. If existing US laws can work for Muslim laborers from Turkey, the same US laws will work equally well for Hindu laborers from India, irrespective of their caste.