A federal advisory body on international religious freedom called on the United States government to impose targeted sanctions against members of a prominent Hindu nationalist organization and to bar its leader from future entry into the country, according to a statement issued by the commission and reported by EWTN News.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued its statement on August 26, one day after Mohan Bhagwat — chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — arrived in the United States for a visit that ran from August 25 to 29. Bhagwat’s tour subsequently extended to Canada and the United Kingdom, and is understood to be part of a broader RSS effort to strengthen ties with diaspora Hindu communities during the organization’s centenary year.

The Commission’s Call for Accountability

USCIRF urged the U.S. government to consider revoking Bhagwat’s visa and designating him ineligible for future entry, alongside targeted sanctions against RSS members and Indian government officials whom the commission identifies as complicit in religious freedom violations. The RSS is a large Hindu nationalist volunteer organization that critics and religious freedom monitors have accused of organizing or inciting violence against Christian and other minority communities in India.

USCIRF Chair Asif Mahmood stated that “religious-freedom conditions in India continue to deteriorate as violence and incitement are increasingly used to target minority faith communities.” Vice Chair CeCe Heil added that Washington holds “an opportunity to hold India accountable and signal that the United States stands for religious freedom for the people of India.”, as first reported by the EWTN News

The commission’s 2026 annual report had already recommended that the U.S. State Department designate India as a “country of particular concern” — a formal designation reserved for governments deemed to have engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.

A Pattern of Escalating Concern

The USCIRF statement follows a Capitol Hill briefing the commission convened in May, at which witnesses described a worsening environment for religious minorities across India. Testimony centered on escalating attacks against Christians, including mob violence and the destruction of church and community property. Those witnesses urged direct U.S. diplomatic intervention to halt the persecution.

Rep. Riley Moore, Republican of West Virginia, has publicly expressed alarm over what he described as growing intolerance toward Christianity in India, lending congressional weight to the commission’s concerns.

India’s Catholic Community at Stake

India’s Catholic population numbers approximately 23 million people — roughly 1.6 percent of the country’s total population. Despite their relatively small share of the national populace, Catholics have for generations maintained an extensive network of schools, hospitals, and charitable institutions across the subcontinent, including the legacy institutions founded by Saint Teresa of Calcutta, whose feast day falls on September 5.

That charitable infrastructure now faces an additional threat. The Indian government is reportedly weighing changes to the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act that could curtail the ability of Catholic charities to receive funding from abroad — a move that would significantly hamper the Church’s humanitarian work among some of India’s most vulnerable populations.

A Moment for U.S. Policy

Catholic social teaching holds that religious liberty is not a concession granted by the state but a right rooted in the dignity of the human person. The Second Vatican Council’s Dignitatis Humanae affirms that every person has the right to religious freedom, immune from coercion by individuals, social groups, or any human power. When governments fail to protect that right — or actively undermine it — the Church holds that the international community bears a responsibility to respond.

The USCIRF recommendations are advisory in nature; the State Department retains authority over visa decisions and sanctions designations. Whether the Trump administration will act on the commission’s call remains to be seen, though the formal request adds institutional pressure to an already pointed diplomatic question about the balance between U.S.-India strategic partnership and the defense of persecuted religious minorities.

For context on how religious freedom questions are playing out domestically as well, see our recent coverage of the Supreme Court’s upcoming review of local zoning rules affecting religious home gatherings and an archbishop’s appeal regarding U.S. deportation policy toward Haiti.