Here we publish a speech by a member of Students for Palestine's Honour and Resistance (SPHR) - McGill Speak-out! On India’s Republic Day: Expose the unholy alliance of HINDUTVA and ZIONISM, on Thursday 23rd January, 5:30 pm, at Norman Bethune Square, Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), organized by South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC) and CERAS (South Asia Forum).
First and foremost, let us take a moment to salute the victory of the heroic Palestinian resistance. At this very moment, in Gaza, civilians are finally relieved after 467 days of relentless genocidal bombardment by the Zionist regime. A murderous, genocidal campaign has been brought to a halt through a historic ceasefire deal, releasing thousands of prisoners from Israeli dungeons. Yet again, the people of Palestine have shown us that, against impossible odds, they will continue to resist genocide, occupation, and displacement. No matter the strength of the Zionist entity or its imperial backbone in the West, the resistance remains steadfast and unwavering in its commitment to the liberation of their homeland.
These moments are inspirational for the student movement to achieve even greater success than it already has in the past year, as our role remains pivotal beyond this genocide. Here in the diaspora, it is our duty to continue supporting our people by pressuring our complicit academic institutions through any means necessary.
We gather here to shine a light on the “unholy alliance” between Zionism and Hindutva. This relationship begins with their economic and military partnerships: India is the number one consumer of Israeli weapons, acquiring “expertise” in surveillance, demographic engineering, and urban warfare to deploy primarily in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. In return, India has sent thousands of laborers to Israel in a bid to replace Palestinians amidst the genocide. However, this affiliation extends beyond material transactions; it is tightly bound by shared rhetoric and propaganda used to justify their occupation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.
Central to the Hindutva project is the manufacturing of a false Indian history, one that presents Muslims and Christians as “outsiders” or “infiltrators” who have no contributions to the subcontinent's history. These claims rely on blatant lies, often suggesting that Islamic shrines are originally of Hindu origin and thus deserve to be demolished and converted (reminiscent of the claims that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is built upon the Second Temple). This propaganda is thoroughly disseminated and amplified by the Indian government, enabling state-sanctioned violence such as the demolishing of the Babri Masjid and the Gujarat pogroms. Ultimately, this historical revisionism aims to justify “Akhand Bharat” or Greater India, a project almost identical to the proposed Greater Israel, in which the respective fascist ethno-states achieve regional dominance through military expansion and occupation.
Zionism, too, relies on rewriting history, particularly through erasing Palestinian identity and their deep-rooted connection to the land. The often-repeated claim that Palestine was a “land without a people for a people without a land” is a central lie to the Zionist project, justifying its right to dispossess and murder Palestinians. Furthermore, this narrative feeds into the deeply Islamophobic propaganda shared by both Hindutva and Zionism, which portrays Muslims as a perpetual security threat to national and cultural identity. Historical revisionism—whether denying centuries of Palestinian history or depicting all Muslims in South Asia as invaders—further normalizes land theft by framing it as the “restoration” of an imagined past. In both India and Israel, resistance movements against occupation are branded as “Islamic terrorism,” reinforcing the myth that Islam is inherently violent and depriving Palestinians and Kashmiris of their right to resist injustice.
As a student movement rooted in the West, we recognize our duty in challenging the colonial projects of Zionism and Hindutva from within. These projects are not distant—they are deeply tied to our own academic institutions, which profit from and legitimize occupation, genocide, and historical erasure. Inspired by the brave people of Palestine, students will continue to face this complicity head-on, to expose the imperial systems that sustain these atrocities, and to stand firmly in solidarity with all those resisting displacement and oppression.