About Pieter

I investigate how ethnonationalist movements operate across borders — from India’s Hindu nationalist networks to settler-colonial projects in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Palestine. My reporting has gotten me banned from India, targeted by transnational repression, and cited in The Washington Post, The Intercept, Harper’s, and an Arte documentary.

Selected Reporting

Bangladesh’s Oslo: The Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Erasure of an Indigenous People Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, 2026 State-sponsored Bengali settlement in the Chittagong Hill Tracts mirrors the Israeli settler playbook in the occupied West Bank — and Washington’s silence on it mirrors its complicity in the Palestinian case.

US politicians face heat over Hindu nationalist links and support for Modi. Middle East Eye, 2024. How donors tied to India’s Hindu nationalist movement fund American political campaigns — and what their candidates do in return.

Israel-India Military Collaboration Flourishes Under Hindutva, But Began Decades Back. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, 2024. The operational partnership between the world’s two leading ethnonationalist governments — shared technology, shared methodology, shared impunity.

Comrades in Ethnonationalism: Why the Israel lobby is supporting U.S. politicians friendly to India’s far-right. Mondoweiss, 2024. The convergence of Hindutva and Zionist political infrastructure in American elections.

All in the Family: The American Sangh’s Affair With Tulsi Gabbard. The Caravan, 2019. The cover story that first systematically exposed the RSS’s transnational political networks in the United States.

Published in The Caravan, Middle East Eye, Mondoweiss, The Wire, The Quint, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Antiwar.com, Religion News Service, and others. Cited in The Washington Post, The Intercept, Harper’s, Jewish Currents, Newsweek, Christianity Today, Deutsche Welle, Slate, MSNBC, and more. Featured in an Arte documentary on India’s Hindu nationalist movement.

Author of four books, including Saffron America and Captivating the Simple-Hearted (translated into seven languages).

Lectured at Columbia University, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and others. Regular speaker at briefings on Capitol Hill and forums at the United Nations.

I’ve been banned from India for my reporting. Delhi Police has publicly accused me of fomenting protests. The Indian government blocks my social media accounts within the country. I’ve met with the FBI to discuss my experiences as a target of India’s transnational repression apparatus. These are not complaints, but the consequences of doing this work.

What I Cover

Settler Colonialism & Indigenous Rights — How state-sponsored settlement programs displace indigenous populations from Bangladesh to Palestine.

Transnational Repression — How governments silence critics across borders — through assassination, surveillance, institutional harassment, and coordinated disinformation.

Ethnonationalism & the Hindutva-Zionist Nexus — The operational partnership between Hindu nationalist and Zionist movements, from shared ideology to shared surveillance technology.

Hindutva in American Politics — How India’s Hindu nationalist networks fund, influence, and infiltrate American political institutions.

South Asian Geopolitics — War, diplomacy, and the contest for power across India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

Religious Persecution — The persecution of Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, and indigenous peoples by majoritarian movements across South Asia.

[View all reporting →]

For assignments, pitches, and speaking inquiries: pieterjfriedrich [at] gmail [dot] com

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