“Strike and closure of the Eiffel Tower after the expulsion of female staff during a visit by a Hindu delegation”

This was what a prominent French newspaper said on September 7 this year. 

The Hindu delegation belonged to the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, or the BAPS, and it made global headlines.  

But the interesting question is not just what happened in Paris.

It is this: how did a religious organisation with deeply conservative internal rules become one of the most powerful global faces of Indian culture?

BAPS has spectacular temples, a wealthy and influential global following, a vast charity network and an extraordinary relationship with Narendra Modi.

It also has a much more complicated history involving women, caste, labour and political power.

So who exactly is BAPS? And why has the Indian state invested so heavily in projecting it worldwide?

Let Me Explain.

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Produced by Megha Mukundan, script by Pooja Prasanna, Camera by Akshay Lal, Edit by Nikhil Sekhar