"Tumhe yahi milte hain (Muslims) kaam karane ke liye? Pahalgam bhool gaye? Humein sharam aa rahi hain." (You only find them to employ for work? Have you forgotten Pahalgam? We are ashamed).
This was Hindutva leader Sadhvi Prachi shouting at a Hindu priest in Uttarakhand's Haridwar recently. The priest's only fault was that he had employed a local Muslim to work at his ashram.
This exchange, though localised, reflects a churn underway within the Hindutva ecosystem. This involves Hindutva hardliners intimidating other Hindus, especially priests and religious leaders, to adopt a more stridently anti-Muslim approach.
But who is Sadhvi Prachi? How did she become prominent in this space?
Donning saffron and a red tilak, Prachi has made a name for herself over the years, among a sea of right-wing personalities.
A former BJP election candidate and named in connection with the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, Prachi is now a key player in the right-wing ecosystem.
Booked for hateful comments several times in the past, she has been seen sharing a stage with Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath, to name a few.
However, her activities have even compelled the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to distance themselves from her. More on that later.
Sadhvi Prachi has over 400,000 followers on X, as of 26 May 2025.
(Photo: X/Twitter)
Key to Prachi's modus operandi is using the plank of 'Love Jihad,' — a term that remains undefined by the government itself — to intimidate, harass and attack Muslims through her actions and speeches, online and offline.
In this piece, The Quint will dive deep into who Sadhvi Prachi is, the influence she now wields, her political links and also her frequent use of hate and misinformation.
This is The Quint's second such report on woman Hindutva influencers. Previously, we explored the trajectory of Kajal Hindustani.
A Track Record of Spreading Misinformation
Sadhvi Prachi has over 400,000 followers on X and over 300,000 followers on Instagram. Earlier, she had written in her X bio that she is a VHP leader. This statement remains in her Instagram bio.
This is a fabrication, if the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is to be believed. VHP's Vinod Bansal, told The Quint, "Sadhvi Prachi has never been a VHP leader ever. Media houses over the years have projected her as one. A few years ago, I had even circulated a press release to clarify this."
Prachi, responding to Bansal's remark told The Quint, "This is what happens to people in these organisations. When there is a case, they distance themselves from us and say they have nothing to do with us. Just like Bajrang Dal's Monu Manesar, he went to jail and everyone left him."
Let's look at a few more claims that she made.
Claim 1: Over a month ago, Prachi posted this video on her Instagram. She said, "Everyone demanded that on the 40 acre land for Ram Mandir, that there should have been hospitals and colleges, but now on Waqf properties and their acres of land worth lakhs, nobody has said anything. This is the hypocrisy of the Opposition."
The Truth: Waqf land in India is often used to support a variety of charitable and religious institutions, including hospitals and colleges. These lands are dedicated for public benefit.
Even in 2019, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi stated that the government will provide 100% funding to develop educational institutions and hospitals on Waqf properties.
Claim 2: On 25 April, Prachi shared a video from a protest against the Waqf law in Asansol, West Bengal. She claimed that "Pakistan Zindabad" slogans were raised in this march. This claim was also shared by OpIndia and BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya.
The Truth: It can be clearly heard in the video that "Hindustan Zindabad" slogans are being raised. Additionally, the West Bengal police also debunked that no slogan for Pakistan was raised.
Claim 3: One of her most repeated claims is that there's a Hindu statue underneath the Jama Masjid in Agra.
In 2023, she said, “Some people talk a lot about brotherhood. Let me tell you...In Agra, inside Jama Masjid, on its stairs, a statue of our Krishna has been hidden underneath. My appeal is to all the pro-brotherhood people, to dig it up once...Whatever Aurangzeb did, he was like that, let it be revealed in front of the nation...statues’ of Krishna will come out.”
The Truth: History scholar, Dr Ruchika Sharma debunked this claim. She told The Quint that Jama Masjid was not built by Aurangzeb, it was commissioned by his sister, Jahanara, when Shah Jahan was ruling. Jahanara was fond of Dara Shikoh and not Aurangzeb.
I have not seen a source claim that the stairs have used sculptural remains in Jama Masjid. We do have examples such as that of Somnath temple’s excavation in 1951 which revealed that underneath the original temple, there were remains of another structure, possibly a Buddhist sculpture, used in constructing in that temple. But there is no such source for Agra's Jama Masjid.Dr Ruchika Sharma to The Quint
It's not surprising that after the Bollywood film Chhaava was released earlier this year, Prachi demanded for Aurangzeb's grave to be destroyed. The frenzy following the film saw violence and vandalism in different places, such as Nagpur.
Prachi doesn't stop there. This year, at an event called 'Sanatana Dharm Sansad' on 27 January, she said, "Humari sankhya kam horhi hain" (Hindu population is going down). However, Hindus are still way ahead of all other religious communities put together and are in no danger of being reduced to a minority.
From 'Arya-Samaji' to a Hindutva Hardliner
Now 49 years of age, Prachi was born in Sirsali village in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh as Prachi Arya and hailed from a lower-middle class family.
Over a telephonic conversation with The Quint, Prachi told us how growing up, a huge influence came from her family who are all "Arya Samajis" and have links with the RSS.
Ever since I was a child, I made up my mind that I want to work for the Hindu society and the nation. My mother shaped my mind. She used to tell me stories of Jhansi ki Rani, Chhatrapati Shivaji and Maharana Pratap. Moreover, there used to be events and gatherings of Arya Samaj. I learnt a lot about history and spirituality from there.Sadhvi Prachi to The Quint
Talking about her education, she stated that she did a triple MA and PhD in 'Vedas, Jyotish-shastra and Yog' from a gurukul in Haridwar. Then she pursued another degree in the same field from Satara University in Maharashtra.
A formative phase for Prachi was the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation that led to the Babri Masjid demolition. She told us that having worked in Durga Vahini, VHP, RSS, she was among the Kar Sevaks agitating for a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in 1992.
In early 1990s, Prachi took to religion in a formal way to become a 'Sadhvi' and started wearing saffron. In 1999, she became the Principal of Kanya Gurukul in Karnal, she said.
In 2012, she contested the Assembly elections from Purqazi seat but lost her deposit, securing only 13 percent votes and coming fourth.
A year later, she became active again. This time, to demand justice for Sachin and Gaurav, who were among the eight accused in the Shahnawaz Qureshi murder. This was one of the killings that fueled the Muzaffarnagar riots.
She grew in prominence after that and frequently came in news for her provocative statements.
In 2017 in Badaun, she said, “If they (Muslims) take away one daughter, you should bring 100 daughters form them and things will be back on rails."
In March 2021, a local court allowed the authorities to withdraw the case against 12 BJP leaders, including Prachi related to "inciting violence" in the Muzaffarnagar riots.
So now, Prachi has taken to "awaken" Hindus and fighting 'love jihad' cases. She also pushes Sanatana Dharma-related content through her page called ‘The Sanatani Voice'. Many of the speeches she posts and the comments she gets contain hate content that has gone unchecked and unregulated.
"Sanatana ke liye jiyungi, Sanatana ke liye maarungi," Prachi told The Quint. (I will live for Sanatana Dharma and die for it too).
Talking about 'Love Jihad,' she told The Quint, "I get a lot of Love Jihad cases, I have saved around 25-28 of my sisters between the age of 14-20 years in the last decade, from UP, Bihar and I also worked for Beti Padhao and Beti Bachao."
When I asked her about her family, she said, "I have lakhs of brothers and sisters who are standing with me. My family made me who I am and then left me in the society to work but I have a big family."
Photographs, Appearances with BJP Leaders
Prachi's rise in the Hindutva ecosystem has not existed in a vacuum. Her talking points which are central to Hindutva politics and her purported proximity with BJP leaders have, all seemed to be a factor.
It is evident from her social media that Prachi has consistently rallied for the PM's win in elections. A PM Modi fan, she even posted about celebrating his birthday in the past.
Sadhvi Prachi with former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
(Photo: Instagram)
In a recent video, she was seen sharing the stage with Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta. Congratulating Gupta on her win, she wrote, "Hard work of Sanatanis has borne fruit."
Previously, in 2023, she was seen sharing the stage with Home Minister Amit Shah in a video she recorded herself.
She was also seen sharing a at an event with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath the same year in Haryana. In 2017, she hailed Adityanath claiming that he prevented Uttar Pradesh from becoming "another Pakistan."
She was also photographed with ex-Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and posted a photo with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in 2017.
In December 2023, she met Kiran Bala Chaudhary, UP government's former Information Commissioner. She has also been photographed with BJP MP Pragya Thakur in the past.
The Right-Wing Sisterhood
Prachi is believed to have made friends with another Hindutva influencer Kajal Hindustani. Now, as we had also reported before, Hindustani was ranked 1st position among top 5 sources of hate speech in 2023, by the India Hate Lab report.
"Kajal Hindustani has only now started talking about Love Jihad, whereas I have been talking about it for 30 years. I know how these things work on the ground."Sadhvi Prachi to The Quint
In this regard, Dr Akanksha Mehta, a lecturer in Gender, Sexuality, and Cultural Studies in Goldsmiths University, London has written that these women imbibed and espoused the "male-formulated discourse" of the movement as nurturing mothers of the nation.
Hindu nationalist women, thus, functioned as symbolic victim-bodies supporting the larger discourse of the movement that was built around the alleged victimisation of the ‘weak’ Hindu woman by the ‘lustful’ Muslim male," she wrote.
Further, she explained how through a set of organisations of the Sangh Parivar, over 6 million women are involved in these activities all over the country in various capacities.
What's concerning is how her hate content and its reach has increased with time. It begs the question as to why such content moves freely.
Raqib Hameed Naik, founder of HindutvaWatch told The Quint that the lack of action by these social media platforms is also due to the insufficient number of content moderators employed by these platforms.
“Despite multiple assurances over the years, social media platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram have repeatedly failed on this premise. The current political climate also plays a role in it, which translates into reluctance from social media platforms to take down content that aligns with the views of the ruling party."Raqib Hameed Naik to The Quint