The posts drew responses from Left-wing student organisations and led critics to share clips from an earlier interview of hers.
"When it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall rise.
India is rising for the sake of the Sanatana Dharma."
advertisementAngmo has referred to India as the sole custodian of Sanatana Dharma and spoken of Hindu Rashtra in terms that go beyond political slogans to deeper civilisational work.
The sequence of recent posts and the circulation of the earlier interview have brought Angmo's views on Sanatana Dharma and political culture into public discussion.
Social entrepreneur and educator Gitanjali Angmo, co-founder of the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh (HIAL), and wife of educationist and climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, posted a series of messages on X between July 25 and 27, sparking a debate on Sanatana Dharma, politics and nationalism. The posts drew responses from Left-wing student organisations and led critics to share clips from an earlier interview of hers.
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What began as her praise for young protesters, who forced Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign on Saturday, has now evolved into a debate on India's political culture.
"If anyone has shown what it means for India to be a Vishwaguru, it is our Gen Z. They have lived Sanatan Dharma, not preached it. Courage without hate. Strength without violence. Patriotism without blind obedience. Unlike many of their counterparts across the world, they have shown that you can stand firmly against injustice without burning your own country down. Maybe it's time the Hindu nationalist party learnt a thing or two from these young Indians about Hinduism, nationalism, and what it truly means to be a Vishwaguru," Angmo wrote on July 25 (Saturday).
In the X post, Angmo tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, her husband Wangchuk, and the account of Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which led the protests seeking Pradhan's resignation.
People criticised Angmo's July 25 post for linking the Gen Z protests to Sanatan Dharma and "Vishwaguru". Other users accused her of communalising a multi-faith student movement.
The next day, July 26, she followed up: "To all the trollers: Stop confusing religion with spirituality. Religion seeks followers. Spirituality seeks transformation. Religion is an institution that defines identity, authority, and control. Spirituality is a deeply personal awakening that expresses itself through every thought, word, and action. Politics infused with religion divides. Politics guided by spirituality unites and aspires to the ideal of the philosopher-king: one who serves with wisdom, compassion, restraint, and truth."
She quoted nationalist freedom fighter Aurobindo Ghosh to counter her critics in the post on July 26. "When it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatana Dharma that shall rise. India is rising for the sake of the Sanatana Dharma."
Angmo added that Sanatana Dharma is the bedrock of Indian civilisation, was never meant to be a religion in the narrow institutional sense, and cannot be monopolised by any political party.
ANGMO FACED BJP IT CELL ATTACK EARLIER, NOW SEES AISF COUNTER
The posts were met with criticism from sections of social media, including Left student organisation AISF. On July 27, the All India Students' Federation (AISF) said, "Invoking Sanatana Dharma while ignoring Dr BR Ambedkar's fundamental critique of caste within Hindu social order presents only part of the picture. If the message is about equality and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, why not celebrate the Bhakti saints, Kabir, Ravidas, Tukaram and others, who challenged caste, ritual hierarchy and social exclusion? India's civilisational strength lies in its struggles for equality, not in romanticising oppressive structures."
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Notably, the same day, Angmo posted about the reactions she has faced from different political sides.
She wrote that when Wangchuk was detained last year, the BJP IT cell labelled them "anti-national", "Chinese agents" and "foreign-funded". After she called a Congress protest at the Prime Minister's residence insincere, Congress-aligned accounts called them "Sanghis", "RSS and BJP stooges".
"Different flags. Same playbook. The rot has infected our entire political culture," she said.
Angmo added that India needs more than a change of government and called for a change in the grammar of politics where disagreement meets dialogue rather than demonisation, patriotism is measured by integrity rather than party affiliation, and truth matters more than tribal loyalty. She tagged both PM Narendra Modi and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi in the post.
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Angmo and Wangchuk have been public figures for years through their work in alternative education and environmental issues in Ladakh.
Wangchuk was detained under the National Security Act in September 2025 following protests in Ladakh seeking statehood and Sixth Schedule protections. The protests had turned violent, with casualties reported. His detention lasted several months before release. Angmo had spoken publicly about the period, including visits to jail and concerns over the process.
Since June this year, the couple has been associated with wider discussions on education and student issues, including the CJP movement referenced in her posts.
GITANJANLI ANGMO'S OLD COMMENTS UNDER SCRUTINY
On July 27, pro-CJP people shared multiple clips from a programme on BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's YouTube channel, featuring Angmo. In those clips, according to them, she called for removing "secular" from the Constitution, supports Sanskrit as the national language, endorses the Ram Mandir and a "Hindu Rashtra", and rejects the Aryan Invasion Theory.
Reports of the older material describe Angmo arguing that the word "secular" should be decolonised from the Constitution because it reflects a Western idea of separating state and religion, whereas Indian tradition speaks of the raja-rishi or philosopher-king and governance by dharma.
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Angmo has referred to India as the sole custodian of Sanatana Dharma and spoken of Hindu Rashtra in terms that go beyond political slogans to deeper civilisational work. She has also defended the construction of the Ram Mandir as linked to collective consciousness and criticised the relative funding of centres for Hindu studies compared with other areas.
The interview took place in the context of a discussion titled "Decolonising the Indian Mind to Transform India".
The sequence of recent posts and the circulation of the earlier interview have brought Angmo's views on Sanatana Dharma and political culture into public discussion.
Angmo has not issued any further statement following the latest round of reactions.
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