New Delhi: In an age where religious piety has become synonymous with extravagant displays of wealth, the opening of the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, New Jersey was hailed as a contemporary wonder of craftsmanship, celebrating Hindu culture and devotion. The sprawling 185-acre estate, filled with close to-200-foot-tall spires and over 10,000 statues, attracts large crowds each year.Mesmerised by its elaborate architecture and design, visitors from around the world arrive at the temple to marvel over intricately carved depictions of Hindu deities and parables, and to reconnect with their roots. But beneath this grandeur lies a troubling narrative of alleged labour exploitation, visa fraud, medical neglect and deplorable working conditions, calling into question the hidden human costs behind creating the world’s largest modern Hindu temple outside India.Over four years after the workers first raised the allegations in a New Jersey court, The Guardian has cited the family of one labourer who died by suicide after returning to India as saying that the conditions he was allegedly subjected to at the Robbinsville temple had contributed to his death.The magazine has also noted allegations that at least two workers died of complications from the preventable silicosis disease acquired by inhaling fine silica dust while carving stone.BAPS, a denomination of the Swaminarayan sect of Hinduism established in Gujarat, has denied the allegations and maintained that it provided its workers at the temple with protective equipment.Built over more than a decade, the Robbinsville temple’s splendour is a testimony of millions of hours of manual labour by workers, of which around 200 were allegedly trafficked and exploited. BAPS was accused of ‘intentionally recruiting’ workers from the Dalit and Adivasi communities – groups that have long been socially and economically marginalised, lying at the bottom of a complex Hindu caste hierarchy, and often relegated to dangerous, degrading and low-paying jobs – apart from other disadvantaged groups.BAPS’s New Jersey temple became the centre of controversy after six Dalit workers from Rajasthan filed a class-action lawsuit against the organisation in May 2021 accusing it of confiscating theirs and others’ passports, confining them at the mandir premises as well as grossly underpaying them for intense manual labour even though they were brought to the US on religious work visas.They alleged that their colleague Mohan Lal had died while being subjected to forced labour at the temple, and in a subsequent amended complaint said that three other former BAPS workers had passed away in India shortly after leaving the US.Now The Guardian has reported that one unnamed worker died by suicide after returning to India, with his relatives alleging that ‘depression and the working conditions at the temple played a significant role in his death’.“No one contacted us or helped us at the time of this tragedy. We had to deal with everything on our own,” the deceased worker’s son Ankush Kumar told The Guardian, recalling that when his father had come back he was told after a health check-up that he had silicosis of “around 10 to 20%”.Since his passing, Ankush added, “life has been really hard for me. I’m the only earning member in the family. I support my two siblings and my mother. I’ve had to give up my full-time education to start earning.”Workers, The Guardian also reported, believe that at least two labourers, Ramesh Meena and Devi Lal, died of silicosis acquired by breathing in fine silica dust while carving stone. Devi Lal passed away while waiting for a lung transplant, the magazine writes citing court records and labour activists familiar with the case.Workers were also cited as saying that others had acquired respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis and chronic bronchitis, and that not given proper protective gear while carving and weatherproofing stones.One worker who said he was sent back to Rajasthan after developing silicosis told The Guardian: “They didn’t give us a single day off, no matter how much it snowed. They even made us work in the snow. So, I took eight days of rest. During those eight days, they didn’t let me go back to the house [where workers stayed.]“After I recovered a bit, they sent me and my brother-in-law back to India. Now my brother-in-law is also in a bad condition, and so are many other men along with me.”Last year, a group of activist organisations had alleged that at least six BAPS workers had died of “exposure to hazardous materials such as silica and other serious health risks”. “The broader impact of respiratory illnesses likely extends well beyond these fatalities, but has not been comprehensively documented,” they had said in October.BAPS denies the allegations, saying that the workers were informed of safety procedures during orientation and that personal protective equipment like gloves, masks and boots were provided. “The health and safety of the volunteers was a priority,” Darshan Patel, a media representative for BAPS, told The Guardian.“The construction of the mandir was an opportunity to contribute to something bigger than yourself,” Patel added, invoking the Hindu concept of seva or service.The 2021 lawsuit also accuses BAPS of working its labourers at its Robbinsville complex for more than 87 hours a week for a paltry pay of $1.2 an hour. The workers allegedly only received $50 in cash per month, with the rest deposited to their accounts in India.New Jersey’s minimum wage rate at the time was $12 an hour, with US law stipulating a wage rise for hourly workers when their working hours exceed 40 hours a week.The plaintiffs claimed to have worked on the temple as stone cutters and construction workers, and alleged they were forced to live and work within guarded compounds from which movement was disallowed without overseers affiliated with BAPS.The lawsuit states that the workers were hurried into signing agreements in India following which they were brought to New Jersey under R-1 religious work visas, even though the work assigned to them was solely manual labour.“They had to manage stones that weighed several tons, they were exposed to and breathed dust from cut stones and chemical solutions used to soak the stones, and they were frequently exhausted by the long hours with almost no days off,” the lawsuit alleges.On arrival, their passports were allegedly taken away and kept with BAPS authorities to prevent them from leaving. Most workers’ inability to speak English in addition to being unfamiliar with the US legal system meant they were “particularly unlikely to be aware of their rights”, the lawsuit said.The lawsuit further accuses temple leadership of reinforcing casteist hierarchies, alleging that Swami Prasanand, a supervisor at the Robbinsville mandir, referred to workers as “worms”, exacerbating their psychological and emotional harm.Similar concerns and allegations, such as of underpayment, passport confiscation and strict monitoring, were later reported at other sites managed by BAPS in California, Illinois, Texas and Georgia.A number of workers joined the class action suit after it was filed, but 12 of them exited the case in October 2023 citing “reasons of religious conviction”.A major turning point came when the US Department of Justice concluded its criminal investigation into the case without filing any charges in October 2025, a decision that BAPS has welcomed. Some activist groups had expressed “grave concern” at the move.The civil case in the matter had been put on hold in 2021 because a criminal investigation looking into the same set of allegations under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act must take precedence. With the latter having come to a close, the civil proceedings resumed after an over-four-year pause and hearings are now ongoing in the US district court for New Jersey.