Dear University Administrators,
I write to you today as a concerned Hindu community member regarding the upcoming virtual “Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference” on the weekend of September 10-12, 2021. I am both dismayed and alarmed that your university has decided to co-sponsor and support such a conference. I seek clarity on how such a decision was made and whether you are personally aware of your university’s name and logo being associated with this endeavor.
I urge you to reconsider your decision to be a co-sponsor and supporter and request you to ask the organizers to remove your institution’s name, logo and association from the conference website, event marketing materials and social media posts. I value your commitment to creating a space free from prejudice and discrimination that respects diversity; yet, your university’s apparent sponsorship of this event implies the exact opposite, sowing seeds of bigotry that will intimidate and imperil Hindu students and faculty members on your campus.
Let me explain why.
As Hindus, we welcome any open exchange of ideas and the freedom of academics to pursue scholarly inquiry without restraint. However, an institution’s decision to sponsor a conference endorses a specific line of inquiry as particularly worthy. Such a choice must weigh this ideal against the harmful effects that the ideas propagated by the event can have. This conference paints Hindus falsely as purveyors of extremism, actively denies the genocide of Hindu people, and most troublingly, labels those who disagree as “Hindutva,” which the conference organizers define as Hindu extremism.
- The conference’s social media handles have tweeted out the “Hindutva Harassment Field Manual” as an official resource that categorically states that Hindus have never “faced systematic oppression throughout history and in present times.” This resource also denies that anti-Hindu bias has ever led to “casualties on…horrific scales.” This ghastly pronouncement denies the Bengali Hindu Genocide (recognized by the U.S. Congress as we observe its 50th anniversary), Kashmiri Hindu ethnic cleansing, the anti-Hindu justifications for British colonization and oppression during the Raj, and the systematic minoritization of Hindus in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh even today. Endorsing this conference is endorsing the denial of genocide against a global religious minority.
- This same resource also falsely claims that Hinduphobia does not exist and was “coined by the Hindu Right” to “act as a smokescreen for casteism and anti-Muslim prejudice.” In reality, the term Hinduphobia has been used since the nineteenth century; scholars of the Hindu community have developed and operationalized a working definition of current Hinduphobia. Hence, those responsible for this event are denying the existence of this scholarship and painting those in the Hindu community who disagree-- including other scholars-- as right-wing bigots. This is an extremely dangerous “witch hunt” tactic used to silence practicing Hindu Americans, even fellow academics. This conference does NOT stand for “academic freedom.”
- The manual is also rife with anti-Hindu sources who have publicly called for dismantling Hinduism, called Hindu temples “monuments of slavery” and labeled Hinduism as “exploitation and murder of Dalits anywhere.”
- Under the scholarly definition of Hinduphobia, the ideas propagated by the conference are Hinduphobic and tacitly endorse violence against Hindus with a different viewpoint.
I submit that your institution should not lend its reputation to such an exercise.
It is also alarming that the organizers are hosting this conference on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 - the worst terrorist attack on American soil. By doing so, they are sending two clear but equally troubling messages:
- “Global Hindutva” is an insidious problem that has permeated beyond India to the extent that the next 9/11 is imminent and will be caused by “Hindu extremists.” This is a false and dangerous conflation of the Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and global terrorism with Hindu organizations. Yet, a keynote speaker at the conference has already expressed this sentiment and others have openly called for the McCarthyite hounding of Hindu organizations to “combat” this.
- September 11 also marks the 128th anniversary of the arrival of Hinduism to American shores through Swami Vivekananda’s landmark speech at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, 1893. Appropriating this day means that the anniversary of integrating Hinduism into the American social fabric will now be synonymous with launching a campaign of distrust and xenophobia against us.
Universities are supposed to be a melting pot for competing ideas and diverse identities. Yet, there is an obvious and increasing attempt to silence the voices of practicing Hindus at various universities. Academics who indulge in petty partisan politics and vilify the Hindu community are jeopardizing the ability to live out our identities on campus. The vilification is precise and methodical - via denigration of our sacred texts, deities and religious beliefs, and by equating us with white supremacists and neo-Nazis in the United States and in Europe.
To illustrate, consider the following examples of the bigotry and prejudiced views exhibited by some of the conference speakers. These public statements falsify the organizers' claim that the conference is directed against “Hindutva,” and not an attack on Hinduism itself.
- Many of the speakers are open supporters of the Naxalites, recognized by the U.S. State Department as a terror organization. For instance, Kavita Krishnan is on the Politburo (Central Committee) of CPI-ML (Liberation), which has a history of supporting armed struggle and violence and glorifies letters and works by Charu Mazumdar, one of the key figures of the violent Naxalite movement in India. The party has openly stated, “...it is totally false to suggest that we have given up the policy of armed resistance...Militant sections capable of resistance have come up in many villages…” Nandini Sundar, a professor at the Delhi University, was also named as a key link between violent Maoist leaders and their urban sympathizers (the CPI-Maoist is also recognized as a terror outfit by the State Department) by Podiyam Pandu, a Naxalite involved in a deadly attack on Indian police officers in 2017.
- Many speakers have attested that Hindu festivals and practices are irredeemably bigoted, effectively censuring any Hindu who celebrates them. On August 20, 2015, while commenting on the murder of a Muslim woman by two of her brothers, Ms. Krishnan dragged in the Hindu festival of Rakshabandhan to imply that the killing was tied to the spirit of the festival. The “Hindutva Harassment Field Manual” conference resource also refers to Holi, another popular Hindu festival as fundamentally “casteist” and “violent.” On May 17, 2021, amidst the COVID-19 crisis in India and the overwhelming deaths, journalist Neha Dixit demeaned Hindu funeral rites by alleging them to be part of “...omnipresent...oppressive Brahmanical practices...” In 2010, P. Sivakami participated on a provocative panel which argued that the caste system will not go until Hinduism is erased and that “Hinduism is spiritual fascism.”
- Other speakers have denigrated the Ramayana, one of Hinduism’s foremost epics. Anand Patwardhan is a filmmaker, whose short film, titled “We Are Not Your Monkeys,” falsely analogizes monkeys in the epic to “lower caste” Dalits using colonial race theories. The filmmaker himself notes that juxtaposing images of the Ramayana with controversial scenes is meant to “disenchant the visual pleasures gained from encounters with the images of the Hindu pantheon.” In other words, the film’s version of Hinduism is intended to nauseate the viewer. Another speaker, Meena Kandasamy, has authored a poem that calls the Hindu deity Rama a “di**head” who needs “the testicle of a golden deer” to “rouse [his] manhood” and portrays the Hindu goddess Sita as lusting after Ravana, her kidnapper in the epic. An author of the conference’s “Hindutva Harassment Field Manual” resource (Professor Audrey Truschke) has called Rama a “misogynistic pig” and argued that another sacred Hindu text, Bhagavad Gita, “rationalizes mass slaughter.”
These examples are fundamentally a re-casting of Hinduism-- not any political movement (i.e., Hindutva)-- as oppressive. “Hindutva” is used as a smokescreen for overt Hinduphobia.
This pattern of abusing Hinduism and falsely attributing a Hindu origin to violent ideas while peddling bigotry can also be seen through the works of many scholars and resources associated with the conference. For example, a scholar who co-authored the aforementioned “Hindutva Harassment Manual” has called Hindus “the worst scum on earth.”
This denigration and Hinduphobia has serious consequences, including threats of violence against Hindu community members, especially students. Academic freedom certainly permits scholarly inquiry; however, institutions are at liberty to not endorse a line of inquiry they find deeply troubling or harmful. We would not want this type of treatment for any religious community or group, nor would such bigotry be tolerated towards any other minority group.
What’s more, as members of an indigenous minority faith, Hindu students already struggle to find respect and understanding for their very different beliefs. This relentless bigotry against the Hindu community also has larger ramifications. As a small minority, composed primarily of people of color, we have been subjected to hate crimes and attacks for our religious beliefs. University campuses are supposed to be places where challenging ideas can be discussed without the specter of threat or intimidation against a community. Unfortunately, this commitment becomes a dead letter when universities openly endorse events that promote bigotry against a specific religion or invite those with a history of advancing Hinduphobia. The fig leaf of “we are opposed to Hindutva ideology, not Hinduism” falls apart when derogatory comments are directed at Hindu religious icons, texts and Hindus as a people. It falls apart when anti-Hindu violence is concertedly erased.
We therefore implore you to dissociate your institution from this conference. Continuing your association sends a message to the Hindu community and your entire campus that your institution supports Hinduphobia and condones violent bigotry. As educators who seek to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion, I trust that you’d like to send a very different message. I look forward to hearing it.
