Diverse American Coalition Vows to Fight Hindu Nationalism in the US
For Immediate Release
March 6, 2023
Contact: S. Karthikeyan akscsfba@gmail.com
San Jose, CA: A coalition of human rights and civil rights organizations including Ambedkar King Study Circle, The NAACP, Hindus for Human Rights, Indian-American Muslim Council and Jewish Voice for Peace organized a screening of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question” which reveals rising authoritarianism and widespread political repression in India under the rule of Hindu Nationalist (AKA Hindutva) Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Through interviews with survivors of police brutality and the families of the victims of mob lynchings, the film, banned in India, makes a powerful case that the ruling party BJP and its leader, Mr. Modi, are committed to advancing a Hindutva agenda at all costs, including that of the Indian Constitution.
Following the screening, Mr. Imran Dawood, who was nearly beaten to death and witnessed his two uncles being murdered by Hindu supremacist mobs in Gujarat in 2002, shared in powerful testimony that the pogrom continues to affect him not only because of his personal trauma, but also because Modi and many of the highest officials responsible for the violence and killings have never faced legal accountability for their complicity. He invoked Malcolm X’s quote, “You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it” to urge all Indians to stand up against Hindutva ideology. This was echoed by Javed Ali, president of IAMC’s Bay Area chapter, who implored the audience to condemn Hindutva ideology wherever it arises, including in California.
The event organizers spanned several religious and ethnic communities that gathered to stand in solidarity with the victims of Hindutva. Rev. Jethroe Moore from the NAACP called upon all to stand together, strive together and fight together for justice, everywhere that it is under threat. “It all amounts to one struggle, the struggle for Human Rights,” asserted Sharat Lin, from Human Agenda and the San Jose Peace & Justice Center.
S. Karthikeyan from Ambedkar King Study Circle called attention to the fact that Hindutva organizations are not only thriving in India but are spreading their hateful agenda globally. Organizations such as the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, Sewa International, Ekal, VHP-America and others masquerade as social and cultural organizations and have diverted millions of tax exempt dollars to India to fund the indoctrination of children, sowing of division, and spreading of hate. He emphasized that the stronger organizational presence of Hindutva in the U.S. has made Dalit and Muslim Americans and immigrants more vulnerable. AKSC is committed to exposing these groups to the American people through mass mobilizations and political education. The call for political education was echoed by Aamir Qureishi from the Culture and Conflict forum which is working to bring marginalized voices to the fore, and by Elizabeth Kamya from the youth group Afro Umoja Political Representation in Silicon Valley (AFRO-UPRIS) which plans to educate and mobilize its members against Hindutva’s hateful agenda.
Swati Rayasam from the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action drew a parallel between Hindutva and Zionism, and alerted the audience to how the seeds of Hindu fascism are planting themselves in progressive US organizations in the same ways that Zionism did before. Prabodh Jamwal from Hindus for Human Rights (which fights Hindutva) and Wendy Greenfield from Jewish Voice for Peace (which fights Zionism) both spoke at the event; Jamwal described how Hindu nationalism poses a clear and present danger to Indian and US democracies, while Greenfield urged building strong bonds of solidarity to thwart divisive forces.
The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) is one example of US-based Hindutva organizations which employ a rhetoric of multiculturalism and insert themselves into mainstream spaces through a savvy and cynical use of the language of minority rights. Many interfaith spaces, for example, have been occupied by Hindutva organizations that claim to represent all Hindus while maintaining a strategic silence when it comes to Hinduism’s internal battles such as the fight against caste oppression by millions, or the struggle by Hindu women against gender-based discrimination, including female infanticide. The HAF has in fact campaigned to remove references to casteist and gender discrimination from grade school textbooks in California, an act of historical amnesia and gaslighting that was opposed by Ambedkarite and progressive South Asian organizations. The HAF’s toxic record also includes attempts to block legislation to ban Caste discrimination, but it was defeated roundly in Seattle!
The testimonies offered in the film serve to document the ongoing capture and transformation of India’s democratic and secular traditions by the BJP’s fascist ideology, changes that add up to a veritable checklist of fascism:
- Assault on Press Freedom: Journalists and news organizations that are critical of the government are being targeted with impunity. India’s ranking on the World Press Freedom Index has fallen from 80 in 2002 and 133 in 2016 to 150 in 2021, its lowest ranking ever out of 180 countries.
- Disdain for Human Rights and Obsession with National Security: Any criticism by human rights activists, union organizers, lawyers, students, etc. is immediately suppressed through violence or by invoking national security laws that address sedition and counterterrorism. Rights watchdog Amnesty International has expressed concern about the “abusive use” of the draconian law UAPA (Unlawful Activities {Prevention} Act) which allows the government to bypass constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties and fundamental rights that protect citizens from abuses of state power.
- Identification of Enemies as a Unifying Cause, Religion and Government Intertwined: According to Genocide Watch, the official sanction of Islamophobia by the BJP government has escalated now into a genocide emergency, where massacres are ongoing and “beatings and murders of Muslims with impunity occur almost daily.” The revocation of article 370 in Kashmir (which is 95% Muslim), and the targeting of organizations that fight casteism including Dalit rights groups and Adivasi (indigenous) land right groups are also testament to the BJP’s exclusionary politics.
AKSC invites all people of conscience to join its fight against Hindutva. Jai Bhim!
References:
- The 2022 report by Human Rights Watch, “India: Media Freedom Under Threat” explains the decline in press freedom by highlighting multiple stories of journalists being targeted, harassed, physically attacked, and even imprisoned.
- Stop Hindutva in America offers excellent documentation of Hindutva in America including a mapping of the network of Hindutva organizations, and two full-length reports that trace how donations given to U.S.- based Hindutva organizations fund hate in India.
ASATA Co-Coordinator Swati Rayasam gave the following statement:
The seeds of Hindu fascism are planting themselves in progressive US organizations in the same ways that Zionism did before it; building a campaign to flatten our culture and rewrite our histories of violence and resistance.
So much of the power retained by fascists like Modi is through their ability to control the narrative around state violence and call it justifiable. But hosting this political education to deepen our understanding of the 2002 pogrom and hearing from the survivors is a way to put that story back where it belongs - with the people.
As an organizer of a volunteer and grassroots-led group in the Bay Area, we know that this is a transnational issue — the RSS and VHP are thriving in the United States and here in California. We know that there are parallels to police violence in India and in the United States. We also know it is our responsibility, specifically of Hindu and dominant caste communities, to disrupt this continued violence and radicalization in our communities. And lastly, we know that it takes interfaith, intercaste, and transnational activism to defeat the project of Hindutva and build an alternative path.
It is critical now more than ever that South Asian and progressive organizations in the US build with, learn from, and show up for each other, for our comrades in Palestine and the Philippines, and that we push the US Left show solidarity with South Asian progressive organizations in a united front against Hindu fascism and fascism worldwide.
We also know that this work is continual, constant, and that means this work cannot stop here.