ASATA Statement on the March 3, 2024 “Unity March against Anti-Semitism”

There will be a “Unity March against Anti-Semitism’’ in San Francisco tomorrow. However the last 147 days of  genocide in Palestine have made clear that this “unity march” is just a cover for Zionists advocating to continue bombing and starving Palestinians. 

The only non-Jewish speaker at the event is Pawan Deshpande from the Hindu American Foundation (HAF). HAF is a right wing Hindu Nationalist (Hindutva) hate group that started as an outgrowth of the core Hindu Nationalist group, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), associated with the current fascist BJP regime in India. These organizations advocate for Hindu Fascism at every level, both in the US and India. You can read more about the VHP in this recent report by Savera, a new, progressive South Asian coalition in the US. 

The presence of an HAF speaker at this Zionist march is a clear signal of the deep ideological and political alliance between Zionists and Hindu nationalists. Both ideologies are built on the belief of an ethnonationalist state only achieved through normalizing violence against minorities, ethnic cleansing, state repression, and cultural erasure. Zionists and Hindu nationalists have been increasingly working together on building power and strategy. This alliance is apparent in India being the largest purchaser of Israeli weapons, their use of Israeli technology and strategy in the ongoing occupation of Kashmir, and India’s recent sale of “killer” drones to Israel

Pawan Deshpande and the HAF don’t represent the diversity of the South Asian or Hindu communities in the Bay Area. ASATA stands with the majority of Americans in calling for a permanent ceasefire. Since October, we have joined our Palestinian and Arab comrades, along with people of conscience across the Bay Area, fighting for an end to US aid to Israel and a Free Palestine. 

We continue to call on South Asians and South Asian organizations in the United States to reject the continued co-option of our identities by organizations such as the HAF and to see clearly that the only “unity” perpetuated by this march is a unity in support of a fascist and genocidal regime that continues to invisibilize the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

ASATA Statement on Palestine | October 2023

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ASATA members joined hundreds of protesters in front of the Israeli consulate in San Francisco on October 8, 2023.

The Alliance of South Asians Taking Action stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in the face of the current escalation of violence unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank. Over the last two weeks, ASATA members looked to the leadership of Palestinian activists in the San Francisco Bay Area who continue to lead protests that lift up the unrelenting resistance of those living under violent occupation. 

As we mobilized for direct actions and joined the call for Palestinian liberation, we also deepened our understanding of how the state of Israel’s settler colonial tactics are proliferated and being replicated in the Indian government’s violent occupation of Kashmir. As part of a diverse South Asian Diaspora, ASATA members clearly see the close relationship between Hindutva (Hindu Nationalism) and Zionist ideologies. As South Asians, we challenge all forms of imperialism. Thus, we oppose Zionism, a settler colonial project displacing indigenous Palestinians, resulting in the world’s largest diasporic refugee population. 

The current close relationship between India and Israel has enabled a security regime where India has adopted Israeli tactics of collective punishment (such as the arbitrary revocation of residency and citizenship rights, arbitrary detention, statewide suspension of internet, etc.) in its occupation of Kashmir.  The deployment of the Israeli hacking software Pegasus to spy on Indian journalists, lawyers, activists, academics, supreme court judges, opposition politicians, and many others must be seen in the context of the announcement by India and Israel that cyber security is a key area of cooperation between them. The NSO group, an Israeli firm that’s an expert in cyber surveillance, has in effect abetted the Indian government’s surveillance of its own citizens as it has done in a dozen other countries.  

The Israeli government’s alliance with and support of the BJP’s Hindutva agenda is part of a longer history where it has exported its violent policies and military tactics to South Asia in order to suppress resistance movements there. For example, The New York Times has reported that as early as the 1980s, Israeli intelligence agents trained their Sri Lankan counterparts in their fight against Tamil groups. Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack has raised questions about Israel’s more recent role in war crimes committed during the Sri Lankan civil war, and has called for criminal investigations into the involvement of Israeli companies, officials, and individuals. 

India’s embrace of Israel is polarizing the Indian-American diaspora, and has exacerbated the islamophobia of those who subscribe to the toxic ideology of Hindutva. The US-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) is modeled after AIPAC and the AJC, and the Hindutva lobby’s use of the accusation of “Hinduphobia” to shut down critical discourse is inspired by the Zionist lobby’s success in silencing critics of Israel’s policies by weaponizing charges of anti-semitism.  

The BJP’s fearsome “IT Cell” is a massive disinformation machine that amplifies Hindutva propaganda through an army of paid employees and volunteers that flood social media with fake news, and through a large-scale use of bots that power harassment and trolling campaigns. Many accounts known to push Hindutva content are now being used to spread disinformation about Hamas while continuing their systematic spreading of islamophobic content. 

Indeed, as documented by BOOM, one of India’s most reputable fact-checking websites, India is now one of the largest sources for disinformation targeting Palestinians negatively. We call on fellow South Asians in the diaspora to condemn the demonization of Palestinians, and ensure we do not contribute to the spread of disinformation and anti-Muslim hate. 

We take inspiration from the women of India’s National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW) who have declared their solidarity with Palestinians —  invoking the “historic oppression” and “systematic dehumanization” that both communities have faced. 

We are also in solidarity with the many anti-Zionist Jewish groups and individuals both within Israel and world-wide that are opposing the Israeli state’s attacks on Palestine, and its long standing policy of apartheid against the Palestinian people.  

We call on our fellow South Asians and South Asia- led organizations in the United States to reject the “both sides” argument that invisiblizes the experiences and dignity of the Palestinian people. We call for an immediate ceasefire and end to the ongoing siege and genocide in Gaza. We call on the US to stop arming the Israeli apartheid regime with billions’ of dollars worth of weaponry. And finally, We invite our communities to embrace the ways our histories of anti-imperialist struggles are connected so that we may build power and protect our communities against anti-Musilm hate violence and state-sponsored terrorism. Free Palestine.  

Domestic Workers’ Organizing in California: An ASATA Update

by ASATA Member Preeti Gamzeh

Over two million homes across California depend on the essential care provided by more than 300,000 domestic workers in the state – yet they remain without health and safety protections in the workplace. Care workers who ensure our economies have a healthy workforce, are ironically and sadly, marginalized and invisible-ized by intentional exclusion from worker protection laws. These exclusions are a remnant of the United States’ legacy of slavery and discrimination against Black and brown immigrant women workers that continue on in California state’s labor code today.

As a result, domestic workers are regularly exposed to health and safety threats. These include exposure to toxic products, heavy lifting leading to muscle tears, sprains, back  injuries and other long-term chronic conditions such as asthma, chronic cough, vision impairment, impacts on the reproductive system, and more.

To address this historic inequality, the California Domestic Workers Coalition (CDWC) worked with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) to create SB 686, a bill that created the first ever health and safety guidelines for the domestic work industry. This bill was put together by an Advisory Committee of domestic workers, employers, and occupational health and safety experts with Cal/OSHA.

To push for the signing of this bill into law, the CDWC and the NDWA organized a historic rally of over 600 domestic workers in Sacramento,on August 29th. ASATA member Preeti Shekar got to interview Kimberly Alvarenga, the Executive Director of the California Domestic Workers Coalition, to discuss why SB 686 is important and how domestic worker organizing is one of the most important and feminist movement in the country. This discussion aired on KPFA 94.1 FM’s Women’s Magazine on Mon, Oct 9th.

Postscript: After this interview was recorded, Governor Newsom vetoed the bill, on October 2nd, on grounds that homes and businesses cannot be regulated by the same set of laws. The CDWC and the NDWA expressed their disappointment in this decision and are currently re-strategizing. While it is disappointing that this bill was outright vetoed, the organizing of domestic workers, who are largely from black and brown immigrant communities, is one of the brightest sparks of feminist movements in the United States, and is inspiring to organizing care work everywhere.

Learn more about the incredible strides domestic worker organizing in California has made by visiting their website at cadomesticworkers.org and following their updates on social media. 

Extra Links/Resources:

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ASATA partnered with APEX Express, a weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community, to talk about Manipur’s Humanitarian Crisis. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Check it out below:

“We are a small group of people, and if we are annihilated the world won’t even miss us because most of the world doesn’t even know we exist.”

The Kuki-Zomi tribal community of Manipur, a small picturesque state in north-east India, has been witnessing violent ethnic conflict in which over 120 lives have been tragically lost and more than 50,000 individuals displaced from their ancestral homes since May 2023.

Hosts Miko Lee and Cheryl Truong are joined by Niang Hangzo and Sonny Gangte, both members of the impacted Kuki-Zomi and a part of the North American Manipur Tribal Association@namtaus. They unravel the complexities of Manipur’s crisis and the factors perpetuating this atrocious humanitarian violation against the Kuki people.

Also please check out Niang’s article for more information.

CONTENT WARNING:

Please be advised that the things we’re going to be talking about and what has been happening to the Kuki-Zomi people of Manipur is horrific. Tonight’s show handles sensitive topics, such as violence, genocide, gender based violence and sexual assault. Our show’s transcript will be available to read in our show notes for those who would like to process at their own pace.

Stay updated on the Manipur crisis and the incredible work by the North American Manipur Tribal Association by following their socials:

Instagram/Twitter/Facebook: @NamtaUS

namta.us and namta.us/donate

Want to learn more? Check out The Bay Native Circle, a weekly program that presents special guests and explores today’s Native issues, peoples, cultures, music & events with rotating hosts Morning Star Gali, Tony Gonzales, Eddie Madril and Janeen Antoine.

South Asian Therapist Collective

Many South Asians struggle with mental health, and those who try to work through it using therapy additionally struggle to find culturally competent care. Seeing this, a few therapists within ASATA’s membership, Farhana Sobhan and Ishita Pohoja, worked to start a therapy collective in hopes of addressing this need. The below is a quote from Farhana:

This directory was created with the intention of connecting South Asian therapists to South Asian clients. When I was looking for a therapist, I wanted to work with someone who understood some of my nuanced cultural experiences. Someone to whom I would not have to explain my collective understanding of relationships. Someone with whom I didn’t have to take time educating about my culture and how it impacts me. This directory was formed from the work of South Asian Therapist Collective (SATC) who formed during the lockdown of Covid-19. The collective has coalesced in order to examine the nuances of working with South Asian themes via consultation, to be in community with one another to lessen isolation, and to decolonize therapy through dialogue and being in community with one another. As a collective, we want to continue to create more visibility for South Asian therapists to link South Asian individuals to culturally informed care. And for us, as therapists to be in relationship to one another that tends to be isolative due to the nature of mental health work.  

If you’re interested in being part of this collective, please reach out to the southasiantherapists [at] gmail [dot] com.

Resisting Hindutva: Community Screening of BBC’s “India, the Modi Question”


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On May 14, 2023 the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA) and Arwah Collective presented a screening of BBC’s documentary, India: The Modi Question. This documentary lays out the increasingly perilous conditions for Indian Muslims, specifically following the ascension of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Starting with his reign as chief minister of Gujarat, the documentary goes in-depth into Modi’s orchestration of the 2002 pogrom, the recent implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), the abrogation of Section 370 in Kashmir, the systemic stoking of communal violence targeting Indian Muslims, repression of protesters, and the dwindling freedom of press in the nation-state. 

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Before the film began, organizers welcomed the audience and discussed why it was important to screen this documentary which has been banned by the India and censored by YouTube and Twitter in collusion with the Indian government. In brave defiance of this ban, several student groups in India organized screenings of this film and were met with violent state repression. ASATA organizers prepared the audience for the violent footage we were about to see and the BBC’s editorial decisions to give a platform to the political enablers of of Hindu fascism. Members of Arwah Collective lifted up the importance of international solidarity against all forms of fascism from Kashmir to Palestine with a grounding in the legacy of genocide of indigenous peoples in what is now the United States.

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Arwah Collective also facilitated a decompression/healing space to support participants who needed a break from the content of this documentary to process, reflect, and calm our nerves. Participants were also able to connect with one another about ways we can build stronger movements in resistance to Hindutva and fascism in the subcontinent and diaspora.

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ASATA Co-Sponsors the 4th People Get Ready Conference

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Above: ASATA members with Pierre Labossiere of Haiti Action Committee. Below: folks decompress after the conference. Photos courtesy of Sabiha Basrai.

The Center for Political Education has convened the People Get Ready Conference biennially since 2017. People Get Ready 4 took place at UC Berkeley on March 25, 2023. The one-day conference gathered left movements in the Bay Area of California to analyze political conditions and discuss movement strategy during a period of deepening economic, social, and ecological crises.

ASATA co-sponsored the conference and participated in the planning committee, and volunteered for logistical roles at the event.

Sabiha from ASATA moderated the panel “ Transnational Fascism(s)” at the in conversation with Thenmozhi Soundarajan of Equality Labs, Brandon Lee of SF Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, and Nora Abedelal of Arab Resource & Organizing Center. Authoritarian forces and people’s movements are engaged in fierce conflicts across the globe. Fascist projects often find strategic support from rightwing forces across borders and from the US government and its imperialist military. The panel focused on how Left forces analyze, resist, and build power to defeat these international networks.

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Transnational Fascism(s) panel at People Get Ready 4. Photo by Brooke Anderson.

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

  1. 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. 
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

The politics of Ms. Marvel


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Preeti, Taz, Sabiha and Haleema came together to discuss the politics and cultural impact of the Disney TV show Ms. Marvel. Check out their discussion which aired on APEX Express on January 19, 2023.

And for more dialogue on this topic, you can listen to the episode Ms. Marvel: Kamala Khan & Desi Community Power on Graphic Policy Radio.

Berkeley history tour celebrates ten years

The Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour, curated by ASATA members Barnali Ghosh and Anirvan Chatterjee, just celebrated its 10th year. They’ve run 227 tours to date—about two tours a month, every month, for ten years straight.

The tours cover a century of South Asian movements in Berkeley, from the rise of the Ghadar Party in the 1910s to the founding of ASATA in 2000. For many members, the tour was their first exposure to ASATA and its history.

The city of Berkeley just issued a proclamation celebrating the tour’s 10th anniversary.

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