There’s a lot to unpack in her accusations against the Parliament of World’s Religions (the Parliament) and her ad hominem attacks on Prof. Anantanand Rambachan, a renowned scholar of Hinduism and an advisor to Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), who had written that those who were complaining of discrimination at the Parliament did not address their own ties to India’s “contentious and aggressive politics.”

The Preponderance of Hindu Voices

Let me begin with Sekhsaria’s patently absurd claim that the Parliament discriminated against Hindu speakers.

A search of the Parliament website for the list of 2023 speakers shows over 18 Swamis and Sadhvis, as well as 50 or more other Hindu speakers, who brought diverse Hindu perspectives on Vedanta, Bhagavad Gita, ahimsa, yoga, ethics, animal welfare, climate action, human rights, religious freedom, freedom of expression, and so on. These were interspersed with Indian classical and devotional music as well as Hindu worship and chants. As a matter of fact, the number of Swamis as speakers exceeded the number of Reverends and Rabbis!

I am aware of only one Hindu speaker who was disinvited following allegations of Islamophobia: Nivedita Bhide of the Vivekananda Kendra (Kendra), a Kanyakumari-based organization founded by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), with the express mission of countering the dominance of Christians in the Kanyakumari area and Arunachal Pradesh.

Sekhsaria did not advance any argument as to why Bhide deserved to remain as a speaker despite her alleged Islamophobic tweets. Neither did she clarify HAF’s stance on the ideology of the Kendra and the RSS, whose values run counter to the Parliament’s goal of cultivating interfaith harmony.

The idea that “Hindu speakers were banned, and Hindu organizations were demonized” at the Parliament is a vast exaggeration, when in fact only Hindu nationalist groups appear to have been left out of the list of speakers.

Hyperboles are Not Arguments

Instead of reasoned arguments, Sekhsaria chooses to mischaracterize Prof. Rambachan’s remarks as a call to exclude from the Parliament those who don’t “entirely condemn Hindutva and the Government of India.” He made no such demand even by implication. Absurd as such a litmus test would be, it would have disqualified most of the Hindu spiritual leaders at the Parliament, who are unlikely to have publicly condemned either Hindutva or the Government of India!

Prof. Rambachan was clearly expressing his concern about Hindu nationalist groups, who on the one hand openly or tacitly embrace the Modi government’s anti-minority policies, but on the other hand, seek legitimacy at interfaith gatherings like the Parliament.

I have had the pleasure of working with Prof. Rambachan ever since the inception of HfHR. I see him as a man of principles, always weighing his words carefully to avoid an accusatory tone, even as he expresses his views with precision and conviction. In my view, Sekhsaria has done herself a great disservice by willfully distorting his thoughtful critique, instead of taking it to heart.

Convenient Scapegoats

Sekhsaria goes on to say that “Dr. Rambachan, and the organizations he supports openly, Hindus for Human Rights, and by association, Indian American Muslim Council [IAMC], have peddled the falsehood that the Hindu organizations they demonize are tied to the creation and fueling of hate against non-Hindu minorities in India.”

It’s interesting that she deliberately uses the word “openly” to describe Prof. Rambachan’s support for HfHR as if there were something sinister about a member of our own Advisory Board supporting our work! She then attempts to weave a conspiracy by linking him to the IAMC, even though he has absolutely no connection with that organization.

As our earliest and closest partner, we have found IAMC to be laser-focused on defending the human rights and religious freedom of Indian Muslims in India and the US, but they also speak up for the rights of other minorities. They meticulously avoid commenting on Hindu religious affairs and do their best to keep their organization clear of controversial international struggles.

To me, the mere fact that HAF and other Hindu nationalist organizations are unable to muster even an iota of empathy for the beleaguered Indian Muslim community, as it endures more homes and places of worship destroyed illegally, more lynchings, and more legal harassment of activists, betrays their deep-seated animosity towards India’s largest minority.

HfHR is working to challenge this toxic ideology manifested through violent state policy. It does not bode well for the Hindu tradition to be linked to this kind of state violence.

Equating Hindu Nationalists with All Hindus

Sekhsaria also makes the preposterous charge that HfHR and IAMC “attack every proud Hindu for their identity.”

In the first place, HAF’s claim to be speaking on behalf of all Hindus is an insult to a majority of Hindus worldwide who do not subscribe to RSS’s hate-filled ideology.

Speaking for myself, I have always had a troubled relationship with the word “pride,” which has all too often been used to justify attacks on other communities. We are all painfully aware of how “German pride” enabled the destruction of six million Jews. We are now seeing “Hindu pride” being deployed regularly in India to justify hate speech and violent attacks on Muslims and Christians.

We at HfHR wholeheartedly reject the “Savarkar/Golwalkar” version of “Hindu Pride,” which presupposes contempt for other faiths. Instead, we aspire to lift up the shared heritage of all Indians, of which we can all be proud, and which does not ask people to hate others in order to love themselves. That is the core belief of our progressive Hinduism, founded in the spirit of saints of yesteryears such as Basavanna, Akka Mahadevi, Tukaram, Kabir, and other pathfinders.

It is to the credit of the Parliament that it tried not to give a platform to speakers and organizations whose acts of commission and omission show their lack of commitment and consistency on human rights and religious freedom.

HAF’s “Action in Inaction” (The Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 4, Verse 18)

Sekhsaria’s entire defense against charges that the HAF supports Modi’s anti-minority policies rests on just one point: That they have not made explicit statements in support of such policies. This is disingenuous, to say the least. Extensive findings in recent years (#1 and #2) show the proximity of the HAF to the RSS family.

This is not the place to revisit those findings, but suffice it to say that several founders of HAF hail from the RSS family and have never credibly distanced themselves from them. HAF receives a substantial part of its funding from supporters of the RSS family. Rishi Bhutada, a board member of the HAF, was the head spokesperson for the Howdy Modi event in 2019, which unabashedly hailed Modi and Trump. And, HAF advocates aggressively in Washington in support of the Modi regime and attempts to shield it from any criticism of its human rights record.

Given that history, it’s a poor defense to suggest that the lack of explicit statements in support of Modi’s anti-minority policies absolves them of all responsibility for the massive violation of the rights of minorities in India.

The Blame Game

HAF has played the blame game for years.

Mihir Meghani, co-founder of the HAF, wrote an essay in 1996 applauding the destruction of the Babri Masjid. When the essay surfaced in 2006, he blamed his teenage years and pointed the finger at unknown persons for doctoring his essay and posting it on the BJP website without his knowledge.

In the 2004-06 California school textbooks controversy, the HAF sued the state

to halt the publication of textbooks that had not accepted all the edits suggested by Hindu nationalist groups. When the judge dismissed the case, HAF blamed “anti-Hindu” scholars, “communists,” and the learned judge himself for not being suited to comment on Hinduism.

In 2019, HAF filed a defamation suit against me and my colleague, Sunita Viswanath, and three others, citing an imaginary conspiracy among defendants some of whom had never even met or talked before the lawsuit! When the judge threw out the case, they blamed it on technicalities and attempted to mischaracterize the ruling.

Throughout 2023, HAF has made its opposition to SB 403, the CA bill to ban caste discrimination, a central pillar of their work. As the bill awaits the Governor’s assent, they continue to blame Dalit groups for daring to expose the underbelly of dominant caste culture in California workplaces and social settings.

And now the HAF is falsely blaming the Parliament of World’s Religions for imagined discrimination against Hindus.

When will HAF end its blame game and start looking inwards for its string of policy failures and the resulting loss of credibility in the community?

Raju Rajagopal is a co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights USA.

Article was first published on American Kahani

The post The Hindu American Foundation Should Stop Blaming Others for Its String of Failures appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image: PTI

Despite the fact that Indian applicants are at a disadvantage under the current approval system that limits the number of Green Cards issued to individual countries at 9,800, while more than 50,000 of them newly join the queue each year, and the Trump administration has not indicated its views on this issue, these marchers said the President’s declared preference for “merit-based” immigration would tilt the balance in their favour.

“Trump loves Hindus,” “Trump loves India,” “Trump bringing Ram Rajya,” “Indians love Trump,” said the slogans at the march organised under the banner of the Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC), an organisation led by Chicago-based businessman Shalabh Kumar who is close to Mr. Trump. The marchers were all Indian technology workers who had come from all over the U.S. — California, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Illinois and New York.

Krishna Bansal, National Policy and Political Director of RHC, said Mr. Trump’s proposal to end family unification immigration would open up more space for Indian skilled workers. Nearly half of the one million Green Cards issued every year goes to the close relatives of American citizens regardless of their skills and the Trump administration wants to restrict this practice. “Thirty per cent of the country’s skilled immigrants come from India, but they have to wait several decades before being eligible for Green Cards. These are people who are already here, contributing to the economy, paying their taxes and raising their families,” he said. He said the group supported the proposal for building a wall on the U.S. southern border with Mexico and ending the diversity lottery programme for Green Card allotment. The marchers supported the ending of what the administration calls ‘chain migration.’

The immediate immigration question in America is about undocumented residents who were brought to the country illegally when they were children, a cohort termed ‘dreamers.’ A protection provided to them under an Obama era executive action will end in March if new legislative action is not taken. The administration has offered a path to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented residents if the Democrats agreed to tougher restrictions on legal immigration and enforcement. The marchers supported this policy. “Dreamers pay for the wall,” and “Make American strong again,” they shouted. Mr. Bansal said the President’s proposals were generous and those being offered a path to citizenship would be happy to pay a fees that would fund the wall.

However, an issue of particular concern for several of the marchers was the future of their children, who will lose their dependency status when they turn 21. “These are legal dreamers. Colleges are reluctant to admit them as their visa status has to be changed midway through the course. And once they are graduates, they go back to the end of the queue, again starting with an H-1B application,” said Ramesh Ramanath, who grew up in Chennai.

The post Hindu Americans Rally for Trump’s Immigration Policy appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The post Hindu Americans Protest Against CNN: Chicago appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The advocacy group wants to help voters make an 'informed choice' in the November 8 US elections, it said.

What is the red dot that many Hindu women wear on their forehead? Do Hindus have Commandments? What is the meaning of the swastika?

The answer to these and other such queries are part of the booklet titled More Answers to Real Questions about Hinduism, educational material put together by an advocacy group and sent on Tuesday to the presidential candidates for the upcoming US elections. So should Republican candidate Donald Trump seek clarity on when Raksha Bandhan is celebrated, or Democrat Hillary Clinton wonder whether Hindus believe in heaven and hell, they need not fret – the answers are within easy reach.

Not just this, the crash course of sorts also features information about the Hindu scriptures on the Vedas, and concepts of dharma (moral and religious law) and karma (actions).

The booklet, first released by the Hindu American Foundation, a non-profit advocacy group, in September 2010 (as a follow-up to the Short Answers to Real Questions about Hinduism, released in 2007) was sent to all four presidential candidates – Trump, Clinton, Jill Stein of the Green Party and Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party. The spokesperson said the materials were sent with a broad educational intent.

The material was distributed days after Trump, at a fund-raising event organised by the Republican Hindu Coalition in Edison, New Jersey on October 15 said, “I am a big fan of Hindu, and I am a big fan of India. Big, big fan,” seemingly conflating the religion with the entire nation.

Though it did not comment on Trump’s statement, it is perhaps misconceptions such as these that the Hindu American Foundation wants to clear. “While the Hindu American community is growing in America in numbers and importance, it still remains very much a minority faith,” Mat McDermott, director of communications of the Foundation, told Scroll.in via email. “We hope the materials we’ve sent prove educational, and clear up any misunderstandings about the beliefs and practices of Hindus that may be out there.”

Big community, small voice

The US has more than two million Hindus, a group that has traditionally favoured Democrats. According to McDermott, though, the New Jersey event in support of Trump “shows that the Hindu American community is as diverse in their political beliefs as the greater public in the United States, and that you can’t take for granted Hindus voting for one political party or another."

He added, however, that "despite the turnout at the recent Trump event, we believe the stats show the majority of Hindus supporting the Clinton campaign.”

In a Pew Research Centre survey of the American public in 2014, Hindus received “neutral ratings” – falling in the middle – lower than the “warm ratings” for Jews and Catholics but higher than the ratings for atheists and Muslims.

The Hindu American Foundation claims that it seeks to serve Hindu Americans across the divide of class, gender, age and the like. It aims to create a better understanding about the religion among people and advocate the Hindu American community’s needs and interests to decision makers.

On its website, the group has an interactive learning space called Hinduism 101. A link to it and other printed materials, including the More Answers to Real Questions… booklet have been sent to all the presidential candidates. “With growing numbers comes an increasing awareness of a place in American dialogue and the need for the accurate portrayal of the faith in line with its beliefs and practices,” said a prologue to the question-and-answer format booklet.
 

Tacking stock

A crucial part of the correspondence is a questionnaire from the Foundation, seeking the responses of each candidate on questions affecting the Hindu American community. Among other things, the candidates have been asked how they propose to deal with countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan where ethnic and religious minorities are discriminated against and been questioned on the technical aspects of visas issued to Hindu priests entering the country. Candidates can choose from the given options or then write a “free response”. They have been requested to send their responses by November 1, so that voters can make an informed choice when they go to polls on November 8.

“The collective responses, hopefully from all campaigns, will better inform our constituency and those who are dedicated to our mission of Promoting Dignity, Mutual Respect, and Pluralism as to which candidate they believe best serves these objectives,” said the letter from Suhag A Shukla, Hindu America Foundation executive director and legal counsel, to the candidates.

This is the first time the Foundation has undertaken such an outreach exercise, though they have published voter guides in the past. “With all the rhetoric in this year’s election cycle vis a vis immigration, etc and with the possibility of having up to four Hindu Americans in Congress after the election, we felt it was an appropriate time to ask the candidates their views directly, for the record,” said McDermott. Several Indian Americans are in running for the Congress this year.

The Foundation says it does not endorse or support any political candidate. “We do not seek to editorialise or place judgment on the responses that you provide,” said the letter. “We will simply post your responses on our website for public consumption with no commentary from HAF [Hindu American Foundation] or its leaders. We intend to publish any responses received as they are submitted to us.”

Though the Hindu American community has prominent names in several fields in the US, their representation in the political space so far has been limited. In 2012, Hawaiian-born Tulsi Gabbard of the Democratic Party became the first Hindu to be elected to Congress.

This article was first published on Scroll.in

The post Ahead of US poll, Hindu American group sends booklet on Hinduism to candidates – and a questionnaire appeared first on SabrangIndia.