In Edison, New Jersey, a bulldozer, which has become a symbol of the oppression of India’s Muslim minority, rolled down the street during a parade on India’s Independence Day.
At an event in Anaheim, California, a shouting match broke out between people celebrating the holiday and those who showed up to protest violence against Muslims in India.
American Indians of various religious backgrounds have coexisted peacefully in the United States for several decades.
But these recent events in the United States, and violent clashes between some Hindus and Muslims last month in Leicester, England, have raised concerns that India’s stark political and religious polarization is seeping into diaspora communities. .
In India, Hindu nationalism has emerged under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, which came to power in 2014 and won landslide elections in 2019.
The ruling party has faced strong criticism over increasing attacks on Muslims in recent years, from the Muslim community and other religious minorities, as well as from some Hindus who said Modi’s silence emboldens right-wing groups. and threatens national unity.
Hindu nationalism has divided the expatriate Indian community just as Donald Trump’s presidency polarized the United States, said Varun Soni, dean of religious life at the University of Southern California. He has about 2,000 students from India, among the highest in the country.
Soni has yet to see these tensions surface on campus. But he said USC was dealt a blow for being one of more than 50 US universities to co-host an online conference called Dismantling Global Hindutva.
The 2021 event aimed to spread awareness of Hindutva, Sanskrit for the essence of being Hindu, a political ideology that claims India is a predominantly Hindu nation, in addition to some minority religions with roots in the country, such as Sikhism. , Jainism and Buddhism.
Critics have said that it excludes other minority religious groups such as Muslims and Christians. Hindutva is different from Hinduism, an ancient religion practiced by around a billion people around the world that emphasizes the unity and divine nature of all creation.
Soni said it’s important that universities remain places where “we can talk about fact-based issues in a civil way.” But as USC’s senior chaplain, Soni worries how polarization over Hindu nationalism will affect students’ spiritual health.
“If someone is being attacked for their identity, ridiculed or scapegoated because they are a Hindu or a Muslim, I am most concerned about their well-being, not who is right or wrong,” he said.
Anantanand Rambachan, a retired university religion professor and practicing Hindu who was born in Trinidad and Tobago to a family of Indian origin, said his opposition to Hindu nationalism and association with anti-ideology groups prompted complaints from some at a Hindu temple. Minnesota where he has taught religion classes.
He said that opposing Hindu nationalism sometimes results in charges of being “anti-Hindu” or “anti-India”, labels he has rejected.
Accusations of Hindu nationalism
On the other hand, many Hindu Americans feel vilified and attacked for their views, said Samir Kalra, managing director of the American Hindu Foundation in Washington, DC.
“The space to express oneself freely is shrinking for Hindus,” he said, adding that even agreeing with Indian government policies unrelated to religion can result in being branded as a Hindu nationalist.
Pushpita Prasad, a spokesman for the Coalition of North American Hindus, said his group has been counseling young Hindu Americans who have lost friends because they refuse to “take sides in these battles emanating from India.”
“If they don’t take sides or don’t have an opinion, they are automatically assumed to be Hindu nationalists,” he said. “Their country of origin and their religion are held against them.”
Both organizations opposed the Dismantling Global Hindutva conference, criticizing it as “Hinduphobic” and failing to present diverse perspectives.
Conference supporters said they rejected equating calling Hindutva with being anti-Hindu. They said Hindutva advocates, including Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Modi’s BJP ideological mentor, aimed to make India a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation) in which minorities would be second-class citizens.
Some Indian Americans, like 25-year-old Sravya Tadepalli, believed it was their duty to speak out. Tadepalli, a Massachusetts resident who is a board member for Hindus for Human Rights, said her activism against Hindu nationalism is grounded in her faith.
“If that is the fundamental principle of Hinduism, that God is in everyone, that everyone is divine, then I think we have a moral obligation as Hindus to uphold the equality of all human beings,” he said. “If any human being receives inferior treatment or his rights are infringed, then it is our duty to work to correct it.”
Tadepalli said his organization also works to correct misinformation on social media that travels across continents, creating hate and polarization.
Tensions in India peaked in June after Udaipur city police arrested two Muslim men accused of slitting the throat of a Hindu tailor and posting a video on social media. The slain man, Kanhaiya Lal, 48, had reportedly shared an online post supporting a ruling party official who was suspended for making offensive comments against the Prophet Muhammad.
Hindu nationalist groups have attacked minority groups, particularly Muslims, over issues related to everything from eating to wearing headscarves to interfaith marriage. Muslim homes have also been bulldozed with heavy machinery in some states, in what critics call a growing pattern of “bugger justice” with disregard for “due process” and the “rule of law.”
Such reports have Muslim Americans fearful for the safety of their relatives in India. Shakeel Syed, executive director of the South Asian Network, a social justice organization based in Artesia, California, said he regularly listens to his sisters and feels “pervasive fear, not knowing what tomorrow will be like.”
Syed grew up in the Indian city of Hyderabad in the 1960s and 1970s in “a more pluralistic and inclusive culture.”
“My Hindu friends would come to our Eid celebrations and we would go to their Diwali celebrations,” he said. “When my family went on summer vacation, we would leave our house keys with our Indian neighbor, and they would do the same when they had to leave town.”
Syed believed that violence against Muslims is now widespread in India. He has heard of girls in his family considering removing their hijab or headscarf out of fear.
‘Behind closed doors’
In America, he sees his Hindu friends reluctant to engage in a public dialogue because they fear reprisals.
“There is still a conversation, but it is happening in pockets, behind closed doors, with like-minded people,” he said. “It’s certainly not happening between people who have opposing views.”
Rajiv Varma, a Houston-based Hindu activist, had a diametrically opposite view. The tensions between Hindus and Muslims in the West, he said, are not a reflection of events in India, but stem from a deliberate attempt by “religious and ideological groups who are waging war against Hindus.”
Varma believes that India is “a Hindu country” and the term “Hindu nationalism” simply refers to love for one’s country and religion. He sees India as a country ravaged by conquerors and settlers, and the Hindus as a religious group that does not seek to convert or colonize.
“We have the right to recover our civilization,” he said.
Rasheed Ahmed, co-founder and executive director of the Washington, DC-based American Indian Muslim Council, said it saddens him “to see that even educated Hindu Americans don’t take Hindu nationalism seriously.” He believed that American Hindus must make “a fundamental decision about how India and Hinduism should be viewed in the United States and throughout the world.”
“The decision to recover Hinduism from whoever kidnapped it is theirs.”
Zafar Siddiqui, a Minnesota resident, hoped to “reverse some of this mistrust and polarization” and build understanding through education, personal connections and interfaith caucuses. Siddiqui, a Muslim, has helped bring together a group of Minnesotans of Indian origin, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and atheists, who come together for monthly potlucks.
“When people sit down, say, over lunch, dinner or coffee, and have a direct dialogue, instead of listening to all these leaders and spreading all this hate, it changes a lot of things,” Siddiqui said.
But during a recent meeting, some discussed a draft proposal to, at some point, seek dialogue with people who have different views. Those who disagreed explained that they did not support reaching out to Hindu nationalists and feared harassment.
Siddiqui said that for now, future plans include focusing on education and interfaith events that highlight the different traditions and religions of India.
“Keeping silent is not an option,” Siddiqui said. “We needed a platform to unite people who believe in the peaceful coexistence of all communities.”
