Washington, September 12, 2021 (PPI-OT):Speakers at a conference in US have laid focus on threats emanating from RSS-BJP led Hindutva agenda in India, which is also funded by Indian diaspora, mainly Gujaratis. In his opening remarks, Dr Gayan Parakash of Princeton called Hindutva an ideology of paranoia, hatred, and extremism. “This conference takes place at a time when farmers, workers, women, Dalits, Adivasis, Bahujans, Muslims, religious and sexual minorities, are opposing the project of Hindu majoritarian nationalism,” he added.
Famous French academicians Christophe Jaffrelot, a well-known poet and social critic, Meena Kandasamy, and renowned documentary-maker Anand Patwardhan defined Hinduism in the session moderated by Thomas Blom Hansen, Standford. Jaffrelot attributed the rise of global Hindutva to the organizational skills of the RSS and the use of the internet for the propagation of the Hindu supremacy ideology. He explained that Hindutva in India and globally receives funds from the Indian diaspora, mainly Gujaratis.
Describing Hindutva as entirely different than Hinduism, Patwarden said, “it is a casteist project in which a Brahman elite recruits the powerless in an endless war against imaginary demons.” He called for the creation of a rainbow coalition to fight the RSS and its offshoots.
Kandasamy, who received death threats from Hindutva terrorists, equated Hindutva with inequality and oppression of women. In her view, Hindutva was not different than fascism, Nazism, and Trumpism. She called the term Sanatan offensive as it promotes the domination of Brahmanism, a Vedic concept.
Jens Lerche of Delhi School of Economics, Pritam Singh of Oxford University and Vamsi Vakulabharanam, a noted economist based in the US, spoke on the RSS-led fiscal policies. Political economist Smriti Rao moderated the session. They argued that the farm laws, demonetization, and taxation policies have added to poverty and unemployment. In addition, the RSS-led political regime uses the religious divide to hurt India’s economy and create social chaos to serve Brahminical hegemony.
Gajendran Ayyathurai, professor at a German university; Meena Dhanda, a philosophy professor at Wolverhampton University; and Bhanwar Meghwanshi, a former RSS official, described Hindutva as a movement of upper castes to subjugate the rest of the society. They argued that Hindutva was Brahmanism, and temples are the instructions to perpetuate inequality. The RSS never stood for democracy and is keen to replace the constitution with Manusmirit, a religious book that considers non-upper castes low origin. Caste is anti-democracy and anti-egalitarian, and Hindutva seems to be determined to protect caste. Without demolishing caste, Hindutva would continue to thrive.
It was a bold move on the part of academicians to speak on a taboo subject in India. The conference is a landmark in the academic world. It is the first time that caste-based politics has become a subject of academic discussion at the highest level in the US. Then, the Hindutva groups in the US would use all their resources to harass and intimidate the academicians. However, the voices have become so loud that the hate mongers cannot silence them anymore.
The ad-hoc organizing committee included Sahar Aziz, Rutgers University; Ben C. Baer, Princeton University; Sruti Bala, University of Amsterdam; Laura Brueck, Northwestern University; Ananya Chakravarti, Georgetown University; Zahid R. Chaudhary, Princeton University; Rohit Chopra, Santa Clara University; Ashley Cohen, University of Southern California; Meena Dhanda, University of Wolverhampton; John Esposito, Georgetown University; Shubhra Gururani, York University; Jyotsna Kapur, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; David Ludden, New York University; Radhika Mongia, York University; Meera Nanda, IISER Pune (former Visiting Faculty); Gyan Prakash, Princeton University; Sharmila Rudrappa, South Asia Institute, University of Texas-Austin; Lotika Singha, University of Wolverhampton; Suchitra Vijayan, Author, and Barrister-at-Law; Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective.
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