An American Senator has strongly condemned the Dismantling Global Hindutva conference as an anti-Hindu gathering after several universities asked organizers to remove their logos from the event site, provoking outrage among Hindu Americans. ‘Hinduism is being attacked across the United States during this conference, and we should condemn this as nothing more than racism and bigotry’. In a statement, Ohio State Senator Niraj Antani said he would stand strong against Hinduphobia. His statement was accompanied by a strong condemnation of the Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference. Anantani is the first Indian American state senator in Ohio history and the youngest Hindu elected official in the history of the United States.
Dismantling Global Hindutva will take place on the weekend of September 10-12, and its organizers have asked to remain anonymous. However, they are also making the names of several eminent academicians and speakers public. Over 3,50,000 emails have been sent to universities, academicians, and various stakeholder groups by the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) in opposition to the conference. Rutgers University president Jonathan Holloway stated in an email to CoHNA that the university was unaware that its logo was being used by conference organizers.
CoHNA charged that the conference describes Hindus as extremists disproportionately and falsely, denies the genocide of Hindus, and most troubling of all, labeled those who disagree as Hindutva, which the conference organizers define as Hindu extremism. The Hindutva Harassment Field Manual is posted at the conference as an official resource that categorically states that Hindus have never faced systematic oppression throughout history or in the present. Anti-Hindu bias has never caused casualties on such a large scale.
Rutgers University said in an email that it is not a sponsor of the symposium. In spite of this, it noted that Rutgers faculty may be participating in the conference in accordance with the tradition of academic freedom and fundamental American free speech rights. The organizers have been asked by Dalhousie University to remove its logo from promotional materials. ‘The university was unaware UMass Boston was listed as a co-sponsor, and we have not formally received or approved any request to be listed as such, Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, chancellor of UMass Boston’, stated via email.
Several universities have responded in similar ways to CoHNA’s emails, indicating that there is an organized and concerted effort against Hindus. In a statement, scholars and members of academic communities offered their support for the event. According to conference organizers, ‘the goal is to bring together leading scholars on South Asian studies and public commentators on Indian politics and society from around the world so that they can discuss how Hindutva is being expressed globally’. The conference aims to examine what Hindutva says and does on numerous topics such as economics, gender, and sexuality, according to a previous statement to PTI.
‘Academics, public intellectuals, activists, and artists will participate in the conversation to inform the public about these issues. It will also examine what Hindutva does when it has captured state power through both its official policies and its unofficial policies, like creating impunity for Hindutva violence and setting up a massive propaganda machine’, said the conference’s organizers, who did not want their names revealed.
‘Criticizing Hindutva is in no way harmful to Hindu students, we categorically reject the idea. Consequently, we consider Hindutva to be the most significant threat to Hinduism’s pluralistic ethos, as well as to efforts to combat ills in Indian society like casteism. Hindutva critics cannot make a clear distinction between a critique of Hindutva and an attack on Hinduism due to their confusion about this conference, affiliation and need to defend Hindutva’, they said.
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