This is an interesting and a slightly shocking press release about the rise of the Hindutva movement in US universities and campuses. With the victory of people like Narendra Modi and the slow rise of Hindu nationalistic movement in all walks of life, this news further sanctifies the push that Hindutva is making.
A few years ago, one of the Indian associations here in the US wanted Modi to come over and address them at their annual convention. Thanks to a huge outcry both here in the US and in India, the US Government did not issue Modi a visa on the basis of his human rights violations.
Read the press release and follow the link to the actual report in PDF format at the end of the article.
UNCOVERING THE GLOBAL SANGHNew Report Points To Growing Sangh Student Network in the US
New Delhi, Thursday, Jan 17, 2008 : The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) will release its latest report “UNMISTAKABLY SANGH: THE NATIONAL HSC AND ITS HINDUTVA AGENDA” on the growth of the Sangh Parivar’s student wing in the USA – the Hindu Students Council (HSC). The press conference and report release are scheduled at the Press Club, Raisina Road, at 3 PM today.
The report documents a long and dense trail of connections between the HSC and the Sangh from 1990 to the present. Ironically, the HSC exists on US American university campuses because of the liberal policy of multiculturalism that allows for diversity of cultures and tolerance. Yet HSC has promoted divisive and sectarian speakers such as Ashok Singhal and Sadhvi Rithambara. Indian American youth many times join the HSC without an awareness of the “invisible” connections between HSC and the Sangh.
The HSC was founded in 1990 as a project of the VHP of America. In 1993, Ashok Singhal, the then General Secretary of the VHP declared, “Now, the first project we have in mind is strengthening the Hindu Student Council”.1 The report Unmistakably Sangh, provides the first comprehensive documentation of the origins, methods and practices of the HSC and directly counters the claims of the HSC that it “has been independently run since 1993”.2 The report uses documents from Sangh sources – VHPA tax returns, filings with US Patents Office, Internet domain registry information, archives of the HSC, and publications of the Sangh Parivar in North America and elsewhere, to establish that the HSC was and remains an arm of the global Sangh Parivar.
Between 2002 and 2004, two reports, “The Foreign Exchange of Hate”, and “In Bad faith” exposed the siphoning of funds by the Sangh in the US and UK respectively. This new report establishes that the Sangh’s interests and activities in the US go far beyond funding, and that the HSC represents a grooming space for young Sangh leadership and the entry of the Sangh ideology into second generation Indian American spaces. “The Hindu Students Council claims to be an independent organization with no links to any Hindutva organization or movement. This is patently unfair because most of those who join HSC do not know of the strong ties between HSC and the Sangh,” says Ashwini Rao, a campaign coordinator for CSFH. Several of the HSC’s early recruits on American campuses are leaders in the Global Sangh operations today. “How important the HSC is to the Sangh can be seen from the fact that the HSC built and operated a significant part of the Sangh’s electronic infrastructure out of a server cluster in California” Raja Swamy, another CSFH coordinator pointed out. This runs counter to the policy of multiculturalism that allows organizations such as HSC on American campuses.
The complete report ‘Uncovering the Global Sangh’ is available at: Stop Funding Hate
Good post. Unfortunately the Indian diaspora that could have taken lead in strengthening the image of India by taking along Indian Muslims, Indian Christians, Indian Sikhs, Parsis and others, has failed and turned towards the right-wing RSS ideas. Our strength is our diversity and our long history of inter-religious harmony.
This author’s name suggests he is a Parsi. A good Secularist. He seems to forget that the his ancestors ran to India becoz the Muslims in Iran{ then Persia} jacked their assholes and forced them to convert. Today they talk big Secularist. For THE FIRST TIME in the history Hindus have hit back. Let the trend continue.
Adnan, yes exactly my point.
Kumarachandran, yes I am a Parsi. And yes we fled Persia 15 centuries ago to escape persecution. And therefore when we see the same happening in Gujarat, we cannot stop and just be spectators. Two wrongs cannot make a right. Just because Muslims persecuted us 15 centuries ago does not mean we cheer assholes like Modi who is on a mission to wipe out Muslims from India.
Grow up please. Its high time.
Dear Kumarachandran,
Mody and his henchmen raped, butchered and burnt thousands of innocents whose only crime was that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just like the Jews in Hitler’s Germany or the Hindus in Idi Amin’s Uganda.
You wrote, “For THE FIRST TIME in the history (sic) Hindus have hit back”. Rioting is an act of cowardice my friend, not one of bravery. The Sangh Parivar and their sympathisers can try to justify their action still the cows come home but Mody will be indicted by history for his sins.