Credit: X/Hindu American Foundation
On October 18, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) issued a statement expressing deep concern over an event to be organized by the Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights (CSRR) at the New Jersey-based Rutgers University on October 27.
A CSRR report titled “Hindutva in America: A Threat to Equality and Religious Pluralism,” which was released in May, is slated to be launched at the event. HAF objected to the report defining Hindutva as a “supremacist” and “extremist” ideology akin to white supremacy or fascism, and assigning the ideology to the HAF and other Hindu American organizations. HAF insisted that it is not a “proxy” or “affiliate” of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu nationalist ideological-organizational parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The discussants at the October 27 event include Rutgers historian Audrey Truschke, who, in a 2021 book co-edited by Hindutva preacher Rajiv Mehrotra, was described, along with nine other renowned scholars from India, Europe and the U.S., as “Hindu phobic.”
“Hindutva advocates undermine American pluralism and spread hate against Muslims, Sikhs and other minority groups within American society,” the CSRR report said. The report named the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) U.S. chapter, Vishwa Hindu Parishad-America (VHPA), the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP), Sewa International, the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), the Hindu Students Council (HSC), and the Hindu Youth for Unity, Virtues and Action (YUVA) as among RSS-linked Hindutva/Hindu nationalist outfits operating in the U.S.
It listed HAF, the Hindu Mandir Executives’ Conference (HMEC), Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF), and Hindu Policy Research and Advocacy Collective (HinduPACT) in a second category called “Homegrown American Hindutva Organizations.” These are founded by “second-generation immigrants focused on expanding Hindutva in the United States,” the CSRR report said.
HAF contested these claims, saying, “The report’s claims of ideological and ongoing programmatic ties between HAF and such groups” — RSS or its affiliates — “are categorically false.” It accused the CSRR report of “false, inflammatory, and conspiratorial motivations” against HAF and other Hindu advocacy organizations.
HAF, therefore, was speaking not only on its own behalf, but also on behalf of other Hindu advocacy organizations.
The RSS does not maintain any formal link with its foreign affiliates. The RSS website has a section for “global diaspora,” which clarifies that the “RSS works only in Bharat. But it is possible that we will be able to connect you to some like-minded organization in your country.” (“Bharat” is the name that Hindutva organizations use to refer to India.)
This story was originally published in thediplomat.com. Read the full story here.
