From India, With Hate
Indian Americans of many faiths have lived peacefully in the US for decades. However, these U.S. occurrences and last month’s deadly clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Leicester, England, have raised worries that India’s political and religious divisiveness is spreading to expatriate populations.
Hindu nationalism has grown under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, which took office in 2014 and won a landslide victory in 2019. Muslim organisations, other religious minorities, and some Hindus think Modi’s silence emboldens right-wing forces and undermines national unity.
Varun Soni, USC’s dean of religious life, said Hindu nationalism has divided Indian expatriates like Donald Trump’s presidency has divided the U.S. It boasts 2,000 Indian students, the most in the nation.
Soni has not witnessed campus tensions yet. He stated USC was criticised for co-sponsoring an online conference dubbed “Dismantling Global Hindutva” with over 50 U.S. colleges.
Hindutva, Sanskrit meaning the essence of being Hindu, is a political philosophy that claims India as a largely Hindu nation with origins in Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The 2021 event promoted Hindutva. Muslims and Christians are excluded, critics argue. Hinduism, embraced by 1 billion people globally, stresses the oneness and divinity of all creation. Hindutva is distinct.
Soni said universities should remain places where “we are free to debate about topics that are anchored in facts in a respectful manner.” Soni, USC’s chief chaplain, concerns about Hindu nationalist polarising affecting students’ spiritual health.
“If someone is being attacked for their identity, mocked, or scapegoated because they are Hindu or Muslim, I’m more worried about their well-being—not who is right or wrong,” he added.
Anantanand Rambachan, a retired college religion professor and devout Hindu from Trinidad and Tobago to an Indian family, said his opposition to Hindu nationalism and involvement with organisations against it caused concerns at a Minnesota temple where he taught religion lectures. He denied being “anti-Hindu” or “anti-India” for opposing Hindu nationalism.
Samir Kalra, managing director of the Hindu American Foundation in Washington, D.C., said many Hindu Americans felt persecuted for their beliefs.
“Hindus’ room to openly express themselves is shrinking,” he added, adding that even agreeing with the Indian government’s non-religious policies might make one a Hindu nationalist.
Pushpita Prasad, a Coalition of Hindus of North America spokesman, said her group has been counselling young Hindu Americans who have lost relationships because they refuse “to take sides on these disputes emerging from India.”
“If they don’t take sides or have an opinion, it’s instantly believed that they are Hindu nationalist,” she added. “Their faith and nationality are against them.”
Both groups called the Dismantling Global Hindutva conference “Hinduphobic” and lacking diversity. Conference supporters deny that opposing Hindutva is anti-Hindu.
Hindu Americans like 25-year-old Sravya Tadepalli feel obligated to speak up. Tadepalli, a Hindus for Human Rights board member from Massachusetts, claimed her faith drives her anti-Hindu nationalist action.
From India, With Hate
“If that is the core concept of Hinduism—that God is in everyone, that everyone is divine—then I think we have a moral duty as Hindus to speak up for the equality of all human beings,” she added. “It is our obligation to remedy any human being treated less than or having their rights infringed.”
Tadepalli said her company corrects social media disinformation that spreads hate and divisiveness across continents.
Throughout June, Udaipur police detained two Muslim males for slicing a Hindu tailor’s neck and publishing a video of it on social media, raising tensions in India. Kanhaiya Lal, 48, was killed after sharing a message praising a suspended governing party leader who made insulting statements about the Prophet Muhammad.
Hindu nationalist groups have targeted Muslims, mainly over food, head coverings, and interfaith marriage. Critics term this “bulldozer justice” since some states demolish Muslim homes with heavy machinery.
Muslim Americans fear about family members in India due to such reports. Shakeel Syed, executive director of the South Asian Network, a social justice group in Artesia, California, said he hears from his sisters and feels a “pervasive worry, not knowing what tomorrow is going to be like.”
In the 1960s and 1970s, Hyderabad was “a more multicultural, welcoming culture” for Syed.
“My Hindu friends came to our Eid celebrations and we went to their Diwali celebrations,” he said. “When my family went on summer vacation, we left our house keys with our Hindu neighbour, and they did the same when they left town.”
Syed thinks India has normalised Muslim violence. His family’s girls have considered removing their hijabs or headscarves out of fear.
In the U.S., his Hindu friends fear reprisal and avoid communication.
“A dialogue is still happening, but it’s happening in pockets behind closed doors with like-minded people,” he added. “It’s not between conflicting views.”
Houston Hindu activist Rajiv Varma disagrees. He stated “religious and ideological organisations that are conducting a war against Hindus” are behind Western Hindu-Muslim tensions, not happenings in India.
Varma believes India is “a Hindu country” and “Hindu nationalism” means loving one’s country and faith. He sees India as a colonised nation and Hindus as a peaceful religion.
“We have a right to reclaim civilization,” he declared.
Rasheed Ahmed, co-founder and executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Indian American Muslim Council, is disappointed “to see even educated Hindu Americans not taking Hindu nationalism seriously.” He feels Hindu Americans must make “a fundamental judgement about how India and Hinduism should be regarded in the U.S. and the globe over.”
They decide whether to reclaim Hinduism from its hijackers.
Minnesota resident Zafar Siddiqui hopes education, personal ties, and interfaith assemblies will “reverse some of this suspicion, polarisation” and develop understanding. Siddiqui, a Muslim, organises monthly potlucks for Indian Minnesotans, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and atheists.
“When people get down, say, over lunch or dinner or over coffee, and have a real discourse, instead of listening to all these leaders and propagating all this hate, it changes a lot,” Siddiqui remarked.
However, during a recent meeting, several disagreed over a draught proposal to discourse with others with differing viewpoints. Opponents said they didn’t like Hindu nationalists and feared persecution.
Education and interfaith events highlighting India’s diverse religions and cultures are Siddiqui’s current priorities.
“Silence is not an option,” Siddiqui remarked. “We needed a forum for harmonious coexistence of all communities.”
