The appointment of Chandru Acharya to the DHS faith-based Safety Advisory Council exhibits ‘ignorance’ of the US authorities, activists and lecturers say.
The latest appointment of a Hindu nationalist neighborhood chief to an interfaith council below the USA Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) has raised “concern”.
In September, the DHS appointed Chandru Acharya – a director on the Hindu Sawamsayvak Sangh (HSS) – to their Religion-Primarily based Safety Advisory Council, a 25-member council that gives the federal division with “recommendation and proposals”.
However activists and educational teams within the US have raised issues about HSS’s affiliation with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an Indian Hindu supremacist organisation that goals to make India, a multicultural and secular democracy, a Hindu Rashtra (nation).
In accordance with the London-based outlet Center East Eye, Acharya confirmed his affiliation with the HSS, which describes itself as an apolitical organisation engaged in cultural and spiritual points inside the Hindu neighborhood, however denied any affiliation between the HSS and the RSS.
He additionally instructed the Center East Eye, “If members of the RSS abandon the core philosophy of Hinduism and suppose that they're superior to others, they're supremacist.”
Rising influnce of Hindu far proper
Rashid Ahmed is the chief director of the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), which has been elevating the alarm concerning the rising affect of the Hindu far proper within the US.
He instructed Al Jazeera that the “concern” was not about Acharya “as an individual”, however about his affiliation with a gaggle impressed by the RSS.
Based in 1925, the RSS is a proponent of Hindutva ideology, which believes within the dominance of the Hindu religion and tradition in India and considers Muslims and Christians to be an impediment to the purpose of attaining a Hindu nation.
In accordance with its web site, the HSS “owes its inspiration” to the RSS.
“HSS USA is … impressed by an extended lineage of Hindu actions in India, together with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which have helped rejuvenate the society and take Hindu civilization ahead,” the web site learn.
“HSS USA could not essentially agree with all that these organizations and leaders espouse, however we take inspiration from their bigger imaginative and prescient and the spirit for preserving, restoring, and advancing Hindu tradition, beliefs, and values,” it added.
The HSS, which operates in practically 40 international locations and has greater than 170 chapters within the US, has organised occasions that includes members of the RSS and its associates, together with its present chief Mohan Bhagwat.
It additionally sponsored an occasion within the US state of Georgia in August the place Sadhvi Rithambara, a number one member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an RSS-affiliated organisation the CIA has labelled a “militant spiritual outfit”, was the speaker.
Rithambara is understood for her xenophobic and anti-minority rhetoric. In 1995, she responded to accusations that a Christian missionary was trying to transform Hindus, by telling India Immediately journal: “If a single choti or janeu (Hindu sacred thread) is minimize, Christians shall be worn out from the face of India.”
Her speeches in the course of the Nineties, which had been broadly distributed on audio cassettes, had been described by researcher Tanika Sarkar as “the one strongest instrument for whipping up anti-Muslim violence” in India.
US issues relating to spiritual freedom in India
A number of individuals with hyperlinks to the HSS had been additionally behind a 2019 rally in Texas through which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then-US President Donald Trump addressed a crowd of tens of 1000's.
The RSS is the mum or dad organisation of Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP). Since Modi got here to energy in 2014, assaults in opposition to Muslims and different minorities have elevated.
Earlier this yr, the US Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom (USCIRF) referred to as for India to be placed on a US checklist of nations accused of non secular freedom violations, arguing that spiritual rights and freedoms had “considerably worsened” there.
Acharya denounced the USCIRF report, describing it as an try and “model the overwhelming majority of peace-loving and pluralistic Hindus as extremists”, in accordance with information outlet Indian Specific.
Al Jazeera reached out to Acharya by way of electronic mail on October 18 however didn't obtain a response by the point of publication.
On October 16 Al Jazeera additionally reached out to the HSS however obtained no response.
A request for remark by Al Jazeera to the DHS, on October 15, additionally went unanswered.
‘Widespread ignorance’
Rohit Chopra is a professor at Santa Clara College in California who has researched the Hindu far proper in India.
He mentioned the DHS determination to nominate Acharya “displays a widespread ignorance concerning the pernicious ideology of Hindu nationalism”.
Hindu nationalist teams have sought “extra legitimacy and visibility in American public and political life”, he defined, with some hiring PR corporations to make their ideology “palatable” by highlighting concepts of “Hindu tolerance, pluralism and the like”.
“Acharya’s place is a mirrored image of these efforts paying off to an extent,” Chopra added.
Lately, US-based lecturers and activists have confronted harassment for highlighting the rising affect of Hindu nationalist teams.
The Washington Submit reported that US-based students who had organised a web-based convention in October 2021 titled, Dismantling International Hindutva, confronted intimidation and loss of life threats.
Nikhil Mandalaparthy, the deputy govt director of Hindu for Human Rights, an advocacy group that fights for spiritual pluralism within the US and elsewhere, mentioned, “Hindu nationalism shouldn't be seen as a overseas challenge … [It] is displaying up in our native communities – it’s a home challenge.”
Audrey Truschke, an affiliate professor of South Asian historical past at Rutgers College, mentioned the choice to nominate Acharya “misfires gravely” if the purpose was to achieve a “broad-based Hindu perspective”.
Truschke identified that there are lots of Hindus “who battle in opposition to the supremacist, violent concepts encompassed inside Hindu nationalist ideology”.
“The DHS could come to understand its error, particularly if Hindu nationalist aggressions proceed to develop within the US as per the pattern of the previous few months,” she added, citing the instance of a violent incident in Anaheim in August through which protesters opposing Hindu nationalism in India had been attacked throughout an Indian Independence Day parade.
There was no proof that HSS USA was concerned in these incidents.
However in accordance with the IAMC’s Rashid, it revealed that “Hindutva fascism is as harmful and highly effective within the West as it's in India.”
“The West must get up to this divisive and hateful ideology that's seeping into our cities and states,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
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