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The Hindu American Foundation ( ) is an American Hindu
advocacy group Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the developm ...
founded in 2003. The organisation has its roots in the
Hindu nationalist Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent. "Hindu nationalism" or the correct term ''Hindū rāṣṭ ...
organisation
Vishwa Hindu Parishad America The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "t ...
and its student wing
Hindu Students Council The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "t ...
. Scholars argue that HAF's activism aligns with Hindu nationalism and impinges on academic freedom.


Establishment

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) was founded in September 2003 by Mihir Meghani, an emergency care physician; Aseem Shukla, an associate professor in urologic surgery; Suhag Shukla, an attorney; Nikhil Joshi, a labor law attorney; and Adeeti Joshi, a speech therapist. The organization describes itself as a human rights and advocacy group and emphasizes upon the "Hindu and American ideals of understanding, tolerance and pluralism." The first Hindu advocacy organization to have a professional organizational structure and full-time staff, it is widely considered to be the most prominent Hindu advocacy organization operating out of America. Scholar Vinay Lal notes that the organization drew on the claims of Hinduism being unique in its tolerance and religious pluralism as well as the enormous goodwill created by
Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
in the West.


Hindu nationalist ties

Mihir Meghani had also founded the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
's chapter of the
Hindu Students Council The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "t ...
(HSC), a nationwide network of student societies affiliated with the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad America The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "t ...
(VHPA), in 1991. He served on the governing council of VHPA and had even authored an essay for the
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
(BJP), comparing Hindus—a religious majority in India—with Jews, Black Americans, and colonized groups, whose bottled-up anger, for over a millennium, found a channel of outburst in the rise of BJP and
demolition of the Babri Masjid The demolition of the Babri Masjid was illegally carried out on 6 December 1992 by a large group of activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and allied organisations. The 16th-century Babri Masjid in the city of Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, had ...
. Coalition Against Genocide (CAG)—a platform established in the aftermath of
2002 Gujarat riots The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hin ...
against Hindu Nationalist violence directed at minorities—alleges the formation of the Hindu American Foundation to have been the outcome of Meghani's parleys on the governing council of VHPA and an effort to rebrand the Hindutva agenda as "Hindu rights" in a language suitable to mainstream American politics; Sangay K. Mishra, an assistant professor of political science at Drew University, agrees about the repackaging motto. : 'With the VHP-A led by first-generation immigrants who are unable to penetrate the mainstream American political framework, Meghani's creation of the HAF provided a hitherto unavailable opportunity to bridge the gap between the Hindutva agenda and mainstream American politics. By situating the HAF's work within a framework of American multiculturalism, Meghani effectively gained the ability to push the VHP-A's Hindutva agenda as an issue of "Hindu rights".' CAG further notes most of the office bearers of the Hindu American Foundation to have had been drawn from HSC activists.
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
's Bridge Initiative finds HAF board member Rishi Bhutada to have been the official spokesperson of 'Howdy Modi', a RSS backed rally in support of India's incumbent prime minister from BJP held in Houston on 22 September 2020; a report published by
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
notes HAF to have lobbied support in favor of Modi among the diaspora. In September 2019, HAF published an open letter criticizing congressman Ro Khanna's public plea to reject Hindutva. The Bridge Initiative as well as several journalists have documented anti-Muslim statements made by HAF board members, past and present, and individuals invited to speak by HAF. Academic and journalists have also documented money trails linking HAF to other Sangh Parivar groups via their donors. Sonia Sikka, an academic specializing on the intersections of the religious and the political, notes clear alignments between HAF's activities and the politics of Hindutva Nationalism despite their claims to non-partisanship. Nishant Upadhyyay, a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, specializing in gender and sexuality studies finds HAF's queer-friendly portrayal of Hinduism to be embedded within a discourse of Hindutva
homonationalism Homonationalism is often seen as the favorable association between a nationalist ideology and LGBT people or their rights,
. Chad Bauman, a professor of religion at Butler University, contends HAF's portrayal of Hinduism to be misleadingly monolithic and sanitized, in service of a political agenda. HAF denies these charges, claims to non-partisanship, and has filed a defamation suit against a wide range of organisations and individuals that alleged its links to Hindutva. Nonetheless, Arun Chaudhuri, an anthropologist of religion and politics at
York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...
, cautions that such disavowals are not be taken as face value but rather as efforts at distancing from the negative connotations of Hindu Nationalism. Sailaja Krishnamurti, a professor at
Saint Mary's University (Halifax) Saint Mary's University (SMU) is a formerly Catholic, public university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The school is best known for having nationally leading programs in business and chemistry, as well as one of the best Canadian women ...
who specializes in religious traditions of the South Asian diaspora, summarizes that HAF has "earned a reputation" of being a conservative group purveying Hindu Nationalist politics. As does Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, a historian specializing in S. Asian religions at the
University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is amon ...
, who qualifies HAF as a "deeply conservative" outfit.
Audrey Truschke Audrey Truschke () is a historian of South Asia and an associate professor at Rutgers University. Her work focuses on inter-community relations in medieval South Asia, especially during the Mughal Empire. In 2017, she was conferred with the John ...
, a historian of South Asia at
Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
, finds HAF to be an integral component of the "wider Sangh Parivar" and Hindu-Right in USA; she notes the organization to have "prioritized attacks on higher education".


Activism


Hindu persecution in other countries

During 2004–05, the organization held events to educate legislators about issues of concern to Hindu Americans. These included the abuse of Hindus in the Muslim majority regions of South Asia, including
Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Since then, they have continued to publish regular "Hindu Human Rights" reports to such effect. They have critiqued Pakistan's treatment of Hindus and advocated for better assimilation and integration of Pakistani Hindu migrants/refugees in India. The organization also supports strong ties between India, Israel and the US to create an axis of countries aiming to fight
Islamic terrorism Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism) refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists. Incidents and fatalities f ...
.


Hindu rights in USA

In 2004, HAF challenged the public display of the
Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
in Texas, where it appeared as
amici curiae An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...
(friend of the Court) in ''
Van Orden v. Perry ''Van Orden v. Perry'', 545 U.S. 677 (2005), was a United States Supreme Court case involving whether a display of the Ten Commandments on a monument given to the government at the Texas State Capitol in Austin violated the Establishment Clause ...
'' in the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
; they argued that the display represented an "inherent government preference" for
Judeo-Christian The term Judeo-Christian is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity's derivation from Judaism, Christianity's borrowing of Jewish Scripture to constitute the "Old Testament" of the Christian Bible, or ...
religions over others and the state must be reminded of its obligation to maintain religious neutrality. In 2005, it joined the
American Jewish Committee The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish org ...
(AJC) to jointly sponsor a program at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
on "countering biases against Hindus and Jews on the College campus." In 2008, HAF, along with a coalition of other religious groups, filed a lawsuit and blocked the issuance of Christian themed license plates in South Carolina. In 2013, HAF joined a coalition of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim organizations urging the
Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
investigate the
New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
for discriminatory surveillance of American Muslims. In 2015, as a part of the Hate Crimes Coalition, HAF participated in the drafting and submission of the edits to an
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
manual to specifically track hate crimes against Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. In 2016, HAF along with Indiaspora and other organizations successfully convinced the
United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...
to issue a stamp commemorating the Hindu festival of
Diwali Diwali (), Dewali, Divali, or Deepavali ( IAST: ''dīpāvalī''), also known as the Festival of Lights, related to Jain Diwali, Bandi Chhor Divas, Tihar, Swanti, Sohrai, and Bandna, is a religious celebration in Indian religions. It is ...
.


Visa to Narendra Modi

In 2002,
Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
witnessed a communal riot under the Chief Ministership of
Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
; the incumbent government and even Modi himself is widely blamed by scholars for complicity. In 2005, when Modi was invited to address the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association in 2005, activists including John Prabhudoss lobbied the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
to introduce a resolution criticizing him for his role in those riots. HAF deemed this resolution "Hinduphobic" and lobbied Senators to not support it; nonetheless, the resolution later led to the State Department denying Modi a visa to enter the country.


''Take Yoga Back''

In 2010, the Foundation launched the eponymous campaign as a reaction to alleged
cultural appropriation Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from ...
and secularization of yoga by popular press and neo-gurus who abstained from discussing the origins of yoga in Hinduism and corrupted a Hindu philosophical practice to a mere collection of physical postures. Particular emphasis was laid on the Hindu nature of Yoga manuals across centuries to corroborate claims of Yoga being a Hindu form of spiritual quest. Andrea Jain, a professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University, finds such claims to be embedded within a polemical discourse of religious fundamentalism that unwittingly borrowed from and mirrored the West—while HAF waxed about the inevitable Hinduization of anybody who chooses to practice Yoga in its true essence, the Christian far-right denounced Yoga as a satanic act which took practitioners away from Christ into the fold of Brahmins. Furthermore, Jain finds HAF's essentialist discourse on Yoga to be ahistorical—Yoga was a fluid tradition which was made and remade by different socioreligious cultures across different times with different connotations. Other scholars reiterate Jain's observations; Christopher Patrick Miller, a professor of Yoga Studies at
Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...
, finds it ironical that to defend against perceived Christian ingressions, HAF had to borrow from Christian (and colonial) notions of what constituted a Yogic cannon.


Caste

in 2010, HAF issued a report titled "Hinduism: Not Cast in Caste" alleging that Christian missionaries etc. were able to push their proselytizing agenda only because of the prevalence of caste-discrimination in India; it went to argue that caste cannot be considered to be an intrinsic definitional aspect of Hinduism—due to a lack of theological sanction in its most sacred texts—and urged for reforms led by Hindus themselves. This led to a flutter in conservative Hindu circles of India and the next year, HAF toned down their report; they cautioned against the trend of passing resolutions against caste discrimination adopted by various global organizations and held caste to be an internal affair of a sovereign India. HAF has since portrayed castes as occupational guilds which had brought stability to premodern India before being reified under British colonialism; it has vehemently opposed drawing parallels between caste-discrimination and racism, and even any depiction of the caste-system as a rigid birth-determined pyramid of hierarchy. In 2021, on the heels of prolonged transnational activism by Dalits, "caste" was added as a protected category to California State University's anti-discrimination policy. HAF perceived such policies to have the potential of enabling in the malicious targeting of Indian Hindu academics and lodged stiff opposition; their post-bearers argued caste to be a "stereotype", that was imposed upon South Asians only by the British Raj. Ajantha Subramaniam, a professor of South Asian Studies at Harvard University, rejects HAF's charges and accompanying accusations of being discriminated on the basis of religion; she and other scholars emphasize on the depth of scholarship that has held caste to be a reality of central significance from premodern S. Asia to present day India including diaspora. In September 2022, HAF sued the California Department of Civil Rights for allegedly misrepresenting caste as intrinsic to Hinduism in its submission to the
Cisco caste discrimination lawsuit Caste discrimination in the United States is a form of discrimination based on the social hierarchy which is determined by a person's birth. Though the use of the term caste is more prevalent in South Asia and Bali, in the United States, Indian A ...
. In October 2022, two University of California professors sued their employer to prevent the implementation of caste-based protections; HAF is representing them in the lawsuit.


Attacks on academic freedom


Textbook revisionism

In 2006, HAF was actively involved in the
Californian Hindu textbook controversy A controversy in the US state of California concerning the portrayal of Hinduism in history textbooks began in 2005. The Texas-based Vedic Foundation (VF) and the Hindu Education Foundation (HEF), complained to California's Curriculum Commission ...
. On 16 March 2006, it filed a lawsuit contesting the California's Curriculum Commission's decision to reject many of the Vedic Foundation and Hindu Education Foundation's suggested edits to California's textbook curriculum on Hinduism and India. The proposed changes had been publicly opposed by
Indologists Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...
organized by
Michael Witzel Michael Witzel (born July 18, 1943) is a German-American philologist, comparative mythologist and Indologist. Witzel is the Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University and the editor of the Harvard Oriental Series (volumes 50–80). Witze ...
, who renounced them as "politically and religiously motivated", as well as by various Hindu groups. The court ruled to retain the textbooks, noting the significant expense associated with reissuing the textbooks. In 2016, the HAF lobbied against the replacement of the word "Indian" with "South Asian" in middle school history textbooks in California, arguing that the change was essentially an erasure of India itself. These efforts were protested by South Asian academics and activists belonging to India's minority groups, who said that those on the side of the HAF sought to whitewash California's history textbooks to present a nativist, blemish-free view of how the Hindu caste system was enforced in India. They also argued that the term "South Asia" correctly represents India's collective history with countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh. A letter to the California State Board of Education about this issue, which garnered thousands of signatures, was spearheaded by the HAF.


2021 defamation suit

In May 2021, the Hindu American Foundation filed a defamation lawsuit against Sunita Viswanath and Raju Rajagopal of Hindus for Human Rights, Rasheed Ahmed from the
Indian American Muslim Council __NOTOC__ The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) (formerly Indian Muslim Council-USA) is an advocacy organization of Indian American Muslims, with multiple chapters across the United States. The group focuses on advocacy to promote plural ...
, John Prabhudoss from the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations, and
Audrey Truschke Audrey Truschke () is a historian of South Asia and an associate professor at Rutgers University. Her work focuses on inter-community relations in medieval South Asia, especially during the Mughal Empire. In 2017, she was conferred with the John ...
, a historian of South Asia based at
Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
. A diverse group of intellectuals and academics — Akeel Bilgrami,
Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''Encyclopædia Britannica''
,
Anita Desai Anita Desai, born Anita Mazumdar (born 24 June 1937) is an Indian novelist and the Emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a writer she has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three ti ...
,
Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society an ...
,
Martha Nussbaum Martha Craven Nussbaum (; born May 6, 1947) is an American philosopher and the current Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, where she is jointly appointed in the law school and the philosoph ...
,
Nandini Sundar Nandini Sundar (born 1967) is an Indian professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics whose research interests include political sociology, law, and inequality. She is a recipient of the Infosys Prize for Social Sciences in 2010. She ...
,
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...
,
Romila Thapar Romila Thapar (born 30 November 1931) is an Indian historian. Her principal area of study is ancient India, a field in which she is pre-eminent. Quotr: "The pre-eminent interpreter of ancient Indian history today. ... " Thapar is a Professor ...
, Sudipta Kaviraj,
Sheldon Pollock Sheldon I. Pollock (born 1948) is an American scholar of Sanskrit, the intellectual and literary history of India, and comparative intellectual history. He is the Arvind Raghunathan Professor of South Asian Studies at Columbia University. He was ...
, and
Wendy Doniger Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born November 20, 1940) is an American Indologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions, her major works include, 'The Hindus: an alternative history'; ' ...
among others — condemned HAF's tactics as a
SLAPP Strategic lawsuits against public participation (also known as SLAPP suits or intimidation lawsuits), or strategic litigation against public participation, are lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with t ...
, designed to silence critics and push forward
Hindutva Hindutva () is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India. The term was formulated as a political ideology by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the ...
. On 15 March 2022, Judge Amit Mehta stayed defendants' motions to dismiss the suit since he deemed one of their arguments about whether HAF had satisfied the second requirement of invoking diversity jurisdiction — by proving the amount of monetary loss to have exceeded 75,000 USD — as a "substantial question" of procedure, that needed to be settled prior to adjudication on merits. Discovery was ordered, and Judge Mehta accepted HAF's evidence to pass muster. However, on 20 December 2022, he dismissed the suit since HAF had failed not only to establish any
cause of action A cause of action or right of action, in law, is a set of facts sufficient to justify suing to obtain money or property, or to justify the enforcement of a legal right against another party. The term also refers to the legal theory upon which a p ...
even assuming that their allegations were factually accurate but also evidence that the court had any personal jurisdiction over the defendants except one.


Dismantling Global Hindutva conference

During August–September 2021, the Hindu American Foundation launched a protest campaign against a virtual conference, titled ''Dismantling Global Hindutva'': ''Multidisciplinary Perspectives'' organised by a conglomeration of American Universities. Multiple academics and activists involved in the conference reported receiving death threats and being subject to other forms of intimidation. In response, the
American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
condemned the attacks against academic freedom, while the
Association for Asian Studies The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The Association provides members with an Annua ...
noted Hindutva to be a "majoritarian ideological doctrine" different from
Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
, whose rise to prominence had accompanied "increasing attacks on numerous scholars, artists and journalists". The conference went ahead as scheduled. HAF has since lodged a complaint against the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
before the United States Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights for violating Title VI requirements—they allege that the university, having co-sponsored a "one-sided" conference, promoted negative "stereotypes and slurs" about Hindu academics and discriminated against them. Multiple Hindu professors of UPenn rejected the accusations and highlighted how transnational Hindutva was weaponized to stifle free speech.


Notes


References


Sources

* * * * * * *


External links

* * Mihir Meghani
Hindutva: The Great Nationalist Ideology
bjp.org, archived on 17 January 1997.
Documents from the Hindu American Foundation’s SLAPP Lawsuit
audreytruschke.com, January 2023. {{Authority control Religious organizations established in 2003 Hindu organizations based in the United States Hindu organizations established in the 21st century 2003 establishments in the United States Human rights organizations based in the United States Civil liberties advocacy groups in the United States Advocacy groups in the United States