‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’, is a theme of an online conference being organized by a group of academics in the US from 10-12 September 2021. The aim of the conference is to “explore the consolidation of Hindu supremacist ideology in India and elsewhere.” This conference is co-sponsored by nearly 70 academic units from 49 universities in the US.
However, a lot of muck is flying thick and fast in the media opposing the conference. A number of opinion pieces have appeared by the articulate Hindutva champions, calling the conference an exercise in spreading Hinduphobia.
The organizers of the conference have clearly stated on their website and elsewhere:
“The distinction between the Hindu faith and the alarming rise of incidents of discrimination, persecution, marginalization, physical attacks on and killing of religious minorities in India and the US in the name of Hindutva.”
“We also staunchly oppose the misappropriation of our Hindu faith by the ideology of Hindutva (also frequently referred to as Hindu supremacy, Hindu nationalism, etc), whose foundational principle is to redefine over 200 million Muslim and Christian citizens of India as the ‘other,’ who do not legitimately belong and must therefore either accept second class citizenship or be displaced from their homeland.”
According to the official website of the conference the speakers will cover a range of topics like; “What is Global Hindutva,” “Gender and Sexual Politics of Hindutva,” “Caste and Hindutva”; and “‘Hindutva and White Supremacy,” etc.
The organizers say the conference will examine the Hindutva ideology, and deliberate its varied themes like; whether ‘Hindutva ideology propagates hate, promotes Islamophobia, seek to reduce the myriad practices of Hinduism to a singular notion of a Hindu motherland etc.’
The three-day conference will feature Indian academics, journalists, and activists. The speakers announced are Professor Ayesha Kidwai, a theoretical linguist from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Nandini Sundar Delhi University Professor and Sociologist, Kavita Krishnan, women’s rights activist and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation leader, Neha Dixit, independent journalist, filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, and poet Meena Kandasamy.
The organizers say that they have not released the full list of speakers due to a threat to their life and liberty. More so, due to wild conspiracy theories are being peddled on social media about the conference.
It added that the attacks on the event “are full of distortions and lies designed to make a conference critiquing a supremacist ideology into one attacking the Hindu faith”.
According to the organizers who like to stay; the conference is being supported by many North American Universities, including Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, Princeton, and Simon Fraser. The organizers have also found support from an advocacy group called Humans for Hindu Rights (HfHR).
However, this conference has come under severe criticism by the Hindutva groups. A number of opinion pieces have appeared in the media opposing the conference. This is by author and mathematician Abhishek Banerjee and Makarand Paranjape, Professor of English at JNU besides others.
Their argument is that this conference is being held for propagating “Hinduphobia.” They see this conference as an attempt to build public opinion against Hindutva as an ideology in the West.
US-based advocacy group Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) has urged universities named by the organizers to dissociate themselves from the conference and ask the organizers to remove their logo.
Another body called the Hindu American Foundation also wrote a letter to all universities that were listed as supporting the event.
The letter said the conference speakers have “either a history of supporting Naxalite/Maoist violence or of disparaging Hindu deities, festivals and practices.”
[Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com]
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