Hindu Communities Upset Over 'Global Dismantling Hindutva' Conference, Write to 40 American Universities to Withdraw Support

Hindu communities and allies in America have written a letter to over 40 universities asking them to withdraw support from a conference titled ‘Global Dismantling Hindutva’. As many as 150 community organizations including temples, spiritual groups among others have expressed their concerns on hosting the conference which they claim “falsely paints Hindus as purveyors of extremism”.

“We are deeply concerned that this is a thinly veiled attack on Hinduism in the name of academic freedom and sows seeds of bigotry that will intimidate and imperil minority Hindu students and faculty members on your campus,” claims Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) – a grassroots level advocacy organization dedicated to improving the understanding of Hinduism in North America.

The Hindu groups also object to the date of the conference. The conference is scheduled to be held on November 9 (9/11) which marks the anniversary of one of the worst terrorist attacks in America. The Hindu groups asked, “why the conference is being hosted on the 20th Anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on American soil.”

“There has been a disturbing trend among academia, government bodies and corporations in the western world to start defining what does and does not constitute Hinduism This is extremely problematic because Hinduism is a highly diverse, experiential and decentralized tradition, which has never been bound by the dictates of some elites,” the group alleged. It addd that any Hindu who protests against such communist leaders being featured as speakers on 9/11 is accused of being an agent of a foreign government and a “Hindu supremacist.

“This conference falsely paints Hindus as purveyors of extremism, actively denies the genocide of Hindu people, and most troublingly, labels those who disagree as “Hindutva,” which the conference organizers define as Hindu extremism. Furthermore, many of the conference speakers either have a history of supporting Naxalite/Maoist violence or of disparaging Hindu deities, festivals and practices. The label of “Hindutva” is being used as a smokescreen for overt Hinduphobia,” it alleged.

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