Post by addisona on Feb 14, 2022 15:11:04 GMT
American critics of Hindu nationalism risk sustained attacks
From politicians to academics, Americans who speak against Hindutva face harsh backlash, protests, and violent threats.
Pieter Friedrich | TwoCircles.net
UNITED STATES — When US Senator and then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders criticized then President Donald Trump’s “failure of leadership on human rights” for having dismissed the issue of the February 2020 anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi as “up to India,” it was not long before a senior leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) openly threatened interference.
“How much ever neutral we wish to be you compel us to play a role in Presidential elections,” responded BJP National Secretary BL Santhosh to Sanders on Twitter. Santhosh deleted his Tweet within hours, but the message was clear: any international criticism of affairs in an India ruled by the Hindu nationalist BJP would prompt a harsh backlash. The incentive for such backlash was equally clear considering top BJP officials were implicated in instigating the 2020 violence.
Threats against Sanders, however, are far from the first time that critics of Hindu nationalism — and the movement’s actions — have faced such backlash. As American awareness and, consequently, criticism of Hindu nationalism (or “Hindutva”) spreads, attacks on critics correspondingly escalate. Politicians, academics, journalists such as myself, and even prominent interfaith bodies have endured pressure, censure, and protest for years.
One of the most recent and sustained onslaughts occurred in September 2021, when faculty from over 50 mostly US-based universities organized an online conference called Dismantling Global Hindutva (DGH). In reprisal, they faced everything from denunciations to death threats.
twocircles.net/2022feb14/445026.html
From politicians to academics, Americans who speak against Hindutva face harsh backlash, protests, and violent threats.
Pieter Friedrich | TwoCircles.net
UNITED STATES — When US Senator and then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders criticized then President Donald Trump’s “failure of leadership on human rights” for having dismissed the issue of the February 2020 anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi as “up to India,” it was not long before a senior leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) openly threatened interference.
“How much ever neutral we wish to be you compel us to play a role in Presidential elections,” responded BJP National Secretary BL Santhosh to Sanders on Twitter. Santhosh deleted his Tweet within hours, but the message was clear: any international criticism of affairs in an India ruled by the Hindu nationalist BJP would prompt a harsh backlash. The incentive for such backlash was equally clear considering top BJP officials were implicated in instigating the 2020 violence.
Threats against Sanders, however, are far from the first time that critics of Hindu nationalism — and the movement’s actions — have faced such backlash. As American awareness and, consequently, criticism of Hindu nationalism (or “Hindutva”) spreads, attacks on critics correspondingly escalate. Politicians, academics, journalists such as myself, and even prominent interfaith bodies have endured pressure, censure, and protest for years.
One of the most recent and sustained onslaughts occurred in September 2021, when faculty from over 50 mostly US-based universities organized an online conference called Dismantling Global Hindutva (DGH). In reprisal, they faced everything from denunciations to death threats.
twocircles.net/2022feb14/445026.html