On 7th May 2023, the HINDU organisation of Pune decorated five dedicated contributors to Hinduism with the Akshayya HINDU Award which the organisation started this year. HINDU stands for Humanist Indian Nationalist Democratic Union. The organisation gave awards to Hindu activists tirelessly contributing across various sectors including Dharma Jagruti, Gorakshan, Media, Tribal Welfare, Women Empowerment, etc.
Padmashree Girish Prabhune and Sharad Chavan were present as the president and the chief guest of the program held at the Veer Savarkar Adhyasan Kendra, Pune. Awards were given to Ashutosh Adoni, Dinesh Joshi and Sneha Joshi, Swati Shilkar, Kumar Panjlar, and Shalutaai Kolhe for their contribution to Hinduism in their respective fields. The award consists of an idol of Kodand-dhari Shri Ram, a cash prize of Rs 5000, and a set of books written by various nationalist writers. All the awards were funded by public participation.
Ashutosh Adoni is a public speaker and media personality from Nagpur. He was awarded in the media category for his role in directing people’s thoughts toward Hindutva through his impeccable oratory. Dinesh Joshi and Sneha Joshi are a couple from the Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra. They work for spreading awareness in Hindu society – especially girls – about love jihad. They also work to help the victims of love jihad. They received the award in the Dharma Jagruti category. Kumar Panjlar of Pune works for the people living in slums. He was given the award in the social harmony category. Swati Shilkar of Goa has devoted her life to the work of Gorakshan which is protecting cows and was awarded in the same category. Shalutai Kolhe works for the welfare of the tribal women in the Gondia district of Maharashtra. She was awarded as a tribal woman activist.
The HINDU organisation had decided that as the awards are for the workers, they should be given by the workers themselves and no person from any company or political party should be on stage. Therefore, Sharad Chavan, who looked after the work of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, was the chief guest of the activist who came out of a very difficult situation, and Padma Shri Girishji Prabhune, who devoted all his life to the nomadic tribes, was the president of the program.
While speaking at this program, Sharad Chavan gave an insider’s view on how an activist evolves. He explained his ideological journey from the Communist Union to the Hindutva ideology in a very pinpointed way. Girish Prabhune also shared his thoughts on this event. He shed light on the Indian social system, the challenges it faces, our glorious history, and many other topics.
While explaining the background behind the formation of the HINDU organisation, Shefali Vaidya said, “Like-minded people who are active on social media decided that on social media, we often talk about Deities, country, and Dharma all the time, but we should also do something substantial in reality.”
She added, “There are various dimensions of Hindutva, viz. cow protection, social harmony, Dharma Jagruti, tribal welfare, public education etc. In each of these areas, many activists across the country are working tirelessly. We talked a lot among ourselves about the fact that despite their work being very good, it does not reach out to people due to lack of publicity.”
She further said, “That led to the idea: Why shouldn’t we give such awards? We discussed it among ourselves, and everyone agreed on three things. Awards should be given through public participation because the work of Hindutva belongs to the entire society. The awards should be given to the activists working on the ground and that too by the activists. Leaders should be avoided in the awards given by public participation. It requires the name of the institution to give the award, but this work belongs to the entire Hindu community, so the organisation should also be named HINDU. What is a HINDU? Humanist Indian Nationalist Democratic Union. Because we are humanists, Indians, nationalists, and democratic. The only thing that’s a little less in us is union. Unity. This exercise is all about that.”
Tushar Damgude, Saurabh Virkar, Snehal Kulkarni, Rishabh Pardeshi, Nilesh Bhise, Kedar Sarwate, Shruti Daithankar, Chandra Bhushan Joshi, and Sarika Wagh are among the key members of the HINDU organisation led by Shefali Vaidya.
