A three-day conference on Hindus and Hindutva co-sponsored by some of the departments of universities, most from the USA is scheduled to be held from September 11. On its website, the organisers of the event – “Dismantling Global Hindutva”, have listed the names of more than 40 top American universities as their sponsors and cosponsors.
The sponsors include top-tier universities such as Columbia University, Emory University, Harvard University, New York University, Rutgers University, Princeton University, the University of Chicago and the University of California in Berkeley, San Diego and Santa Cruz.
The controversial propaganda event has caused a massive uproar globally amongst Hindus, with several Indians accusing the left-liberals of organising a Nazi-style event to justify the impending genocide of Hindus. There has been growing outrage against the event, saying that the event is nothing but a declaration of war against the Hindus. The event is being touted as a systematic and institutionalised targetting of Hindus on a global scale, which was previously limited to deranged minds on Twitter.
The ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ event is set to see the participation of several Hinudphobic elements such as Audrey Truschke, Naxal sympathiser Anand Patwardhan and Nandini Sunder, self-proclaimed far-left journalist Neha Dixit and many others.
Here is a detailed profile of the “eminent” guests, and promoters, that are set to participate and discuss the “dangers” that Hindus and Hindutva bring to world peace:
Audrey Truschke
Alleged “Historian” Audrey Truschke, one of the most unpopular academicians in India today, is promoting the Hindumisic ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ event. Truschke has built a reputation in the anti-Hindu propaganda industry over her obsession with whitewashing the crimes of tyrannical Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.
Audrey Truschke is associated with anti-India propaganda for a long time now. She is on the advisory board of the Students Against Hindutva Ideology (SAHI), an activist body in the United States of America with close ties to the Democratic party establishment. The activist body is most famous for organising the Hinduphobic ‘Holi Against Hindutva’ campaign in 2020 when it was simply called “Students Against Hindutva”.
The brain behind the campaign was Ziad Ahmed, a 21-year-old activist who has previously worked for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and that of other prominent Democrats. Ahmed also runs a consultancy firm/marketing agency to help brands reach young people. SAHI has worked with Stand With Kashmir (SWK), an organisation that toes the Pakistani line on Kashmir. SAHI also glorified the Islamists at the heard of the Jamia protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Students of the Rutgers University, where Truschke teaches, accused her of peddling a hateful agenda against Hindus. A petition by the students said that the professor falsely linked Hindus with extremists and white supremacists rioting at Capitol Hill. On other occasions, she is reported to have claimed that Srimad Bhagavad Gita, the holy book of the Hindus, “rationalizes mass slaughter” and violence. Truschke also insulted Hindu gods and goddesses by calling Lord Ram a “misogynistic pig”.
The petition accused her of portraying all Hindus as “lustful and sex-obsessed” and “cow piss drinkers”. It read that Truschke advocated that Hinduism is inherently oppressive, racist, misogynistic, and violent. The historian claimed in 2018, “Sita basically tells Rama he’s a misogynistic pig and uncouth.” However, there was no textual evidence for it anywhere.
Anand Patwardhan
Anand Patwardhan, a self-proclaimed human rights ‘activist’ and a documentary filmmaker, has a long history of propagating Hindumisia in the name of artistic freedom. Patwardhan rose to fame during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in the early 1990s when the country’s cultural and political landscape was undergoing a massive change.
As a filmmaker, who espouses far-left ideology, Anand Patwardhan expectedly attempted to discredit the Hindutva movement in the 1990s by making several propaganda videos to indoctrinate anti-Hindu hatred in the minds of the young Indians. One such movie was “Raam Ke Naam”, in which Patwardhan had selectively used events in the run-up to the Babri Masjid demolition to spew venom against the Hindu community. Interestingly, the documentary by Patwardhan, which was meant to invoke hatred against Hindus, ended up rallying and invigorating the Hindu community.
In fact, Anand Patwardhan is one of the veteran far-left ‘propagandists’ who has been consistently peddling false narratives against Hindus and their cultural institutions under the garb of protecting the ‘secular’ identity of the country. In 2014, Patwardhan and a few other ‘activists’ in Bollywood had led a campaign against the BJP by demanding that people should vote for a “secular candidate”. Though it is not wrong to openly campaign for or against an individual, however, the political propaganda unleashed against the BJP, especially Prime Minister Modi, was to make sure that the RSS and the saffron party, was kept away from power.
Ever since BJP’s victory and the coming of Narendra Modi into power, both in 2014 and 2019, it caused massive heartburn for “liberal-secular” individuals like Anand Patwardhan. Joining hands with several others, Anand Patwardhan has been at the forefront of several campaigns to discredit the democratically elected government. Since then, Patwardhan has joined in several signature campaigns, protests, “award was” events to express his “dissent” against the saffron party over alleged intolerance.
In his efforts to do so, Anand Patwardhan has also ended up putting out several false claims and propaganda against the political institutions that are inclined towards Hindu causes such as BJP, RSS and Shiv Sena (in the past) as an effort to depict that Hindus as a community are intolerant and ‘militant’ in its outlook and have been forefront at targeting minorities, especially the Muslims.
Well, Anand Patwardhan seems to be a perfect fit for Nazi-Esque “Dismantling Global Hindutva” as he has a rich experience in promoting Hindumisia.
Ayesha Kidwai
Ayesha Kidwai is another left-wing ‘activist’ who has often tried to discredit democratically elected governments in the name of fighting ‘fascism’. Ayesha, who works as a professor at the den of communists – Jawaharlal Nehru University, is an out-and-out communist.
From signing mercy petitions for terrorists to standing in support of former JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, who is accused of organising pro-Pakistan events inside the JNU campus, Ayesha Kidwai seems to have a rich experience of promoting individuals that pose inimical to the interest of the country.
Besides, Ayesha Kidwai writes for various anti-Hindu propaganda portals such as ‘The Wire’, Sabrangindia, etc.
Banu Subramaniam
Banu Subramaniam is a professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. An evolutionary biologist by profession, Subramaniam has written a book titled “Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism (2019),” in which she claims to have explored the interactions of “religious nationalism” and science in India.
According to Subramaniam, the proponents of Hindu nationalism make bold claims about the scientific basis of Vedic civilization by stitching the ideal past to technologies and deploys this narrative to consolidate caste, patriarchal, and Hindu power. Banu Subramanian, who mostly works in the United States, seems to have a limited understanding of both India and the Hindus.
Making wild claims, Subramanian, in her book, says that since the coming of the Bharatiya Janata Party into power in 2014, and then again in 2019, there has been an increase in narratives that “meshed” with science, pseudoscience and myth with political messages. As per Subramanian, Hindus has achieved no human endeavour in the ancient past, especially in the Vedic era. However, the proponents of Hindu nationalism allude to the idea of an India rooted in an ancient civilization where science, technology and philosophy thrived, which according to her, did not exist.
Amusingly, Subramanian thinks that Hinduism has become a “scientized religion” and a “religionized science”, creating “a vision of India as an archaic modernity”. So, for Subramanian, the Hindu sages such as Sushrutha, who had mastered the medicine to an extent, did not represent any value system, instead, she gloats about the Britishers sidelining all these achievements, along with traditional Indian knowledge systems.
Terming the attempts by the Hindus to reclaim their space in innovation by citing our ancient accomplishments as “bio-nationalism”, Subramanian has time and again belittled Hindus and their achievements in various fields, including metallurgy, surgery, astronomy, by rejecting it as pseudo-science.
It is no surprise that Banu Subramanian finds a place in the list of “eminent” intellectuals of the country with a history of spewing venom against Hindus.
Bhanwar Meghwanshi
Bhanwar Meghwanshi is the latest “hero” of Indian liberals. Bhanwar Meghwanshi, a Dalit who quit RSS after allegedly serving in the organisation for several years, has become an ideal weapon for the anti-Hindu ecosystem to abuse the RSS and the Hindu way of the life they adhere to.
According to Meghwanshi, he started attending the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh’s shakhas in Rajasthan without knowing much about the organisation. However, after four years, Meghwanshi grew to harbour a visceral hatred for Muslims and began to take immense pride in his Hindu identity.
Further, Meghwanshi claims that he dedicated himself to the cause of the RSS’s Hindu Rashtra, even receiving “military training” by the organisation. However, he quit the Hindu nationalist organisation after facing discrimination within the RSS. He realised that its vision is different for caste Hindus and Dalits and quit RSS to champion the cause of ‘secularism’.
Apparently, Meghwanshi is now a journalist and an activist. He has written a few books, “Main Ek Karsevak Tha—I Was a Karsevak”, which was first published in Hindi in 2019 and another book, “I Could Not Be Hindu: The Story of a Dalit in the RSS”, was published by Navayana in January 2020.
Meghwanshi, who claims to have been part of the RSS, somehow shares visceral hatred for the organisation now. As per Meghwanshi, RSS indoctrinates its cadre and glorifies violence and intends to create Hindu Rashtra.
Well, with all his past connections with the RSS, how can the organisers not include Bhanwar Meghwanshi in the event that wants to discuss the “danger that Hindus and Hindutva” bring to world peace.
Christophe Jaffrelot
Christophe Jaffrelot is another foreign vested interest who seemingly believes that he knows India and Hindus much more than the people themselves. Jaffrelot, who writes columns for left-wing establishments in India, has been peddling pedestrian narratives against Hindu society for decades now.
Author Christophe Jaffrelot has sensed what it takes to be in the good books of the Indian liberals. But, just like them, he has been repeating the same old narratives against the Hindutva, intolerance, etc., for over the years now, so and so that readers have stopped taking these intellectuals seriously.
Amusingly, the crux of Jaffrelot agenda is amply clear. If you analyse his weekly columns published in the Indian Express, propaganda websites such as The Wire, the common thread after being pulled by the left-liberals in India is clearly visible. RSS, its affiliates, BJP, Hindutva, lynchings, majoritarianism, democracy, human rights are usual themes. He terms RSS as a “deep state,” and everything that is wrong with Modi’s India—the “cruelty” against Muslims and Dalits—is part of a larger design.
For Jaffrelot, India is a theocratic state in the making.
Kavita Krishnan
Kavita Krishnan, a politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML), is a hyper-activist and doubles up as a freelance protestor once in a while to support anti-India causes.
Kavita Krishnan, who came into the limelight during the 2016 JNU anti-national slogans incident, has become the face of the far-left ‘protests’ in the country. Over the last few years, Kavita Krishnan has been caught several times for peddling fake news, however, she continues to do so with impunity.
Besides expressing solidarity to anti-national elements, Kavita Krishnan has a history of backing radical Islamists, fake news peddlers, and pro-Pakistan propagandists. Last year, she was exposed for standing in support of a notorious fake news peddler Mohammad Asif Khan, who has a history of propagating communally sensitive fake news.
Meena Kandasamy
Dalit “activist” Meena Kandasamy is the most befitting inclusion in the “esteemed” panel as she puts out vile and derogatory comments against Hindus on social media constantly.
Apart from spending time on Twitter abusing Brahmins, Kandasamy also claims to be a ‘writer’ and ‘poet’. Most of Kandasamy’s tweets are hateful in nature, especially targeting Brahmins over their relatively better status in society. Just like other far-left activists, Kandasamy too peddles repetitive propaganda against atrocities, intolerance, Hindutva terrorism, Savarana supremacy to create a wave of hatred for the majority community in the country.
Meena Kandasamy, a self-proclaimed the ‘best woman in the world’, is nothing but a troll masquerading as an ‘activist’. Recently, her estranged husband had made some sensational claims against the far-left Twitter ‘activist’.
Dr Gunasekharan Dharmaraja, the former husband of the far-left troll, had said that the activist had filed fake harassment against him after he had filed a case on her father for attacking him. Dharmaraja had also said that Meena Kandaswamy is not even a Dalit, as she claims on social media, but a product of an inter-caste union between a man from the Andi Pandaram community, classified as MBC in Tamil Nadu, and a woman from an OBC community.
Despite her dubious credentials, the far-left troll Meena Kandasamy continues to give a moral lecture to Hindus on social media on an hourly basis. With a rich history of spreading ‘free’ propaganda against Hindus on social media, perhaps, it looks like the organisers have given one big opportunity to Meena Kandasamy to peddle her Hinduphobia, now on a global scale.
Nandini Sundar
The most elitist of all the panellists in the “Dismantling Global Hindutva” event is Nandini Sundar. Nandini Sundar, quite privileged herself, is a professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics. She is also the wife of Siddharth Varadarajan, the founding editor of far-left Hindumisic website ‘The Wire‘.
Nandini Sundar, who writes for various platforms, including her husband’s The Wire, was once accused of a tribal man’s murder in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma. She was accused of provoking the villagers against the government. It was claimed that the professors threatened to burn houses if villagers did not support Maoists. However, with the Congress party forming the government in Chattisgarh, Nandini Sundar was given a clean chit in the murder case.
Naxal sympathiser Nandini Sundar’s hatred for Hindus was yet again evident this week when she was caught bullying a book store to de-shelve Garuda Prakashan’s book on Delhi’s Anti-Hindu Riots. Sundar, a known anti-India crusader, who is also one of the speakers at the “Dismantle Global Hindutva” Conference, attacked Crossword for featuring a fact-based book on Anti-Hindu Delhi Riots and other books by Garuda Prakashan, simply because it revealed the atrocities that were unleashed against Hindus by the Islamist mob in the national capital in February last year.
Neha Dixit
Neha Dixit, a “journalist” associated with leftist media outlets like ‘The Wire’ and ‘Caravan’, is also a perfect choice as the guest speaker in the Hinduphobic event given her rich history in peddling anti-Hindu propaganda.
A quick analysis of Dixit’s social media timeline will give one an idea of her leaning and ideology. From discrediting the BJP government to the political and cultural movement of the Hindus to claim their rights through putting out lies, Dixit appears to be a habitual offender.
Just a few weeks ago, Neha Dixit was caught putting out rampant misinformation to target the RSS affiliate Sewa International after she had claimed that the organisation had been involved in “trafficking children from tribal areas to indoctrinate them”. A case has been filed against the far-left troll for defaming an organisation at a time when it was in the relief work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hindu American Foundation demands universities sponsoring Hinduphobic conference to distance themselves from the event
In a counter to a virtual conference titled “Dismantling Global Hindutva”, scheduled to be held from September 10–12, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) had written to all 41 universities listed as event co-sponsors urging them to distance themselves from the politically motivated Hinduphobic event.
Launching a grassroots campaign, the HAF has called for students, alumni and concerned citizens to send their own letters to every university sponsoring the aforementioned event. The Foundation has also expressed concerns over potential attacks on Hindu students for opposing Hinduphobic content and has demanded security.
The HAF, in its letter to the universities, also highlighted the potential threat to the reputation of the institution for hosting a highly partisan event.
“The DGH organizers trade on the prestige of your institution’s name to host, not an academic conference, but a partisan event related to politics in India. The event platforms activists with extensive histories of amplifying Hinduphobic discourse even while denying the existence of Hinduphobia” reads the letter.
The HAF further elaborated on the ‘esteemed speakers’ and their background of Hindu hate. Attaching screenshots of ‘speakers’ known to peddle misinformation and Hinduphobia, the HAF Tweeted, “Speaker list includes activists who: -equate Hinduism with caste bigotry -deny indigeneity of Hindus to South Asia -support the violent Kashmir militancy -deny Hinduphobia & systemic oppression Hindus face throughout South Asia (Pak, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kashmir).”
The Foundation has also asked for the removal of the university’s branding, saying, “The use of your university’s name and logo, in this regard, implies overt institutional partisanship and endorsement of the event’s political and discriminatory motive.”
Following the outrage, at least five universities listed as cosponsors have distanced themselves from the Dismantling Global Hindutva conference.
