Washington: It was meant to be an event celebrating the true spirit and values of Hinduism but conspicuous at the venue of the World Hindu Congress
were posters denouncing inter-faith marriages as “love jihad” and other
pet themes of the RSS-VHP combine. There was even a poster questioning
Sharmila Tagore’s marriage to the Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi way back in
1969 and whether their son Saif Ali Khan will force his wife, Kareena
Kapoor to convert to Islam. One of the questions asked: Why did Tagore
give Arabic names to her children?
The wall posters appeared under the
heading “Interfaith Marriages: Silent Holocaust of Hindus.” Then there
were messages about the present state of Hindu society as a “small soft laddoo” with a future vision being a “big hard laddoo” which is strongly bonded and cohesive and cannot be broken into pieces.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, speaking in
English on the theme of uniting all Hindus for a collective resurgence,
said “wild dogs can invade and destroy” even a lion if he is alone, a
remark that was interpreted by some as a veiled reference to the Sangh
parivar narrative of Muslim invaders dominating and leaving their
imprint on India.
Bhagwat said Hindus must not forget that
even though they don’t have a desire for dominance, and that “our
influence is not a result of conquest or colonisation,” they must come
together for the betterment of humanity.
In the same speech, Bhagwat made a
reference to pests and the use of pesticides in agriculture, adding that
traditional Hindu agriculture practices merely “control” pests, not
kill them.
“You have tried and failed, do not
despair, take stock of the situation… You don’t have to react. Reaction
doesn’t bring the correct things. And for Hindus, all their endeavors,
they do not live to oppose anybody. You see, there are pesticides in
agriculture. What do they do? They kill pests. But in traditional
agriculture learnt by Hindu society, the pesticides cannot be called
pesticides because they do not kill, they only control pests. Hindus
recognise even the right of pests to live and make their life,” he said
to rapturous applause.
That Bhagwat’s reference was not to pests of the agricultural variety became clear with his next few words:
“At the start we resolve we are not going
to oppose anyone. But there are people who may oppose us… So you have
to have all the instruments, apparatuses, data etc etc to control them –
without hurting them, you have to take care they should not harm you.”
Were these “pests” the Sangh’s
ideological opponents? Or India’s religious minorities? Or the Dalit and
Adivasi communities who resist conscription in the Hindutva agenda?
Certainly, the audience would have recognised in Bhagwat’s remarks an
echo of the old RSS teachings on how minorities need to be “controlled”
if they want to live in ‘Hindu India’.
§
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi was under
tremendous pressure from activists to withdraw from the World Hindu
Congress but instead of backing out he decided to take the bull by the
horns and lecture the assembly about Hinduism’s inclusiveness and
pluralism.
The first term Congressman, a practicing
Hindu, told the gathering of Hindutva supporters that he believed only
in “the highest and only form of Hinduism… one that welcomes all people,
embraces all people and accepts all people regardless of their faith. I
reject all other forms. In short, I reaffirm the teachings of Swami
Vivekananda.”
By attending the event and delivering a
message that he thought the organisers might not like, the young
Krishnamoorthi clearly hoped to seal his support among both Hindu and
Muslim constituents. The WHC is being held in Lombard, a suburb of
Chicago, which is firmly in his congressional district.
Credit: Twitter/@venkata12
Krishnamoorthi apparently has one of the
most diverse Indian American populations – upper caste and Dalit
communities and Indian Muslims in almost equal measure. The distribution
clearly made his task that much harder.
Had he withdrawn from a big event such as
the WHC taking place in his constituency, he might have lost support
among a large section of his voters. Had he attended and not addressed
the concerns of his critics who include “caste oppressed migrants” – to
quote an activist” and Muslim constituents, he would risk alienating
them.
Krishnamoorthi wrote a frank e-mail to
the Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition after a conference call, telling
them he planned to talk about the “tenets of ahimsa, dharma and bhakti”
– key lessons from Hinduism that he has used to conduct his personal
and public life. He said he planned to welcome the 3,000 or so delegates
of the WHC to show “what is possible for members of a minority religion
in a country that values pluralism.”
A copy of his e-mail was seen by this correspondent.
A coalition of progressive groups
rallying against the WHC as a gathering of “Hindu fascists” mounted a
massive pressure campaign with hundreds of people e-mailing
Krishnamoorthi to highlight the “shenanigans” of the RSS, VHP and
related groups, an activist told this correspondent Thursday.
The activist accused Krishnamoorthi of
speaking from “both sides of his mouth” because in the US he wants to
protect religious rights but on foreign policy issues “his collaborators
are Sangh-related organisations.” He apparently went “from mosque to
mosque” during his election campaign to promise Muslims in his district
that he would fight for them. “Little did they know he would advocate
against them,” the activist said.
But Krishnamoorthi didn’t advocate
against Muslims. Instead he went into the lion’s den and reminded the
WHC delegates of Vivekananda’s warning about the risk of
division. Quoting the swami, the Congressman said, “Sectarianism,
bigotry and its horrible descendant, fanaticism have long possessed this
beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it
often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to
despair.”
§
Protests broke out in Chicago out during
the sessions with activists shouting “RSS turn around, we don’t want you
in town.” Police arrested two protesters and released them later with
conference attendees shouting abuses at them, one even spitting at
them.
A full-page advertisement in the Chicago Tribune,
the area’s largest newspaper, exhorted the WHC not “to stain” the
tradition of Hinduism being one of the most tolerant religions in the
world. The ad was paid for by Avaaz, a global online activist network
started in 2007 to bring together voices on climate change, human rights
and animal rights.
The ad mainly talked about the Indian
government’s plan to strip citizenship rights from millions of people in
Assam. An Avaaz press release warned that it could create “the world’s
next Rohingya-like crisis and be a permanent stain on Indian democracy.”
Apparently 10,000 Avaaz members have already written to the UN
Secretary General, asking him to intervene.
Speakers at the WHC have called the
criticism “Hinduphobia.” Among those who spoke were the writer Amish
Tripathi and actor Anupam Kher.
Seema Sirohi is a Washington DC-based commentator.
