The Anti-semitism - Hinduphobia nexus
- authored by Suresh Krishnamoorthy
Hinduphobia, like politics, makes for strange bedfellows.
The oddly named Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) is a good example of how some organizations deceptively try to appropriate terms like “Hindu Rights” and then pursue a clearly anti-Hindu agenda. Despite their name, they rarely, if ever, focus on the atrocities faced by Hindus anywhere in the world – whether it is the daily kidnapping of minor Hindu girls in Pakistan, the 1971 Bengali Hindu genocide in then East Pakistan, the multiple attacks on temples in US or South Asia, or the targeting of a Hindu man in a California Taco Bell.
A more proper name for them would be “HfHR EXCEPT For Hindus”.
For instance they oppose H. Res 1131, a Congressional resolution that honors the contributions of Hinduism while calling for an end to Hinduphobia and an end to attacks on Hindu places of worship and hate against Hindus. This opposition and denial of Hinduphobia comes even AFTER a slew of attacks against Hindu Temples in California in Nov 2023 -Jan 2024. They oppose India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) saying it hurts Rohingya Muslims, while ignoring the fact that it offers a way for persecuted minorities to seek refuge in India.
This is not new. In 2021, they opposed the bi-partisan bill introduced to recognize the Bengali Hindu Genocide of 1971, despite evidence and testimony on how the minority Hindus bore the brunt of the state-sponsored pogrom. Not surprisingly, they are strong and steadfast supporters of anti-Hindu academics like Audrey Trushcke, most infamous for calling Bhagwan Rama a “misogynist pig”.
HfHR recently started pushing a new coalition called Savera. The first act of this coalition was to decry so-called ‘Hindu Supremacy’. Savera describes itself as “an interfaith, multiracial, anti-caste coalition of Indian American and partner civil rights groups”. Found among the list of partner civil rights groups is the equally ironically named Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP).
JVP and HfHR are joined at the hip. They support each other’s resolutions and join each other’s protests. The close connection between JVP and HfHR is well documented.
In a fawning report, Aparna Gopalan describes the bond between the organizations:
“I, in the process of reporting, found out that not only is Hindus for Human Rights, which is a progressive Hindu group, talking to Jewish Voice for Peace. They’re literally modeled on Jewish Voice for Peace. One of the people who founded the group went to Jewish Voice for Peace and said, I want to found a group which is Hindus who are speaking out as Hindus against Hindu nationalism. Will you help me? And Jewish Voice of Peace said yes and so they helped. And so this group is modeled on the image of the Jewish Voice of Peace. And that’s important because like I said, the same playbook is being used against both of these progressive groups. And so they are, by uniting, they’re like bringing together, we as progressive Hindus now are able to draw on the expertise that a group like JVP has in dealing with this repressive and silencing playbook.”
Al Jazeera English / Instagram
Which brings us to the question – what exactly is JVP’s expertise? What is their modus operandi? According to investigative reporting by the NY Post, Columbia suspended JVP from its campus in December 2023 for violating the campus rules. Unfazed, JVP put out a thinly veiled threat: “Our actions will be louder than our words …. Keep an eye on Columbia”.
They followed through. Columbia student and JVP member, Cameron Jones attended a 2 hour zoom meeting with Khaled Barakat and his wife Charlotte Kates, who claimed that “there was nothing wrong with being a Hamas fighter”.
Barakat was a senior member of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Known since the 1960’s for plane hijackings and a long history of armed violence against civilians and innocents, PFLP has rejected all attempts to get them to accept the legitimacy of Israel. They are currently designated as a terrorist organization by the US Department of State.
Barakat has made no secret of his intentions to target American students to radicalize them. In a speech on Hezbollah TV, he said “… the vast majority of the new generation [in The US and Canada] support armed resistance and the removal of Israel from Palestine in its entirety”. Impressed by this goal, JVP member Cameron Jones declared – “I will continue fighting until my last breath”
So, HfHR, which misses no opportunity to tag Hindu Advocacy groups in the US for their supposed links to extremists in India, has actual close ties with JVP, an organization whose members call for the elimination of Israel and presumably the people living there. HfHR seems to be proud of its connections to people who support terrorism and violence.
Truschke and HfHR are so quick to demonize others with guilt by association. What if they examined themselves and applied the same yardstick?
Lets see how Nikhil Mandalaparthy of HfHR – described it in the same article in Jewish Currents:
“Hindu groups have used ‘the same playbook and even sometimes the same terms’ as Israel-advocacy groups, ‘copy-pasted from the Zionist context’,” said Nikhil Mandalaparthy of the anti-Hindutva group Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR).
Now what if they were to apply their own yardstick to themselves? Well in that case, Mandalaparthy’s quote should read as (red emphasis is ours):
“So-called progressive Hindu groups have used “the same playbook and even sometimes the same terms” as Israel advocacy terrorist groups calling for Israel’s extermination through violence, “copy-pasted from the Zionist PFLP context,” said Nikhil Mandalaparthy of the anti-Hindutva semitic group Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR).
There. We fixed it for you.