Wishing you a Happy New Year!

January 1, 2022

Dear Friend,

Happy New Year! This past year, we've continued our advocacy for pluralism, civil rights, and human rights for all. This is a long-ish newsletter -- we're excited to share our wins of 2021, and we hope you're equally excited to read them!

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Featuring artwork from around the world, our 2022 calendar includes major holidays and festivals from a range of regions and traditions, as well as major historical events and anniversaries of social justice movements. This calendar makes a perfect holiday gift!

Buy Your Calendar Here!

A Growing Team

In March, we hired a full-time DC-based Advocacy Director, Nikhil Mandalaparthy, who started in March 2021, as well as a part-time Administrative Coordinator. In August 2021, we held our Annual Strategic Retreat in New Mexico, facilitated by Rabbi Alissa Wise, former Deputy Director of Jewish Voice of Peace.

This year, we also saw new members and HfHR chapters blossom in Australia and New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa and Canada. These chapters have also have started raising awareness on local concerns and issues. For example, our Australia-New Zealand chapter has spoken out on the Victoria government's swastika ban, the influence of Hindu nationalist groups like the VHPA in Australia, and Hindu nationalist attacks on New Zealand professor Mohan Dutta.

Civil Rights and Human Rights in India

We have added a fearless, progressive Hindu voice to coalitions raising awareness about declining civil rights, religious freedom, and democracy in India under the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modi.

We organized press conferences and webinars in support of former and current political prisoners in India including Sanjiv Bhatt, Umar Khalid, Anand Teltumbde, Sudha Bharadwaj, and the late Father Stan Swamy. We organized a comedy show, the Right to Laugh, in support of Munawar Faruqui.

We held 16 Congressional briefings on human rights issues in India with 17 other human rights organizations, featuring over 70 frontline activists from India and the diaspora. Topics included Persecution of Christians in India, Facebook Platforms Hate in India: Haugen Revelations, and State Repression of Civil Liberties in India's Largest state, Uttar Pradesh

In order to bring to light the growing cases of suppression of dissent in India, we co-sponsored this virtual Congressional Briefing on "India's Abuse of Anti-Terror Law to Suppress Free Speech."

We got 67 organizations to sign statements condemning violence against Hindus in Bangladesh, and when there was the subsequent violence against Muslims in India's Tripura state, we sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed by 35 organizations and 175 individuals.

When Covid-19 struck India, we uplifted the efforts of our grassroots partners in India, organized fundraisers, press conferences, and Congressional briefings, and supported efforts to waive patent restrictions on vaccines.

We worked with our partners to organize press conferences and webinars highlighting on-the-ground voices from the farmer's protests, and we celebrated when the Indian government announced they would be repealing the farm bills!

We raised awareness about human rights issues in India at global forums. HfHR Advocacy Director Nikhil and HfHR Board Member Sravya spoke at the International Religious Freedom Summit in July. In September, HfHR Advocacy Director Nikhil attended the G20 Interfaith Forum in Bologna, Italy, where he gave a presentation to youth delegates on "Confronting Your Community: Fighting Extremism From Within."

We organized a multi-faith vigil, "Light, Hope, Love", in which 25+ religious leaders and activists from the United States, Guatemala, and India honored the life and courage of Father Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest who spent his life fighting for the rights of India’s Indigenous (Adivasi) and Dalit communities. This event was covered by Indica News.

We celebrated Ambedkar Jayanti with an event titled "Protecting the Heart and Soul of the Constitution: Defending the Right to Liberty" featuring Mrs. Rama Teltumbde (granddaughter of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar), Ms. Banojyotsna Lahiri and Prof. Rajmohan Gandhi (grandson of Mahatma Gandhi).

Confronting Hindu Nationalism and Caste in the Diaspora

A crucial component of our advocacy is speaking out against Hindu nationalism and caste in all the ways that they manifest in the South Asian diaspora. For example, earlier this year, we successfully got the the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America to cancel a series of virtual events with extremist priest Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati.

We supported the "Dismantling Global Hindutva: Multidisciplinary Perspectives" conference, where HfHR Co-founder Sunita Viswanath and HfHR Advisory Board Member TM Krishna offered remarks.

We are honored to be the only Hindu organization in the United States working alongside Dalit and anti-caste groups such Dalit Solidarity Forum in the USA, Ambedkar International Center, and the International Commission for Dalit Rights.

We supported Ambedkar International Center (AIC) in filing an amicus brief in the California vs Cisco workplace caste discrimination case.
We wrote to the Santa Clara County Human Rights Commission, urging them to institutionalize protections against caste based discrimination.

Joining Multi-Faith Justice Movements

We are proud to offer a progressive Hindu public voice in multi-faith social justice movements.

We added a progressive Hindu voice to protests for justice in Palestine, for reproductive justice, climate justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and more!
We joined Indigenous leaders and climate activists in protests against the Line 3 oil pipeline and other fossil fuel projects in northern Minnesota and Washington, DC, where we were the only Hindu group represented in GreenFaith's multi-faith delegations.

We were deeply honored to join Black American and civil rights organizations on the organizing committee of the 56th anniversary of the Selma Bridge Crossing. Two HfHR board members and one HfHR advisory board member participated in panels, and we plan to be at the 57th anniversary in person, in Selma, Alabama.
Our efforts along with those of several other groups led to the removal of the 28-year-old ban on Yoga in the state of Alabama's public schools.
HfHR Co-founder Raju Rajagopal spoke at an inter-faith conversation on 9/11, and HfHR Advocacy Director Nikhil contributed to these reflections on 9/11's 20th anniversary for the Aspen Institute
Sunita Viswanath, HfHR co-founder and Board Member, was recently featured by the Center for American Progress in the 21 Faith Leaders To Watch in 2021 list.

We participated in GreenFaith's global day of climate action by organizing along a webinar on “How Hindutva is Harming the Planet.”

Media Advocacy

At a time when Indian society is becoming increasingly polarized through misinformation and hate speech, we launched Voices of Peace: a grassroots media project highlighting stories of pluralism, communal harmony and social justice efforts from across India.

Watch our Voices of Peace videos on YouTube!

We also published nearly 30 articles and op-eds in 9 different news outlets, and were mentioned in 150+ articles in over 50 outlets!

Mobilizing Youth

We kicked off 2021 with a Civil Rights Essay and Art Contest for South Asian American students, organized with Indian American Muslim Council. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal announced the winners and runners up from 100+ registrations and 40+ submissions.

Essay Contest winner and HfHR volunteer Samara Desai launched a youth podcast called Ganesha's Tusk. Listen to an episode!

We organized an interactive webinar for youth featuring Bollywood actress Richa Chadha, historian Rajmohan Gandhi, and Sikh community activist Simran Jeet Singh, who shared about how their personal experiences inspire them to work towards social justice.

Lawsuit

This year we saw the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) sue two cofounders of HfHR for defamation. They also sued three other people we work with closely: a Muslim activist, a Christian activist and a scholar of South Asian history and religions. What all who are sued have in common is an outspoken stance against Hindu nationalism.

But over 400 academics, scholars, and writers from across the world, including Noam Chomsky (linguist), Cornel West (philosopher), Deepa Mehta (filmmaker), and Lord Meghnad Desai (economist), endorsed a statement expressing solidarity with us! We will continue to fight this case and push back against efforts to curtail free speech.

In 2022, with your support, we hope to double our staff, double our budget, and thus double our impact. Please consider making a New Year's donation to HfHR today!

HfHR Board and Staff
Bidisha, Deepak, Nikhil, Punya, Raju, Sravya, Sunil, Sunita, Swati, Swathi, Urmila, Vijay

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