Open Letter to G20 Interfaith Forum
Recently, the G20 Interfaith Forum’s Anti-Racism Initiative announced they would be holding a webinar on the topic of “Hinduism and Discriminatory Experiences,” scheduled for September 15, 2022. However, the Forum’s choice of speakers and framing of the issue was deeply concerning to us at Hindus for Human Rights.
On September 13, 2022, Hindus for Human Rights Executive Director Sunita Viswanath sent this letter to Audrey Kitagawa (Chair, Anti-Racism Initiative, G20 Interfaith Forum) and W. Cole Durham (Committee Member, Anti-Racism Initiative, and President, G20 Interfaith Forum).
Re: Concerns regarding your “Hinduism and Discriminatory Experiences” Webinar
Dear Ms. Kitagawa and Mr. Durham,
My name is Sunita Viswanath, and I serve as Executive Director of Hindus for Human Rights. Our Deputy Executive Director Nikhil Mandalaparthy was honored to be a youth delegate to the 2021 G20 Interfaith Forum in Bologna, Italy, last year, as part of ACWAY (A Common Word Among the Youth).
I am writing on behalf of our organization and concerned Hindus from around the world to express our horror and disappointment at the speakers and framing for your upcoming webinar on “Hinduism and Discriminatory Experiences,” scheduled for September 15, 2022.
About our organization: Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)3 organization founded in 2019 and based in Washington, DC. We advocate for pluralism and civil and human rights in South Asia and North America, rooted in the values of our Hindu faith: shanti (peace), nyaya (justice), and satya (truth). We provide a Hindu voice of resistance to caste, Hindu nationalism (also called Hindutva), racism, and all forms of hate.
We are concerned that in your effort to address hate and discrimination, you are providing a platform to individuals and organizations that are actually perpetuating hate and discrimination in the name of our Hindu community.
For example, one of your speakers is Jai Bansal, Vice President of Education for the World Hindu Council of America (VHPA). Among Hindu American communities, the VHPA is known for perpetuating hardline anti-Muslim rhetoric. For example, in April 2021, the VHPA announced a series of virtual events featuring Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, a hate-mongering Hindu extremist leader in India who has publicly called for the “eradication” of Islam and Muslims in India.
Just a few weeks ago, in August 2022, the VHPA hosted another Hindu extremist leader in Atlanta, GA, Sadhvi Ritambhara. Ritambhara is a Hindu extremist who has a long record of inciting violence against Indian Christians and Muslims. She has made statements such as “If a single choti or janeu (Hindu thread) is cut, Christians will be wiped out from the face of India.” She has publicly declared that "They [Christians] call us harvest. They intend to pluck us out. And foreigners want to do this to us." Her speeches have also been described as “the single most powerful instrument for whipping up anti-Muslim violence” in India.
Bansal’s organization, the VHPA, openly collaborates with organizations such as the Middle East Forum (MEF), a conservative think tank that has been described as “the center of the Islamophobia network” in the United States. According to Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative, MEF “spreads misinformation, creates ‘watchlists’ targeting academics … provides funding to numerous anti-Muslim organizations and has provided legal services to a number of anti-Muslim activists.”
To platform the VHPA as a credible voice to discuss discrimination and hate would mean to ignore their public role in contributing to hate against our Muslim and Christian brothers and sisters.
Another one of your speakers, Thushy Thirun, is listed on your flier as a leader of “Nithyananda Meditation Academy,” a Toronto-based organization associated with the self-proclaimed religious leader Nithyananda. Nithyananda is a global fugitive wanted by Interpol. Nithyananda fled India in 2019 after being booked in numerous criminal cases, including a rape case in the state of Karnataka and a case pertaining to the illegal confinement of children in the state of Gujarat. Any individual or organization associated with Nithyananda does not represent the best of our Hindu community.
We agree that discrimination against Hindus is a serious issue, one which we at Hindus for Human Rights focus on. However, the incidents of anti-Hindu discrimination you list are deeply questionable.
For example, you mention “the unintentional misuse of Hindu symbols and images by the Metropolitan University in Toronto (formerly Ryerson University) and the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.” This is a clear reference to the controversy surrounding filmmaker Leena Manimekalai and her performance documentary titled “Kaali.” Manimekalai’s documentary explores the Hindu deity Kali and depicts the goddess smoking a cigarette and holding a LGBTQ+ Pride flag. To describe this documentary as a “misuse of Hindu symbols and images” is to suggest that LGBTQ+ inclusion violates Hindu teachings. In reality, many LGBTQ+ Hindus look to our traditions and sacred iconography as affirming their own dignity and identities, and the Pride flag that Kali holds in the film poster is a way of acknowledging the deity’s meaningfulness to LGBTQ+ Hindus. Furthermore, describing this controversy as contributing to a larger environment of “anti-Hindu sentiment and discrimination” ignores the many Hindus who support Manimekalai’s work. Manimekalai now faces numerous death threats in Canada, many of which have come from Hindu nationalist individuals and organizations.
As Hindus, we request you to adopt a more rigorous standard for evaluating incidents of anti-Hindu sentiment and discrimination–one which does not invalidate the views of Hindus who are committed to human rights, pluralism, and social justice.
Given that the G20 Interfaith Forum is a prestigious global platform committed to human rights and equity, we hope you will take our concerns into consideration.
Sincerely,
Sunita Viswanath
Executive Director
Hindus for Human Rights
