May 20, 2020

Namaste Dear Friend,

We are pleased in our May newsletter to announce the launch of our new and improved website. Please join us in welcoming and appreciating our new part-time staffers Urmila and Shabana, who are responsible for this new website; and also our new volunteers who have hit the ground running — Sravya and Vijay. Volunteers Brandon, Meghna and Aminah have been with us for a while now, and continue to energize HfHR’s discussions and activities.

New features of the website are:

A page listing our wonderful staff and volunteers, who have all been working hard to build Hindus for Human Rights programs.
A page devoted to FAQs — thoughtful responses to questions we are asked repeatedly. The board has been ruminating on these FAQs since our inception as an organization. This was our internal process to articulate who we are and what we stand for. It is a living document; we will add to it and reflect any changes in our thinking that take place over time. We hope you find it interesting and helpful as you engage with family and community members about issues of justice, democracy and religion in India and elsewhere.
We are working on making our website bilingual (English and Hindi) so that we can increase our readership.

As always, there have been many things to celebrate — and many things to mourn — over the past month. On April 28th, we achieved a tremendous victory when the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) moved India to its "Countries of Particular Concern" list. HfHR had earlier co-signed a letter to USCIRF asking them to move India to this list of worst global offenders of religious freedom, and we thank them for listening.

This is by no means the end, however, of the work to be done on this front. It has now been over a month since the fraudulent arrests of Indian human rights activists Dr. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha. Anand and Gautam are not alone; they take their place among a series of unlawful arrests — overwhelmingly targeting Muslims (and drawing startling and consistent parallels to the current persecution of black Americans) — that the Indian government has carried out through the gross abuse of the Unlawful Actions Prevention Act (UAPA).

In our 6th webinar on Saturday, May 2, eminent Indian journalists Kalpana Sharma and Niranjan Takle spoke on the severity of this state of civil freedoms in India, with Dr. Rajmohan Gandhi concluding that "The situation in India is even more serious, even more grim than some might have thought." In our following webinar on Sunday, May 17th, student leader Umar Khalid insisted that this was precisely the reason why international advocacy regarding India was so encouraging and important, regardless of location. "You are Indians and you are concerned about what is happening in India," he said. "You are [speaking up] for India to become a better place for everyone. It's your love for India that is making you do so … you are living in the U.S. so that's where you will do your activism."

These webinars were co-hosted with our lovely allies Global Indian Progressive Alliance (GIPA) and Indian American Forum (IAF), and we would like to thank our long-standing ally Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), and new allies International Network of Democratic Indians Abroad (I.N.D.I.A.), Progressive International, and Students Against Hindutva Ideology. A warm shout-out also to our sister organization Sadhana, building a progressive Hindu community and platform in the United States. Please support and stand with them!

On a brighter note, we hope the holy days of Ramadan have been blessed, and we stand, as always, in love and solidarity with all those observing. In honor of Ramadan, we would like to note that we are overwhelmed by the success of the "Art as Resistance: In Honor of Shaheen Bagh" movement, which was started by one of our volunteers, Aminah, and brings together art and artists from all over the world to honor the women of the Shaheen Bagh protests. We encourage you to visit the growing gallery, and happily welcome any art you would like to submit!

As long as COVID-19 continues, our work to support the Indian organizations fighting it will continue as well. HfHR is in close touch with organizers of COVID relief efforts across India, as well as working on the ground since day one. Through this, we have compiled a directory of NGOs doing trusted relief work, and we hope that you will utilize it to please give as generously as you can. Board member Raju Rajagopal has also written on the particularly devastating impact the pandemic has had on migrant labor workers in India. With heartbreaking timing, Cyclone Amphan currently bears down on the northwestern coast of India and Bangladesh. India is under extreme added duress, and we pray ardently for a reprieve for the country we love, and its people.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Congressional Briefing: Tomorrow, Thursday, May 21, 2p.m. ET/11:30 pm IST, there will be a briefing for the U.S. Congress: "USCIRF Recommendations on India: Next Steps." The keynote speaker will be the Vice-Chair of USCIRF, Nadine Maenza, and panelists will include USCIRF South Asia Policy Analyst Harrison Akins, Amnesty Intl. Asia Pacific Advocacy Manger Francisco Bencosme, and India's Gulwahati High Court Civil Rights Attorney Aman Wadud.

This is a hugely important opportunity to illuminate the severity of the situation in India and appeal to U.S. policy-makers to take concrete action. Please join us!

ZOOM LINK: tinyurl.com/IAMC-21May2020

Next webinars: This weekend, Global Indian Progressive Alliance and HfHR bring you not one, but two webinars! On Saturday, May 23, 12:30p.m. ET/10p.m. IST, Saahil Menghani, Indian journalist, will speak on "Journalism Integrity & Misinformation during Covid."

ZOOM LINK: https://tinyurl.com/gipawebinar-fakenews

On Sunday, May 24, 10:30p.m. ET/8:30p.m. IST, Shri Sitaram Yechury, Indian politician and leader of Communist Party of India (M), will speak on "India Post Corona--Struggles & Role of Global Indian Community."

ZOOM LINK: https://tinyurl.com/gipawebinar-yechury

Early registration are required at both, and all are welcome! Please spread the word!

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Finally, we felt that it was important to take a moment of reflection and remembrance for the tragedies that have befallen us this past month. There is no longer the ability to count, but we honor and pray for the lives lost in the Aurangabad train tragedy, the Palghar mob lynching, the Afghanistan maternity ward bombing, Ahmaud Arbery's murder, and all those we cannot name — both because of COVID and otherwise. Rest in power.

As cities tentatively begin to reopen and summer begins its opening along with them, it is possible to feel hope. Amidst so much tragedy we have also seen glimmers (sometimes blinding flashes) of growth, compassion, and resilience. We believe that if we continue to stay strong, continue to help each other (and continue to social distance), there are still bright things ahead of us.

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PLEASE JOIN US

We want to build HfHR, and that means we need you! If you are a Hindu who yearns for a more just and equitable world, or if you are a person who believes in our mission and wants to help, we'd love to hear from you.

Get involved — write to us. Volunteer. Start a chapter. Have a house party and raise both awareness and money. (Or just have a family dialogue on CAA — here is an excellent PRIMER created by HfHR board member Raju Rajagopal).

And of course, make a donation!!

We work to achieve justice and peace through compassion. We choose to have hope, and to work hard to turn our hopes for that better world into a reality. Please join us, strengthening the movement and helping us to work towards achieving lokasamgraha (the well-being of all).

—HfHR Board & Program and Communications Coordinator,
Deepak, Giri, Punya, Raju, Sunil, Sunita, Urmila