State of Confusion

From 10 to 12 September, academics from various US universities organised an online conference titled “Dismantling Global Hindutva.” It was co-sponsored by various departments and centres in more than fifty universities, including Princeton, Harvard, Stanford and New York University. The conference brought together scholars of South Asia “specializing in gender, economics, political science, caste, religion, healthcare, and media in order to try to understand the complex and multi-faceted phenomenon of Hindutva.” In the lead-up to the event, pro-Hindutva groups began an unprecedented disinformation campaign and targeted attacks against the organisers and participants. Academic conferences rarely receive mainstream global attention, but in this case the vicious response made the world take note.

The campaign was swift and coordinated. The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, a violent Hindu-nationalist group—whose cadre are charged with assassinating the journalist Gauri Lankesh in 2017—wrote to India’s home minister, seeking action against the India-based speakers of the conference. In the United States, groups such as the Hindu American Foundation, the Coalition of Hindus in North America and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America—which have links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh—started an aggressive campaign to malign the organisers and cancel the conference. They reportedly sent out nearly a million emails to the organisers. An academic conference curated to understand Hindutva was quickly rebranded by right-wing groups as “Hinduphobic.” Over the years, Hinduphobia has been used as a smokescreen in the West to deflect any critical questions asked of the Narendra Modi