Follow the Money
By Vijay Prashad
Do you know where your charitable
contributions are going?
Each year, I give money to
various organizations. I always give to
the progressive media, whether magazines or radio, mainly because they
refuse to take corporate funds that, generally, distort the coverage.
A bunch of money goes toward organizations that struggle for racial,
economic and gender justice in the US, most of whom again are underfunded
for the task they have undertaken. Finally, because I was raised in
India and feel a deep sense of patriotism to the country that bred me,
I, like most of us, donate money to US-based groups that raise funds
for good work in India. Its not like I have vast amounts of money, but
I do like to make sure that a chunk of my
surplus gets recycled in this age when government's cease to fund the
public good. Our taxes took over from institutions like the daan (among
Buddhists) and the tithe (among Catholics), this so that it was not
left to the wiles of individuals to create social justice. The state
was to be that instrument. With its failure to do the work, the non-profit
sector moved in.
So the checkbooks come out
and we write our modest contributions to one or another US-based group
that sends funds to India. It is not easy to find these groups, and
we mainly rely upon word of mouth. Fortunately groups like CRY and ASHA
organize frequent events about , which we read in our papers or else
to which we get invited via the flyers left in our local desi store.
My first encounter with long-distance philanthropy was through these
two groups. Then there are local organizations, such as V. Raman's Hartford-based
Volunteers for Service and Education in India, an excellent organization
run by
the hard work and dedication of one man. Finally, many folks rely
upon websites, word of mouth or else corporate matching programs to
find organizations that take our dollars to make development rupees.
One of these organizations
is the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF). An innocuous name,
for those who run across it, it attracts attention because NRIs are
all interested in the "development" of the country and the
"relief" of those hit hard by natural calamities.
Earthquakes and droughts
require especial help, and we are ready with our money to help a state
exchequer routinely in the red. Since mostof us benefited from state-funded
educational systems that are now slowly withering away, we welcome donations
toward education institutions that target the oppressed (dalits and
advasis) as well as programs for women's empowerment. On the surface
this is unimpeachable stuff and we tend to give money to any group that
purports to do good in India, whether CRY, ASHA, VSEI or IDRF. Our international
philanthropy is laudable and should be promoted.
In mid-November a group of
U.S.-based artists, scholars and activists released a landmark study
called The Foreign Exchange of Hate. IDRF and the American Funding of
Hindutva. The report, published by the Mumbai-based Sabrang Communications
(publishers of Communalism Combat) and by the France-based South Asia
Citizen's Watch [...], alleges that IDRF raises money on false pretenses.
It claims to take our money and do charitable work in India, when in
fact it directs it to pro-Hindutva organizations who sully the body
politics, conduct
communal pogroms and destabilize the social life of India. The money
may indeed go toward "development" and "relief,"
but the report argues, it "develops" Hindutva's agenda and
not that of the
Constitution of India. The material is largely based on a study of
IDRF's own filings to the Internal Review Service as well as IDRF's
annual report. From these documents, the report tracks the organizations
to which IDRF gives money. Then, it studied the reports of the New York-based
Human Rights Watch as well as activist groups in Gujarat to show that
the groups to whom IDRF gave money are groups that have been fingered
as participants in the mayhem since the 1990s.
Faced by a barrage from the
Indian press, IDRF responded on Nov 22, labelling the accusations "pure
concoction, untruthful and
self-contradicting," "a string of allegations," since
"IDRF does not
subscribe to any religious, political or sectarian agendas.
Furthermore, IDRF does not discriminate against any religion, sect,
or race in either the collection or distribution of funds." Apart
from this general disavowal, IDRF, founded by an ex-World Bank
economist, Vinod Prakash, did not get into the specifics of the
allegations against it.
That is a pity, because it
would have been useful for our community to hear IDRF rebut the evidence
in The Foreign Exchange of Hate. Here is a taste of what is in the report
(available at www.stopfundinghate.org):
An Analysis of the Money
The report studied IDRF transfers
of $5 million from 1994 to 2000, which found that 83 percent percent
of the money went to
organizations affiliated with the RSS, such as: Jana Sankshema Samiti
(Vijayavada, Andhra Pradesh), Seva Bharati Purvanchal (Guwahati, Assam),
Vikas Bharati Bishupur (Gumla, Chhattisgarh, Bihar), Birsa Seva Prakalp
(Hazaribag, Jharkhand), Hindu Seva Pratishthana (Bangalore, Karnataka),
Yogakshema Trust (Cochin, Kerala) and many more. The report says that
these organizations can be shown to be RSS-affiliation "through
their own literature or other secondary sources." Or else, if you
want, you can tally the names with the RSS publication, Amrut-Kumbha
written by RSS pracharak S. H. Ketkar (published in Pune, 1995).
What is of interest is that
most of the donors, 90 percent of them,
in fact, did not designate these organizations. Only ten percent of
those who gave money to IDRF specifically designated that IDRF must
give their money to a specific RSS organization. Nevertheless, IDRF
gave more than 80 percent of its disbursements to the groups associated
with the RSS. In other words, the report concluded, IDRF has an agenda
to support the RSS activities and to reshape India in the RSS image.
In addition, more than 90 percent of its money went to
Hindu groups with a small fraction given to secular organizations,
with no organization identified with any minority community in
receipt of any funds.
According to the report,
most of the money (70 percent) went toward education and to Hinduization
(shuddhi) programs. The education, as well, is not secular education,
but religious education. Less than ten percent went to health and welfare
work, while only four percent went to rural development. It is, therefore,
not outrageous to suggest that the money goes toward the reconstruction
of India from a secular democracy into the image of the RSS. If this
is not the case, then IDRF needs to account for how it is not so.
If you're into the RSS agenda,
then go ahead and write your checks to the IDRF. At least the IDRF should
be honest about its intentions and not hide behind a harmless name to
do its work.
Swami Ashim Anand
On 9 September 1999, the
U.S. State Department released its Annual Report on International Religious
Freedom. In the report, we find the following:
"On January 27, 1999,
12 Christian villagers were "reconverted"
forcibly to Hinduism under threat of the loss of the right to use the
local well and the destruction of their homes. The "reconversion"
was carried out by youths working with Swami Ashim Anand, a Hindu active
in "reconverting" tribals in the area. However, the villagers
stated that prior to becoming Christians they had not been Hindu."
In 1998-99, the Dangs district
of Gujarat felt the iron fist of
Hindutva. The Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams and other organizations in the
state mobilized their cadre to go amongst the oppressed adivasis and
create mayhem. The point was to "reconvert" adivasis to Hinduism
by force and to ensure that Christians be held at bay. The violence
that ensued should be seen as the prologue of the recent anti-Muslim
pogrom in the state. In a series of reports Indian Express offered evidence
that Swami Ashim Anand had organized young people into bands to spread
the terror. Ashim Modi, Bajrang Dal president for Surat
district (which neighbors Dangs) told the Indian Express that the
Swami had been part of the "Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, an organization
affiliated to the VHP." In a February 1999 story in the Indian
Express, the journalist wrote, "After coming to Waghai a couple
of years ago, the Swami had spearheaded the formation of Bajrang Dal
units in every village. The recent violence against the Christian community
was reportedly led by activists groomed by the Swami."
The IDRF, it turns out, was
one of the foundations that supported the work of the Swami. Chetan
Gandhi, a Vice President of IDRF, visited the Dangs region of Gujarat
and filed this report to IDRF: "Swami Ashimanandji is in charge
of the Ashram's activities in the district though is as some [sic] only
before 18 months he is well known as respected by the community."
The Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad is an "IDRF supported project in Gujarat,"
according to the IDRF itself.
None of this is history.
During the 2002 riots, three organizations
that participated in the pogrom, the Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, the
Vivekananda Kendra and the Vanvasi Seva Sangh continue to receive IDRF
funds.
The IDRF could have been
duped by these organizations, posing as development groups that only
later went out to kill in a sectarian manner. This is possible. However,
the statistical trends depicted in the report suggest that either the
IDRF itself is coddling the RSS or else the laws of chance have worked
to smear its reputation. Either way, the IDRF needs to explain its funding
practices.
It turns out that not only
did ordinary NRIs may have been surprised at the funding profile of
IDRF; so were several major corporations of the New Economy: Cisco,
Sun, Oracle and HP. These firms match employee contributions to US-based
non-profits and they are also urged by their employees to contribute
additional funds to especially good charities. The large number of Indians
in these firms makes it less of a surprise that a charity that works
on India is one of the highest earners of New Economy largess. This
is not to say that all the Indians who work at these firms are pro-RSS,
but that the organization has been able to convince the workers and
the firms that it is the only bona fide group that does good work in
the Indian countryside. In 1999, IDRF received $140,000 from Cisco,
and entered
the top five charities for the company. Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders
got only $2500. Since the publication of the report many of these American
corporations have stopped their matching program for IDRF.
What of the NRIs who want
to promote the development of India,
although not the Hindutva vision of it? Channel your resources to
secular groups ASHA and CRY, or else use the money to transform the
US government so that it is less invested in the deprivation of Gujarat
than in its genuine social development.