Unholy Alliance:
IDRF and Hindutva
By Angana Chatterji
Majoritarian communalism
and religious intolerance holds captive human rights in South Asia.
Shared commitments to democracy and civil liberties do not yet connect
us as nations. It is, instead, repressive forces of religious nationalism
and cultural intolerance that incapacitate nation building in the region.
In Pakistan, draconian blasphemy laws persecute minorities and appease
Islamic fundamentalists. In Sri Lanka, inequities of religion and ethnicity
haunt Sinhalese, Tamil Hindus and Muslims. In Bangladesh, enduring conflicts
brutalize minority Hindus and Christians. In India, the fascistic ascent
of Hindutva ravages society.
Tolerance and inclusion is
the sine qua non of Indian democracy. Hindu extremists contend that
national commitments to secular religious tolerance have been a tactic
for undermining the truth of India as a pure, glorious and
exclusively Hindu tradition and culture. This truth demands
an unquestioning commitment to India as a Hindu nation. The Hindutva,
Hindu supremacist, movement uses the vehicle of the state to cement
Hindu religious majoritarianism into the foundation of a national culture.
Such enterprise rewards the dominant community and is intolerant of
minority groups and faiths. Hindutva understands itself as secular,
in that it is not based on faith, but the conversion of faith into culture.
It declares tolerance for minority faiths to be pseudo-secularism.
It undermines the cultural and religious profusion that is central to
conceiving the nation, and asserting the separation of religion and
state.
The contradictions between
Hinduism and Hindutva must be emphasized. Hinduism is an ancient religion.
Hindutva is the utilization of Hinduism to foment a supremacist movement.
Hindutva, like other extremist movements, uses terror to dominate. Non
and dissenting Hindus are perceived as threats to the unity of the nation.
Hindutva is supported by organizations that fund raise abroad. The India
Development Relief Fund (IDRF) is one such registered charity in the
Untied States that sustains the Sangh Parivar, the network of Hindutva
organizations. IDRF was established in 1989, ostensibly to fundraise
for organizations in India that assist in development and tribal well-being.
IDRF has emphatically maintained that it has no connections with the
Sangh Parivar. A scrutiny of financial records, and the profile, actions
and associations of the organization disclose instead IDRFs intimate
connections to the Parivar. The Parivar uses religion as a nationalistic
weapon to empower the Hindutva movement. IDRF, through its relationship
with the Sangh, fortifies the hatred and violence that divides India.
The use of force is not restricted
to Hindu extremists. The Indian State is vigilant in policing and repressing
oppositional activities, especially those of minority communities. The
Government of India introduced the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance,
a security law that empowers the state to torture and detain political
opponents, revoke civil liberties, and suppress actions it deems threatening
to the nation. Yet the national government tolerated the Sangh Parivars
crimes in Gujarat this year. The Citizens Tribunal on Gujarat has held
the Sangh Parivar co-responsible for the orchestrated post-Godhra massacre
of Muslims. It must be incumbent on IDRF to prove that it is not in
support of such depravity. In a climate where Hindutva is sanctioned
and vindicated by an increasing army of henchmen and the state, it is
imperative that citizens speak out against the collaboration between
government and Parivar organizations in the promulgation of terror.
Citizens initiatives must demand accountability of international groups
that finance the apparatus of Hindutva.
It is deceptive for IDRF
to claim on its website that it raises money to "serve economically
and socially disadvantaged people irrespective of caste, sect, region
or religion," and utilize such funds in a sectarian manner. IDRF
has raised about 5.5 million dollars during the past decade. Nearly
69 percent of IDRFs funds go to organizations in adivasi (tribal)
and rural areas. A large segment is allocated for educational projects
of Hinduization, the disintegration of adivasi (and other non Hindu)
cultures through their incorporation into Hindutva. Sewa Bharti, an
associate of the Sangh, funded by IDRF, organized a Hindu Sangam in
Madhya Pradesh in January 2002. The Citizens Tribunal has charged that
such efforts facilitated the mobilization of adivasis against other
minorities in Gujarat. Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad and Vivekananda Kendra,
funded by IDRF, were both held complicit in the communalization of adivasis.
The sporadic participation of Hinduized adivasi and Dalit communities
in the brutalization of Muslims was a sad and unexpected distinction
of the recent violence in Gujarat. Divide and conquer, effectively realized.
IDRF has been conspicuously silent about Gujarat, Godhra and after,
and did not raise funds in support of the victims.
Development is critical to
Indias empowerment. It cannot be undertaken by organizations that
promote hate. IDRF allocates 80 percent of its funds to Sangh Parivar
organizations and those affiliated or controlled by them. Of the 67
IDRF affiliate organizations, 52 are associated with the Sangh. Secular
freedoms confirm the right to proselytize, but do not permit the use
of religion or culture to cultivate hate. IDRF does not directly orchestrate
campaigns of violence. IDRFs funding to Sangh organizations aids
the spread of the ideology and practice of Hindutva. Such activity produces
the very conditions for social violence that are detrimental to Indias
national interest.
The practice of conscience,
not of genocide, must determine who belongs to a nation. India is made
most vulnerable by the Hindutva movements xenophobic commitments
to tear apart the promises of history. In Gujarat, a fetus of an unborn
Muslim, carved from a pregnant womans stomach, was tossed in the
air. Triumphant annihilation, reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Tomorrow
as a day of justice and peace is made impossible. The state of the nation
demands sustained interventions in dissent of religious extremism. It
is irrelevant to claim innocence. Until we prevent rape, horror, and
unnecessary death in the name of nation building, history will find
us complicit. Amidst the complex desires that fuel Indias becoming,
habitual contempt for minorities must not power our future. Nor must
we allow religion to be held captive to violent nationalist agendas.
(Angana Chatterji is a professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology
at the California Institute of Integral Studies.)