HfHR Statement on the One-Year Anniversary of CAA, December 12, 2020

The triad of CAA, NRC and NPR represents everything that is NOT the spirit of India, its constitution and its people. It is an antithesis of India’s principles as a nation, a jarring discord in its tapestry of mellifluous harmonies, a potential permanent scar on the very soul of a nation that envisioned, eons ago, the world as one family. 

To achieve these pernicious ends, the current administration is shamelessly defaming the Sanathana Dharma, the true Hindu thought that teaches universal brotherhood by replacing it with Hindutva, which is a purely political ideology with recorded fascist inspiration.

The ideology of Hindutva could not be farther from true Hinduism. Sanathana Dharma (an eternal set of values to guide our lives) advocates for the practice of Ahimsa (non-violence) in everyday life. It is the Sanathana Dharma that guided Gandhi to fast for the safety of not just the Hindus displaced during the partition, but the Muslims too, whose lives were as much in danger as the Hindus. 

Hindutva turns this egalitarian idea on its head and instead meticulously replaces it with hatred, xenophobia, caste elitism and communal violence. It is truly alarming that this ideology that took birth in 1925, almost a century ago, has now morphed into a multi-headed hydra and has made its way into the very legislature of the country. 

Practicing Hindus, in India and across the world have a moral responsibility to speak out against the hate filled ideology of Hindutva and to uphold the true values of the Sanathana Dharma. A failure to do so right now, on the part of Hindus of conscience, will prove catastrophic in the very near future. If the cancer of Hindutva is left to multiply unchecked, it has the potential to permanently poison the heart, mind and souls of generations to come and those that chose to remain silent today knowing full well its consequence would also be responsible for its outcome.

Hindus for Human Rights is one small step in the direction of Hindus of conscience resisting the toxic ideology of Hindutva that propagates communal violence and casteist practices. CAA, NRC and NPR are blatant xenophobic legal measures taken by a government that is backed by the RSS, an institution that inspired the murder of Gandhi. We explicitly condemn the overt attempt by the Indian government to target Muslims and make them feel insecure in their own nation. We call on the Indian government to rescind these draconian measures with immediate effect and preserve the spirit of the constitution of the nation.