HfHR's Raju Rajagopal speaks at an inter-faith conversation on 9/11

Lessons Learned Post 9/11: Strengthening Community and Building Interfaith Connections, Allyship, and Solidarity

HfHR presentation at the ING Webinar 9/9/2021,  Thursday, September 9th

Question for panelists: 

Can you speak to the impact of 9/11 specifically on your communities, lessons learned, and recommendations for us?

Facilitator: Zachary Markwith, PhD, ING Education Director

Panelists:

Ameena Jandali, ING Content Contributor (Muslim American)

Gurwin Singh Ahuja, Co-Founder, National Sikh Campaign (Sikh American)

Rabbi Melanie Aron, Congregation Shir Hadash of Los Gatos, California (Jewish American)

Reverend George McDonnell, Ascension Episcopal Church in Stillwater, Minnesota (Christian American)

Raju Rajagopal, Board Member, Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) (Hindu American)

Devon Matsumoto, President, The Young Buddhist Editorial (Japanese Buddhist American)

Sheila Dawkins, Social Justice Organizer (African American)

Shannon Rivers, Co-Chair for Underserved Cultural Committee, LA Dept. of Mental Health (Indigenous Peoples)·      

Remarks by Raju Rajagopal

Greetings everyone! I am grateful to ING for organizing this important day of reflection on an event that changed the world in many unexpected ways and has left deep wounds on many communities.

Like many other immigrant communities of color, Hindu Americans too saw a significant shift after 9/11 in the attitude of Americans towards immigrants: e.g. Marked increase in hostile and unfriendly stares; occasional cries of ‘go back home’; more incidents of vandalism at Hindu temples, and so on. (11 incidents of bias recorded by the FBI in 2020.)

However, the brunt of the impact was borne by our Sikh and Muslim brothers. Balbir Singh Sodhi, a gas station owner in Arizona was shot dead by a fanatic within four days of 9/11. According to The Sikh Coalition, Sikhs are among the nation’s most-targeted religious group today (67 incidents of bias recorded by the FBI in 2020.)

Incidents of bias against Muslims spiked from 28 before 9/11 to 481 immediately afterwards, and it has remained in the mid-hundreds ever since. Indian Muslim Americans are part of this troubling statistic.

But the real impact of 9/11 was not in America but in many other Asian countries, including in India. 9/11, and the series of horrific events that followed in the Middle East, have been used as justifications by many governments to increase their suppression of Muslim minorities: Notable examples are the alarming rise in the persecution of Uyghurs of China and Rohingyas of Myanmar, especially since 2014.

In India, it has allowed the ideology of Hindutva (i.e. Hindu nationalism, which is based on a foundation of ‘othering’ India’s Muslims and Christians) to gain ascendancy among India’s electorate, also since 2014!

As a result of their shrewd political calculations, and by conflating international events with India’s beleaguered minority communities, Hindu nationalists have managed to garner absolute power today. The once renowned secular Indian democracy is fast hurling towards a majoritarian Hindu Rashtra (i.e. Hindu Nation) where the minorities will at best be second class citizens.

In an eerie historical coincidence, it was on 9/11 in the year 1893 that a Hindu monk, Swami Vivekananda, introduced Hinduism to America at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago:

“I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance,”  he had said in his inaugural address.

Some may question today whether Hinduism with the oppressive caste system as a major marker can be truly described as ‘tolerant.’  Vivekananda’s ambivalent position on caste remains a blot on his legacy.

Nonetheless, going back to Chicago in 1893, he had concluded:

“I fervently hope that…this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen…”

128 years later, on this 9/11, he would have been surprised to see that those who take his name most often in India are the ones holding the menacing sword and the poison pen today.

Where do we go from here? Hindu Americans and the broader Indian American community seem to be hopelessly divided between supporters and opponents of the current government in India.

We are at a dangerous crossroad, yet we must persist in our engagements: 1. We must involve the community much more through interfaith forums; 2. We must point out that any community that has benefited from America’s support for multi-culturalism and minority rights, should not be seen as supporting another government whose values stand in stark contrast; and 3. We must focus on the youth, who have a much better understanding of our constitutional rights, and educate them about the serious jeopardy that the Indian constitution is in.

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