Hindus for Human Rights responds to comments on our Facebook post on Dr. Audrey Truschke

Hindis for Human Rights (HfHR) reiterates its support for Dr. Truschke and applauds Rutgers University for standing with her and for academic freedom.

HfHR has received a number of comments and brickbats on our Facebook post in support of Dr. Audrey Truschke: (https://www.facebook.com/Hindus4HR/posts/488987642488809)

We normally prefer not to engage in debates on social media, as they almost always descend into name-calling and wild accusations, including in this case a deplorable attack on a person’s race, as you can see from the FB thread above.

Of course, if only people had bothered to check before posting their 'what-abouts,’ they would have seen that we have indeed spoken about the anguish of the Kashmiri pandits and we have addressed the situation of minorities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is our plan to do much more in the future to defend the rights of all the minorities in South Asia, especially in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

But then, for some, facts do not really matter, do they? Fake news, if repeated often, do stick for a time, as we have learnt from the Trump and Modi Raj.

None other than sage Vasistha of Rigvedic times encounters what may be the earliest example of fake news, when a rakshasa assumes his form and declares, “I’m Vasistha and thou art the rakshasa.”

The sage pushes back: 

The prudent finds it easy to distinguish the true and false: their words oppose each other. Of these two that which is the true and honest, Soma protects, and brings the false to nothing.     

Never doth Soma aid and guide the wicked or him who falsely claims the Warrior's title.
He slays the fiend and him who speaks untruly: both lie entangled in the noose of Indra.

- Rigveda, Book VII, Hymn 104, Verse 12/13 

One can only wonder whether the sage would have been as optimistic in today’s social media world that Soma (a Vedic God ) would bring “the false to nothing and slay him who speaks untruly.”

At the end of the day, testy FB/Twitter exchanges add little value in advancing conversations and tend to only dehumanize all of us. We shall therefore refrain from any more responses on the FB thread.

Our values and priorities are clearly spelled out in great detail on our website and in our FAQs. We remain focussed on our mission, but we are always open to a respectful dialogue.

We rose in solidarity with Dr. Audrey Truschke, as we feel that no one, regardless of his/her controversial views, should be subjected to the kind of social media onslaught that she is being subjected to. This is especially important at a time when intellectuals like M.M. Kalburgi, Gowri Lankesh, and others in India have been shot dead for speaking their mind in opposition to the ideology of the ruling class. Every day, the BJP government is putting away intellectuals, authors, journalists, and even ordinary protesters on trumped up charges, often without the possibility of bail, for the crime of speaking out against the ruling class.

Under the circumstances, it is hard for us to accept that the current attack on Dr. Truschke is merely a spontaneous event led by students rising up against her views in the classroom. In fact, we understand that allegations against her came mostly from outsiders and not from her students. And the attacks bear all the hallmarks of similar assaults to silence people like Michael Witzel, Wendy Doniger, Christophe Jaffrelot and other academics and authors in US and Europe, as well as the vicious attacks on the most well-known historian of India, Romila Thapar.

Of course, we realize that many who have signed the petition against Dr. Truschke may not be votaries of Hindutva. To them, we can only say this: Please ask yourself if you really want to be part of a social media lynching of a scholar, enabled by those with connections to similar efforts in India, and whose agenda is much much more than silencing Dr. Truschke.

At the end of the day, it is Dr. Truschke’s choice whether to publicly respond to the allegations against her scholarship, but we do hope that she will do so. In the meantime, as progressive Hindus, we feel compelled to speak out against the narrow vision of political Hindutva that pretends to speak for all Hindus and is now trying to dictate terms in U.S. politics and in the academia.

HfHR reiterates its support for Dr. Truschke and applauds Rutgers University for standing by her and for academic freedom.

*****

We close with a much-needed reminder about Hinduism's rich tradition of tolerance and acceptance of dissenters and reformers: Kabir, Ramanuja, Basavanna, Narayana Guru, Bharatiyar, Gandhiji, Periyar, and even Dr. Ambedkar, before he became disillusioned with Hinduism. They may not have achieved their vision in their life times; but they have, nevertheless, left large footprints for us to follow towards true equality in Hindu society.

Some of them faced fierce opposition from the establishment, social boycotts, and even threats to their lives. But their legacies are today celebrated by large sections of India, not vilified. It is this rich diversity that the Hindutva of Savarkar and today’s RSS see as the greatest weakness of Hinduism and a hurdle to their enterprise of ‘uniting’ all Hindus. So they are out to destroy that rich legacy of diversity in front of our very eyes.

Basavanna’s antipathy towards the Vedas and the Agamas, and his bold pronouncements against idol worship, the caste system and gender bias, angered the rulers of his time. 

Certain gods
always stand watch
at the doors of people.
Some will not go if you ask them to go.
Worse than dogs, some others.
What can they give,
these gods,
who live off the charity of people
O lord of the meeting rivers?

I shall sheathe the Vedas, fetter the Sastras,
Put Tarka in tongs, deface the Agamas.
Look father, most generous Kudalasangamadeva,
I am a son of Madara Chennayy’s family.

-- Basavanna’s Vachanas

Were he alive today, he would surely be labeled ‘Hinduphobic,’ now a favorite epithet of the Hindu Right. Instead, the rulers garland him in an attempt to co-opt him for their political cause!

“Silence is complicity,” President Biden often reminds us. There is a stark choice for Hindus: Fight Hindutva now or enable an authoritarian/ majoritarian tyranny by your silence.