Namaste Dear Friend,
Thank you for joining us in this journey. The global COVID-19 crisis keeps changing form - it may well be a textbook definition of “maya”- invisible mechanisms that devastate realities. This crisis is an invitation to all of us - individuals, communities, nations - to act in good ways. And while we have seen exemplary actions by many individuals and communities, the nations have struggled. From the lies of the Chinese government and the U.S. government, to bad policies by the UK and Italy, and the risks growing in India, we are praying for the well being of all people and beings at this time.
Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) is sending this, our third newsletter, just as India announces a 21-day lockdown for all of India. We spoke to our friend Ajay Kumar, the founder of the human rights organization RIGHTS, serving Dalit communities in Kerala. RIGHTS has focused the past two weeks on setting up over 80 hand-washing stations throughout the Dalit colonies where they work. They have trained community members to keep the containers filed with water, and to ensure that everyone knows how to thoroughly wash their hands. RIGHTS will now turn their attention to making sure the most marginalized in their community, especially the elderly, the homeless, the mentally ill, and those with chronic health conditions, have access to medicine and food during the lockdown and beyond.
In the coming days we will be announcing a fundraiser to support the emergency efforts of RIGHTS to support the immediate needs of the community they serve. Email us at info@hinduforhumanrights.org if you would like to support RIGHTS at this critical moment.
Since our last newsletter, Delhi saw the worst communal violence in decades--five nightmarish days of Hindu-on-Muslim pogroms (in an echo of post-Godhra violence) which took the lives of at least 53 people, most of whom were Muslims. PM Modi had welcomed President Trump to India with an event called “Namaste Trump,” during which Trump took Modi at his word that he is protecting religious freedom in India (just as he took Putin at his word that he had not intervened in the U.S. election and would not try to interfere in any future U.S. elections). This was obviously a lie - but a convenient one for both leaders for whom Islamophobia is a defining feature. Young activists and the brave women leaders across India are fighting back against Modi’s and the BJP’s oppression. We stand in solidarity with all who are fighting for human rights.
Dr. Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha are two leading human rights defenders who are about to be arrested simply because they exercise their constitutional right to express their dissenting view and stand for the human rights of the most marginalized.
Dr. Teltumbde is a friend of ours, and the grandson-in-law of one of the Founding Fathers of India, and the architect of the very constitution that is being decimated by the Hindu Right today, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. Our friends at India Civil Watch have issued this GLOBAL SOLIDARITY STATEMENT for Dr. Teltumbde and Mr. Navlakha. We add our voice to the eminent leaders (including Dr. Sukhdeo Thorat, Arundhati Roy, Prakash Ambedkar, Dr. Noam Chomsky, and Dr. Cornel West) who have already signed, and we urge you all to add your name.
We also stand in solidarity with the organization Students Against Hindutva and their recent campaign #AHoliAgainstHindutva. On March 5th, in spite of hateful and terrifying trolling and doxxing by Hindutva trolls, these brave students organized protests on March 5th on at least 21 campuses, including Yale, Harvard, Cornell, and Princeton. They protested against the CAA, NRC, and the Indian government’s use of police brutality against protesters. To find out more about the group Students Against Hindutva, read this excellent article penned by the group’s founder, Shreeya Singh, published in Teen Vogue. To read our statement of solidarity with Students Against Hindutva, follow this link.
On March 4th, 2020, HfHR cofounder Sunita attended a briefing on Citizenship Laws in Myanmar and India, presented by United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). At the briefing, speakers, which included journalists and human rights lawyers, spoke about the consequences of the CAA in India such as increasing polarization between Hindus and Muslims, and increasing possibility that India will conduct an actual genocide. Here is the entire recording of the briefing.
HfHR Monthly Webinars We are committed to bringing you, our supporters, critical messages from diverse frontline and grassroots human rights defenders in India and other parts of the world. It was a privilege to launch our Webinar Series on March 7th, 2020, with a message from Dalit rights activist Martin Macwan, also an HfHR advisory board member, about the impact of the NRC and the CAA on the Dalit community. Please view our first webinar, which was organized in partnership with Indian Americans Forum, and viewed both on Zoom and Facebook Live.
Our second WEBINAR will take place on Saturday March 29th at 11 am ET, and you are all invited to join us. Carnatic musician and HfHR Advisory Board member T.M. Krishna will speak to us from Chennai about “The Intersection of Music and Resistance.” We will post the zoom link on our Facebook and Twitter platforms.
HfHR in the Public Discourse
HfHR co-founder Raju Rajagopal has been unstoppable in his human rights advocacy on our behalf! He wrote this Op-Ed in India Abroad, Do you support or oppose the CAA?; He wrote this blog about HfHR’s support for the valiant women of Shaheen Bagh; and he was interviewed in India Abroad in this article about a known Hindutva supporter, Amit Jani, being in the role of Muslim Outreach Coordinator in Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
We have been continuing to produce small VIDEO MESSAGES from faith leaders and people of faith. These grassroots messages reflect how widespread the desire for peace and unity really is, everywhere on Earth. Our latest message is from our Advisory Board member Medhaji, who is the founder of a beautiful initiative, Bhaktiversity. Medhaji speaks about the radical and transformational power of Bhakti. This notion of Bhakti, which does not allow for the possibility for an "other" since we are one, is exactly the spiritual force we need to endure this Covid-19 pandemic we are all in the midst of. We hope you are as moved by Medhaji's message as we are.
Of course, this is a time when the world is struggling with the pandemic of the coronavirus, and this reminds us that we are one world, interconnected, and we must look out for one another and carefully consider the impacts of our actions (or our inactions) on others. We must not panic or lose hope. We are challenging the ugly anti-Asian racism which has accompanied this global pandemic--fanned by the US President and right wing fanatics globally.
We will write to you all again in April, and we hope and pray that the Covid-19 pandemic will be on its way out by then. In the meanwhile, we urge you all, whether you are in the United States or India, to practice Physical Distancing and Social Solidarity -- do everything you can to care for your family, community, and the neediest among us, but do so without becoming a vector for the virus yourself. It is our ethical obligation to do everything in our power to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, especially because ultimately the poorest of the poor will face the worst brunt of it. We must always be thinking about how to keep those who are most vulnerable (those with compromised immune systems, the elderly, those living in poverty and/or in isolation, people with other marginalized identities) safe and protected and well-cared-for during these scary and trying times.
For more information about coronavirus, and advice about how to deal with this global pandemic, please visit https://flattenthecurve.com/, which is run by Julie McMurry, MPH (Master of Public Health), and an associate professor at Oregon State University in the College of Public Health.
Please Join Us!
We want to build HfHR, and that means we need you! If you are a Hindu who yearns for a more just and equitable world, we'd love to hear from you.
Write to us.
Volunteer.
Start a chapter.
Since you are probably locked down with your families, maybe have a family dialogue on CAA (here is an excellent PRIMER created by HfHR board member Raju Rajagopal).
And of course, MAKE A DONATION!
We work to achieve justice and peace through compassion. We choose to have hope, and to work hard to make our hopes for that better world become real. Please join us and make us strong, and help us to work towards achieving lokasamgraha (the well-being of all).
---HfHR Board
Deepak, Giri, Punya, Raju, Sunil, Sunita