Sadhvi Ritambhara is a Brown woman I find unsettling and offensive.
But because she’s not an undocumented laborer “stealing” a working-class job or condemning Israel’s bombing of Palestinians, she might not scare off xenophobes and patronizing liberals deft at accommodating casual anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry.
Ritambhara, an Indian, actually does have a lot in common with many U.S. citizens, including some elected leaders and a handful of my Facebook “friends” who have openly disparaged Muslims, yet still manage to be characterized as good, thoughtful people.
What sets Ritambhara apart is that her greatest hits of Islamophobic rants were recorded and sold on cassettes, inspiring Hindu nationalist mobs to demolish a 16th century mosque in northern India and the deadly communal riots that followed over three decades ago.
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Ritambhara, who was scheduled to appear at the Hanuman Temple of Greater Chicago in Glenview this weekend, once likened Muslims to lemons in milk, causing the milk — a metaphor for India — to curdle.
She also reportedly compared Muslims to flies on a mass-breeding mission to surpass India’s Hindu population, which currently hovers around 1.1 billion out of 1.4 billion.
Ritambhara, 61, has used her verbal venom to smear India’s Christians, too. But she’s best known for her old hate speeches targeting Muslims. Those vintage pep talks, which “masterfully combine religious imagery with emotional appeals” have helped normalize brutality in an India that is veering away from a secular democracy, said Kalyani Menon, a religious studies professor at DePaul University.
This story was originally published in chicago.suntimes.com. Read the full story here.
