By Pieter Friedrich / TwoCircles.net
UNITED STATES — After the Old Paramus Reformed Church in Ridgewood, New Jersey cancelled a 10 September 2022 speech by infamous Hindu nationalist demagogue Sadhvi Ritambhara, it sent shockwaves felt on the other side of the Atlantic.
Throughout the Summer of 2022, from New Jersey to California, organized resistance against the influence of Hindutva (that is, Hindu nationalist) politics in the US resulted in multiple victories. The most recent victory started in the small village of Ridgewood, but it soon took on international dimensions.
Ritambhara’s multi-state US tour was shrouded in protest from the outset.
Beginning in Atlanta, Georgia on 30 August, she faced protest by an interfaith crowd of over 100. “She has openly called for the massacre of Muslims and Christians in India,” warned protestor Rahim Shah Akhunkhail. “We reject it. America rejects it. We call people of all faiths to reject and denounce such people.”
Ritambhara — who is the founder of Durga Vahini, the women’s wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which is the religious wing of India’s fascist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) paramilitary — next went to New Jersey. There she faced her first defeat. Over two days, the Ridgewood church reported receiving over 100 calls and 1,000 emails requesting it de-platform her. On the eve of the event, the church’s pastor finally revoked permission.
The protest continued clouding Ritambhara’s US tour as she travelled to Los Angeles, where a large multi-faith crowd again rallied outside the venue hosting her. “She does not represent the Hinduism of inclusion, justice, and service to humanity,” declared protestor Tahil Sharma. “She is focused on a narrative that is trying to hurt those that are minorities in India. Her focus is on hatred rather than uniting people.”
Ritambhara soon faced total defeat. After completing her US tour in mid-September, she was scheduled for a multi-city tour of the UK. It didn’t go as planned.
She was still in America when British Members of Parliament launched demands to deny her entry to the UK. In letters to the Home Minister, MPs denounced her “xenophobic” and “Islamophobic” rhetoric, warning that it could stoke communal tensions in their constituencies. Within days, her entire UK tour was scrapped. “Just prior to her planned visit to the UK, she was disinvited from speaking in a church in the US, thanks to the campaigning by progressive groups in America,” noted British journalist Amrit Wilson. “She obviously did not wish to face a similarly humiliating situation in the UK.”
Some sources suggest Ritambhara’s cancellation was not voluntary but rather the result of Britain’s Home Office, responding to the “coordinated action of concerned citizens and civil society group” demanding it, actually revoking her visa. Whatever the case may be, shifting focus back to New Jersey, the Ritambhara drama was not the end of the anti-Hindutva resistance’s recent successes in that state.
This story was originally published in twocircles.net . Read the full story here
