By RAJU RAJAGOPAL / American Khahani
In her recent article in the American Kahani, Kavita Sekhsaria of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) laments over what she calls “the treatment of Hindu organizations and Hindu speakers at the Parliament of World Religions.” She also claims that “Hindu speakers were banned, and Hindu organizations were demonized in a way that does not honor standing together, defending freedom, or engaging in improving human rights.”
There’s a lot to unpack in her accusations against the Parliament of World’s Religions (the Parliament) and her ad hominem attacks on Prof. Anantanand Rambachan, a renowned scholar of Hinduism and an advisor to Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), who had written that those who were complaining of discrimination at the Parliament did not address their own ties to India’s “contentious and aggressive politics.”
The Preponderance of Hindu Voices
Let me begin with Sekhsaria’s patently absurd claim that the Parliament discriminated against Hindu speakers.
A search of the Parliament website for the list of 2023 speakers shows over 18 Swamis and Sadhvis, as well as 50 or more other Hindu speakers, who brought diverse Hindu perspectives on Vedanta, Bhagavad Gita, ahimsa, yoga, ethics, animal welfare, climate action, human rights, religious freedom, freedom of expression, and so on. These were interspersed with Indian classical and devotional music as well as Hindu worship and chants. As a matter of fact, the number of Swamis as speakers exceeded the number of Reverends and Rabbis!
I am aware of only one Hindu speaker who was disinvited following allegations of Islamophobia: Nivedita Bhide of the Vivekananda Kendra (Kendra), a Kanyakumari-based organization founded by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), with the express mission of countering the dominance of Christians in the Kanyakumari area and Arunachal Pradesh.
Sekhsaria did not advance any argument as to why Bhide deserved to remain as a speaker despite her alleged Islamophobic tweets. Neither did she clarify HAF’s stance on the ideology of the Kendra and the RSS, whose values run counter to the Parliament’s goal of cultivating interfaith harmony.
This story was originally published in americankahani.com. Read the full story here