The hinduphobic event ‘Holi against Hindutva’ which had earlier tried to appropriate the Hindu festival of Holi for political protesting on American college campuses will be organised this year as well. A poster calling ‘Holi against Hindutva 2022’ for a webinar invite on the morning of March 18 was posted by groups ‘Hindus for Human Rights’ (HfHR), ‘SAHI – Students against Hindutva Ideology’ and ‘Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus’ who were earlier seen taking part in anti-India activities while stationed in foreign campuses.
Join HfHR, SAHI, and @SadhanaHindus at 11AM EST on Friday, 3/18, as we revive the #HoliAgainstHindutva campaign with a webinar featuring student activists speaking about the history of student resistance to Hindutva! Register for this important event: https://t.co/ypxDcae9XI pic.twitter.com/685nmHsrin
— Hindus for Human Rights (@Hindus4HR) March 11, 2022
The organisation ‘Holi against Hindutva’ was formed in December 2019, to organise agitations in the US against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by the Central Government in the same year. Founded by Shreya Singh from Yale University, with a social media account based in the United States of America, India and Pakistan, the group was renamed ‘Students against Hindutva Ideology’ or SAHI later. Organisations including SAHI, HfHR and Sadhna collectively organised protests against CAA and NRC in American Univerity Campuses including Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Wellesley, Michigan State, Duke and Rutgers.
The 2020 edition of ‘Holi against Hindutva’ saw the politicisation of the Hindu festival with an intent to target Hindu students on US campuses and peddle anti-India rhetoric. Diaspora Hindu organisation ‘Hindu on Campus’ alleged that Holi, which has been one the most popular Hindu festivals on U.S. college campuses, was been highjacked to target students from the same Hindu community. While the activist groups claimed at the outset that they are not against ‘Holi’, they engaged in a crude appropriation of the festival by wearing ‘black clothes’ as opposed to white and played only with white coloured powder to further a political move.
Furthermore, SAHI still condemns Holi, appropriates the colorful powders and replaces it with white powder to further a political motive. pic.twitter.com/Vw0onQWM4P
— Hindu On Campus (@hinduoncampus) August 14, 2021
“This is not a celebration, but a condemnation,” the poster read. Going beyond protesting against the CAA or the NRC, the protest became a platform to spread hateful propaganda against India and Hinduism. Some of the posters held by the members read ‘Stop the Genocide in India’, ‘Stop State Sanctioned violence in India’. At Harvard University, Dalit activist Suraj Yengde attacked that the Men in Uniform (Police and the Army) and those not in the uniform (Civilians) both needed to be struck against.
Under the banner ‘Holi against Hindutva’ the organisation with the support of 44 South Asian, Muslim, Sikh and Democratic student groups, wrote an open letter to the US Congress for attracting sanctions against Indian government officials. Appropriating Holi as a ‘multicultural’ festival (though celebrated commonly in India by all faiths), organiser Vedant Behl said, “The celebrations won’t be the same in India this year. The festival that previously brought together Hindus, Muslims, Christians and people from all castes and backgrounds — or at least was imagined to be such — is not going to be that in these months of communal hatred and open polarization. We are reclaiming Holi from the forces of Hindutva that have broken it down.”
Friday Plans — I really look forward to what the students at this event have to say.
— Dr. Audrey Truschke (@AudreyTruschke) March 14, 2022
A brief word on the Hindu Right pushback against this event… pic.twitter.com/J514b24YRG
The invite for the current webinar registration describes, “As we honour the 2nd anniversary of the historic #HoliAgainstHindutva protesters, join us for this special webinar event featuring student activists from India, USA, Canada, and the UK who will be speaking about the history of student activism and resistance against Hindutva ideology!” The same was shared by Rutgers University professor Audrey Truschke on Twitter who is infamous for misappropriating Indology, glorifying Islamic genociders like Aurangazeb and targeting students from the Hindu community on her campus.
Hindu Academics, Activists and Professionals have earlier raised their voice against the groups misappropriating the festival of Holi for their political gains. Talking about one such incident, Suhag Shukla, founder of the Hindu American Foundation wrote, “A Holi Against Hindutva hashtag was created, protesters of various religious backgrounds wore black on Holi, and a story alleging a casteist conspiracy in the burning of Holika was disseminated to shame any Hindu student who sought to celebrate on campus.”
Well, the mask is off. #HoliagainstHindutva was always an anti-Hindu project. It is about rejecting and demeaning Hindu traditions and celebrations. Its about importing caste wars onto our college campuses. Tying Holi to Hindutva is a ruse. Support @holiforunity and reject hate! pic.twitter.com/gl8GNZCi4S
— Suhag A. Shukla (@SuhagAShukla) March 2, 2020
In March 2020, Equality Labs, a Hindu hating org that works with @Hindus4HR & @Students_A_H, published an article calling Holi a casteist festival where Hindus engage in violence, throw semen & celebrate the burning of a “lower caste” woman. 3/n https://t.co/oIoEZPUpXu
— CoHNA (Coalition of Hindus of North America) (@CoHNAOfficial) March 3, 2022
The ‘Holi Against Hindutva’ continues to remain an active conspiracy hatched against the Hindu diaspora by Liberal fundamentalism which has garnered support from South Asian Islamists, Radical Dalit activists and shreds of the Indian Left. By appropriating a Hindu Festival for protest it not only targets Hindus worldwide but also meddles in India’s soverign interests.
