Suburban Whites And Pogroms In India

Every few years I teach a class called "Hippies." The main theme ofthe course is to follow the white, suburban middle-class in itshomage to Asia - from the 1967 Summer of Love debut of MaharishiMahesh Yogi and his Transcendental Mediation to the 1990s versionvia Deepak Chopra and the Dalai Lama.

We study the genuine sense of malaise among suburban youth (thecondition that Paul Goodman called "Growing Up Absurd"), but wealso tend to the way in which "Asia" functions as an alibi for apolitics to transcend the condition of the suburb.

A bumper stickerthat says "Free Tibet" seems to offer an entry into a transcendentalpolitics, far removed from the social melancholy of suburban life.Does Tibet or Hinduism offer a coherent program to reconstruct theoppression of suburban capitalism? My own sense is that itfacilitates an escape from the rigors of our world.

The conceit thatwhites have no culture and that they can get cultural from this trystwith Asia also contributes to the continued fascination with thesurface and/or spiritual level of Asian cultures.

When Gwen Stefani of No Doubt or Madonna can wear a bindi and getaccolades for it, those thousands of South Asian girls and women whoget teased in school and at work for the "dot" on their forehead feelrightfully bitter and angry.

I've got nothing against culturalborrowings because I believe that culture comes without boundaries,without discrete origins and it does anyway move across the frailboundaries set-up by one cultural orthodoxy or another. Polyculturalexistences or cultural fluidity is inevitable.

But what do we do about the romantic entry of suburban whites intoHinduism when many of the organs that disseminate the faith arelinked to the groups that conduct pogroms against Muslims in India?Are "curiosity" and "respect" sufficient grounds for the entry of thesuburban white into the theocratic fascism of these variations offaith?

In a perfect world, yes, but not in this one.

For about a decade, Biju Mathew (best known for his work with the NewYork Taxi Workers' Association) and I have conducted research on theHindutva Right in the US and we've found that millions of dollarstravel each year through illegal and legal networks to finance right-wing activity in the subcontinent.

This long-distance theocratic fascism was part of the destruction ofthe mosque at Ayodhya in 1992, the anti-Christian riots in Gujarat afew years ago, and now, certainly, in the state-engineered pogromagainst Muslims in Gujarat where at least two thousand people died.

Kanwal Rekhi, a neoliberal entrepreneur, co-wrote a powerful opinionpiece in the Washington Post (22 May 2002):

"Many overseas Indian Hindus, including some in this country,financereligious groups in India in the belief that the funds will be usedto build temples, and educate and feed the poor of their faith. Manywould be appalled to know that some recipients of their money are outto destroy minorities (Christians as well as Muslims) and theirplaces of worship. Mr. Vajpayee could deal a severe blow to suchcovert causes by simply labeling them as terrorists."

What Rekhi missed was that it was not only "Indian Hindus" whofinanced the pogrom, but also many suburban whites who uncriticallyjoin temples and other such organizations. They give the HindutvaRight money certainly, but also the much needed legitimacy of whitefollowers in the movement.

Of course the bulk of the saffron dollars comes from the Indian-American community, but the suburban whites who don the robes ofHindutva give prestige and legitimacy to the movement. The legacy andpersistence of racism provides respect to any artifact or institutionof color that is worn or frequented by whites.

This was the reason, for instance, why it was so important for theerstwhile right-wing Dharam Hinduja Indic Research Center at ColumbiaUniversity to attract large numbers of white scholars for its projectto whitewash Hindutva. Many came, mainly white women ,who studyvarious aspects of Hinduism and are themselves very well known andotherwise respected scholars of Indology.

Eager for cash, theydisregarded the role they played for Hindutva, just as those whiteswho become Hindus in this day and age do not actively engage with thecrucial role Hindutva plays within global Hinduism.

Let's stay with the Hinduja institute. Funded by the arms-dealer andindustrialist S. P. Hinduja, the center is named for his late sonDharam. Dharam, a Wharton graduate, fell in love with and married anAnglo-Indian Catholic woman whom he wanted to marry. Adamantlyopposed to it, the family chased him off and, as a result, hecommitted suicide in 1992.

Those so-called "Hindu values" that would not accept the child'sdesire to live as a human being in a complex world were now to becruelly sanctified in a research institute that bears his name.

Even as Columbia University abandoned the money after sustainedprotest by secular forces, Cambridge University continues to hostsuch a center (there is also one in New Delhi).And the suburban whites in the Hindutva Right movement are not onlyfollowers, because a few of them are important leaders.

This shouldcome as no surprise to those of us who have been accosted by ISCKONworkers (the "Hare Krishnas") in airports and other places. Two ofthe main grandees are men who converted to Hinduism, became importantintellectuals of the Hindutva movement and now flog the ideology viathe Internet, in their books and periodicals:

(1) David Frawley, aka Swami Vamdev
Frawley is affiliated with various theocratic fascist organizationssuch as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Hindu Students Council(HSC) and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) - all three arms of theglobal Hindutva movement whose teeth were bared in Gujarat recently.In 1996,Frawley traveled across England as an honored guest of theVHP.

From Arise Arjuna (1995) to Hinduism and the Clash of Civilizations(2001), Frawley offers a Huntingtonian analysis of the clash betweenIslam (bad) and Christianity (almost good), with Hinduism being thenecessary ally of the good.

The anti-Muslim tenor of his books isalso evident in his works on ancient India (such as Gods, Sages and Kings, 1991) where Frawley joins a series of theocratic fascists toargue that Vedic India was bliss and that everything since then hasbeen a disaster.

(2) Satuguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami and Satguru BodhinathaVelanswami. 
Founders of the magazine Hinduism Today and of the ashram in Hawaiithat houses the Hindu Heritage Endowment (HHE), these two swamis (Satguruor Gurudev has since died) have very close ties to the VHP. Theirmaterials regularly quote approvingly from VHP documents and themoney raised by the HHE goes toward Hindutva activities.

There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with the pursuit ofspirituality under the sign of Hinduism; indeed there is perhaps muchto be gained from it. However, as Hindutva-style cruelty devastatesthe landscape of Indian life, it is imperative for those who claimHinduism to offer ruthless criticism of global Hindutva.

If you attend a temple, ask the priests and others about theirrelationship with the pogrom in Gujarat: and don't take their denialsat face value. Demand to see the account books, investigate theguests who come and speak to the members, find out if any group likethe HSS runs the show.

Do not allow liberal multiculturalism to giveglobal Hindutva cover from secular forces.Finally, as global Hindutva tries to get United Way clearance and asits front organs try to pose as charitable organizations, be ready tofight them all the way.

The current exchange rate is fifty rupees forone dollar. Even a few greenbacks translate into crucial resources inimpoverished zones and become a saffron bludgeon against the Indianmasses.

Vijay Prashad is Associate Professor and Director, International Studies Program, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, USA and author of Karma of Brown Folk (Minnesota) and Untouchable Freedom (Oxford). His most recent books are The American Scheme (Three Essays Press) and Fat Cats and Running Dogs: The Enron Stage of Capitalism. This piece first appeared on Znet