The Cowboys Head West

In a build-up to the Babri masjid demolition in the early ‘90s they created a saffron wave in India by taking out several Ram rath yatras countrywide. Now, in the new millennium they’re set to take out a yatra in hitherto ‘impure’ lands across the seas. And this time it’s the turn of the United States. Mahamandaleshwars, jagadgurus, swamis, acharyas and sadhvis of all hues will swamp the US in the first week of September under the aegis of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, America (vhpa). This VHP-sponsored plan to saffronise America will be implemented through what the VHP sadhus are best at: taking out a dharma prachar yatra, or the dpy as the American chapter of the VHP calls it. The dpy is slated to criss-cross at least 15 major cities across the US.

"The yatra has been planned in a manner so that all of America is covered with Hindutva," Amrit Sharma, coordinator of VHP’s videsh vibhag told Outlook. Taking advantage of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders beginning on August 28 at the United Nations, the VHP sadhus, after the conclusion of the summit, will fan out in small groups to different cities in order to spread the message of Hindutva. According to vhpa coordinator Anjlee Pandya, the yatra will begin on September 1 and last a week. The grand finale will be a public meeting in New York on September 9. Significantly, PM A.B. Vajpayee has agreed to be the chief guest at the ‘cultural event’ which will be attended by, among others, top nri professionals and businessmen. But the hardcore elements in the saffron brigade aren’t too happy about Vajpayee gracing the occasion. Says a senior VHP leader, "Vajpayee won’t be coming for purely religious reasons. He’s emulating Clinton and will go with a battery of industrialists." This could also be due to the growing differences between the VHP and the prime minister, but, apparently, it was the vhpa that insisted on inviting Vajpayee.

In this first-of-its-kind yatra, the VHP’s sadhus will visit local temples where they’ll give religious discourses and field questions from the audience. The vhpa’s already appealed to its activists and volunteers to make the necessary arrangements. Among the prominent sadhus participating in the yatra are Swami Satyanand Saraswati and Swami Satyamitranand who will go to Chicago, Swami Chidananda Maharaj and Swami Avdheshanand will cover Miami, Baba Paramjit Singh, Karamjit Singh (Sikh priests) and Swami Rambhadracharya will visit Detroit. Jagatguru Shankaracharya Divyanand and Swami Jitatmanand of the Ramakrishna Mission will go to Orlando, and Acharya Dharmendra and Swami Vigyananand to Los Angeles. VHP leading lights, acting president Ashok Singhal and vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore, will also have their own meet-the-people programmes.

Ostensibly, the yatra seeks to "spread the message of the Peace Summit" but the real goal is to woo the dollar-earning nris. Interestingly, even earlier, a substantial chunk of donations for the proposed temple at Ayodhya came from abroad; and this jan-sampark exercise is expected to augment the VHP’s kitty for the construction, slated to start next year. Says Acharya Dharmendra, "We want to address the lack of dialogue between India and the nris. There’re a lot of misgivings about the VHP, that it is an intolerant organisation and so forth, therefore dialogue is a must. If they (the Americans) have problems we will explain our position."

Sadhus and sadhvis like Rithambhara and Acharya Dharmendra, whose oratory has often raised hackles, make no bones about what they want to tell the American people. As Acharya Dharmendra told Outlook, "Whenever I go abroad I always ask people, why should there be a mosque in the birthplace of Ram? Why should there be an Idgah adjacent to the birthplace of Krishna and why should there be a mosque next to the Kashi temple? These are the symbols of our humiliation which generate an inferiority complex. And as long as there is an inferiority complex, peace cannot be achieved: Jo satya hai, voh kaha jayega (I’ll present the truth)." Dharmendra also clearly says he will use this opportunity to observe and understand the way Hindus live in the US: Bahar rahne se sankraman ya pradushan ki sambhavnayein rahtee hein. Hum chahenge ki unhen apne samskar dein (Once you live outside there is always a high possibility of contamination and impurity; we want to inculcate our culture into people who live there).

The VHP’s success stems from its steadfast, though hotly contested, bid to project itself as the sole representative of Hindus worldwide, never mind its image of being an intolerent and fundamentalist organisation at home. The vhpa, which was established in 1970, has of late been organising dharma sansads for its overseas members. In the first dharma sansad held in ‘98 in the US, a resolution was passed declaring the vhpa an umbrella organisation of all Hindu outfits in the West. It reads: "The vhpa should be the voice of Hindus in the western hemisphere. All religious, spiritual, cultural organisations, temples and ashrams should associate, endorse and/or affiliate with the vhpa to make the Hindu voice more effective."

Ironically, the Millennium World Peace Summit, which is supposed to resolve conflicts and bring about peace through spiritual means, is going to have Indian guests like Sadhvi Rithambhara who was once booked for rabid communal speeches and inciting violence. But it seems clear that those who want to make the "Hindu voice more effective" have now set their eyes on the US. And that could well divide the Indian diaspora along religious lines.