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In Edison, New Jersey, a bulldozer rolled down the streets during an Independence Day parade that has become a symbol of oppression against India’s Muslim minority.
At an event in Anaheim, California, shouting erupted between festival-goers and those protesting India’s violence against Muslims.
For decades, Indian-Americans from different faith backgrounds have coexisted peacefully in the United States. But these recent events in the US – and the violent confrontation between some Hindus and Muslims in Leicester last month, U.K. — Raising fears that India’s deep political and religious polarization is seeping into diaspora communities.
Just as Donald Trump’s presidency polarized the United States, Hindu nationalism has divided the Indian diaspora, said Varun Soni, chair of the Department of Religious Life at the University of Southern California (USC). It has about 2,000 students from India, one of the highest in the country.
Sony has yet to see these tensions on campus. But he said USC was fighting back as one of more than 50 U.S. universities that co-sponsored an online conference called “Dismantling Global Hinduism.” Hinduism is different from Hinduism, an ancient religion practiced by some 1 billion people around the world that emphasizes the unity and sanctity of all creation.
It’s important that the university remains “a place where we can talk about fact-based issues in a civilized way,” Sony said, but, as USC’s chief pastor, Sony is concerned about how the polarization of Hindu nationalism will affect the mental health of students .
“If someone is attacked for who they are, ridiculed or scapegoated because they are Hindu or Muslim, my main concern is their well-being – not who is right and who is wrong,” he said.
Anantanand Rambachan, a retired university professor of religion and a Hindu who was born into a family of Indian descent in Trinidad and Tobago, says he opposes Hindu nationalism and is aligned with those who oppose the ideology. Group alliances have sparked complaints from some at a Minnesota temple. Teach a religion class.
He said opposing Hindu nationalism sometimes led to accusations of being “anti-Hindu” or “anti-Indian,” labels he rejected.
On the other hand, many Hindu Americans feel slandered and attacked for their views, said Samir Kalra, managing director of the Hindu America Foundation in Washington, D.C.
“For Hindus, the space to freely express themselves is shrinking,” he said, adding that even agreeing to the Indian government’s non-religious policies could lead to being branded a Hindu nationalist.
Pushpita Prasad, a spokeswoman for the Hindu Federation of North America, said her group has been advising young Hindu Americans who have lost friends because they refuse to “take sides in these battles from India. “.
Rajiv Varma, a Houston-based Hindu activist, said the tensions between Western Hindus and Muslims were not a reflection of events in India, but stemmed from “religious and ideological groups waging war on Hindus. “a deliberate attempt.
Rasheed Ahmed, co-founder and executive director of the Indian American Muslim Council in Washington, D.C., said, “Seeing that even educated Hindu Americans are not taking Hindu nationalism seriously, he Sad.” He argued that Hindu Americans must “make fundamental decisions about how India and Hinduism are viewed in America and around the world.” “The decision on whether to take back Hinduism from its captors rests with them.”
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