Indian students debunk the lies Western academia on Hinduphobia

Debates on Hinduphobia in western universities have been raging for the final a number of months. The subject dominated the discourse at Rutgers University in New Jersey, the place Hindu college students had come out within the open in opposition to ‘historian’ Audrey Truschke for her distortion of historical past to painting Hindus in poor mild and glorify Islamic invaders in India. Similarly, at Oxford University within the UK, the primary feminine Indian President-elect of the scholar’s union, Rashmi Samant, was pressured to resign after she had turn out to be the goal of leftists and anti-Hindu propagandists.
Even although Hinduphobia in educational establishments by left liberals is well-known, the leftists proceed to disclaim its existence. They proceed to allege harassment by the followers of ‘Hindutva’, a time period they used to check with Hindu nationalism. The newest instance of the identical is an op-ed by Arun Venugopal, a journalist specializing in race and migration. In a podcast revealed by radio station WNYC News, Venugopal makes use of the instance of Audrey to additional his narrative that American students are going through threats from the right-wing in India.
Arun Venugopal claims that the Indian right-wing was attacking Audrey Truschke as a result of she is a staunch critic of PM Narendra Modi, and implied that there isn’t any institutional Hinduphobia within the United States. He claims that Hinduphobia is the improper time period to make use of as a result of it’s much like ‘Islamophobia’. He says that Islamophobia is actual, citing the instance of the journey ban which was imposed by the US govt on just a few Islamic nations, and says there isn’t any such institutional motion in opposition to Hindus.
The primary premise of the podcast by Arun Venugopal is that though some Hindus may need confronted racism within the US, there isn’t any institutional bias in opposition to Hindus. He additionally claims that ‘intellectuals’ like Audrey Truschke are focused due to criticising Narendra Modi, and there may be nothing improper with ‘history’ being taught by the professor. He fails to say how Audrey is making an attempt to re-write historical past by denying that Aurangzeb destroyed temples and attacked Hindus.
However, such blatant glossing over info by the journalist has not gone unnoticed, and a analysis scholar from Princeton University has rebutted Venugopal intimately. In a tweet thread posted by Economics PhD scholar Parth Parihar, he mentioned that it’s a deliberate erasure of Hindu-scholar voice that a lot be known as out. He additionally pointed how all the podcast on ‘Hinduphobia’ was centred on alleged assaults on a white girl by brown college students.

I really feel so gaslit by @arunNYC’s “report” on “Hindutva threats” to educational freedom & Hinduphobia that I’m breaking my 7-year Twitter maun vratam (silence). @WNYC’s deliberate ERASURE of Hindu-scholar voices should be known as out. @indumathi37 @hinduoncampus @HinduStudentsC (1/n)— Parth Parihar (@parthparihar) July 21, 2021
Parth factors out how Arun Venugopal used quotes from numerous folks to ‘debunk’ the claims of Hinduphobia, however truly, it doesn’t include any quote from any scholar who has truly written on Hinduphobia. He additionally factors out that Venugopal is aware of individuals who have spoken on the difficulty earlier, as he mentions the “Understanding Hinduphobia” convention organised by the scholars of Rutgers following the Audrey controversy, however solely selectively cites few quotes from the convention.
Arun Venugopal quotes one pupil who mentioned she was the sufferer of Hinduphobia however refused to establish herself and one other pupil who mentioned that the time period ‘Hinduphobia’ was selectively deployed in opposition to students. Venugopal used simply these two examples to current a distorted view of the convention, which suggests that the majority Hindu college students don’t agree with the time period Hinduphobia, and people who do solely do anonymously. That is a totally improper illustration of the convention held through video conferencing, the place a number of eminent personalities had spoken in size on numerous matters in three classes of the convention, specializing in understanding the Historical Origins of Hinduphobia, up to date Manifestations of Hinduphobia, and the affect of Hinduphobia on Hindu Americans.
Parth Parihar knowledgeable the audio system on the occasion included lecturers from Harvard and Princeton, and college students learning South Asian Studies, Education, Religious Studies, and Economics from prestigious establishments. But Arun Venugopal ignored all these individuals who spoke in size on the difficulty, and selectively picked solely two quotes to go well with his narrative that Hinduphobia doesn’t exist in actuality. The entire day convention lasted 8 hours, however he picked solely 2 minutes from it.

Our audio system have taught at @Harvard & @Princeton, and have grad coaching in South Asian Studies, Education, Religious Studies, and Economics from prestigious establishments. Our invited audio system like @hinduprof are extremely humble, good students in their very own proper. (6/n)— Parth Parihar (@parthparihar) July 21, 2021
Parihar additionally mentioned that Venugopal’s declare that persons are keen to come back ahead to relate incidences of Hinduphobia is fake, as two highly effective Hindu ladies ‑ Rashmi Samant and Prasiddha Sudhakar – spoke about Hinduphobia on their campuses.
Moreover, whereas Venugopal devoted half of his podcast to ‘attacks’ confronted by Audrey Truschke, he doesn’t even point out assaults confronted by those that talk about Hinduphobia. Many students who spoke on the convention mentioned that they’ve confronted on-line assaults, often from different ‘academics’, however it was utterly ignored by Venugopal.
Parth Parihar knowledgeable he himself had confronted such assaults, when one Cambridge professor had posted his morphed picture on Facebook, preferred a remark the place Parihar was known as a ‘cow piss drinker’. He additionally mentioned that hateful feedback that he obtained embrace data that can be utilized to hint and goal him and his household.

They known as me Hindutva, only for talking the reality. Received loss of life threats on-line & offline. Some teachers gave a name for boycotting our convention after I shared name for papers on Academic lists, (utilizing the same old label Hindutva).All due to standing for reality based mostly historical past— Dr. Lavanya Vemsani Ph.D. (@ProfVemsani) July 21, 2021
Dr Lavanya Vemsani, Distinguished Professor of History at Shawnee State University, Ohio, has additionally gone public together with her expertise with Hinduphobic assaults on her. She tweeted that she was known as Hindutva only for talking the reality. She mentioned that she has obtained loss of life threats each on-line and offline. Dr Vemsani additional knowledgeable that some teachers had given a name for boycotting their convention when she shared name for papers on educational lists.
National Public Radio (NPR), to which WNYC is an affiliate, has additionally come below criticism from Indian students for selling anti-Hindu leftists. Brooklyn based mostly scholar Dr Indu Viswanathan narrates how she has been combating in opposition to biased reporting on Hindus by NPR and its associates, however her voices have been ignored. She says that in American media, there may be little or no point out of the large violence finished to Hindus in India and different components of South-East Asia.

On September 11, 2019, I began a petition interesting to NPR to reveal higher journalistic integrity of their reportage on Hindus, Hinduism, and India. The petition shortly gained help, reaching practically 10,000 signatures inside just a few weeks. https://t.co/WFglfttQMJ— Dr. Indu Viswanathan (@indumathi37) July 20, 2021
She has been meticulously compiling such stories, categorising them below numerous sections. Two years in the past she had despatched her evaluation and a petition calling for Greater Journalistic Integrity in Reporting on Hinduism by NPR to the organisation, however it continues to supply and reproduce the identical biased, single-story about Hindus & India with no try at balanced reporting or alternate analyses, Dr Viswanathan mentioned.
Referring to the podcast by Arun Venugopal on WNYC, she mentioned that now they’re utilizing their platform to “promote a bigoted, fragile white, a tenured white female scholar who has made a career out of erasing Hindu genocide.” Dr. Indu Viswanathan emphasised that WMYC and NPR are corroborating Audrey Truschke’s declare that she is below menace, whereas the actual fact is that she is a Genocide Denier.

Now, they’re utilizing their platform to advertise a bigoted, fragile white, tenured white feminine scholar who has made a profession out of erasing Hindu genocide. WNYC (a member of NPR) corroborates her declare that SHE’s below menace. She. Is. A. Genocide. Denier.https://t.co/lqKZ4z00i5— Dr. Indu Viswanathan (@indumathi37) July 20, 2021
Dr. Viswanathan added that there’s a lengthy legacy of white students utilizing their energy to demonize, gaslight, erase, lie about, and deform communities and civilizations of color, and the identical continues on NPR. By doing so, they wish to say that these communities of color haven’t any reliable proper to name out the students distorting historical past. Audrey Truschke’s claims of being attacked are “substantiated” by the curation of tweets and reactions that paint the image that the ONLY Hindu rebuttal to her scholarship is harmful, violent, and so forth. She erases or ignores any cheap Hindu response, she identified.
Dr. Indu Viswanathan mentioned that her evaluation exhibits that majority of Hindus are asking for plurality, steadiness, and inclusion, and it’s Audrey who erases, oppresses and misrepresents the reality, and she or he justifies colonisation.