NRIs demonstrate against Hindu Right demagogue Sadhvi Ritambra at the Ganesh Temple in Flushing, New York

Temple space should not be used to promote and fund the politics of communal hatred in India, the group says

New York, July 26, 2002

Non-resident Indians demonstrated today at the Ganesh Temple in Flushing, New York, to protest the meeting and reception being held there for the Sangh Parivar demagogue Sadhvi Ritambra. The 60 or 70 Indian and Indian-American demonstrators came from different religious and socio-economic backgrounds; there were children and old people, and even one wheelchair-bound protestor. A few noted American scholars of India such as Owen Lynch and Johanna Lessinger also came to join the protest against the Sadhvi, drawn there by their emotional attachment to India and their concern at the rise of the intolerant ideology of Hindutva. The demonstration had been called by four organizations -- INSAF (International South Asia Forum), the SAMAR media collective, FOIL (Forum of Indian Leftists) and Non-resident Indians for a Secular and Harmonious India -- and was endorsed by IMAN (Indian Muslim Alert Network). The protestors stood at the entrance of the temple auditorium, holding up pictures of the tortured, charred corpses of Muslim women and infants killed by Hindutva mobs in Gujarat this year, and carrying placards that said “2,000 dead and counting: end minority persecution in India”, “Sadhvi Ritambara has blood on her hands”, “Real Hindus don’t support genocide”.

Many of the protestors outside the temple were Hindus and Muslims of Gujarati origin. Vipul Desai had cut short his annual vacation in the Hamptons to stand outside the Flushing temple with a placard, distributing leaflets to those who were coming in to listen to Sadhvi Ritambara. “I had to be at this protest”, he said with visible emotion, “the carnage happened in my hometown”. Saeed Patel was one of the protestors who tried to talk to the incoming Sangh Parivar supporters about the right of Muslims to live with dignity in a secular India. “I’m Gujarati too”, he said poignantly to a Hindutvavadi from Gujarat who had come for the Sadhvi Ritambara event.

Greeted by a hail of slogans as soon as she stepped out of the car, Sadhvi Ritambara scurried hurriedly into the auditorium with the event organizers. Protestor Satish Kolluri suddenly recognized a familiar figure going into the auditorium behind her, and shouted out, “Pandit Jasraj, what are you doing here? How can you sing for the Sadhvi?”. The aging Hindustani classical singer turned around and walked back to face Kolluri and the other protestors. “Let me explain”, he said. Kolluri was outraged as only a sincere lifelong admirer can be: Hindustani classical music is, after all, a living embodiment of the syncretic Hindu-Muslim basis of Indian culture, a standing refutation of the so-called Hindu-Aryan purity that the Sangh Parivar wishes to foist on India. Unable to face Kolluri’s genuine sense of betrayal, the old man walked wordlessly back into the auditorium.

The event organizers were clearly unhappy to see the protestors, and argued repeatedly -- and unsuccessfully -- with the police, asking that the protestors be removed from the entrance to the temple auditorium. One or two of the organizers actually lunged forward to physically confront the protestors, but were prevented by the police from doing so. Yet another event organizer told protestor Aditi Desai that he wanted to discuss the Gujarat violence in a calm, reasonable manner, and told her that the anti-Muslim pogrom was the natural outcome of the burning of the train compartment at Godhra. Desai responded that the killings at Godhra were the work of apalling criminals who should have been apprehended and punished to the fullest extent of the law, but that she was deeply opposed to the retaliatory killing by Hindu mobs of thousands of Muslim men, women and children who had nothing to do with the Godhra incident. The man remained unconvinced, clearly preferring the massacre of thousands of innocents to the punishment of the guilty by the Indian criminal justice system. This underscores, once again, that even the seemingly moderate votaries of Hindutva have nothing but contempt for the rule of law and democratic institutions.

The text of the leaflet that the protestors were handing out read as follows:

IS THIS THE HINDUISM THAT YOU WANT TO TEACH YOUR CHILDREN?

• Nearly 2,000 Muslims have been killed in Gujarat by Hindu (Sangh Parivar) extremists in recent months.
• Over 100,000 Muslim men, women and children have been rendered homeless, and the BJP (Hindu right-wing) state government is now forcibly shutting down the relief camps where they have been sheltering since March.
• Sexual violence against Muslim women and children has been especially vile in Gujarat: hundreds of women were gangraped and tortured and then killed; there is even a documented case of a three year old girl who was raped and killed by a Hindu mob in front of her mother’s eyes.
• The Gujarat carnage is only the most recent episode in the brutal history of the Sangh Parivar. For more than a decade, Indian Muslims and Christians have been targets for Hindu right-wing violence.

Today the Ganesh temple in Flushing is hosting a reception for Sadhvi Ritambra, the main demagogue of the Hindu Right. She was present and involved in the destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in India by Sangh Parivar activists on December 6, 1992, in defiance of the order of the Indian Supreme Court. More than 3,000 lives, mostly Muslim, were lost in the communal riots that followed. In her speeches and chants, Sadhvi Ritambara has actively incited Hindus to kill Muslims.

Why is the Ganesh temple, a community institution which should be a place for peace and prayer, hosting such an event?

It has been advertised that this meeting with the Sadhvi is intended to raise money for ostensibly charitable purposes in India. However, we have recently learnt from media reports -- in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal in the U.S., and Outlook magazine in India -- that donations for charity and development purposes unsuspectingly made by Indian-Americans are often siphoned off by American Sangh Parivar supporters to support Hindu hate groups in India.

We are Indian-Americans of diverse religious backgrounds, Hindus and others, and WE STRONGLY OBJECT TO THE TEMPLE SPACE BEING USED TO PROMOTE AND FUND THE POLITICS OF HATE IN INDIA.

• International South Asia Forum (INSAF)
• SAMAR media collective
• Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL)
• Nonresident Indians for a Secular and Harmonious India