Hindu students demand fairness. Rutgers event wrongly conflates faith with extremism.
Hindu students, faculty, and community members staged a silent protest outside Alexander Library at Rutgers University as an event titled “Hindutva in America: A Threat to Equality and Religious Pluralism” took place inside. Students say the lecture wrongly links Hindu cultural identity with extremist political ideology, leaving Hindu students feeling targeted on campus.
Four US Congressmen sent a bipartisan letter to the Rutgers administration warning that conflating Hindu identity with extremist ideology could lead to bias and targeting of Hindu American students. They emphasized that Hindu Americans are a minority faith community deserving the same protections as other religious groups. Congressmen Suhas Subramanyam, Rich McCormick, Shri Thanedar, and Sanford Bishop cautioned against implying Hindu student organisations are politically aligned or influenced by foreign movements.
The Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights hosted the event featuring professor Audrey Truschke and law professor Sahar Aziz. A CSRR report released in June compares Hindutva to white Christian nationalism and Zionism. The Coalition of Hindus of North America argues the report conflates a political ideology with a 7,000 year old religion. Hindu chaplain Hitesh Trivedi said many Hindu students hesitate to speak publicly due to backlash fears.
Protesters held signs reading “Hindu rights are human rights” and “American Hindus are not foreign agents.” They requested only that Rutgers disassociate its institutional branding from anti-Hindu rhetoric, not that the event be cancelled.
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