I could attend only Session (1) yesterday, cooking naivadyam, collecting local pathri, Ganapathi pooja and festival meal with family had to take precedence. Anyway, here are my quick notes taken live and corrected & formatted today. Sorry for the destructuredness but given the level of speakers, more effort would be putting lipstick on a pig. Still, suggest you read through quickly to get a gist of what these speaker's positions are refrains are (they really don't merit to be called "arguments")
(1) Friday, September 10 9:30 – 11:10 am EDT / 7:00 – 8:30 pm IST What Is Global Hindutva
Opening Remarks: Gyan Prakash
Christophe Jaffrelot | Meena Kandasamy | Anand Patwardhan | Moderator: Thomas Blom Hansen
None of the speakers are familiar to me, except Jaffrelot whose video on “Modi’s Hindu Nationalism” I watched a couple of weeks ago and posted a comment earlier in this thread. So no possible bias from my side towards the person of any speaker.
I joined 2-3 mins late
Gyan Prakash was on – mumbled for a few minutes about how they were putting up this event despite threats etc without naming or revealing who the organisers are, He and all speakers avoided saying anything about the significance of the date chosen for their event 11Sept – Islamic terror attacks on US or that Ganesh Chathurthi falls on this date this year.
Thomas Blom Hansen – Mumbled some stuff and called on Jaffrelot (each speaker had about 15mins)
JAFFRELOT: What is global hindutva ?
Started with claims he rcvd lot of hate & threatening msgs and complained to highest level of French govt – didn’t elaborate – victim card already
Says Hindutva = Savarkar Ethno nationalism
Scared land – territorial view which transformed into global hindutva due to
- Diaspora – affluent , Hindu orgs reached out with digital very early in the 90s Rambled on about various intl events of RSS, VHP etc. Global Hindutva wants to be Vishwaguru – acts with a sense of superiority
Ran out of time to make any clear argument or conclusion. (He thinks in French and struggles to translate into English to speak therefore ends up using misnomers and appears confused & incoherent often. French people don't think straight to begin with anyway
)
Anand Patwardhan : Hindutva is as hindu as KKK is Christian
Starts by playing 2 min clip from his Docu film called Reason – Vivek (its avl on youtube, ) – clip shows some muslim being beaten for eating beef, Gujarat cattle carcasses rotting, some large muslim gathering, RSS drum beats – jholawala attempt to demonise hindu organisations
Read a vapid letter he wrote to some ppl who sent him hate mail. Nothing worth noting.
Criticises Savarkar’s book Hindutva as a brahminical project of supremacy.
Sanatan, Aryan, Vedic, Hindutva are all claims of supremacy. RSS leaders are all Brahmin
Hinduthva thrives on Caste superiority – its enemies are Xtians, Muslims and Dalits. Seeks to establish Manusmriti – a misogynistic Brahmin text. RSS are murderers of Gandhi.
KKK are buffoons compared to Hindutvavadis who are sophisticated Brahmins
Nothing else to substantiate the title claim.
Plays another clip showing visuals about Asarambapu rape case, some one promoting Dr Athawale, street displays of martial arts and nanchaku by some presumed RSS YOUTH etc.
His refrain: “Hinduism is a dynamic composite that absorbed from passing streams” and Hindutva denies this since it is a brahminical superiority movement
Meena Kandaswamy (not sure what her theme was, she reads from prepared text – a woke word soup)
Starts with claims she rcvd death threats against her and her 4yr child regarding this conference !
Hindutva is Anti minority caste superiority Brahminism movement, perpetuates 2 inequalities: Caste discrimination and Women oppression (patriarchy). It’s a movement this is inspired by Fascists, Nazis and Trump
Hindutva seeks to create internal enemies and grow outwards – Hindutva embraces neo liberalism and attacks Muslims & Xtians, Polarises society to safeguard Brahmins since Brahmins = Hinduism
Sharpens individual caste differences to preserve Brahminism and consolidate it as Hinduism. Perpetuates oppression of women by caste system – aims for manusmiriti to replace constitution. We must show resistance to this appropriation.
Post-colonial discourse is being highjacked lately by Hindutva (shock)
Decolonialisation – Hindutva is appropriating this too, wants to go back to pre colonial backwardness, it glorifies hereditary vocations to perpetuate caste discrimination. Sadhvi Prganya Thakur given as example.
Self complements her intellectual rigor.
Quotes Ambedkar – only when we uproot Hindutva, we shall erase caste inequality
Hindutva is hiding behind preserving Indian culture to defend Hindu a ethno-nationalistic state & caste system oppression
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Some tidbits from speakers during Q&A (Qs selected by Hansen, not spontaneous live) grouped across questions:
Meena - Got stumped by the Q what should be the Role of Savarna women in fighting Hindutva (
) – they should rebel against caste oppression. Back off from anti dalit stuff. Not use feminism to continue caste oppression. Strong defence of Shaheen Bagh where muslim women were in the forefront. Parised the usual heroes pf shaheen bagh.
Hindutva taking cover of Critical Race & Decolonialisation theories adopting National Populism ideology and its modus operandi. Women, especially dalit women & muslim women are first victims of Hindutva.
She said she herself is born to a tribal father and shudra mother.
Jaffrelot:
Modi has centralized power to an unprecedented degree, draws parallels with Indira Gandhi. Extols UPA govt for being diverse & more efficient , consensus based politics is better for India. Modi has consolidated upper castes & OBCs for victory.
Patwardhan:
Gandhi's views changed over time, he went away from Hinduism due to Hindutvavadis (or something like that). Tilak supported child marriages
Project Saffron Dollar – collected lots of money from diaspora for reconversion of adivasis ghar waapsi (so adivasi conversion is OK but reconversion is not !).
Hindutva is fast sperading abroad for ex: in Myanmar, SriLanka, Europe etc.
Claims Norway picnic island mass killer Anders Breivik was inspired by Hindutva !
Foreign funding tap turned off all NGOs but but not for Hindutva movement which gets big $$$ from diaspora (
).
Lastly event organisers were thanked without naming any.
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