TORONTO: Hindu Forum Canada joined by Canada Hindu Schools, Moksh Dwar Hindu Cremation Services, Canada Hindu Schools, Shirdi Sainath Mandir, Canada Hindu Volunteers, Voice for Safe Schools, Canadian Academy of Science Education & Culture and other organizations staged a protest at the University of Toronto against the University’s alleged involvement in the Dismantling Global Hindutva conference which just concluded as a flopped online event.
The Hinduphobic virtual event was scheduled to concur with the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attack on World Trade Cente.
Tahir Aslam Gora of HFC was accompanied by representatives from the other organizations and several individuals from the Canadian Hindu diaspora.
The online DGH conference was organized by anonymous individuals who used Twitter and other social media to proclaim the support of numerous academic institutions in North America, most of whom later announced that they were not sponsoring the event.
Most of the speakers and presenters were known Maoists, opposed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and and many were inimical to the idea of India itself, ensconced in Western insititutions.. Several universities, such as Stanford, Rutgers and Dalhousie, distanced themselves from the event and asked organizers to remove their logos from promotional material.
In an official statement issued on September 9, Professor Rhonda McEwen.Vice-Principal, University of Toronto Mississauga said: “The University of Toronto Mississauga is not hosting the upcoming event, ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’. Nor was the U of T/UTM involved in the organizing or planning of this conference”
In a meeting with Ms Rhonda the previous day, Canada Hindu community leaders requested her to explicitly denouce hatred towards Hindtuva, Hinduism and Hindutva. Ms Rhonda’s abovementioned statement clearly fell short that. When contacted about this, Ms Rhonda refused to make any further statement. Disappointed with the lukewarm response from the University, the congregation announced at the protest, that they are putting the University on notice.
They declared that should the University’s participation in the said conference directly or indirectly cause an act of bias, discrimination, violence, bullying or any other such acts of hate against a member of the Hindu Community within the University of Toronto or any other Canadian University or within schools, colleges, offices or other such places in Canada or within the Canadian Hindu community at large or against any Canadian Hindu group, business, association, institution or other such Canadian Hindu entity, the University will be held liable and that legal remedy will be sought from the competent Constitutional authority.
The unknown event organizers, however, told mainstream media in India through social media that they have been on the receiving end of harassment by various Hindu groups, some of which have resorted to sending them threats of violence and death.
The organisers said the theme of the conference has been grossly misconstrued as an attack on Hinduism, when, in fact, the aim is to study Hindutva as a right-wing political movement.
“This is a major international scholarly conference which has garnered support and sponsorship from many different university departments and academic units across the US with the participation of well-known intellectuals from both India and the US,” a statement released by the South Asia Scholar Activist Collective (SASAC) read, noting that “concerted and organized efforts” have been made to prevent the conference from proceeding.
In the US, Ohio State Senator, Niraj Antani, the youngest Hindu elected official in the history of the United States said: “I am condemning in the strongest possible terms the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ Conference. This conference represents a disgusting attack on Hindus across the United States, and we must all condemn this as nothing more than racism and bigotry against Hindus. I will always stand strong against Hinduphobia.”