Representative Image / Canva

In my previous coverage of the Minnesota Hindu Advocacy Day and Hinduphobia Resolution (SF 4115), I focused on the constitutional necessity of protecting Hindus in North America from targeted anti-Hindu hate. At the time, we highlighted the positive intent of the legislation and the encouraging bipartisan support it received at the Senate committee level. However, the recent cancellation of a Hindi book exhibition at the Germantown Library in Maryland, driven by the same anti-Hindu hate actors, reveals a more "insidious" and coordinated campaign. It is time to pull back the curtain on a misinformation machine that is holding our cultural expression and civil rights hostage.

The Anatomy of a "Backlash"

The Germantown library's decision to "reimagine" its Hindi collection was not the result of a spontaneous community concern. It was a manufactured event, the product of high-pressure tactics by a coalition including Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) and the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC). By baselessly linking 160+ new Hindi books to "Hindutva" ideology, these groups effectively branded the national language, Hindi, of sovereign democratic India, as a tool of hate.

This action is a direct violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits public institutions receiving federal funds from discriminating against cultural programs based on religious or linguistic background. By succumbing to this pressure, the library didn't just cancel an event; it participated in an act of institutional discrimination. The duo of HfHR and IAMC succeeded in suppressing a linguistic heritage under the guise of political activism, setting a dangerous precedent for libraries across the nation.

The "HINO" Identity and the Academic Nexus

The efforts to label Hindu heritage as "extremism" are led by a recurring circle of so-called intellectuals who operate under misleading titles. Groups like HfHR claim to represent the Hindu faith, yet their Advisory board comprises a minority of actual believers in Hinduism. These individuals are effectively "Hindus in Name Only" (HINOs), activists who weaponize a religious label they do not practice to dismantle the very community they claim to represent. They lack a fundamental understanding of Sanatan Dharma, with only five from India, yet they have positioned themselves as the primary gatekeepers of Hindu discourse in the West.

This "HINO" front is bolstered by a well-funded academic nexus. On the West Coast, for example, Angana Chatterji (UC Berkeley), funded in part by the Henry Luce Foundation, provides the academic veneer for narratives that equate Hindu cultural survival with "majoritarianism." Likewise, on the East Coast, Sunita Viswanath, co-founder of HfHR and once affiliated with Columbia University, operates with significant linkages to George Soros-funded networks. Together, they have manufactured a "Dismantling Global Hindutva" playbook that treats even a collection of Hindi books as a political threat. What could be more insidious than using books, the hallmark of intellectual growth, as a political tool to satisfy an anti-Hindu and anti-India crusade?

A Pattern of Subversion: From Maryland to Minnesota

The Maryland library's decision was fueled by the same actors who continue to work to sabotage SF 4115  in Minnesota. Professional agitators like Pieter Friedrich, the "hired help" of this network, have spent years corrupting the narrative. Friedrich and others belonging to HfHR and CAIR  have pressured lawmakers with "dual-loyalty" tropes, falsely framing a domestic civil rights resolution as "anti-India" politics.

By conflating Hinduphobia, the targeted harassment, bigotry, and increasing desecration of Mandirs across North America, with foreign policy, these activists continue to work behind the scenes to deny the Hindu community the equal protection of the law under the Constitution. They claim to fight for human rights while actively seeking to strip a minority “Hindu” community of its right to define its own experiences of prejudice and its right to celebrate its mother tongue.

The Invisible Hands: A Global Network

The depth of this subversion is documented in the DisinfoLab report, "The Invisible Hands." As the most comprehensive exposure of anti-Hindu and anti-India networks, the report maps a complex labyrinth of funding linking HfHR and IAMC to the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the Henry Luce Foundation, and other "you know who" entities.

 

Vijendra Agarwal is a Ph.D. physicist from IIT Roorkee.

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New India Abroad.)

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