Two weeks apart in two democracies.

Two monuments to democracy breached.

Two capital city’s police attacked.

This is what fake news, conspiracy theories and religious radicalization wrought.

This is hard for Indian Americans. The parallels are uncanny and unignorable.1/
Both protests were religionized. Both were framed as religious revolutions against manufactured injustice.

One incited by a rejection of an election. The other incited by rejection of #FarmLaws2020 that were passed by a democratic parliament & that economists say are needed.2/
I want to believe these protests are not religiously motivated-that they are folks misled by #fakenews and demagoguery.

But why are some diasporic advocates continuing to suffuse the protests with religious imagery or Khalistan, when most Sikhs globally reject separatism? 3/
But sanity will prevail. Trump left office and power was transferred.

Many farmers are calling off the protests and going home. Govt of India is seeking reconciliation.

Both countries are reviewing security failures.

Here’s to optimism. Satyameva Jayate. (End)

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More from @SuhagAShukla

28 Jan
This article exemplifies how colonial mentality -- the internalization of attitudes of cultural inferiority by previously colonized people -- is multigenerational. Their descendants' may never have been colonized physically, but their minds remain shackled.1/9
And in spite of a father's, a "hairy-chested" uncle's, or respected organizations like @ChinmayaMission's best efforts, racist, colonial tropes about Hindus and Hinduism rooted in European ideas of white and Christian supremacy persist, and in this case, prove insurmountable.2/9
What's fascinating (and frustrating) is how @mathangiwrites and many like her freely borrow the language of decolonizing used by other post-colonized peoples yet remain completely unaware of the colonial paradigms through which they view and demonize their own tribe. 3/9
Read 9 tweets
23 Jan
Hasn't been a week, but @POTUS has a diplomatic headache.

A #FakeNews story that 2 Hindu Americans holding senior roles in the Biden campaign are not being given jobs in the Administration because of ties to "RSS/BJP" is causing outrage. How did this happen? Let's unpack: 1/
First, the Indian American Muslim Council teamed w/ a few internet handles to write a hypocritical open letter demanding those 2 Hindus not be given prominent roles. Why hypocritical? No mention at all of a nominee with ties to the shadowy separatist Stand With Kashmir front. 2/
Not to mention that the claim is false & horribly mean-spirited. The 2 Hindu Americans being targeted have never had ties to Indian politics. The claim is that their fathers were friends with some Indian leaders--but the father of one of those targeted passed away years ago. 3/
Read 8 tweets
1 Dec 20
There is a disturbing tendency among groups in the diaspora to religionize what are fundamentally political reactions to political actions. This religionizing creates a binary where every political actor & policy is necessarily pro-x or anti-y. 1/n
In this paradigm, abrogation #Article370 is anti-Muslim ignoring KP's and its anti-terror ramification. #CAA a pro-persecuted minority amnesty law is anti-Muslim, and the protests glorified. Now the #FarmersBill is portrayed as a anti-Sikh and protests romanticized. 2/
The protests are, in fact, merging, as anti-CAA #Dadi & a Dalit political party head join the farmers. But when roads & highways are blocked for months on end, at some point, commuters will demand roads are opened. But the religionized context-artificially constructed-means 3/
Read 6 tweets
2 Nov 20
Rupa, you make my point when you & media orthodoxy conflate Hindu nationalism with Modi, hence India. Ergo, supporting US-India ties (nuclear deal, defense coop) & Indian policies=Hindu nationalism, & any policy disfavored by the ecosystem=anti-Muslim. (thread)
@HinduAmerican was founded in 2003 and promoted U.S-India ties throughout MMS govt.

@HinduAmerican believes that free speech, religious liberty & equality are principles that are good for Hindus in America and around the world are good for all people regardless of faith or none.
Is supporting U.S.-India ties, abrogation #Article370 to fight cross-border terror & promote KP resettlement, amnesty for religious minorities seeking refuge or end to govt. control of temples nationalism or parochial?

Why circumscribe freedom of religion issues as nationalism?
Read 4 tweets
1 Nov 20
@AmarShergillCA is attacking @HinduAmerican in @BrownGirlMag for "pushing away Biden." Umm
It was Shergill who:
-demanded investigation of a debunked Biden assault
-attacked Biden campaign staff
-said on @NPR that Biden failed to condemn "horrors in India"
hinduamerican.medium.com/why-is-califor…
@AmarShergillCA is a Democrat, but doesn't:
-deny connections to @FriedrichPieter's campaign to smear Hindu American candidates & donors
-deny his connections to a CA based Khalistan operative
-deny his attacks on @TulsiGabbard @RepBera & other Democrats

hinduamerican.medium.com/why-the-democr…
That a senior CA @TheDemocrats party leader is not condemning-but amplifying-attacks on only Hindu American candidates, is an election scandal of 2020 for our community.

Instead of attacking @HinduAmerican shouldn't Shergill focus on supporting his party?
browngirlmagazine.com/2020/10/op-ed-…
Read 4 tweets
25 Oct 20
My friend @dhume analogizes social media outrage over a racy depiction of the Goddess Kali with the beheading in France. Raises the Enlightenment. I agree that Hindu anger on social media is often crass/crude (experienced it!), but sharing some quick thoughts (thread)
Comparing inchoate tweets to a beheading in France or an attack on a politician in Bangalore over a FB post fails as an equivalence in my eyes. @dhume may be right in Hindu outrage seeming new when deities are defiled, but there's a reason certain speech was outlawed in India.
Muslim demands that certain speech be made off-limits led to hate speech laws in the Indian Constitution. Hindus reciprocating utilizing those extant laws is more a response to what they see as Muslim success in rendering speech that's intended to outrage or insulting as criminal
Read 8 tweets

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