Thread by @IAMCouncil

“There is an attempt by Hindu nationalist organizations and individuals to influence, limit and distort debates and teaching on US university campuses around Indian history, Hinduism and contemporary politics in India” ~ @Stanford professor Thomas Blom Hansen

https://twitter.com/IAMCouncil/status/1435634292835577856

“RSS was never part of the nationalist movement, never supported India’s democratic constitution, was banned three times since 1948, including for complicity in the murder of Gandhi” ~ Prof #ThomasBlomHansen

“In the 1990s, I and others who published and spoke on the RSS movement and its ideology, were routinely subjected to some amount of heckling from audience members” ~ @Stanford professor Thomas Blom Hansen

“I received hostile letters and emails calling me names, accusing me of being Hinduphobic, and of embracing Muslim terrorist organizations. In one memorable email from the late 1990s, which greatly amused my students, I was called a ‘Muslim-loving, Marxist secularist.’”

“At the time of Modi’s election victory in 2014, Hindu nationalists were extremely active on social media and various websites. Several of them, such as the aptly named site ‘Shadow Warrior’” @Stanford professor Thomas Blom Hansen

“They followed and monitored what they claimed were ‘anti Indian’ and ‘anti-Hindu’ programming and research at South Asia related centers, including the center at Stanford. I received threatening emails on a regular basis.”

“In 2016, I was one of 100 signatories of an open letter to leaders of tech industry reminding them that Modi belonged to a deeply anti-democratic political movement and that in 2002 he had presided over one of the worst anti-Muslim pogroms for many decades.”

“We were issued death threats, several emails and anonymous letters contained passages like “We are watching you. We know where you live and where your kids go to school” and so on." Prof #ThomasBlomHansen

“During California’s textbooks case, the Hindutva activists presented themselves as an embattled religious minority of color in the US. They are not. They were doing the bidding of a major political movement & govt in India trying to influence how American students are educated.”

“US-based academics ought to be protected by the law, and their institutions need to step up to assist in that task rather than worrying about reputations or potential donors.”

“It must be pointed out that we should not accept when fact-based, critical scholarly examination of a phenomenon like the political project of majoritarian Hindutva is equated with a critique of Hinduism, or Hindus as such.”

“Hindutva activists do not represent Hindus as such. They actually represent the interests of a foreign government. The true face of the Hindutva project in India and the rest of world needs to be understood and documented, relentlessly" ~ Prof. #ThomasBlomHansen