Campaign to Stop Funding Hate
17362 Boston Road , Hayward , CA 94541 hsctruthout@gmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Uncovering the Global Sangh
New Report Points To Growing Sangh Student Network in the US
For Info: Bala Murli N. or Biju Mathew–9848470907 hsctruthout@stopfundinghate.org
New Delhi, Thursday, Jan 17, 2008 : The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) will release its latest report "UNMISTAKABLY SANGH: THE NATIONAL HSC AND ITS HINDUTVA AGENDA" on the growth of the Sangh Parivar's student wing in the USA – the Hindu Students Council (HSC). The press conference and report release are scheduled at the Press Club, Raisina Road, at 3 PM today. The report documents a long and dense trail of connections between the HSC and the Sangh from 1990 to the present. Ironically, the HSC exists on US American university campuses because of the liberal policy of multiculturalism that allows for diversity of cultures and tolerance. Yet HSC has promoted divisive and sectarian speakers such as Ashok Singhal and Sadhvi Rithambara. Indian American youth many times join the HSC without an awareness of the "invisible" connections between HSC and the Sangh.
The HSC was founded in 1990 as a project of the VHP of America. In 1993, Ashok Singhal, the then General Secretary of the VHP declared, " Now, the first project we have in mind is strengthening the Hindu Student Council". [1] The report Unmistakably Sangh, provides the first comprehensive documentation of the origins, methods and practices of the HSC and directly counters the claims of the HSC that it "has been independently run since 1993 ". [2] The report uses documents from Sangh sources – VHPA tax returns, filings with US Patents Office, Internet domain registry information, archives of the HSC, and publications of the Sangh Parivar in North America and elsewhere, to establish that the HSC was and remains an arm of the global Sangh Parivar.
Between 2002 and 2004 , two reports, "The Foreign Exchange of Hate", and "In Bad faith" exposed the siphoning of funds by the Sangh in the US and UK respectively. This new report establishes that the Sangh's interests and activities in the US go far beyond funding, and that the HSC represents a grooming space for young Sangh leadership and the entry of the Sangh ideology into second generation Indian American spaces. "The Hindu Students Council claims to be an independent organization with no links to any Hindutva organization or movement. This is patently unfair because most of those who join HSC do not know of the strong ties between HSC and the Sangh," says Ashwini Rao, a campaign coordinator for CSFH. Several of the HSC's early recruits on American campuses are leaders in the Global Sangh operations today. "How important the HSC is to the Sangh can be seen from the fact that the HSC built and operated a significant part of the Sangh's electronic infrastructure out of a server cluster in California" Raja Swamy, another CSFH coordinator pointed out. This runs counter to the policy of multiculturalism that allows organizations such as HSC on American campuses.
The latest report is part of CSFH's Truth Out on HSCs [3] Campaign aimed at educating Indian-Americans on the Sangh Parivar and its operations in the US. For more information on the press conference write to: hsctruthout@gmail.com or call +91-9848470907. Summary and full versions of the report will be available at the press conference and online at www.stopfundinghate.org after 3:00 PM IST on January 17.
-end-
Unmistakably Sangh: The National HSC and its Hindutva Agenda
An Executive Summary
The Hindu Students Council (HSC) is a national network of university-based organizations in the United States that purports to teach about Hindu heritage and culture. On several distinct occasions the National Office of the HSC (located in Houston, USA) has asserted that the HSC is not connected to any political movement and that it is independent of the Sangh Parivar. The UNMISTAKABLY SANGH report, however, establishes that, despite such denials, the HSC continues to be a Sangh project from its inception in 1990 into the present. In fact, the HSC remains an integral component of the Sangh Parivar's globalizing overseas operations including as a grooming space for future Sangh workers. This report provides the first comprehensive documentation of the origins, methods and practices of the HSC. Unfortunately, many local HSC chapters and their membership may be completely unaware of the political and ideological connections between the HSC and the Sangh and continue to participate in the HSCs activities. The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) started the Truth Out on HSCs! [4] Campaign last year in order to engage in a productive dialogue with local HSC chapters. Over the last several months this engagement has provided the public with a large body of evidence revealing the connections between the National HSC to the Sangh Parivar. This report is a consolidation of this evidence, along with some new evidence that we have uncovered most recently.
The HSC was founded in 1990 as a project of the VHP of America. In 1993, Ashok Singhal, the then General Secretary of the VHP declared that " Now, the first project we have in mind is strengthening the Hindu Student Council". [5] Although the National HSC now claims that the HSC "has been independently run since 1993 ", [6] our report documents continuous and consistent affiliations between the HSC and the Sangh into the present. In sum, this report provides detailed and well-documented evidence of the continued affiliation of the national HSC with the Sangh, Yet, in spite of this clear evidence, the national HSC continues to deny its connections with the Sangh Parivar. The value of the HSC's work for the Sangh is illustrated in the graphic below.
HSC's links to the Sangh Parivar:
- 1995: HSC members attend an RSS-conducted shibir in Gujarat for NRIs on Sangh ideology.
- 1996: HSC and VHPA together set up the Global Hindu Electronic Network (GHEN)/Hindunet -- the Sangh's major electronic infrastructure hub, which hosts several Sangh organizational websites including the RSS, ABVP, VHHP, and Seva Bharati off a server cluster in California.
- 1997: HSC collaborates with other Sangh organizations to organize Freedom Festival 97 in the US.
- 1998: HSC part of a Sangh delegation that met with A.B.Vajpayee during his visit to the US.
- 2001: HSC still on the VHPA tax returns.
- 2004: Even after the HSC filed for a legal non-profit status, the VHPA filed for Ownership of the HSC logo and slogan with the US Patents Office as late as 2004.
- 2005-2007: HSC along with the global Sangh Parivar organized the Dharma Conference and over the last three years has co-hosted such Sangh leaders as Ram Madhav and Sadhvi Rithambara.
While the national HSC performed an essential service for the Sangh Parivar in developing the Sangh's electronic infrastructure, its contribution to these organizations was considerably more than creating websites for the RSS and its affiliates. For instance, the VHP Governing Council listserve that possibly coordinated the VHP's global operations was carried on the GHEN/Hindunet servers. Moreover, the HSC's Freedom Festival and Dharma Conference along with other such events represent a way for Sangh ideologues to propogate their message under the cover of multiculturalism.The evidence which we present here reveals an undeniable and close alliance between the National HSC and the global Sangh. It is our concern that hundreds of HSC members in local chapters may be unaware of these connections between their organization and the Sangh Parivar. Hence, in the spirit of engagement, we ask the National HSC a simple question: How does the National HSC explain its continuing links with the VHP-A and the Sangh Parivar years after it claimed to have become an "independently run organization?"
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