Skip to main content

US students petition against University of Columbia chairs for alleged ties with "rightwing" Hindu groups

By Our Representative
In a significant development that has gone unnoticed, the USA’s prestigious University of California, Irvine's (UCI's) History Graduate Student Association has floated an online petition objecting to the formation of two chairs in South Asian studies, being instituted by the Dharma Civilization Foundation, declaring the organization has “ties to rightwing Hindu nationalist groups in India.”
One of the two is the Thakkar Family - Dharma Civilization Foundation Presidential Chair in Vedic and Indic Civilization Studies, which requires the chair have “the equivalent of native proficiency in Sanskrit and in at least one contemporary Indian language and deep familiarity with India, and Indian tradition.”
The second one is the Swami Vivekananda-DCF Presidential Chair in Modern India Studies, with the holder of the chair required to have “a brilliant academic record.... along with a significant record of publications in modern Indian intellectual, literary, and cultural traditions.”
Pointing out that “UCI Humanities has received/will receive 8 million dollars +), the agenda, the petition says, is to "create an academic and intellectual infrastructure for the systematic study of 'Dharma', 'Sanatana Dharma', 'Hindu Studies' and 'Indic Civilizational Studies'" and to "free" it from the "rubric of South Asian studies."
The issues raised in the petition include “threats, implicit or explicit, to faculty, staff and the academic community at large, compromising academic freedom and integrity in order to promote the agendas of a donor”, and “the silencing of Marxist, Feminist, Postcolonial, and Subaltern traditions in South Asian Studies.”
Signed by 362 persons, mainly students and faculty, the signatories said “public education must not be beholden to religious interests” (Kerri McCanna of Irvine, US), “gifts that are given for politically and ideologically, not to say, religiously, motivated reasons do not generally foster the university's mission to promote open, free discourse on opposing views and perspectives” (Lyle Massey, also of Irvine).
Then, Jyotsa Kapur of Carbondale, US, thanks the UCI faculty and students “for resisting the dangerous wave of selling education to the most moneyed and violent”, and Javed Majeed of UK underlines, “Indian civilisation is too valuable to be hijacked by religious ideologies distorting and denying its complexity.”
A local newspaper, “The Orange Country Register”, reports, “Critics worry that the Dharma Civilization Foundation seeks to place true believers in the Hindu faith into academia, might be trying to exert too much influence over hiring, and may be pressuring professors.”
The daily, however, says, “UCI is not the only American university to receive such gifts. At the University of Southern California, the Foundation funded a two-year Swami Vivekananda Visiting faculty in Hindu Studies position, costing $120,000 per year. It was filled by Rita Sherma, who the foundation describes as a ‘scholar-practitioner’.”
It adds, “It also funded the ‘Center for Dharma Studies’ at Claremont Lincoln University, which published the first online ‘International Journal of Dharma Studies’. And it is raising $3.3 million to establish a Swami Dayananda Saraswati Chair in Sanatan Dharma Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.”
The Dharma Civilization Foundation website, pointing towards the “need” for setting up such chairs across the US, states, “very high majority of the professors and scholars who study Hinduism academically are non-Hindus and non-practitioners of Hinduism. This has resulted in widespread incidence of misrepresentations of Hinduism, and mischaracterization of the traditions and practices within the Hindu fold.”
Examples cited by the Foundation include the application of Freudian analytical techniques to Hindu gods, goddesses and gurus, as well as Wendy Doniger’s book, “The Hindus – An Alternate History,” against which the RSS-outfit Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti sued publisher Penguin complaining that it was written “with a Christian Missionary Zeal and hidden agenda to denigrate Hindus” by “a woman hungry of sex.”
---
Click HERE to download agreement between UCI and Dharma Civilization Foundation

Comments

TRENDING

'Draconian' Kerala health law follows WHO diktat: Govt readies to take harsh measures

By Dr Maya Valecha*  The Governor of Kerala has signed the Kerala Public Health Bill, which essentially reverses the people’s campaign in healthcare services in Kerala for decentralisation. The campaign had led to relinquishing of state powers in 1996, resulting in improvement of health parameters in Kerala. Instead, now, enforcement of law through the exercise of power, fines, etc., and the implementation of protocol during the pandemic, are considered of prime importance.

Reject WHO's 'draconian' amendments on pandemic: Citizens to Union Health Minister

By Our Representative  Several concerned Indian citizens have written to the Union Health Minister to reject amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted during the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA75) in May 2022, apprehending this will make the signatories surrender their autonomy to the “unelected, unaccountable and the whimsical WHO in case of any future ‘pandemics’.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Bihar rural women entrepreneurs witness 50% surge in awareness about renewal energy

By Mignonne Dsouza*  An endline survey conducted under the Bolega Bihar initiative revealed a significant increase in awareness of renewable energy among women, rising from 25% to 76% in Nalanda and Gaya. Renu Kumari, a 34-year-old entrepreneur from Nalanda, Bihar, operates a village eatery that serves as the primary source of income for her family, including her husband and five children. However, a significant portion of her profits was being directed toward covering monthly electricity expenses that usually reach Rs 2,000. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Work with Rajasthan's camel herders: German scientist wins World Cookbook Award 2023

By Rosamma Thomas*  Gourmand World Cookbook Awards are the only awards for international food culture. This year, German scientist  Ilse Kohler Rollefson , founder of Camel Charisma, the first of India’s camel dairies, in Pali district of Rajasthan, won the award for her work with camel herders in Rajasthan, and for preparing for the UN International Year of Camelids, 2024. 

Why is electricity tariff going up in India? Who is the beneficiary? A random reflection

By Thomas Franco*  Union Ministry of Power has used its power under Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003 to force States to import coal which has led to an increase in the cost of electricity production and every consumer is paying a higher tariff. In India, almost everybody from farmers to MSMEs are consumers of electricity.

'Pro-corporate agenda': Odisha crackdown on tribal slum dwellers fighting for land rights

By Our Representative  The civil rights network Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), even as condemning what it calls “brutal repression” on the Adivasi slum dwellers of Salia Sahi in Bhubaneshwar by the Odisha police, has said that the crackdown was against the tribals struggling for land rights in order to “stop the attempts at land-grab by the government.”

Deplorable, influential sections 'still believe' burning coal is essential indefinitely

By Shankar Sharma*  Some of the recent developments in the power sector, as some  recent news items show, should be of massive relevance/ interest to our policy makers in India. Assuming that our authorities are officially mandated/ committed to maintain a holistic approach to the overall welfare of all sections of our society, including the flora, fauna and general environment, these developments/ experiences from different parts of the globe should be clear pointers to the sustainable energy pathways for our people.

Hazrat Aisha’s age was 16, not 6: 'Weak' Hadith responsible for controversy

Sacred chamber where Prophet and Aisha used to live By Dr Mike Ghouse* Muslims must take the responsibility to end the age-old controversy about Hazrat Aisha’s age at the time of her marriage to the Prophet (pbuh) – it was 16, not 6 (minimum was 16, Max 23 per different calculations). The Hadiths published were in good faith, but no one ever checked their authenticity, and they kept passing on from scholar to scholar and book to book.  Thanks to 9/11, Muslims have started questioning and correcting the Hadiths, Seerah, and mistranslations of the Quran. Now, the Ulema have to issue an opinion, also known as Fatwa, to end it and remove those Hadith entries. Mustafa Akyol, a scholar of Islam, implores Muslims to stop deifying “the received traditions” and critically study their religious past, shedding rigid legalism and close-mindedness. Someone else used the phrase “copycat Muslims” to identify scholars who copied what was given to them and passed it on without researching or questioni