The history professor at Carleton University in Ottawa said he has received thousands of hate messages like this in the last five years, along with abusive voice messages on his office phone. He said he has also personally accepted picket groups in his academic lectures because they disagree with his policy.
“Imagine every Monday, getting up and looking at this picture,” Jangam said. “Your half day will be gone, coming to terms with it.”
He closed most of his social media accounts in response, in part, he said, to try to shield his family.
Jangam is one of many Canadian academics whose work is linked to India, who say they are being harassed and threatened by diaspora groups for criticizing both the country’s policies under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Hindutva, the right wing. political ideology embraced.
“There is a growing violence against Muslims and Dalits,” said Zhangam, who is Dalit – the lower echelon of the Hindu caste system. They are a group that was previously called “intact” because their low position meant that they were not even touched by others.
“I come from this background. I have a social responsibility and also a moral responsibility to speak.”
Research by Steven Zhou says that academics who criticize Hindutva’s ideology or BJP policies often encounter an online reaction so intense that it interrupts the debate and imposes a kind of self-censorship. (Joe Firorino / CBC)
Steven Zhou, a former Canadian anti-hate network researcher who has documented far-right movements within diaspora groups, said Hinduwa is a superficial politicization of Hinduism.
His goal, Zhou said, is “to put Indian society as it should be for Hindus first and foremost over other religious minorities.”
Zhou said Hindutva is a modern political ideology that upholds Hindu supremacy and seeks to turn India, a secular democracy, into an ethno-religious country.
Although the supremacy of Hindutva’s ideology has its roots in Hinduism, there is debate as to whether the political aspects of ideology can be separated from its religious and cultural basis. Many academics argue that it is special.
Gopala Krishna, director of Dwarapalakas, a self-proclaimed Hindu advocacy group in the greater Toronto area, said Canadians do not understand Hinduism and are currently taking their views from “non-Hindu religions that speak and speak of Judaism.”
Sectarian violence
Zhou said Hindutva ideology has led to discrimination and sectarian violence against minority groups in India, such as Muslims and Christians. Human Rights Watch has also performed religious and ethnic violence in supposed Hindutva groups.
In December 2021, in the northern Indian city of Haridwar, Hindu religious leaders openly called for genocide against Muslims at an event organized by Hindutva. And in March, an Indian court upheld the ban on hijab in schools – the matter is before the Supreme Court of India.
Zhou said that while Hindutva did not lead to physical violence in Canada, the ideology has become “rhetorically violent” and is being used to silence academic criticism of Indian politics.
CBC News spoke with 18 Canadian academics who say they have been harassed or threatened by those who support Hindu nationalism. Their harassment ranged from abusive emails to death threats and rape.
Most did not want to speak in public for fear of increased harassment, denial of visas to India and endangering their loved ones in their homeland.
In late January, York University in Toronto hosted an online forum discussing the growing challenges and threats facing academics while working on projects related to India. The professors noted that the coordinated cyber attacks often follow any criticism against Monti and the BJP. Jangam was one of the speakers.
He said he has been targeted by right-wing Hindu groups abroad and in Canada because he is one of the first academics in Canada to be Dalit.
Jangam displays Google search results for his name on February 4, 2022. The most recent post accuses him and his work of being “Hinduophobic”. (Larry Carey / CBC)
Since Monti and the BJP came to power in 2014, Zhangham has said that violence and discrimination against the Dalits have increased.
“The Dalits make up almost 20 percent of the Indian population. That means more than 250 million … people have been abused for centuries and have no access to education,” Zhangam said.
The professor has been outspoken in his criticism of the Monti government and its treatment of minorities and has been the target of numerous cyber-attacks against his character.
Despite the harassment, Jangam refuses to back down.
“We have to tell the truth to the authorities,” he said.
The eight years that the BJP has been in power in India have encouraged pro-Hindutva groups, said Ingrid Therwath, a Franco-Indian journalist who has been researching Hindu extremism for more than 20 years.
Therwath said large internet networks set up in India are harassing academics abroad.
How Hindu nationalism spreads abroad
Hindutva is based in India and is the foundation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a national paramilitary volunteer organization founded in 1925 with numerous sister organizations and active members numbering more than five million people, including Modi and . of ministers from the BJP to the government.
BJP has historical links to RSS. Therwath said the RSS network was founded in the early days of Italian fascism, is ideologically similar to Nazism, and was exported abroad by the Indian diaspora. He said the first Canadian branch of RSS was founded in Toronto in the 1970s.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh volunteers attend a conference on the outskirts of Pune, India on January 3, 2016. (Danish Siddiqui / Reuters)
Therwath said Canadian Hindu extremist groups often create seemingly benign cultural organizations and use them to promote far-right views.
“They are in fact hate groups,” Therwath said, adding that the groups promote hate speech and discrimination in India, engage in cyberbullying and raise funds from abroad for religious and political projects in India through various charities.
Kristin Plys, director of the Center for South Asian Culture at the University of Toronto, came under fire from Hindu nationalists in the greater Toronto area after she sponsored an online conference on contemporary Indian politics last September.
Conference targeted by an online campaign
The virtual conference, called Dismantling Global Hindutva, has been validated by more than 50 universities across Canada and the United States, including McMaster, Harvard and Princeton. The event was attended by international scholars who discussed the effects of Hindutva – more than half of the speakers and moderators were Hindus. Dalit and Muslim speakers also attended. In an effort to prevent harassment, the organizing committee remained anonymous. Despite the precautions, Al Jazeera reported that Hindutva groups claimed to have sent unsolicited messages to participating universities with 1.3 million emails. They posted personal information on the Internet and some American participants received death threats. Before the start of the conference, about 50 protesters demonstrated on the U of T campus in an effort to pressure the university to withdraw its support. CLOCKS Protest against the Hindutva Dismantling World Conference in the U of T:
Protest against the World Hindutva Dismantling Conference at U of T
At least four GTA-based Hindu groups have staged or participated in a protest on St. Louis campus. George of the University of Toronto on September 9, 2021, for the university sponsoring the Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference. 0:54
Following the protest, Dwarapalakas sent Plys a series of emails that scared her. In an email to CBC, Dwarapalakas accused her of being a Taliban supporter and warned her that she was “in her backyard”.
Dwarpalakas then sent her a food delivery gift, which campus police said could have been an attempt by Plys to get her home address if she activated the card. After mentioning the threats to the security of the campus, Plys said that she had to “change everything in her life”.
Campus security gave her a panic button that triggers an alarm that cuts off the ear when pressed.
The teacher gave self-defense lessons
She changed her office hours, changed her travels and enrolled in self-defense classes. Her university department asked her to temporarily teach her courses online to help protect her colleagues.
When Plys reported the incident to police, she was told her complaint was being investigated as hate speech.
“I received countless emails from various threatening groups,” Plys said
“But this was the only group that really went overboard to try to spread cyber-hatred in the real world.”
Gopala Krishna, director of the Dwarapalakas Hindu advocacy group, says Canadian academics are launching a hate attack on Hindus and shouting “academic freedom” as soon as the hatred returns. (CBC)
Krishna, the director of Dwarapalakas, which also occasionally hosts a community program on OMNI, admits he wrote the emails but said he was not trying to intimidate Plys. Instead, Krishna said she wanted to know that Duarapalakas was watching her to “expose her mind”.
Although the conference sponsored by the University of Toronto was called “Dismanting Hindutva,” Krishna said the event attacks Hinduism in all its political, cultural and religious aspects.
“This is exactly what they are doing, they want to dismantle Hinduism,” he said. “You are attacking us from all directions – Muslims, Dalits, [gender]academics. “
Krishna said that Plys “promotes hatred against the Hindus of Canada with the sponsorship” of …
title: “Hate Speech And Death Threats Canadian Academics Harassed After Criticizing Hindu Nationalism In India " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-18” author: “Floyd Wyatt”
The history professor at Carleton University in Ottawa said he has received thousands of hate messages like this in the last five years, along with abusive voice messages on his office phone. He said he has also personally accepted picket groups in his academic lectures because they disagree with his policy.
“Imagine every Monday, getting up and looking at this picture,” Jangam said. “Your half day will be gone, coming to terms with it.”
He closed most of his social media accounts in response, in part, he said, to try to shield his family.
Jangam is one of many Canadian academics whose work is linked to India, who say they are being harassed and threatened by diaspora groups for criticizing both the country’s policies under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Hindutva, the right wing. political ideology embraced.
“There is a growing violence against Muslims and Dalits,” said Zhangam, who is Dalit – the lower echelon of the Hindu caste system. They are a group that was previously called “intact” because their low position meant that they were not even touched by others.
“I come from this background. I have a social responsibility and also a moral responsibility to speak.”
Research by Steven Zhou says that academics who criticize Hindutva’s ideology or BJP policies often encounter an online reaction so intense that it interrupts the debate and imposes a kind of self-censorship. (Joe Firorino / CBC)
Steven Zhou, a former Canadian anti-hate network researcher who has documented far-right movements within diaspora groups, said Hinduwa is a superficial politicization of Hinduism.
His goal, Zhou said, is “to put Indian society as it should be for Hindus first and foremost over other religious minorities.”
Zhou said Hindutva is a modern political ideology that upholds Hindu supremacy and seeks to turn India, a secular democracy, into an ethno-religious country.
Although the supremacy of Hindutva’s ideology has its roots in Hinduism, there is debate as to whether the political aspects of ideology can be separated from its religious and cultural basis. Many academics argue that it is special.
Gopala Krishna, director of Dwarapalakas, a self-proclaimed Hindu advocacy group in the greater Toronto area, said Canadians do not understand Hinduism and are currently taking their views from “non-Hindu religions that speak and speak of Judaism.”
Sectarian violence
Zhou said Hindutva ideology has led to discrimination and sectarian violence against minority groups in India, such as Muslims and Christians. Human Rights Watch has also performed religious and ethnic violence in supposed Hindutva groups.
In December 2021, in the northern Indian city of Haridwar, Hindu religious leaders openly called for genocide against Muslims at an event organized by Hindutva. And in March, an Indian court upheld the ban on hijab in schools – the matter is before the Supreme Court of India.
Zhou said that while Hindutva did not lead to physical violence in Canada, the ideology has become “rhetorically violent” and is being used to silence academic criticism of Indian politics.
CBC News spoke with 18 Canadian academics who say they have been harassed or threatened by those who support Hindu nationalism. Their harassment ranged from abusive emails to death threats and rape.
Most did not want to speak in public for fear of increased harassment, denial of visas to India and endangering their loved ones in their homeland.
In late January, York University in Toronto hosted an online forum discussing the growing challenges and threats facing academics while working on projects related to India. The professors noted that the coordinated cyber attacks often follow any criticism against Monti and the BJP. Jangam was one of the speakers.
He said he has been targeted by right-wing Hindu groups abroad and in Canada because he is one of the first academics in Canada to be Dalit.
Jangam displays Google search results for his name on February 4, 2022. The most recent post accuses him and his work of being “Hinduophobic”. (Larry Carey / CBC)
Since Monti and the BJP came to power in 2014, Zhangham has said that violence and discrimination against the Dalits have increased.
“The Dalits make up almost 20 percent of the Indian population. That means more than 250 million … people have been abused for centuries and have no access to education,” Zhangam said.
The professor has been outspoken in his criticism of the Monti government and its treatment of minorities and has been the target of numerous cyber-attacks against his character.
Despite the harassment, Jangam refuses to back down.
“We have to tell the truth to the authorities,” he said.
The eight years that the BJP has been in power in India have encouraged pro-Hindutva groups, said Ingrid Therwath, a Franco-Indian journalist who has been researching Hindu extremism for more than 20 years.
Therwath said large internet networks set up in India are harassing academics abroad.
How Hindu nationalism spreads abroad
Hindutva is based in India and is the foundation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a national paramilitary volunteer organization founded in 1925 with numerous sister organizations and active members numbering more than five million people, including Modi and . of ministers from the BJP to the government.
BJP has historical links to RSS. Therwath said the RSS network was founded in the early days of Italian fascism, is ideologically similar to Nazism, and was exported abroad by the Indian diaspora. He said the first Canadian branch of RSS was founded in Toronto in the 1970s.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh volunteers attend a conference on the outskirts of Pune, India on January 3, 2016. (Danish Siddiqui / Reuters)
Therwath said Canadian Hindu extremist groups often create seemingly benign cultural organizations and use them to promote far-right views.
“They are in fact hate groups,” Therwath said, adding that the groups promote hate speech and discrimination in India, engage in cyberbullying and raise funds from abroad for religious and political projects in India through various charities.
Kristin Plys, director of the Center for South Asian Culture at the University of Toronto, came under fire from Hindu nationalists in the greater Toronto area after she sponsored an online conference on contemporary Indian politics last September.
Conference targeted by an online campaign
The virtual conference, called Dismantling Global Hindutva, has been validated by more than 50 universities across Canada and the United States, including McMaster, Harvard and Princeton. The event was attended by international scholars who discussed the effects of Hindutva – more than half of the speakers and moderators were Hindus. Dalit and Muslim speakers also attended. In an effort to prevent harassment, the organizing committee remained anonymous. Despite the precautions, Al Jazeera reported that Hindutva groups claimed to have sent unsolicited messages to participating universities with 1.3 million emails. They posted personal information on the Internet and some American participants received death threats. Before the start of the conference, about 50 protesters demonstrated on the U of T campus in an effort to pressure the university to withdraw its support. CLOCKS Protest against the Hindutva Dismantling World Conference in the U of T:
Protest against the World Hindutva Dismantling Conference at U of T
At least four GTA-based Hindu groups have staged or participated in a protest on St. Louis campus. George of the University of Toronto on September 9, 2021, for the university sponsoring the Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference. 0:54
Following the protest, Dwarapalakas sent Plys a series of emails that scared her. In an email to CBC, Dwarapalakas accused her of being a Taliban supporter and warned her that she was “in her backyard”.
Dwarpalakas then sent her a food delivery gift, which campus police said could have been an attempt by Plys to get her home address if she activated the card. After mentioning the threats to the security of the campus, Plys said that she had to “change everything in her life”.
Campus security gave her a panic button that triggers an alarm that cuts off the ear when pressed.
The teacher gave self-defense lessons
She changed her office hours, changed her travels and enrolled in self-defense classes. Her university department asked her to temporarily teach her courses online to help protect her colleagues.
When Plys reported the incident to police, she was told her complaint was being investigated as hate speech.
“I received countless emails from various threatening groups,” Plys said
“But this was the only group that really went overboard to try to spread cyber-hatred in the real world.”
Gopala Krishna, director of the Dwarapalakas Hindu advocacy group, says Canadian academics are launching a hate attack on Hindus and shouting “academic freedom” as soon as the hatred returns. (CBC)
Krishna, the director of Dwarapalakas, which also occasionally hosts a community program on OMNI, admits he wrote the emails but said he was not trying to intimidate Plys. Instead, Krishna said she wanted to know that Duarapalakas was watching her to “expose her mind”.
Although the conference sponsored by the University of Toronto was called “Dismanting Hindutva,” Krishna said the event attacks Hinduism in all its political, cultural and religious aspects.
“This is exactly what they are doing, they want to dismantle Hinduism,” he said. “You are attacking us from all directions – Muslims, Dalits, [gender]academics. “
Krishna said that Plys “promotes hatred against the Hindus of Canada with the sponsorship” of …
