Profiles of the Hindu Right

Rashtriya Syawemsevak Sangh (RSS)

Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh, also known as the Sangh or the RSS, is a Hindu extremist organization founded in 1925 by a man called K.B. Hedgewar, who was inspired by HItler's ideas of racial purity. The RSS seeks the foundation of India as a Hindu state. It believes
that India will be united and a developed nation only after non-Hindu citizens are purged or willingly submit to the superiority of the Hindu majority.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) was founded in 1964 by a group of leaders from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to strengthen the Hindu religious and political identity. It shares close ties to its parent organization, the RSS, which seeks the foundation of India as a Hindu nation.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party)(BJP), which led the federal Indian government and the Gujarat government at the time of the Gujarat massacres, was earlier known as the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). The BJP was established in 1951 as a political wing of the
RSS as the RSS became a hated organization in most of India following the assasination of Mahatama Gandhi by a former member of the RSS, Nathuram Godse. The BJP emerged as a political presence only in the early 1980s, when its sister organization VHP led campaigns against the conversion of lower caste Hindus to Islam.

VHP leaders announced in 1984 their plan to built a temple for the Hindu god Ram in the north Indian town of Ayodhya on the site of Babri Masjid, an ancient mosque. Both the BJP and the VHP leaders led the campaign, which eventually led to the demolition of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya.

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Labels: Basharat, Hindu right, Modi

Campaign To Stop Funding Hate: Raja Swamy

NAME: Raja Swamy

AGE: 36

OCCUPATION: Graduate student, Ph.D program in Social Anthropology, U-Texas at Austin

ROLE IN CSFH: Member of collective since 2002. Various responsibilities including research, writing and tech support.

REASONS FOR ENGAGEMENT: Primarily sought to contribute to a radical response to the virulent growth of Hindutva, particularly in the aftermath of the Gujarat genocide. Also interested broadly in the relationships between neoliberalism and the wider Indian right, and the growing ties between the Hindu right and Zionism. The folks who started CSFH were extremely committed and displayed sheer brilliance in designing strategies to confront Hindutva's growing appeal among expatriates and second-generation Indians within the multiculturalist U.S. mainstream.

See CSFH's Girish Agarwal

Look at a pictogram of CSFH's strategy

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Labels: CSFH, Deepa, Gujarat, Hindu right, Modi, Raja Swamy