NYC Hindus have been fighting for Diwali for a decade or more now. It started out as individuals, but in 2012, dozens of NYC based Hindu organizations coalesced together to form the "Hindu Holidays Campaign", at first administrated by Sitangshu Guha of the "Bangladeshi Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council" and then later by Vincent Bruno of "Justice For Hindus". The Coalition is not only made up of several NYC based Hindu groups but also has the support of HAF's alternative, the American Hindu Coalition (AHC). Washington D.C. based Hindu lobby groups like the AHC and the Republican Hindu Coalition were build partially to thwart HAF's perceived left leaning agenda.
Since 2014, HAF has been warmly invited to join the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign, but they never accepted. Things began to cool further between the NYC Hindus and HAF when in 2015 the campaign staged a protest demonstration outside the Mayor's Office for the inclusion of both the Hindu Holidays of Diwali and Holi into the NYC public school system. HAF was asked to attend both the protest and the press conference with proceeded the event. The 2015 protesters were sure they would get HAF's support as HAF had joined a similar press conference the year before.
While a HAF member did come to the protest, she did not join the press conference as HAF had done previously, and even though many of the Hindus tried to invite HAF into the campaign, the HAF representative did not make good on any of the contacts they were given at the event. HAF also did not respond to invitations to join the campaign's hard won meeting with the Mayor's office a few weeks later. HAF also did a write up on the Mayor's decision not to include Diwali in the NYC calendar, but never mention the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign or the protest which spurred their article, as if HAF were trying to negate us. This was offsetting enough, but what followed really put a rift between the thousands of Hindus who have joined the campaign and HAF.
It would seem that some time after the founding of the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign, another more interfaith campaign came into existence, the "Diwali Coalition". Of course the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign takes no issue with other groups also working for Diwali, but still it seemed strange that HAF would snub our initial invitations and then partner with an entirely new coalition which is statedly interfaith rather than Hindu. HAF is of course free to take whatever avenue they wish in the Diwali venture, however it did not go unnoticed that HAF never once informed any of the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign coordinators of the Diwali Coalition, we did not know about it because we were never invited, all 2 dozen or more Hindu organizations.
Worse still, many Hindus began accusing HAF of poaching NYC administration officials with whom the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign had made relationships with, as the campaign was informed by the Mayor's office that HAF had offered to take over the project without ever consulting the NYC Hindus who had worked so hard to build these relationships. But there is something much more sinister afoot as many Hindu have expressed, and that has everything to do with what kind of other organizations HAF has chosen to align with .
Many NYC Hindus are very well aware of Sadhana: The Coalition of Progressive Hindus. The NYC Hindu Campaign and Sadhana have been at odds with one another for some time. First, Sadhana is viewed as racializing Hinduism to include only Indians, even though not all Hindus are ethnically Indian, and this is done in order to blur the lines between the Hindu and Muslim communities by cloaking their differences in race, fear mongering Hindus against supposed White racism whenever Americans (who are not all white) take issue with such things as Islamic Sharia Law.
Worse still, well respected Hindu scholar Rajiv Malhotra has warned Hindus against Sadhana, stating that it is a Leftist/Christian organization designed to digest and eventually eliminate Hinduism. In a facebook post (see here) Malhotra brings forth an article posted by Sadhana and gives the following analysis.
While a HAF member did come to the protest, she did not join the press conference as HAF had done previously, and even though many of the Hindus tried to invite HAF into the campaign, the HAF representative did not make good on any of the contacts they were given at the event. HAF also did not respond to invitations to join the campaign's hard won meeting with the Mayor's office a few weeks later. HAF also did a write up on the Mayor's decision not to include Diwali in the NYC calendar, but never mention the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign or the protest which spurred their article, as if HAF were trying to negate us. This was offsetting enough, but what followed really put a rift between the thousands of Hindus who have joined the campaign and HAF.
It would seem that some time after the founding of the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign, another more interfaith campaign came into existence, the "Diwali Coalition". Of course the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign takes no issue with other groups also working for Diwali, but still it seemed strange that HAF would snub our initial invitations and then partner with an entirely new coalition which is statedly interfaith rather than Hindu. HAF is of course free to take whatever avenue they wish in the Diwali venture, however it did not go unnoticed that HAF never once informed any of the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign coordinators of the Diwali Coalition, we did not know about it because we were never invited, all 2 dozen or more Hindu organizations.
Worse still, many Hindus began accusing HAF of poaching NYC administration officials with whom the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign had made relationships with, as the campaign was informed by the Mayor's office that HAF had offered to take over the project without ever consulting the NYC Hindus who had worked so hard to build these relationships. But there is something much more sinister afoot as many Hindu have expressed, and that has everything to do with what kind of other organizations HAF has chosen to align with .
Many NYC Hindus are very well aware of Sadhana: The Coalition of Progressive Hindus. The NYC Hindu Campaign and Sadhana have been at odds with one another for some time. First, Sadhana is viewed as racializing Hinduism to include only Indians, even though not all Hindus are ethnically Indian, and this is done in order to blur the lines between the Hindu and Muslim communities by cloaking their differences in race, fear mongering Hindus against supposed White racism whenever Americans (who are not all white) take issue with such things as Islamic Sharia Law.
Worse still, well respected Hindu scholar Rajiv Malhotra has warned Hindus against Sadhana, stating that it is a Leftist/Christian organization designed to digest and eventually eliminate Hinduism. In a facebook post (see here) Malhotra brings forth an article posted by Sadhana and gives the following analysis.
Rajiv MalhotraAugust 23, 2017
The following article by an ISKCON insider was recently sent to me: https://www.sadhana.org/blog-1/2017/8/18/im-an-ambiguous-hindu
The author is a Catholic-Hindu pursuing his PhD in Hinduism. The article is couched in a veneer of love for Hinduism. It is a long zig-zag tour wanting to reinterpret Hinduism. It has some good points, as well as statements that are contestable, or even outright false. He bottom line is the following conclusion:
"You must not only discard the shastras, you must deny their authority, as did Buddha and Nanak. You must have courage to tell the Hindus that what is wrong with them is their religion - the religion which has produced in them this notion of the sacredness of caste. Will you show that courage?"
He refers to himself as a proud White Hindu.
The group Sadhana calls itself "Progressive Hinduism" which it defines as Leftist Hindu reformation to remove social abuses. Its core message includes:
- Support for Wendy Doniger type of scholars, who are seen as heroes criticizing Hinduism's abuses in order to reform it.
- Criticisms of Hindus who expose Islamic oppression - calling them Islamophobic.
- Criticisms of "Hindu right", Hindutva, Hindu "triumphalism", etc...
Yet all this is asserted under the umbrella of being the true Hindus. The leaders include many Hindu acharyas in the NY area, some Hindu academicians (Anantanand Rambachan), the Hindu Chaplain at USC (Varun Soni), and a variety of Christians claiming to speak FOR Hinduism.
Prof John J. Thatamanil is one of their top scholars as advisor. He is an influential author on Hinduism - a Christian with former Harvard experience. I have studied his works as part of my book project on how "Panentheism" has been used to digest core Hindu ideas into Catholicism. The ideas which have been rejected by Christianity for many centuries are being brought into a NEW variety of Christianity (especially Catholicism) in order to compete against Hinduism where it is the strongest. I would enjoy an open and friendly discussion with him.
Here is what the NYC Hindu Holidays campaign wants the Hindu community to know, the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign did spring into existence before the Diwali Coalition, the NYC Hindu Holidays Campaign is a fully Hindu front, while the Diwali Coalition is an interfaith group. There is nothing wrong with interfaith, but what many Hindus feel is that HAF has purposely snubbed and sidelined the NYC Hindu Campaign in order to put influence in the hands of so-called "progressive" Hindu groups like Sadhana. It should also be mentioned that HAF and the Diwali Coalition are not looking for holiday equity, meaning they are not pushing for two holidays such as Muslims, Jews and Christians have, HAF has shown no support for adding Holi to the NYC Hindu calendar, and perhaps that is because Holi is more purely Hindu and it not as useful for their "progressive" cause. Is this an attempt to hijack the Hindu narrative in American by hijacking Diwali?
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