TY - JOUR
T1 - Transnational networks and Hindu nationalism
AU - Rajagopal, Arvind
N1 - Funding Information:
Once at the conference, the VHP leaders quickly made their true intentions clear. Member of Parliament and noted demagogue Uma Bharati, for instance, made it a point to denounce liberal Hindus who disagreed with the Hindu right's militancy: "To those of you who say you are ashamed to be Hindus, we want to tell you: We are ashamed ofyou. After December 6th [the day of the demolition of Babri Masjid], the tiger has been let out of the cage." Murli Manohar Joshi, then president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), declared to a cheering audience of mostly Indian-American immigrants to the United States that December 6th was "the most memorable day" of his life, and that it inaugurated a new phase of Indian history. When Uma Bharati chanted, * I wish to acknowledge the assistance of a Research and Writing Grant from the MacArthur Foundation in the writing of this paper. I am also grateful to Sujata Bhatt, Rosemary M. George, Anand Swamy, and Raymond Brady Williams for their help. To Linda Hess, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Anupama Rao and the editors and reviewers of the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, I am indebted for their generous assistance with comments and criticism.
Funding Information:
subjected to racial attacks, they felt that their subordinate status in the United States was a result of India's subjugation by the British. The Ghadar Party they formed—with partial funding from Germany—sent a band of armed revolutionaries to India to foment a war of liberation. Party members who demonstrated in the United States frequently shouted "firangi mard" (strike down foreigners). Indian immigrants in the United States today possess the archetypal immigrant virtues of hard work, thrift, and material success. They have one of the highest incomes of any ethnic group in the United States, and are the best educated.13 Yet numbers of these Indian immigrants align themselves with extremist politics in India. Notions of guilt, frustration, and political irresponsibility are inadequate to explain this troublesome juxtaposition. More careful attention to the specific contradictions they bring to and mobilize in their new location is required.
PY - 1997
Y1 - 1997
N2 - Nine months after the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayod-hya, India, in December 1992, a conference was held in Washington, D.C., sponsored by VHP of America, the U.S. branch of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Assembly). Despite the fact that VHP (India) had been banned by the Indian governmentt for its role in the destruction of Babri Masjid and in the riots that followed, several VHP leaders were allowed to attend the 1993 conference under the pretext that “Global Vision 2000” was purely a cultural event, marking the centenary anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's 1893 address to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
AB - Nine months after the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayod-hya, India, in December 1992, a conference was held in Washington, D.C., sponsored by VHP of America, the U.S. branch of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Assembly). Despite the fact that VHP (India) had been banned by the Indian governmentt for its role in the destruction of Babri Masjid and in the riots that followed, several VHP leaders were allowed to attend the 1993 conference under the pretext that “Global Vision 2000” was purely a cultural event, marking the centenary anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's 1893 address to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
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U2 - 10.1080/14672715.1997.10413093
DO - 10.1080/14672715.1997.10413093
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0005933129
VL - 29
SP - 45
EP - 58
JO - Critical Asian Studies
JF - Critical Asian Studies
SN - 1467-2715
IS - 3
ER -