Ignoring all the vituperative, vitriolic and bucolic bile excreted by Santosh which has by now become standard and normal fare for him, I would like to go back to the topic of discussion.
Mario and Santosh make valid points that the bulk of the Indian American community are more focussed on their personal and professional growth and development. However, it must be conceded that Vijay Prashad too makes valid points to back up his arguments. He too has lived long in the USA, is a Professor and has interacted extensively with the Indian community. It would be fair to conclude that there is a section of the Indian community which is drawn to the VHP and its activities. This is what Vijay Prashad has to say in the article: " Desai points out that young Indian Americans suffer from cultural bigotry, and that this experience sends them in search of an identity fix – either to benign or not so benign organisations. The VHPA and its “Yankee Hindutva” parivar know this fully well. The Hindu Students Council bemoans the “loss and isolation” faced by youth in this “dual culture – Hindu and Judeo-Christian”. So, “it was precisely to assist you with this spiritual, emotional and identity needs that HSC was born”. For 15 years I have written about the mechanisms by which groups like the HSC draw on liberal multiculturalism to create rigid Hindutva identities in the diaspora. My main argument has been that the VHPA and its kin do nothing to challenge the root of this feeling of loss and isolation, which would drive it to actively take on racism. Instead of doing the difficult work in the anti-racist movement, the VHPA harnesses young people into a cultural bigotry of its own: against Indian Americans who are Muslims and dalits.3 Groups like the VHPA are less concerned with the broad problems of racism that motivate the loss and isolation, than they are to push the Hindutva agenda in the US and Canada" *http://epw.in/epw//uploads/articles/13284.pdf* ** Here are two articles which chronicles the activities of some expat Indians. http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl1925/stories/20021220005302800.htm http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1925/stories/20021220005502700.htm One only needs to go through the letters to the editor section of magazines like Outlook, to know how some NRI’s react to issues in India. If Santosh desires, I can cull and post him copies. Will Santosh explain why persons like Narendra Modi are eulogized by some of the expat population in USA and repeatedly invited by some of the various Indian associations to be the keynote speaker or chief guest, despite his gory track record? It may be hard to accept certain unpalatable facts, but to live in denial of the same is escapism. Regards, Marshall
