Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

• These ideas date back to the British colonial era and have far-reaching implications for people’s everyday lives.
• The trailer claimed 32,000 Hindu girls had been converted to Islam by Muslim men with the intent of recruiting them to ISIS.
• Once the film came out, citizens tried to get it banned by sending a petition to the India’s Supreme Court.

Political fallout

• The figure of 32,000 women in the film’s trailer was immediately challenged by Indian political leaders and also debunked by fact-checkers from the website, Alt News.
• The filmmakers agreed to change the number and a new trailer was released.

Challenges in the Indian Supreme Court

• Some politicians decried the propagandist nature of the movie and in West Bengal, it was banned by the government.
• Politicians there said the film “manipulated facts and contains hate speech in multiple scenes” and they banned the film to “avoid violence and hatred.” The Indian Supreme Court lifted the state ban though agreed that a disclaimer on the film was necessary.
• The disclaimer indicated that the film provides “no authentic data” to support the 32,000 figure and that it presents fictionalized accounts.

Islamophobia from the 19th century

• In the 19th century, Hindu scholars and new religious organisations (like Arya Samaj and Hindu Mahasabha) began producing a new Hindu-centric version of Indian history.
• This history grew in response to British colonialism but at the same time, shared similarities with British colonial ideas.
• By the late 19th century, India was constructed around Hindu heterosexual relationships and family values in opposition to Muslim sexual deviance and rampant Muslim sexuality.

Challenges to interfaith marriage

• Love jihad’s centrality to Hindu nationalist politics has led to specifically stringent laws focused heavily on sexuality and marriage.
• Read more:
  India’s 'love jihad' anti-conversion laws aim to further oppress minorities, and it's working

  Hindu vigilantes, in partnership with the police, launch missions to separate interfaith couples.

• One response to the chatter about “love jihad,” is an Instagram channel called India Love Project launched to celebrate stories of interfaith love and marriages.

• Rahul Gandhi, India’s most prominent opposition leader and the principal adversary of the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, was recently disqualified as a member of parliament.
• This came after Gandhi was found guilty of defamation for comment he made about Modi’s surname at a rally in 2019.
• The scion of India’s most prominent political dynasty made several remarks alleging that India’s democratic institutions were being deliberately undermined by the current government.
• Their reasoning was that criticising the state of India’s postcolonial democracy in the halls of the former colonising country crossed the line.

Democracy in decline

• The RSS is a nucleus of the “Sangh Parivar” umbrella movement of various right-wing organisations and an ideological parent to the BJP.
• It has been quite open about its desire to transform India into a strongly militarist nation based on extreme Hindu nationalism.

Political Labelling

• Rather than engage with the substance of Gandhi’s arguments, the party and its supporters have instead focused on criticising him personally.
• They portray Gandhi and other critics as “anti-national” and as part of a “foreign conspiracy” to weaken India.
• This contempt for opposition by no means stops at political figures such as Gandhi.
• In March, justice minister Kiren Rijiju referred to “some retired judges” being “part of the anti-India gang”.

• The Almanor Foundation will receive $10,000 to aid relief programs benefiting people whose lives have been affected by recent fires.
• The American Red Cross will also receive $10,000 to assist with California wildfire relief.
• We hope that our support of these local relief programs will help people quickly recover and rebuild their lives.
• We are so grateful to the Verizon Foundation for its support of our Western Wildfires response.

• Sewa International of Trinidad and Tobago is working with its partner organizations to distribute food, medicine, and other essentials to people who are in need.\n"Sewa is working with the Nepal Medical Association, Aggrawal Sewa Kendra, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, and Upkar Sewa and our other partner organizations.
• Many Nepal related organizations in the US have been reaching out to Sewa to collaborate in this effort.
• Sewa International Nepal in collaboration with its partner organizations started our first COVID isolation center in Aggrawal Kendra in Kathmandu, Nepal on Monday, May 17.
• Sewa has 43 Chapters across the USA and serves regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin.\n'