[Aug. 30, MTL] India’s Descent Into Fascism And Far-Right Hindu Supremacist Networks In The US & Canada: A conversation with Raqib Hameed Naik

*Please share widely / SVP partagez largement*
*India’s Descent Into Fascism And Far-Right Hindu Supremacist Networks In
The US & Canada*

*A conversation with Raqib Hameed Naik*
*Tuesday, August 30, 2022, 6pm Eastern Time*
SSMU Ballroom, Room 301, University Center, McGill University
3480 McTavish St., Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), H3A 0E7
Reserve your spot: https://forms.gle/mojDAmVmd17yX5AD7

Please share: https://www.facebook.com/events/1048572732465962

This summer Trudeau and Biden were shaking hands with Modi in Europe
signing documents reiterating its “commitment to protecting and promoting
all human rights”. While back in India under Modi’s watch, human rights
defenders and journalists, like Teesta Setalvad, were being arrested for
having pursued justice.

*Perhaps a little-known fact about India in the West is that it has the
longest running fascist movement in the world.* Founded in the 1920s, the
leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the fountain-head of
Hindutva (the right-wing Hindu nationalist and violent political ideology
in India) were* inspired by Mussolini and Hitler*. Hindutva promotes an
exclusionary vision of India as a Hindu homeland. *Their tactics mirror
that of fascist Italy.* RSS is a dangerous paramilitary volunteer
organization and the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi was one of its members, as
is the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.

After the 1992 destruction of the 16th-century Babri mosque by hundreds of
thousands of karsevaks (religious volunteers) associated with RSS and the
2002 Gujarat genocide, in 2019 under the second mandate of Modi we saw
clear signs of fascism in the everyday functioning of the country. *Parallels
to 1930s Germany are stark.* The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) & National
Register of Citizens (NRC) discriminate against Muslims when it comes to
their sheer existence in the country. *Other laws also designed to make
Muslims second-class citizens, mimic Nuremberg laws and exhibit the
Nazification of India.* (It should be noted by people unfamiliar by the
Indian political landscape that these comparisons are not hyperbolic.)

Raqib Hameed Naik, a US-based Kashmiri journalist, who has written for Al
Jazeera, The Globe Post, The Defense Post, Frontline and Caravan Magazine
and other international publications and reported extensively about
Hindutva, will address how India is descending deeper into fascism. Mr.
Naik is one of the most hated journalists by the Hindu rightwing in the
United States; a fact that he considers a badge of honor. He is currently
facing a lawsuit by a Hindu right-wing group in Washington DC and other
legal threats from the powerful Hindutva lobbies in the US.

He will cover first hand accounts of the *situation in Kashmir, the scene
on the ground in India, the implications and consequences, as well as how
far-right Hindu supremacists and Hindutva networks extend in the US and
Canada.* The event will also be a space to explore how to resist Hindutva
closer to home as well as how international solidarity plays a crucial role
in amplifying resistance movements in India by those who are daily putting
their lives on the line to stop this fascist tide.

*Organized by CERAS (South Asia Center) & SADAC (South Asian Diaspora
Action Collective); Co-sponsors: QPIRG-McGill, Justice for All Canada,
Students Society of McGill University (SSMU) – External Affairs; Leftwing
Books www.leftwingbooks.net <http://www.leftwingbooks.net>; Endorser:
QPIRG-Concordia, Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Solidarity Across
Borders.*

*More info: https://www.facebook.com/sadacmtl
<https://www.facebook.com/sadacmtl>sadac_info@riseup.net
<sadac_info@riseup.net>cerasmontreal@gmail.com <cerasmontreal@gmail.com>*

Additional reading and resources:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FQmzRdD6O3M7RMbVnV1GsG9mOZmCh3UAyWkMMuizNcs/edit?usp=sharing