On Sunday, May 15th, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) conducted an awareness and membership drive event in Andover, MA at the home of Prerak and Salina Shah.

At the event, Massachusetts-local and member of the Board of Directors of HAF, Pawan Deshpande, educated community members on the foundation’s mission, history, and current initiatives that span work with media, government, academia, human rights and interfaith. 

Among the dozens of initiatives covered, some of the highlights included:

●      HAF’s annual Hindu human rights report which covers areas of the world where Hindus are persecuted as a minority such as in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia among many others. 

●      HAF’s annual advocacy days where members of the foundation meet with members of congress and other government officials to advocate for issues of concern to the community.

●      Work with the FBI to properly classify hate crimes against Hindus.

●      The “Take Back Yoga” campaign to recognize the Hindu origins of yoga.

●      Community programs such as the congressional internship program and next generation essay contest.

Deshpande also shared the results of a recent study on the topic of bullying and bias conducted by surveying 335 Hindu American students.  Some of the key findings were that:

●      One out of three respondents said they had been bullied for their religious beliefs.

●      Half of the total sample size indicated feelings of awkwardness or social isolation because of their religious identity.

●      More than 60% said that their schools focused on caste and Hinduism, including claims about the religion and Indian social practice that have been long debunked.

●      About one in eight respondents said their teachers made sarcastic remarks about Hinduism in front of class.

●      One in four reported being bullied within the past year, with about a third saying those who bullied them were “making fun of Hindu traditions.”

In particular, the audience was most concerned by a concerted politically-motivated campaign by a  small group of academics and radical activists who have campaigned for edits to school frameworks in California which would replace references to “India” and “Hinduism” with “South Asia” and “ancient Indian religion” respectively, portray Hinduism as a religion that degrades women, and falsely state that caste-based discrimination is intrinsic and justified by the religion. HAF in conjunction with other Hindu and Indian-American organizations have launched the “Don’t Erase India” campaign that will properly and accurately represent Hinduism in the classroom in a more equitable manner.

Members of the public interested in supporting the foundation can learn more at http://www.hafsite.org/.

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