'Hardline' charity begins in the donation
box By Ashish Kumar Sen
WASHINGTON - For the second time in less than
two years, an in-depth recent report has been released
providing in detail links between charities based in the
West and militant Hindu organizations in India.
The latest report, "In Bad Faith? British
Charity and Hindu Extremism", has been published by
Awaaz, a London-based secular network. According to the
report, a significant portion of funds collected in the
name of humanitarian causes is being spent on schools
run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a hardline
Hindu organization whose philosophy is intolerant of
other religions and which advocates Hindutva - a
militant brand of Hinduism.
In New Delhi, an RSS
spokesman dismissed the allegations as "wild and false".
"The whole report smacks of a sinister conspiracy to
defame Hindu organizations," said RSS spokesman Ram
Madhav. "We take strong objection to the propaganda
unleashed by persons and organizations hither to unknown
against the RSS and organizations connected with it like
the Sewa Bharati [a fundraiser] with wild and false
allegations of misuse of funds received from abroad."
In the past, independent human rights groups
including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, Amnesty
International and India's National Human Rights
Commission have reported that RSS projects directed at
tribal and lower caste groups in Gujarat played a
critical role in fomenting communal riots in 2002.
The Awaaz report claims that the RSS's front
organizations collected millions of pounds from the
British public, which was unaware of the charities'
links to Hindu militants. A majority of these funds were
collected by the Leicester-based and registered charity,
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) and its fundraising arm,
Sewa International (UK).
The HSS, an overseas
branch of the RSS, actively promotes its ideology of
turning India into a Hindu nation.
Sewa
International (UK), though not a registered charity,
became a high profile fundraising organization after the
Gujarat earthquake in 2001. Allegedly using the HSS'
charity registration number, its India Quake Appeal
raised around US$4.2 million. The British public and
patrons of Sewa International were apparently at the
time unaware of its connections to the RSS.
Lord
Adam Patel, member of the House of Lords and patron of
Sewa International, resigned from his latter affiliation
last year after learning of the group's links to RSS.
Speaking at the release of the report in the House of
Lords on February 26, Lord Patel said that Sewa
International had "cheated me and cheated the residents
of the UK".
"Like Lord Adam Patel, people have
been shocked at the level of deceit carried out by Sewa
International," said Suresh Grover, an Awaaz board
member.
London-based Charity Commission is
investigating the HSS and Sewa International. Last year,
the Indian government denied visas to investigators from
the commission who wanted to travel to India as part of
their inquiry. Confirming that the commission had been
"refused" visas, Rebecca Drake, a spokesperson said: "We
have contacted them [the government of India] to ask
them to reconsider their decision and are awaiting a
response."
Another Charity Commission
spokesperson said: "We are looking into potential links
between the charity [HSS] and extremist organizations in
India and alleged payments to these groups by the
charity. We are looking at the relationship between the
HSS and Sewa International, and also the administration
of the funds that were collected for the Gujarat
Earthquake Appeal."
Many are unaware of the
extent of the political influence the HSS has cultivated
within the UK. "It's a striking fact that as prime
minister, Margaret Thatcher put a garland on [RSS
founder Keshav Baliram ] Hedgewar's bust," said Awaaz
spokesperson Chetan Bhatt.
Explaining the lack
of public outcry, Bhatt said: "That's part of the
British didactic multiculturalism ... people don't want
to be labeled racist."
According to Grover, the
main goal of the HSS and Sewa International is to
"channel money to extremist RSS fronts in India, despite
their claim to be non-sectarian, non-religious,
non-political and purely humanitarian organizations".
Funds raised by Sewa International run into millions of
dollars.
While the report links the HSS, Sewa
International and the Kalyan Ashram Trust to
RSS-sponsored violence in India, Grover said: "Although
we cannot say pounds collected here were used to buy
guns in India, we can say with confidence that the money
was used to build hatred against a minority. Most donors
would be horrified if they knew the nature, history and
ideas of the RSS," he added.
The
Hostel-Dispensary-Cultural Center for Children and
Nurseries, an affiliate of a US-based charity implicated
in a similar report, states in its literature: "The
Muslims are also trying to create chaos in these
communities, either by enticing these tribals or by
raping the tribal girls by force. The Kalyan Ashram at
Sidumbar [Gujarat] is trying to put a stop to these
activities of Muslims as well as Christians ... The
workers of Kalyan Ashrams are required to give a tough
fight to the Christian missionaries because they keep on
harassing the local residents."
According to the
Awaaz report, the village of Chapredi, rebuilt after the
Gujarat earthquake, included an important dedication
plaque glorifying the RSS, its founder and a key RSS
affiliate. A Hindu temple topped with saffron flags was
built in the village. No evidence was found of Sewa
International funding the rebuilding of mosques or
churches, though many of these were destroyed in the
earthquake.
Some funds meant for earthquake
reconstruction were also allegedly channeled to the
RSS's Lok Kalyan Samiti in Chanasma village, which has
been directly implicated in the violent "cleansing" of
all Muslims from the village and the illegal occupation
of premises and land belonging to the statutory Muslim
Waqf board. Another RSS project, Jankalyan Samiti, was
allegedly the recipient of Sewa International (UK)
earthquake funds. The Samiti's Maharashtra branch has
been involved in violence against Christians.
The report makes a pointed reference to the fact
that despite these charities' claims of being
non-sectarian and non-discriminatory, Sewa International
(UK), the HSS (UK) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP -
World Hindu Forum) did not launch any humanitarian
appeals following the Gujarat violence in 2002. The
majority of victims of that tragedy were Muslims.
Saying that the Sewa Bharati was governed by
Indian laws, Madhav added: "Every single penny received
by Sewa Bharati from within or outside India is
judiciously spent on the causes for which it has been
collected."
The Awaaz report is not the first to
expose links between Hindutva groups and violence. In
2002, a Channel Four investigation in the UK documented
the communal ideology espoused at Vanvasi Kalyan ashrams
in India. Last year, the Financial Times reported a
similar story. The Madhya Pradesh government has revoked
Sewa Bharti's license because of its alleged involvement
in violence against Christians.
The Awaaz report
claims a large proportion of the $484,000 raised by Sewa
International for Orissa cyclone relief in 1999 enabled
the expansion of major RSS affiliates. "Funds were used
for building RSS schools. The RSS and its leaders were
glorified. The HSS said Orissa cyclone funds would be
channeled through RSS volunteers and given to
organizations which get their work force from the RSS,"
the report says.
Bhatt says that the British
public was "duped" into believing they were contributing
towards relief efforts for victims of the Orissa cyclone
and the Gujarat earthquake.
Grover added: "We do
not think it is a coincidence that the two Indian states
where Hindutva networks, violence and hatred have grown
phenomenally in recent years both had natural and human
tragedies followed by massive amounts of funding to
Hindutva organizations from overseas."
Almost a
quarter of Sewa International earthquake funds raised
from the British public were for building sectarian,
highly controversial RSS schools. "These schools are
mainly run by the RSS's Vidya Bharati, whose teaching
material has been condemned by India's statutory
National Council for Educational Research and Training
as blatantly promoting bigotry, fanaticism and hatred."
Madhav claimed that the Sewa Bharati had
constructed 124 schools, and that 49 of these had
minorities on their rolls. "Sewa Bharati [Gujarat] has
served the minorities without any discrimination during
the relief activities," he added.
The UK report
echoes findings by US-based groups in November 2002. The
Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) put out an
exhaustive document linking a Maryland-based charity,
the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), to the
RSS. The authors of that report, "The Foreign Exchange
of Hate", alleged IDRF was sending money to
organizations implicated in violence against Christians
and Muslims in India.
"The British report
corroborates the assertion of the FxH [The Foreign
Exchange of Hate] report that front organizations raise
money in the Indian expatriate communities, ostensibly
for the purposes of development and education, but
channel these funds towards political agendas that are
inimical to a tolerant, secular and plural society,"
said a CSFH spokesperson.
Linking the two
reports, a spokesperson for Awaaz said: "Sewa
International is the UK equivalent of the American
charity, the India Development and Relief Fund; both
organizations work towards the same purpose - to fund,
promote and glorify extremist RSS fronts in India."
In a response to the CSFH report, "Factual
Response to the Hate Attack on the IDRF," the "Friends
of India" refuted charges against the charity saying:
"Here is what a rational individual should ask: Is being
for something always being against something else? Does
loving your wife lead to hating other women? Is loving
your nation an indication of hating other countries? Is
helping those closest to you an attempt at undermining
others?"
"Ordinarily, Hindutva is understood as
a way of life or a state of mind and is not to be
equated with or understood as religious Hindu
fundamentalism," the authors of the "Factual Response"
said.
"The response of the HSS has always been
to simply deny all allegations rather than deal with
specific charges," said Bhatt. "They never answer the
key allegations which have been made to them repeatedly
- which is that they are RSS fronts, they are raising
money for the RSS and its affiliates, they are funding
organizations which are linked to violence, and they are
accountable to the British public from which they have
raised this money."
The Awaaz report has asked
the UK Charity Commissioner to withdraw charity status
of the HSS (UK), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (UK) and the
Kalyan Ashram Trust.
In New Delhi, Madhav
remains confident that his organization will ride out
the storm. "Similar futile efforts were made last year
also by some groups in the US to denigrate and defame
Hindu organizations working for the welfare of the
people of our country," he said. "These campaigns have
not harmed us earlier and they are not going to do so
now either."
Ashish Kumar Sen is a
Washington DC-based journalist.
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