Eagle's Eye: ISKCON and Hindus in the West

BY: STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Dec 30, BHOPAL, INDIA (CENTRAL CHRONICLE) — Ignorance about the Hindu religion abroad is not only colossal and at all levels but it sometimes looks insulting when it is exhibited rather brazenly -Tukoji R Pandit

By their own squeamish standards of defending the Hindu religion the protest by the self-styled custodians of 'Hindutva' over the demolition of a 'Hindu temple' in Kazakhstan outside that country's embassy in Delhi was a tame affair. Rampaging the chancery and disrupting another day's proceedings in Parliament would have been more like it. But then the 'temple' in question belonged to the Hare Krishna people, or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), whose saffron robed followers do not seem to invite special attention from the saffron political party in India.

Maybe, the Indian saffron party thinks the Hare Krishna people are actually apostate, not adherents of 'true' faith which mandates the faithful to chant 'Ram' and 'Ayodhya' and not the distinct sounds of 'Hare Krishna', mostly by white converts. Or, it could be that the 'foreign origin' of the Hare Krishna cult - it was founded in New York in 1966, though the founder was an Indian, Swami Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada - that dampens the saffron enthusiasm in India which might have been further subdued in the light of certain unsavoury past controversies surrounding ISKCON.

Whatever the truth, it might however have embarrassed the Hindu custodians in the country to learn that the matter of razing a 'Hindu temple' in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan was raised not by an Indian leader but, of all the persons, by the British PM, Tony Blair, when he met the visiting Kazhak president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in London, following a representation made to him by a British Hindu organisation.

There was a ready explanation for the bulldozing zeal of the Kazakhs. The 'temple' was built on land 'illegally' occupied by the followers of the Hare Krishna movement. The Kazakh authorities had altogether destroyed 13 houses of Hare Krishna followers in Karasai district who were among the 60 households living in a farm just outside the former capital city of Almaty for a decade. The rest of the Hare Krishna community lives in fear of seeing their houses destroyed any moment. The 'temple' was said to be the only Hindu place of worship in entire Central Asia.

Locals in Karasai district contested the official version on the 'temple'. They said repeated requests were made to authorities for registration of the temple land and the requests were always turned down, arousing strong suspicions of discrimination against a minority group. This criticism of the Kazakh authorities cannot be dismissed lightly. Their claim that there is no discrimination against religious minorities is not supported by the ground reality. President Nazarbayev plays a fake card of religious tolerance.

According to Ninel Fokine of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights the president's claim is 'pure bluff.' There are rising complaints of harassment of religious minority groups in Kazakhstan. Recent changes in legislation have made it more difficult for religious organisations to operate. For the past one year, the Kazakh government has been refusing to entertain a request for building a Hindu temple.

The accusations of religious intolerance in Kazakhstan have to be viewed in the light of some recent events. In December 2005, Nazarbayev was re-elected by a majority of 91 per cent votes for another seven-year term amidst widespread allegations of fraud. The flaws in the presidential poll, which included ballot box stuffing, intimidation of opponents, media bias and harassment of opposition campaign staff, were noted by international monitors, 460 of whom had witnessed the election. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observed at the end of the polls that 'the authorities had not exhibited sufficient political will to hold a genuinely good election.'

A political opponent of the president who was formerly his ally, Zamanbek Nurkadilov, was found dead, shot three times, at his house before the poll, presumably because he had backed a rival of the president. A month before that a prominent journalist who had compared Nazarbayev to the Rumanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, was also found dead under mysterious circumstances.

Of course, it will be wrong to pick on Kazakhstan for showing intolerance towards religious minorities. Perhaps by virtue of the perception as being 'submissive' in nature, governments in the West as also in many other countries in Asia and Africa care little about paying attention to grievances from the Hindu communities. Hindu communities in most of these countries also must share the blame. In the US where everyone from President George Bush downwards loudly claims to be 'tolerant', the Hindus are often subjected to ridicule and humiliation for their 'quaint' practices and rituals and even more for their 'strange' gods and goddesses. Many Hindus, especially the younger generation, are embarrassed when they have to identify their religion in public. The Hindu boys and girls have to put up with jibes and taunts at school. After 9/11 brown-skinned people in the US are liable to attract 'intolerant' gaze and comments when they come out of their homes.

Sighting an Indian (Hindu) at his gathering, a presidential aspirant in the US promptly addressed him with the colloquial equivalent of 'monkey,' perhaps recalling that one of the gods the Hindus worship is a 'monkey'. In 'multi-religious' discourses in the West, inclusion of Hindu representatives is incidental.

Ignorance about the Hindu religion abroad is not only colossal and at all levels but it sometimes looks insulting when it is exhibited rather brazenly--because there is no fear of any backlash. Recently when Satveer Chaudhary, a Hindu, was elected to the US Senate he received a message from his Republican rival, Rae Hart Anderson. Ostensibly, it was a message congratulating him for his victory. But she added a caveat: 'It is my sincere wish that you will get to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.' Her former campaign manager, Barbara Black was more explicit: 'Chaudhary is not a Christian, and he needs to find his soul.' Last heard, Chaudhary had paid no heed to that intolerant message.