Year after the most disturbing conference on ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ another conference on anti-Hindu was conspired by an American University. An American university organised a conference on anti-Hindu and anti-India themes for the sessions in the conference. This year on 7th-8th October a conference was held on Asian Studies at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at the Syracuse University of New York.
Besides fillers like Asian and Asian American art exhibitions and music, documentary screenings and discussions, and dance programs with nomadic performers, the main part of this conference consisted of panel discussions on different topics related to Asian countries like China, India, Korea, etc.
The conference was titled “State and society in Asia: Past and Present”. The topics specified for a panel session held in the afternoon between 1:45 pm to 3:45 pm on 7th October 2022 were objectionable enough to draw the ire of Hindus. The subject of the session was “Religion and Politics in South Asia”. Radha Kumar of Syracuse University chaired the session. Ankush Arora of Syracuse University, Yash Sharma of the University of Cincinnati, Syed Jalil Hussain and Geethika Dharmasinghe of Cornell University, Katyayini Richhariya of Tufts University, and Mohammad Habib Raza of BRAC University are participating in that session.
Ankush Arora talked about “Symbol of Divinity or Deadly Weapon? Visualization of the Cow in Indian Calendar Art and Digital Media”. Yash Sharma had chosen a topic titled “Hindutva, Militarism, and Everyday Insecurity in India”. Syed Jalil Hussain talked on “Seeing beyond the State: Sectarian Insecurities, State Coercion, and Transnational Shiite Networks in Kashmir”.
Geethika Dharmasighe had chosen a yet more weird issue for her discussion. She talked about “Buddhist Modernity Modelled after Islam”. Katyayini Richhariya presented her thoughts on “Religion, Hate Speech, and the Indian and Pakistani States”. Mohammad Habib Raza shared his views on “Rethinking the architectural history teaching of Bangladesh: a global perspective for (South) Asia”.
The agenda continued in other sessions. In another session on the subject “Alternative Regimes of Power and Protection: Ritual Interiors and Experiential Infrastructures of Society and State” jointly chaired by Ross Freedenberg and Shannon Novak of Syracuse University, Mona Bhan of Syracuse University and Radhika Govindarajan from the University of Washington presented their thoughts on “More-Than-Human Fascism: On Cows, Rivers, and Hindu Supremacy”. However, to put on a mask of inter-faith balance, the same session consisted of a talk by Vaidehi Paneri of Syracuse University on the topic “Hindu-Muslim Religious Syncretism”.
The organisers have also attempted several attacks on the popular culture of India and also displayed their problems with the nationalistic portrayel in Indian Cinemas. This was reflected by the details of another session. This session was titled “Sonic and Visual Representations of Asian-ness in Global Multi-Media”. It was chaired by Natalie Sarrazin of SUNY Brockport. The chairperson herself talked about “For whom does the Heroine Sing? Auto-Representation and Transnationalism in Hindi Film Music''.
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