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THE
CAMPAIGN TO STOP FUNDING HATE
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Project
Saffron Dollar:
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(Petition
closed! CSFH thanks all respondents for supporting this
effort!) We, the undersigned organizations and individuals,
united under the banner of The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate,
are writing to inform you that the India Development and
Relief Fund (IDRF), which uses your services to raise money
for its activities, is deeply involved in the propagation of sectarian
hate and violence in India. We believe that the money that IDRF
collects and generates through your organization has been used
to fund an intolerant and violent Hindu Supremacist movement (Hindutva)
that undermines the constitutionally guaranteed rights of minorities
in India to equal citizenship and a life free of persecution. We believe that IDRF misleads well-meaning individual
donors and institutions into funding organizations that foster
ethnic hatred. We are deeply disturbed at the support IDRF receives
from your institution and urge you to terminate this relationship. Our conclusions regarding the Hindutva movement,
and IDRF's close links to it are drawn from a recently released
report 'The Foreign
Exchange of Hate: IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva.'
We submit the following summary of our concerns in order to provide
you the information you need to make a decision: 1. Hindutva: a. Hindutva is a violent, sectarian
movement based upon the premise of Hindu supremacy. Its core
ideological organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National
Volunteers Corps, abbreviated as the RSS), was started in 1925
and has drawn its inspiration and structure from both Nazi
Germany and Fascist Italy (see Sections 2.1, 2.2 and Appendix
A of the attached report). b. The RSS functions through a network of
organizations and fronts that are together called the Sangh
Parivar (the Sangh Family). The Sangh Parivar operates
both in India and abroad, particularly in the U.S. and the
U.K. (see Sections 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 of
the report). c. The Hindutva movement relies upon
deliberate and systematic use of violence to consolidate its
power base and to fracture the society along religious lines.
It was responsible for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle
of non-violence. Since then, Hindutva groups have continually
incited hate and communal violence in India. Over the last
decade, they have killed more than 5000 people, belonging primarily
to religious minorities. In recent years they have carried
out a campaign of murder and intimidation against the Christian
community in India (1999-2000) and orchestrated the mass murder
of more than 2000 people, mostly Muslims, in the Indian state
of Gujarat (February to August 2002). Many national and international
human rights commissions and groups have charged the Hindutva movement
with carrying out systematic pogroms and hate campaigns (see
Section 2.6 of
the report). 2. IDRF's Links to Hindutva: a. An examination of the institutional links
and the overlap of personnel between IDRF and the Sangh
Parivar lead us to believe that IDRF serves as a major
conduit for the flow of funds from the U.S. to the Hindutva movement
in India (see Section 3 of
the report). b. IDRF has publicly claimed that it has
no connection to Hindutva or the Sangh Parivar in
India. Yet, a study of its records shows that it has consistently
supported organizations aligned with the Hindutva movement,
channeling over 80% of all funds at its discretion to them
(see Section 4.1 of
the report). c. Despite its name, the India Development
and Relief Fund does little on issues of development
in India; instead, it primarily funds activities and organizations
that support sectarian divisions and hatred. Only a fifth
of the funds IDRF sends to India go for disaster relief and
welfare activities, and there is documentation to support
that the disbursement of even these amounts is sectarian
(see Sections 4.2 and 4.3 of
the report). d. Several so-called "sister organizations" of
IDRF in India which have received large amounts of money from
the IDRF have been linked to violence against minorities. Prominent
among these is Sewa Bharati, an organization that has
had its license cancelled in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh
for attempting to ignite sectarian violence. Vanavasi Kalyan
Ashram, another organization directly funded by IDRF, has
also been linked to violence in tribal areas (see Section 4.4 of
the report). Given the above, we urge you to close the IDRF
account until IDRF can demonstrate that it has severed all connections
with the Hindutva movement. Such action on your part will
send the message that your organization will not associate itself
with hate crimes or religious extremism. We are hopeful that you will join us in our commitment
to a life free from persecution for all peoples of the world. Sincerely,
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