Aliya Anjum<\/p>\n
India was never in the American sphere: it was first in the Soviet and then in the Russian camp. In the early 2000\u2019s the US began to nurture India as a counterweight to China. In the last two decades, India-US ties and mutual trade have risen exponentially. Due to its economic rise, India\u2019s politics, religions and culture are now in the global spotlight \u2013 facilitated by the international media, Bollywood, social media and international tourism.
\nPolicy decisions are taken by the American administration, however, there is the RSS foreshadowing going on behind the scenes to facilitate Hindutva. To understand how and why this happens, one has to understand Jewish American history, which mirrors the Indian trajectory to a great degree.
\nFrom 1820 through 1880, Jewish people \u2013 mostly German-speaking from Central Europe \u2013 first arrived in America. From the 1880\u2019s eastern European Jewish immigrants arrived in the US in great numbers. This immigration was only halted when emergency immigration laws were implemented in 1921. POTUS Warren Harding wanted the US to be Protestant and white. Hence hatred of blacks, Catholics, Jews and others surged across the United States so much so that historian John Higham famously dubbed the era \u201cThe Tribal Twenties.\u201d The white supremacist militant group the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) \u2013 known for lynching blacks \u2013 grew to have 5 million white male members. Catholic parochial schools were banned in many places. Universities, private academies and preparatory schools \u2013 both private and public \u2013 limited Jewish student enrollments. Fraternities, clubs, hotels and resorts, often shut the Jewish out completely. President Harding\u2019s premier supporter, the famous automaker Henry Ford, ran an anti-semitic campaign in Ford\u2019s weekly newspaper. Headlines would read \u201cDoes Jewish Power Control the World Press?\u201d and \u201cHow Jewish International Finance Functions.\u201d
\nJewish individuals actively fought off the antisemitic tide with a three-pronged strategy. First and foremost they banded together as a religious group. Secondly, they wrote a slate of books and articles to counter propaganda and they filed lawsuits \u2013 emerging triumphant in the lawsuit against Henry Ford. Last but not least, they also fought on behalf of blacks and Catholics in their rights campaigns. Understanding \u201cintersectionality,\u201d the Jewish people understood that to change the zeitgeist of the times, they needed other minority groups as allies. Jewish groups also worked hard to create Jewish educational institutes and their social groups. Thus the conservative policies of POTUS Harding served to create and empower Jewish interests.
\nToday, a century later, Jewish Zionist lobbying has reached its zenith. Jewish interest groups are extremely well entrenched in the American system and they are very powerful in the US. Israel is thriving thanks to them.
\nThe Zionists have now found intersectionality with the Hindus \u2013 owing to the fact that there is an ongoing genocide of the Muslims in both Israel and India.
\nThe Hindu American Foundation (HAF) is the most influential Hindu American advocacy group. At the time of its founding in 2003, they statedly turned to American Jewish organizations, whom they viewed as the \u201cgold standard\u201d in political activism. Indian Americans have modelled their congressional activism on that of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
\nOn the surface, HAF has been known for its work on Hindu civil rights issues. However, Indian lobbyists have also partnered with these Jewish groups to achieve shared defense goals: including arms deals between India and Israel; and a landmark nuclear agreement between India and the US. These Jewish groups understand the US system on an organic level as they have successfully engaged with it- to their benefit \u2013 for a century now. Over the last two decades, they have consistently passed on this vital knowledge and skill by training a generation of Hindu lobbyists and advocates, offering strategies at joint summits and providing informal advice. This goes all the way up to the highest offices of the US government and the US Supreme Court.
\nIt is crucial to understand that in spite of the Jewish people achieving political power, prominence and fame, anti-semitism persists. Hollywood\u2019s famed director and producer Steven Spielberg has said that the bullying he suffered while at school made him ashamed of being Jewish. There are certain age-old stereotypes associated with the Jewish people, which closely match Hindu stereotypes. The old trope of the greedy Jewish merchant \u2013 immortalized by Shakespeare\u2019s Shylock \u2013 also finds an echo in the trope of the avaricious Hindu banya or merchant. There is another ancient trope of \u201cblood libel,\u201d referring to the medieval belief that Jews used the blood of Christians in their religious rituals. An NPR journalist\u2019s tweet accused Hindus of \u201cpiss drinking.\u201d Indian Hindus and American Jewish groups actively work to fight negative stereotypes of the two groups prevalent in the media. The Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL), was founded in 1913 to oppose discrimination against Jews by monitoring their portrayal in US society. In 1997, the VHP \u2013 the cultural wing of the RSS \u2013 established an anti-defamation arm, American Hindus Against Defamation (AHAD), which launched successful campaigns against demeaning uses of Hindu iconography in perfume branding, yoga gear, a Sony commercial, and a Simpsons episode.
\nFighting stereotypes, caricatures, memes and public comments is vital to preserving Zionist and Hindutva interests. To prevent becoming hated and targeted as a socio-religious group, anti-defamation groups work hard to gain acceptance in society.
\n(To be continued)<\/p>\n
The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist. She can be reached at aliya1924@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aliya Anjum India was never in the American sphere: it was first in the Soviet and then in the Russian camp. In the early 2000\u2019s the US began to nurture India as a counterweight to China. In the last two decades, India-US ties and mutual trade have risen exponentially. Due to its economic rise, India\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1423],"class_list":{"0":"post-357933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-aliya-anjum"},"yoast_head":"\n