The Hindu Students Council (HSC) is an organisation with college branches in the United States and Canada.
 | |
| Abbreviation | HSC |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1990 |
| Type | Student organization |
| Purpose | Hindu student engagement |
| Headquarters | United States |
Region served | United States and Canada |
| Affiliations | Formerly associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America |
The HCS began as a Hindu nationalist group, and scholars consider it an ongoing part of the Sangh Parivar.[1][2][3]
History[edit | edit source]
The HSC was set up in 1990 with support from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA), a Hindu nationalist organization.[4] Explaining the relationship, Vijay Prashad wrote, "The VHPA acts multiculturally through its student wing, the Hindu Students Council (HSC), which champions a syndicated Brahmanical Hinduism (or Hindutva) as the neglected culture of the Hindu Americans".[5]
The HSC became formally independent in 2003,[6] although the group continued to espouse Hindu nationalist views and continued its links with other Hindu nationalist groups.[7]
HCS leaders have gone on to become leaders in national Hindutva groups, including the VHPA and the Hindu American Foundation.[8]
Hindutva Views[edit | edit source]
Scholars view the HSC as promoting standard Hindutva views. This includes, speaking about a post-9/11 conference organized by the HSC, "a familiar Hindutva litany of global terrorism perpetrated by Islamists, anticonversion policies targeting Muslims and Christians in India (a key priority for the Sangh Parivar), and “scholarly misrepresentation” of Indian traditions."[9] Prema Kurien, who conducted ethnographic research at an HSC chapter in southern California in the early 2000s noted variety between the political engagement of different HSC chapters but also observed prevalent Hindu nationalist ideas.[7]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Truschke, Audrey (October 19, 2022). "The Hindu Right in the United States". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.1070.
- ↑ Rajagopal, Arvind (September 1, 1997). "Transnational networks and Hindu nationalism". Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars. 29 (3): 45–58. doi:10.1080/14672715.1997.10413093.
- ↑ "Sangh Spreads Its Cloak In American Campus". Countercurrents. June 8, 2007.
- ↑ Kurien, Prema A. (2007). A place at the multicultural table: the development of an American Hinduism. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-8135-4055-9.
- ↑ Prashad, Vijay (2000). The karma of Brown folk. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 144. ISBN 9780816634392.
- ↑ "VHPA History and Milestones". vhp-america.org. May 15, 2020. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kurien, Prema A. (2007). A place at the multicultural table: the development of an American Hinduism. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press. pp. 1213–236. ISBN 978-0-8135-4055-9.
- ↑ Savera (2024). "HAF Way to Supremacy: How the Hindu American Foundation Rebrands Bigotry As Minority Rights" (PDF).
- ↑ Khory, Kavita (2026). ""Safe Space" Hindutva? Hindu Nationalism in the United States Today". Public Humanities. 2: 9. doi:10.1017/pub.2026.10226.