Hindu Liberation for North America and the Caribbean
I recently attended a Hindu Liberation Workshop for RCers in North America and the Caribbean. It was led by Azi Khalili, the International Liberation Reference Person for South, Central, and West Asian-Heritage People.
Azi commented that to solve the world’s hurts and conflicts, including ending the oppression of Dalits (the lowest-caste Hindu group), we need to make the tools of Co-Counseling available to millions of people, including the Dalit people, whose liberation is a key aspect of the liberation of Hindu people.
Many ancient Hindu stories are quite revolutionary—like baby Krishna not just stealing butter but stealing it to give to poor people. After all, it was their butter; not the king’s butter.
Growing up Hindu, I believed that Hinduism was an old religion that could not be practiced in a modern world because we cannot live like sages in the forest. I thought the practices of patriarchy, dowries, and caste divisions were permanent to Hinduism. We Hindu-heritage Co-Counselors get to change all the oppressive elements of the tradition and be distress-free Hindus.
At the workshop I led a Brahmin support group. We got to examine both the good and the oppressive sides of being Brahmin (the highest group on the caste ladder). As rational Hindus, we cannot comfortably live in and accept a caste-divided society.
I also led a topic group on the Partition of India in 1947. We looked at the hurts of war. We looked at the riots between Hindus and Muslims during the Partition—all orchestrated by the colonial British government. My Hindu grandparents and parents had to flee their Muslim-majority homeland (then called Pakistan and later Bangladesh). Both Hindus and Muslims have huge hurts from the Partition. It was good to work on it together as Hindus and Muslims.
It was also good to connect with almost thirty Hindu-heritage Co-Counselors. I feel hopeful we can work through our old hurts and oppressive practices.
USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of South, Central, and West Asian-heritage people
(Present Time 205, October 2021)