Impacts of the Hindu Liberation Workshop
I loved being at the Hindu Liberation Workshop [see the article “Hindu Liberation for North America and the Caribbean,” by B—, on page 74 of Present Time No. 205], much more than I had expected to. I wasn’t born or raised with many Indians or other Hindus. I had rarely been in a group of people raised or otherwise connected to being Hindu, and I had never noticed that before.
Until the workshop, I had also never noticed how unsafe I felt as a Hindu, always living in places where there were no or almost no other Hindus.
I got to work on my feelings about colonization, as a Hindu. I got to work on my feelings about racism, sexism, Transgender, and homophobia, as a Hindu. I got to work on how my life had been shaped by divisions of caste, as a Hindu. I had never had that chance before. It made a big difference.
The racism against Hindus is impactful yet invisible and never spoken about. Our rituals and ceremonies—our use of fire, herbs and spices, chants, red powder markings—have been called “devil workshop.” Hindu women are made fun of [teased] for wearing a bindi – the red (or other-coloured) dot (or other shape) on their foreheads. I never see a Hindu woman wearing a bindi, at least for long, in the societies in which I live. The Nazis stole the swastika symbol from us, and we are attacked for having the symbol in our homes.
Many people at the workshop said they noticed how being raised Hindu had shaped every part of their life and how much they valued the ways their minds and lives had been shaped by it. We were raised with a deep respect for life and for everything in the world. All are equally valued and connected to “oneness.” A rock, a chair, an insect, an animal, a human—all are of full and equal value.
I felt better about myself after the workshop. I now feel relief and some pride in myself. I hadn’t noticed how much that was missing.
Canada
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of South, Central, and West Asian-heritage people
(Present Time 205, October 2021)