Hindu Students Council

Hindu Students Council (also known as HSC) is an organization of Hindu students in the United States of America and Canada. According to its website, it serves as an "international forum that provides opportunities to learn about Hindu heritage through various activities, events and projects." [ [http://www.hscnet.org Hindu Students Council - Registration for Annual Camp now Open ] ] It is an independent non-profit organization under 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3).

The HSC was set up in 1990 with support from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, a constituent member of the right-wing ["Performative Politics And The Cultures Of Hinduism: Public Uses of Religion in Western India", Raminder Kaur, Permanent Black, London, 2003] Indian Sangh Parivar; its current association with that body is a matter of some debate ["Contemporary American Religion", Wade Clark Roof, Macmillan, p305. ] [http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2001/9-10/60_college.shtml Hinduism Today | University | September/October 2001 ] ] . , though it claims to have become functionally independent in 2003 [http://www.hscnet.org/fact.php welcome to hsc ] ] Prior to its separation from its parent organization, it was considered to be the student-wing of the VHP. ["Politics After Television: Religious Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Indian Public", Arvind Rajagopal, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 257, ] [http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/global/Publications/Yearbooks/2003/2003Chapter7e.pdf 2003 Yearbook, the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics] ] "The Struggle for India's Soul", Mira Kamdar, "World Policy Journal."] [>"Negotiating Hindu Identities in America", by Diana Eck, in "The South Asian Religious Diaspora in Britain, Canada, and the United States" Raymond Brady Williams, Harold G. Coward, John Russell Hinnells eds., State University of New York Press, 2001, p.234.] .

It maintains cordial relations with temples and organizations in America including the Chinmaya Mission, BAPS, Gayatri Parivar, Barsana Dham, Ramakrishna Mission, Art of Living, Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Indian Temple and Cultural Society of North America, ISKCON, Arya Samaj, etc. The organization also has good relations with many Buddhist, Jain and Sikh organizations. Besides relations with Hindu/Indian organizations in America, HSC also maintain relations with youth organizations in Europe, Malaysia, and South Africa.

Vision and goals

HSC describes itself as deriving its inspiration from the Sanatana Dharma, quoting the Rigveda.

It describes its goals as:

Activities

Hindu Students Council celebrates many different Hindu festivals on campus around the country.
*The Cornell Chapter has an annual Holi celebration. In 2006 and 2007, it saw over 600 students of all ethnic and religious groups celebrate the event on campus. [ [http://cornellsun.com/node/17427 Students Throw Colors, Celebrate Holi Festival | The Cornell Daily Sun ] ] [ [http://cornellsun.com/node/23263 Holi Festival Celebrates Beginning of Spring | The Cornell Daily Sun ] ] [ [http://cornellsun.com/node/14727 C.U. Celebrates Holi | The Cornell Daily Sun ] ] [ [http://cornellsun.com/node/8848 Hindu Students Celebrate Holi | The Cornell Daily Sun ] ]
*The Cornell Chapter is also the Cornell Hindu Chaplency. [ [http://curw.cornell.edu/chaplaincies.html Cornell United Religious Work ] ]
*In April 2007, the Emory Chapter, at the request of the Inter-Religious Council at Emory held a mock-Hindu wedding with over 200 attendees to show the study body how Hindu weddings are conducted and explain what the different rituals mean. [http://media.www.emorywheel.com/media/storage/paper919/news/2007/04/24/News/Student.Life.Tying.The.Knot.The.Hindu.Way-2876121.shtml]
*In July 2003, HSC along with other organizations organized the Global Dharma Conference 2003 which was attended by approximately 2000 people. Speakers at the conference included President of India Abdul Kalam, former Governor of NJ James McGreevey, Deepak Chopra, Shankaracharya of Kanchi Peetham, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Jain Spiritual Leader Mahapragyaji, Dr. Kiran Bedi and many others. Famous Tabla Maestro Zakir Hussain and Indian Reggae and Bhangra Star Apache Indian performed at the conference. [http://www.dharmaconference.org/index.html] [ [http://www.dharmaconference.org/speakersguests.html Global Dharma Conference: Speakers / Guests ] ] [http://www.dharmaconference.org/news/global_dharma_coverage_india_newsweek.pdf] [ [http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa080403a.htm Global Dharma Conference 2003 - An About.com Hinduism Report ] ] [ [http://www.dharmaconference.org/news/IndiaAbroad.pdf comm-1&2.qxd ] ] Stephen Warner, of the University of Illinois at Chicago reports that many HSC members see the organisation as a method to "reaffirm their Hindu identity" and "link them to their families" [ [http://www.uic.edu/depts/soci/yrp/simple/_mod4.html Youth & Religion Project:Modules.4 ] ] .

tatus of affiliation with Sangh Parivar

Because the Council was set up with the help of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, Diana Eck calls it a "loose affiliate" of the VHP. She also notes that HSC emphasises a "strong sense of Hindu identity" and that "While many American Hindus would explicitly reject the religious nationalism of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in India, they have developed no alternative organizations to address the issues of Hindu identity in the United States." [>"Negotiating Hindu Identities in America", by Diana Eck, in "The South Asian Religious Diaspora in Britain, Canada, and the United States" Raymond Brady Williams, Harold G. Coward, John Russell Hinnells eds., State University of New York Press, p.234.] A report by the London School of Economics also identifies the HSC as a "Hindu nationalist" organization.. It has recently been described by scholars as "associated with Hindutva" ["New Roots in America's Sacred Ground: Religion, Race, and Ethnicity in Indian America", Khyati Y. Joshi, Rutgers University Press, 2006: p88.] ;the "VHP of America's student wing" ["Politics After Television: Religious Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Indian Public", Arvind Rajagopal, Cambridge University Press, p. 257] and as one of "the major right-wing Hindu groups operating in the United States".

After studying a chapter of the HSC, Prema Kurian came to the conclusion that "there was a diversity of opinions, and it was only a minority who were militantly Hindu-centric,",while going on to say that the "Hindu-centric group in the second generation will come to represent the voice of American Hinduism in the future and will similarly comprise mainly male, upper-caste, upper-class, highly educated professionals. As an Indian American newspaper reported, it is no secret that the second-generation leadership for American Hindu nationalist organizations 'is being groomed in the HSC'". ["Being Young, Brown, and Hindu: The Identity Struggles of Second-Generation Indian Americans", by Prema Kurian, "Journal of Contemporary Ethnography", Vol. 34, No. 4, 434-469 ]

Biju Mathews and Vijay Prasad, members of the Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL), an activist organization [ [http://www.himalmag.com/99Dec/deceit.htm "Himal" magazine] ] , are involved in the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, which on April 13, 2007 released a report entitled "Lying Religiously: The Hindu Students Council and the Politics of Deception", which accused the HSC of deceiving students about its links with the VHP, asserting that in the VHPA stated in 2003 that the HSC was "the youth wing of VHP". [ [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EA10Df05.html Asia Times] ] .

References