The ASUC passed a resolution Dec. 3 formally recognizing October as Hindu Heritage Month after months of controversy around the proposal and collaboration between ASUC representatives and Hindu campus organizations. The groups in collaboration included Hindu Youth for Unity, Virtues and Action, or YUVA, at Berkeley and CoHNA Youth Action Network, or CYAN.
The first resolution recognizing Hindu Heritage Month was originally proposed in March by former ASUC Senator Justin Taylor but was argued against by other ASUC representatives, such as former senator and current ASUC Executive Vice President Isha Chander. The resolution was indefinitely tabled by the ASUC.
Following the original resolution’s failure to pass in March, CYAN moved to social media in May to condemn the ASUC for not passing the resolution.
“Despite passing several other heritage month resolutions this semester, student senators chose to politicize Hindu Heritage to push Hinduphobic talking points, including the accusation of ‘Hindu Nationalism,’” said a May 13 Instagram post by CYAN.
Chander claims that these posts severely misrepresent her perspective. She said that she opposed the initial resolution because its subtext and citations referenced several lobbying groups that may be affiliated with Hindu nationalism, not the resolution itself.
“My intention was never to change the material outcomes of the resolution at all,” Chander said. “I think recognition and celebration of all students on our campus is incredibly important. … It was an attempt to make sure that, when we’re thinking about identity-based commemorations in a secular institution like student government, it’s not being affiliated with some sort of larger movement that might conflate religion and advocacy.”
In a recent interview with Indian news outlet PGurus following the passage of the resolution, CYAN representative Aryan Sawant, alongside other Hindu YUVA and CYAN representatives, said the current resolution had “no substantial differences” from the prior resolution other than its citations.
“(The ASUC) basically acknowledged that there never was any Hindu nationalism in the resolution,” Sawant said in a YouTube video posted by PGurus. “This whole debacle has just been a ploy to basically make a political statement: that Hindus are always held to a higher standard and therefore they have to … spend twice the amount of time to get a Hindu Heritage Month compared to other groups.”
Chander noted that “the material outcomes of the resolution” are “pretty much the same” and that the conversations around its amendment was to avoid “language that could be perceived as harmful by, for example, religious minority communities.”
The May social media posts received significant internet attention, gaining hundreds of likes. According to Chander, she received threats to both herself and her family, as well as doxxing, due to the posts.
Chander said this caused harm to not only her but other senators who were named in the posts.
Despite the online conflict, Chander and other ASUC representatives participated in a working group for several months with CYAN and Hindu YUVA representatives to create the recently passed resolution.
“I’m a firm believer in the power of our student government structures and what they’re built to foster, which is discourse and debate,” Chander said.