Rutgers Professor Faces Allegations Of Hinduphobia University Promises Made To Address Student Demands
By Lev D. Zilbermints
NEWARK – The controversy over a Rutgers-Newark professor’s alleged Hinduphobia has come to the boiling point. Hindu students and their allies met with senior administrators to address their concerns and demands.
The meeting came about as a result of the pressure leveraged by students and their allies throughout Rutgers University.
On Friday, March 12, university officials met with a group of Hindu students, student leaders and their allies. According to a statement released by the Rutgers Hindu YUVA and the Rutgers Hindu Students Council, attendees at the meeting included Anna Branch, Senior Vice President for Equity; Nancy Cantor, Chancellor of Rutgers-Newark; Jacqueline Mattis, Dean, School of Arts and Sciences – Newark, and several other administrators.
The students were represented by the Rutgers Hindu YUVA, the Rutgers Students Council, Association of Indians at Rutgers, Indian Students at R-N, and the Bengali Students Association.
During their meeting, the students made two key demands. One was to “define and recognize Hinduphobia as a distinct category of bigotry and discrimination. This includes recognizing us (Hindus) as an ethnic and religious minority. Creating this definition is a critical step in officially recording transgressions and affording Hindu community members the same protections as other religious minorized communities.”
The second demand was for Rutgers to “employ a practicing Hindu professor who specializes in South Asian/Indian History and/or Hinduism whose scholarship pushes against the dominant perspective that is currently in place, so that Rutgers moves towards greater academic excellence.”
Previously, in a letter sent to Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway, Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Senior Vice President Anna Branch, the students made several key demands. These included that Professor Audrey Truschke be disallowed to teach a course that involves material related to Hinduism and India due to her prejudiced views; that Rutgers publicly condemn Prof. Truschke for causing trauma to Hindu students, alumni, and the Hindu community by her irresponsible tweets and utterances; provide a platform where Hindu students can bring in faculty and researchers who can provide realistic representations of Hinduism and India; acknowledge that most Hindu students are children of immigrants, or are immigrants themselves, and that as a public institution, there is an obligation to ensure that all students feel welcome and included, and that the University excludes any group based on their identity.
The university offered its “sincerest apologies” for not communicating with the Hindu community earlier.
“At our meeting today (March 12) with members of the Rutgers Hindu community, this misunderstanding was made clear and we apologize. We are sorry for the hurt that members of the Hindu community have been experiencing in relation to recent events. Our commitment to inclusion includes religion, not just the right but the freedom to celebrate as an individual or community without fear,” Rutgers University wrote in its statement.
The university condemned anti-Hindu bias, messages, threats, and called for an end to them. At the same time, the university expressed gratitude to student leaders for raising their voices in defense of the Hindu community.
“We abhor the vile messages and threats that are being directed at Hindu students and call for an immediate end to them. We are grateful to the student leaders across Rutgers University who raised their voices and personalized the sentiments of our Hindu community. We will be working in partnership with them to foster an environment that educates and embraces the range of cultural and religious identities, scholarly traditions, and perspectives of this community. This will be difficult work, but we will do this together because it is essential to live into our values and realize the promise of constructive and healthy engagement in a diverse community,” Rutgers University-Newark wrote in its apology.
In its apology, Rutgers did not mention Dr. Truschke or her views on Hindus and their culture.
Earlier, on March 8, the administration of Rutgers-Newark issued a statement defending Dr. Truschke’s right of academic freedom as well as the right of Hindu students to be safe and fully accepted.
In part, the Rutgers statement read, “Rutgers emphatically supports Professor Truschke’s academic freedom in pursuing her scholarship, abhors the vile messages and threats that are directed at her and calls for an end to them. Scholarship is sometimes controversial, perhaps especially when it is at the interface of history and religion, but freedom to pursue such scholarship as Professor Truschke does rigorously, is at the heart of academic enterprise. Just as strongly, Rutgers emphatically affirms its support for all members of the Hindu community to study and live in an environment in which they not only feel safe but also fully supported in their religious identity.”
The statement was signed by Anna Branch, Senior Vice President for Equity, Nancy Cantor, Chancellor of Rutgers-Newark, and Jacqueline Mattis, Dean of School of Arts and Sciences, Newark.
Dr. Truschke Responds
According to the March 11 issue of the Daily Targum, Prof. Truschke said many statements of hers have been taken out of context for the open letter while others stem from political agendas or assumptions, such as the idea that professors endorse whatever ideas they teach.
In her email to “Local Talk,” Prof. Truschke wrote, “the petition is driven by political opposition to my scholarship and activism. It is fueled by a right-wing movement known as Hindu nationalism, of which I am critical. Please note that Hindu nationalism is distinct from Hinduism, a point which I make repeatedly.”
According to the March 11 issue of the Daily Targum, Prof. Truschke said, “Hinduism is an incredibly broad-based religion with great internal diversity. As a professor who works in part, on the history of religions, I teach and appreciate that diversity. It saddens me when others see that same breadth as a liability that they are willing to disown in pursuit of narrow political goals.”
Dr. Truschke herself makes it a point to mention this. In her email to “Local Talk,” Dr. Truschke wrote, “So far as I know, no student who has taken my classes has signed that petition. I am aware of a small group of students at Rutgers-New Brunswick where I do not teach, who have objected to me. I have taught hundreds of students of various religious and ethnic backgrounds over the past 15 years at 5 institutions. I have yet to face a single complaint from a student in my classroom.”
Prof. Truschke has reading fluency in Sanskrit and Persian. She has reading competency in Hindi, Urdu and Braj Bhasha. She has published three books, numerous articles, and participated as a panelist in conferences going back to 2008.
International Uproar
In part the petition states, “She (Prof. Truschke) has been demonstrating ongoing hate speeches and propaganda against India, Hindus, Hindutva and the respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi under Section 124A, Section 153B, Section 153A and Section 295(A) to revoke her Visa and ban her entry in India.” So far, the petition has received over 22,000 signatures as of March 17.
Writing in the Times of India, Avatans Kumar states, “However, the battle Hindu students of Rutgers University are fighting is against Truschke’s shoddy scholarship when it comes to Indian history and Hinduism and her blatant Hinduphobia.”
