3. Placing
the IDRF Inside Hindutva: An Institutional Analysis
The IDRF (India Development and Relief Fund) was set up as a tax-exempt,
non-profit organization in 1989 under the provisions of section
501(c)(3) of the tax code. Its official, self-stated purpose is
to raise money for organizations in India “assisting in rural
development, tribal welfare, and urban poor.”[8]
According to its tax filings, the IDRF raised $ 3.8 million in the
year 2000, of which it disbursed $1.7 million in ‘relief and
development work.’[9]
The IDRF has claimed time and again that it
has no connections with the Sangh Parivar. In response to a recent
magazine article highlighting some of the links[10],
the IDRF issued a statement denying the connection[11],
“It [the IDRF] is not affiliated to any group, 'ism', ideology
political party.” During an exchange on the online portal
Sulekha.com, the Vice-President of the IDRF wrote, ”There
is no relation between VHP/RSS and IDRF. Fullpoint."[12]
However, a closer scrutiny of the projects that
the IDRF funds, of the IDRF itself, of the affiliations of its office-bearers,
and of the organizations that support it and raise funds for it,
reveals that the IDRF is fully linked with the Sangh Parivar and
the Hindutva movement in India. This segment of the report will
outline:
a) the institutional links between the IDRF
and the RSS and its affiliates in India;
b) the links between the IDRF and RSS in terms of the overlaps
in personnel, and
c) the links between the IDRF and the US affiliates of the RSS.
The next part will specifically look at the
financial links between the IDRF and the RSS projects in India.
3.1 Institutional Links: the IDRF as a U.S. branch
of the Sangh
The institutional links between the Sangh and the IDRF
are extremely well documented. There are two levels at which these
links can be examined:
a.) through documents submitted by IDRF to
various US Federal and State Government agencies.
b.) through documents published by IDRF as part of its public
relations and advertising machinery.
3.1.1 The IDRF in
US Government Documents:
The most important of the documents submitted by the IDRF to the
Internal Revenue Service of the United States is its application
for a tax exempt certificate. Form 1023, duly filled by the IDRF
executives when it was created in 1989, identifies nine organizations
as a representative sample of the types of organizations the IDRF
has been set up to support in India. These nine organizations are:
- Vikas Bharati (Bihar)
- Swami Vivekananda Rural Development Society
(Tamil Nadu)
- Sewa Bharati (Delhi)
- Jana Seva Vidya Kendra (Karnataka)
- Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram(Madhya Pradesh)
- Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (Gujarat)
- Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (Nagar Haveli)
- Girivasi Vanvasi Sewa Prakalp (Uttar Pradesh)
- G. Deshpande Vanvasi Vastigrah (Maharashtra)
All nine are clearly marked Sangh organizations.
For instance,
- In Sangh literature, the origins and growth
of Vikas Bharati is described as follows:
The Vikas Bharati stream, which originated in the fountainhead
called Sangh, has been quietly flowing towards the ocean called
society, gathering many additional streams on the way.[13]
(emphasis added)
- Similarly, the Swami Vivekananda Rural Development
Society (SVRDS) is a sister organization of the VHP in Tamil Nadu[14].
While the stated goal of SVRDS is rural development and education
of tribals, considerable documentation exists to show its emphasis
on tribals learning practices that surround Hindu religious festivals.[15]
- Of these various service organizations,
Sewa Bharati is, in India, the most commonly RSS identified service
organization [16].
Sewa International’s website
[17] has extensive documentation of Sewa Bharati, and
its religious/theological actions rather than service/developmental
work. The following report on the work of Sewa Bharati in Samatadham
Basti extracted from this site is illuminating:
After Sewa-karya [service] started, a temple has come into
being. Daily pooja [prayer service] takes place in the temple
with Arati. Because of this, the feeling of Hindutwa in our households
has been awakened. All this is the contribution of Sewa Bharati.
For a more extensive documentation of the above
nine organizations, see Appendix B.
Of these nine organizations, Sewa Bharati is a crucial organization
in terms of direct funding from the US. Hence it is covered especially
in Appendix D.
The above three examples should suffice for now to point us towards
an important conclusion: the nine organizations that the IDRF identifies
as sample organizations that it will support in Form 1023, are all
clearly marked Sangh operations. This illustrates the point that
from its very moment of inception, the IDRF’s goal was clearly
to support the Sangh Parivar in India. That the IDRF supports Sangh
organizations is thus not a matter of accident but is instead definitional
of its very design.
3.1.2 IDRF In Its
Own Words:
A far more extensive set of linkages between
the Sangh and the IDRF than identified through the nine organizations
in Form 1023, emerge when we examine the organizations that the
IDRF identifies as its “sister organizations.” the IDRF
lists nine subheadings under ‘Sister Organizations’[18]
— the ninth of which is called ‘IDRF’s affiliates
in India’— a collection of 67 other organizations. Combined
with the first eight sister organizations listed, it brings the
total number of “sister organizations” to 75.
Of these 75 organizations, 60 are clearly identifiable as Sangh
affiliates in India. The remaining fifteen organizations are not
classified in this report as RSS affiliates, not because we have
evidence that show that they are independent organizations, but
because there is very little information available on them per se.
It is thus possible that most, if not all fifteen, are RSS affiliates.
If the nine organizations listed on Form 1023 point to the commitment
of the IDRF to supporting RSS operations in India, this list of
60 (75) is sufficient evidence to indicate that since its inception
in 1989, the IDRF has systematically grown and developed into a
core participant in the foreign fund drives organized by the RSS.
The list includes some of the organizations that are flagships for
the RSS operations. Some of these are described below:
- Ekal Vidyalays (One Teacher Schools)
is a VHP project aimed at the indoctrination of students in remote,
tribal villages.[19]
- Vikasan Foundation started by the
Hindu Seva Pratishthan and Jana Seva Vidya Kendra is also a Sangh
organization [20]
whose stated goal is to promote Indian culture in India and abroad.
However, like all Sangh organizations, it conflates the ‘Indian’
culture with its version of ‘Hindu/Vedic’ culture
and collects money for funding gurukuls (Hindu religious schools,
equivalent of the Islamic madrassas) in India and abroad.
- Bharat Vikas Parishad is identified
by the RSS as its branch organization that aims ‘to involve
entrepreneurs and well-off sections of the society in National
service and for protecting Bhartiya values.’[21]
- Sewa International is IDRF affiliate
in India overseeing IDRF’s Indian operation. In terms of
international funding, it may be amongst the most significant
of IDRF’s “sister” organizations. It is a Sangh
Parivar organization set up primarily for the purpose of coordinating
foreign contributions for different Sangh projects in India. Sevadisha,
the publication of the Seva Vibhag (Service Wing) of the RSS lists
Sewa International as its arm established specifically to find
international support for organizations working under the Sangh
ideology:
“Yet another development is the establishment of an international
organization titled Sewa International which now has branches
in many countries. Sewa International will look after the interests
of seva [service] related issues not only in the respective countries
where they have chapters but also take up global level care of
sewa [service] work carried out under the Sangh ideology. [22]
We document here, in brief, these four flagship
organizations of the Sangh to point to the centrality of the IDRF
in Sangh operations. From its inception in 1989, the IDRF has grown
not only in terms of the extensive list of the RSS organizations
it supports but also in terms of its affiliation and support for
critical Sangh operations. The IDRF thus is not a marginal organization
within the Sangh framework but clearly an important, if not a core
constituent.
A complete list of all seventy five “sister
organizations” are in Appendix B
(along with the nine organizations listed on IDRF’s Form 1023)
with evidence of their status as Sangh affiliate organizations.
Of the seventy five, the detailed descriptions of Sewa International
is included as a separate appendix, Appendix
C, because of the critical role that Sewa International plays
within the domain of international funding for the RSS.
3.2 The IDRF’s
Leadership: The RSS Ideologue
The institutional analysis above is further
strengthened through a brief look at some of the IDRF personnel.
Many of the people associated with the IDRF, including its founders,
affiliates in India, and its officials, have extensive links with
other Hindutva organizations in this country or the Sangh Parivar
in India.
- IDRF's Founders:
- Bhishma Agnihotri, a well-known RSS
ideologue and a HSS Sanghchalak (Supremo), is one of the founders
the IDRF[23].
HSS is RSS’s equivalent organization in the US and UK.
- Two of the IDRF’s other founders,
Jatinder Kumar and Ram Gehani, are office bearers of FISI.
Mr. Gehani is also associated with the OFBJP. FISI is the
public relations arm of the HSS. OFBPJ[24]
is the overseas arm of the BJP.
- Vinod Prakash is one of the founders
of the IDRF and also its President since its inception. The
HSS Newsletter, Sangh Sandesh, for January 2001 announces
the opening of a tribal boys hostel by Sewa Bharati, MP named
after ‘Sarla Vinod Prakash,’[25]
the wife of Vinod Prakash. Both Sarla and Vinod Prakash are
listed as founders of the IDRF. Members of the Prakash family
were present at the inauguration and shared the stage with
Mr. Ashok Singhal, the international President of VHP, who
has currently been in the news for voicing his "appreciation"
of the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat and the "cleansing"
of several Gujarati villages of their Muslim residents.[26]
- The IDRF's Other
Office Bearers:
Of the 6 Zonal Vice Presidents listed on IDRF’s website,
four are HSS volunteers, and one of them is on the National Governing
Council of the VHP of America.[27]
The General Secretary of the IDRF, Shyam Gokalgandhi, is also
responsible for running the Balvihar of the HSS in the San Fransisco
Bay Area.[28]
- The IDRF's People
in India:
Shyam Parande, the India Advisor of IDRF, is listed in an article
from The Observer, as ‘the organizer of Sangh activities
abroad.’ Vijay Mallampati, India Coordinator for IDRF, is
also actively involved with the Sangh Parivar, and acted as the
Mukhya Shikshak (Chief Instructor) at one of the HSS camps in
the US.[29]
3.3 The IDRF and the Sangh in the United
States
The preceding two sections establish the organizational
and personnel based links between the IDRF and the Sangh in India.
In this section, we turn the lens around and look at the IDRFs links
to Hindutva’s US operations. Hindutva in the United States
has grown systematically ever since the 1980s, experiencing exponential
growth in the 90s corresponding with the boom in professional Hindu-Indian
migration from India to the United States. This has meant that the
growth has been in pockets with larger concentrations of the professional
Hindu migrant – largely the West Coast, the North East and
the Southern states of Florida and Texas.
Hindutva organizations in the US do extensive
publicity and fundraising for the IDRF. Often the IDRF and the VHP-America
are the only ‘service organizations’ recognized by these
groups, completely neglecting respected non-sectarian development
and relief organizations, such as Association for India’s
Development (AID), Asha for Education, Pratham-USA, Child Relief
and You (CRY), India Development Service (IDS)and Indians for Collective
Action (ICA).
- A multi media presentation commissioned
by the HSS, commemorating 75 years of the Sangh identifies the
IDRF as a Sangh organization in the US, and urges people wishing
to support the Sangh in India to donate generously to IDRF.[30]
- The FISI and the HSS hold fund-raising drives
for IDRF[31], which
are usually centered around topics such as ‘Islamic Terrorism.’
These events, centered on such themes, function both as fundraisers
as well as ideological training sessions that justify their opposition
to Indian Muslims by seeking to link all Muslims in India with
the wrongdoings of any Muslim anywhere.
- Hindu Unity, a militant Hindutva website
and the voice of Bajrang Dal abroad —which openly advocates
violence against minorities and maintains a ‘hit list’
of people opposed to its views—provides links to IDRF[32].
This is the only ‘development’ related organization
listed on its page along with a number of Sangh Parivar organizations,
or some even more militant Hindutva sites.
- The IDRF also hosts web pages for the HSS
[33], where the
HSS is introduced as an organization “started in the USA
and other parts of the world to continue what RSS is doing in
India.
- Several Hindu Student Council chapters (student
wings of the VHP-America) raise money for the IDRF as part of
their ‘seva’ activity. [34]
-
VHP-America, Hindu Universe, Nation of Hindutva,
HinduWomen, Global Hindu Electronic Network, HSS-UK—all
Hindutva sites—provide links to the IDRF and identify
it as a ‘Hindu’ charity. [35]
8.
From the exemption application of the IDRF
filed with the IRS in 1989.
9. Form
990 filed by the IDRF for the 2000 tax year
10.
Deflections to the Right by Ashish Sen, Outlook, Jul 22,
2002
11.
Response to recent malicious media reports
12.
'A
Left-Right Upper-Cut To The RSS' by Ramesh N Rao, Sulekha,Com,
Jun 15, 2002
(see readers comments #82 and 88)
13.
http://www.sewainternational.org/integrate.html
14.
http://www.sewainternational.org/vhptamil.html
15.
In a report
to the IDRF, SVRDS states that it conducted competitions for Krishna
Jayanthi (a Hindu Festival) in which the school children participated
enthusiastically. It should be kept in mind that these tribals do
not consider themselves Hindu, nor do they usually observe Krishna
Jayanthi.
16.
The RSS lists Sewa Bharti under the title of “Various
Alike Organizations”
17.
Social
Harmony; Ennobling
Social Conduct
18.
http://www.idrf.org/frontpage/OtherOrgs.html
19.
http://www.vhp.org/englishsite/d.Dimensions_of_VHP/bekal%20vidyalya/list_ekalvidyalaya.htm
20.
The VHP lists Hindu Seva Pratishthana as its organization
in the field of education, http://www.vhp.org/englishsite/d.Dimensions_of_VHP/aSewa/NSNS/intheserviceofpoor.htm
. For Jana Seva Vidya Kendra, see Appendix B.
21.
http://www.rss.org/BHARAT%20VIKAS%20PARISHAD.htm
22.
http://www.hssworld.org/seva/sevadisha/sevadisha1/rss_seva_vibhag.html
23.
Agnihotri’s connections with the RSS are detailed
in the newspaper article, Agnihotri's posting criticized, The Hindu,
Aug 30th, 2001 http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/08/30/stories/02300007.htm.
Bhishma Agnihotri was appointed as the leader of HSS in the USA
as reported in the HSS newsletter (National Adhikaris of the HSS
(USA), Sangh Sandesh, January 2000, page 11 http://www.hskonline.co.uk/hss/assets/JAN00.PDF
. Agnihotri’s connection to the IDRF is revealed in a program
announcement for the Festival of India seminar held on August 16,
1997, where he is introduced as ‘a founding member of the
India Development and Relief Fund.’ http://www.ipnatlanta.net/aug15/seminar-pro.doc.
24.
Jatinder Kumar and Ram Gehani are two of the four
officers of IDRF listed on its exemption application, which it filed
in 1989. Jatinder Kumar is listed as a vice-president of FISI in
a newspaper article on the people who met with the then General
Secretary of the BJP, Narendra Modi on his visit to the US (BJP
leader meets with community groups, India Abroad, July 9, 1999).
Ram Gehani is listed on FISI’s web page as the contact for
Maryland http://www.fisiusa.org/fisi_pages/us_chapters.htm
, and was part of ‘a delegation of the Overseas Friends of
the BJP which called on Robert Seiple, ambassador-at-large, who
runs the International Religious Freedom office within the State
Department to express their concern about sections of the controversial
annual report on International Religious Freedom for 1999 in India
that implicitly criticised the Indian government for the increase
in attacks on the Christian community in India.’ (Seiple defends
religious report, says it does not target BJP, by Ramesh Chandra,
The Times of India, Sept 18th, 1999)
25.
A
Sewa Dham in Madhya Pradesh, Sangh Sandesh, January 2001, page
10.
26.
‘We’ll
repeat our Gujarat experiment’, Indian Express, September
3, 2002
27.
Abhay Belambe (IDRF VP, East Zone) is associated
with the HSS as evident from this announcement for the Vijay Dashmi
celebrations of the HSS --
http://www.hindunet.org/srh_home/1996_10/msg00165.html . Vijay
Shrivastava, (IDRF VP, East Zone) is the HSS contact person in Atlanta,
GA (http://www.ipnatlanta.net/hss/contact.htm
) Vijay Pallod (IDRF VP, Central Zone) is listed as the governing
council member of the VHP in the article, Dharma Sansad Seeks To
Involve 2nd Generation Indian Americans, Arthur J Pais, Rediff.com,
Sept 9, 1999 http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/sep/09us1.htm
, and is also the HSS contact for Houston, TX http://www.hindunet.org/alt_hindu/1995_Jul_1/msg00071.html
. Chetan Gandhi (IDRF VP, West Zone) is also listed as the contact
for Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh in Cerritos, CA http://www.ci.cerritos.ca.us/cominfo/comgroups.html
28.
http://www.indolink.com/SFO/balVihar.html
29.
Shyam Parande: RSS goes global, chalks out expansion
plan, by Suresh Unnithan in The Observer, April 3, 1998 http://www.markazdawa.org/rss.htm.
For Vijay Mallampati, see the report of the North American winter
HSS camp in the HSS newsletter, Sangh Sandesh, Dec 99, page 9
http://www.hskonline.co.uk/hss/assets/DEC99.PDF
30.
http://www.hssworld.org/usa/wc/shakha/LosAngeles/rss_75years_files/frame.htm
31.
http://www.fisiusa.org/fisi_Campaigns/bd_hindu_solidarity_day.htm
, http://www.fisiusa.org/fisi_press_rel/pr7.htm
32.
The Hindu Unity website (http://www.hinduunity.org)
been yanked off the web once before by one of its website host for
publishing hate-filled pages (http://www.rediff.com/us/2001/jul/24usspec.htm).
The hitlist—a collection of politicians, artists, writers
and religious leaders whom the Hindu Unity considers opposed to
its viewpoint of Hindu Supremacy—appears on http://www.hinduunity.org/hitlist.html.
IDRF appears on its links page under the title of ‘Other Hindu
and India related Organizations’ http://www.hinduunity.org/links.html
33.
http://www.idrf.org/flyers/balvihar/html/hss.html
34.
The GMU HSC unit advocates raising money for the
IDRF and also for publicizing its activities (see http://www.gmu.edu/org/hsc/seva_gmu.html
). The HSC at the University of Illinois at Chicago is raising money
for IDRFto fund Swami Vivkekananda Mission in Kashmir (http://icarus.cc.uic.edu/stud_orgs/religion/hindu/home.html
) Also the Dharma project of the National HSC in its ‘seva’
edition, promotes dontations to the IDRF (http://www.dharmalife.org/November.htm
)
35.
http://www.vhp-america.org/michigan/linkWebs.html
, http://www.hindulinks.org/Seva/,
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/9089/links/organisations.html,
http://www.hinduwomen.org/seva.htm,
http://www.noblecauses.com/india/index.htm
, http://www.hssworld.org/uk/html/maincontent/internationallinks.html
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