The Hindu community of Canada has recently become aware that the Ryerson University and the Toronto Public Library have joined hands in holding an event on December 9, titled “Modi’s India: How Hindu Nationalism has Eroded the World’s Largest Democracy”
We are deeply alarmed at this attempt by two publicly funded institutions in Canada to allow their platform to be used to spread a false and concocted narrative about the vibrant democracy of India, a country with which a vast majority of the Hindu Canadians have deep emotional ties. This is nothing short of an attempt to promote a hateful and denigrating narrative against the Hindu community in the guise of sanctimonious pontification on India’s democracy.
The Hindu Canadians are a peaceful community, living in harmony with the society at large and making outsized contributions to all facets of Canadian life.
However, they are extremely concerned that such a malicious event, if allowed to go forward, will promote an atmosphere of hatred against them, and as such, represents a potential risk to their material and physical well-being. The Indophobia and Hinduphobia created by events such as this have led to bullying against Hindu and Indians in schools and colleges and physical violence against Indians and Hindus in North America as evident by violent gangs like Dotbusters in the 1980s and recent attack on a Hindu man of Indian origin in Kansas, USA
We, therefore, demand that:
1. This event must be cancelled immediately.
2. Ryerson University and Toronto Public Library issue an immediate apology to the Hindu community for the anguish caused by this blatantly Hinduphobic event
3. The University and the Library set up a program to train their employees and students to understand India, Hindu Dharma and Hindu culture to make them more religio-culturally sensitive.
