Sadhvi Ritambhara and controversy
September 8th, 2010(see below 2 items about sadhvi Ritambhara)
Muslim protesters in Mahwah claim leader’s stoking religious hatred
(from Bergen Record, New Jersey)
Religious differences in India were apparent at a Mahwah hotel today, where Muslims protested against a spiritual leader they say is using Hinduism to mask an agenda of intolerance against other religions.
Pujya “Didi Maa” Sadhvi Ritambra Devi Ji, considered by many to be a Hindu spiritual leader and teacher, spent the last five days teaching at a religious workshop at the Sheraton on International Boulevard while raising money for “Vatsalya Gram,” her India-based project that provides housing, family style care, support and relationships to indigent women and children.
“She is a modern-day Mother Teresa,” said Raksh Pal Sood, chair of Param Shakti Peeth, a non-profit that supports Ritambra’s “Vatsalya Gram.”
But some 50 demonstrators protested outside the venue, carrying signs with slogans like, “Beautiful India does not need Hate Mongers.” The protestors, from the state chapter of the Indian Muslim Council, say Ritambra is using her religion to mask an agenda of intolerance — and violence — against Muslims and Christians.
“A secular democracy like India does not need hate-mongers like her,” said Shaheen Khateeb, a member of the Muslim Council’s board of trustees carrying a sign that read, “Widows and Orphans of Sadhvi’s Actions will not Forget.”
“She does not represent the Democratic society we live in.”
Yusuf Dadani, president of the state chapter of the Indian Muslim Council, said Ritambra had a history of inciting violence against Muslims. He pointed to a speech she made in the early 1990s that prompted a mob to tear town a 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya, India.
But Ritambra supporters said she was never arrested or jailed for the statement, and that the mosque was built atop an ancient Hindu temple.
Dadani said Ritambra was indicted by the Indian Government. The group has petitioned the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, asking them to investigate how she was allowed into the country with what they called a criminal background.
Dadani said the group was particularly concerned about the Ritambra’s fund-raising efforts for “Vatsalya Gram” while in the United States. He said these homes were “centers of hate,” where children were indoctrinated.
But Rakesh Shreedhar, a physician from Rockland County and Ritambra devotee, said the homes create a family structure for the destitute, regardless of religion. Orphans are raised to be productive members of society.
“They live under the same roof as a family,” he said.
Dadani said the township’s Hindu temple canceled an event featuring Ritambra after they wrote to officials there to oppose it. But Mohan Khanna of the Hindu Samaj Mandir in Mahwah said the event was canceled because of space and timing problems, but Ritambra was scheduled to appear at the temple later the same afternoon.
“Just that I am here shows I didn’t withdraw my support,” he said, adding, “There were no other elements involved.”
And Dr. Shreedhar accused the state Indian Muslim Council of stoking historic tensions between India’s religious groups. He said he wished the group would come in, talk to them and listen to what Ritambra had to say.
“This group, outside, wants to take advantage of differences we have,” he said.
But Dadani disagreed, saying that the protest was about placing the spotlight on a woman they say is cultivating religious hatred.
“This is not against Hinduism,” Dadani said. “This is a campaign against people who have hijacked the Hindu faith.”
E-mail: Cunningham@northjersey.com
HAF Welcomes Hindu Temple Reversal on Hosting Hindu Monk
Washington, DC (September 7, 2010) - The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) applauded the decision over the weekend by the Hindu Samaj Temple of Mahwah, New Jersey to reverse course and host a religious discourse by Sadhvi Ritambhara, a visiting holy woman from India. The temple rejected protests from a coalition of known leftist radical and communist Indian Americans and the Indian Muslim Council (IMC) who have been pressuring American Hindu temples over several years to deny the Sadhvi (“sadhvi” is an appellation given to female monks) opportunities to present Hindu religious discourses, and repeatedly asking the State Department to revoke her visa.
This year too, the coalition and IMC sought to pressure Hindu temples, arguing that the Sadhvi is a supporter of Hindu nationalist ideology and had given provocative speeches nearly two decades ago over the Babri mosque. The Babri mosque, a conquest edifice, was built by a 16th century Muslim ruler of India, Zahir ud-din Muhammad Babur, on the site of a centuries-old temple to Lord Rama he had destroyed. The Babri masjid became a contested site and legal battles were fought over decades to resolve the question of whether the land belonged to Hindus or Muslims. That structure was subsequently destroyed when Hindu protests at the site devolved into a rampage in 1992, sparking bloody riots in its wake.
On her many annual visits to the United States since then, the Sadhvi has given rigorous discourses on the Shrimad Bhagvatam, one of Hinduism’s most popular scriptures and is now known in India for her founding of a prominent orphanage and women’s shelter, Vatsalya Gram, located in India’s famed pilgrimage site, Vrindavan. She is also recognized as one of the few Hindu female spiritual leaders with a global following.
“The attempt by the IMC and the radical coalition groups to vilify the Sadhvi, who is here for purely spiritual and charitable work, is a political ploy to tar Hindu leaders and to debilitate the ability of Hindu Americans to support charitable work in India and to hear discourses on Hindu spirituality,” said Rishi Bhutada, member of HAF’s Executive Council. “It is the height of impropriety and absolutely unacceptable that these groups would defame Hindu leaders and presume to dictate to Hindu temples as to who should or should not be given the opportunity to speak there. The Hindu Samaj Temple, while initially seeming to succumb to these intimidation tactics, showed great courage in hosting the sadhvi.”
Foundation leaders said that attacking a holy woman from India whose spiritual talks are very popular in the United States, seemed to be part of a concerted effort to discredit Hindu leaders and advocacy groups in general, even those such as HAF that have no connection to Indian politics. HAF faced off against many of the same groups during its lawsuit over distortions of Hinduism in school textbooks that it filed against the California State Board of Education in 2006.
“These same, usual-suspects, to give one example, supported a textbook that said only Islam raised the status of women, but opposed our efforts to explain that Hinduism is the only major religion that worships the divine in female form, that has had numerous female saints and does not teach that women are inferior to men,” said Mihir Meghani, HAF co-founder and Board member.
The Foundation eventually won the lawsuit, proving that the SBE had acted illegally and had mistreated Hindus — this too despite ideological bedfellows of radical groups involved in the campaign against the sadhvi launching a failed effort to file an amicus brief in court attacking HAF.
Bhutada and Meghani were particularly distressed, they explained, because while the IMC denounces the sadhvi for her alleged political views, the same IMC saw no conflict in hosting founders or supporters of terrorist outfits now banned in the United States and India, such as the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) or the gory Maoist Naxalite movement. The Council regularly invites known Indian Communist and leftist radical leaders to speak at their annual conference, some of whom have been censured for their overt support for those violent Maoist terrorists active in Central India — a bloody insurgency that was recently called the “greatest threat to India’s internal security” by India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.
“It’s bad enough that the IMC and many Indian American leftist and communist groups launch ad-hominem attacks on Hindus and Hindu advocacy organizations merely because of their ideological differences, but it is truly shameful for them to gratuitously demonize a sadhvi giving spiritual discourses at Hindu temples.” Bhutada added. “We can only hope that our temples will follow the Hindu Samaj Temple’s lead and stand up against such oppressive attacks and continue to provide a forum for Hindu religious and spiritual figures during their visits.”
