Admin | On 12, Aug 2019

Front page ad features RSS leader who praised Nazi racial policy

San Leandro, CA: August 12, 2019 — One of the US’s oldest Indian diaspora newspapers, India West, has angered segments of the Indian-American community after publishing a front-page ad featuring the founding fathers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, including MS Golwalkar, who praised Nazi Germany’s racial policies.

The full-page ad celebrates the Indian government’s controversial decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomous status and strip the region of statehood. The ad states that “Akhand Bharat” — a Hindu nationalist demand for an “Undivided India” — is “finally a reality.” Showing a saffron flag planted in J&K, the ad features images of Golwalkar and RSS founder KB Hedgewar.

“India West has sold out to the RSS, a fascist paramilitary responsible for pogroms and lynchings of India’s minorities,” states Arvin Valmuci of Organization for Minorities of India. “The publishers of this newspaper are a disgrace to journalism. They have showered contempt on the millions of Indians who are persecuted by the RSS. Does India West stand by Golwalkar’s praise for the Nazi purge of the Jews? We demand a retraction of the paper and a sincere apology from the publishers.”

Golwalkar, who led the RSS from 1940 to 1973, infamously wrote in 1939: “To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races – the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.”

Subsequently, in 1966, Golwalkar endorsed annexation of Pakistan, calling for “the hoisting of our flag in Lahore and other parts of Pakistan.” The long-standing demand of Hindu nationalist outfits like the RSS includes establishment of a mythical “Akhand Bharat.” Such a nation might include every South Asian country from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka to Myanmar.

“We’re shocked at India West’s complete lack of judgement in approving advertisers,” says Balbir Singh Dhillon, the president of West Sacramento Sikh Gurdwara. “The RSS wants to purge India of Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and anyone else who isn’t Hindu. Fascists like the RSS are celebrating Modi’s tyranny in Kashmir, but Sikhs here in California are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our oppressed Kashmiri brothers and sisters. The publishers of India West should be ashamed of themselves.”

Dhillon, who spent months in jail in India in the 1990s on false charges, adds that the torture he experienced is a regular feature of life in Kashmir. “So many Kashmiris have been tortured like I was,” he says. “Tens and tens of thousands of Kashmiris have been simply murdered. The Sikhs in Punjab suffered the same thing.”

Last week, the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Indian government passed a bill stripping J&K of statehood. The move was preceded by a presidential order abrogating Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution, which had officially granted J&K autonomy in most of its domestic affairs. Kashmiris generally considered the article as the primary legal justification for their state’s alignment with India. The BJP’s actions prompted international outcry.

Kashmiris have remained under martial law for over a week. Phone and internet service is blocked. A few images obtained by international outlets like The New York Times show furious Kashmiris clashing with Indian security forces. Reports from the BBC show security forces using tear gas to disperse a protest rally. India denies the protest occurred.

“The growing instability in this nuclear region presents a global threat,” concludes Dhillon. “By placing this ad, India West is openly intimidating minorities of Indian origin who are living in the US. India West’s publishers are sending a chilling message that they endorse the lynchings, torture, killings, and forced assimilation of India’s minorities under the saffron flag of Hindu supremacists.”

India West, a weekly print newspaper based in California, was founded in 1975 by Ramesh and Bina Murarka.