Indian student claims Hinduism course in US university 'portrayed negatively'; prof. calls PM Modi 'Hindu fundamentalist'

An Indian-American student claimed that in America's Houston University, the course on Hinduism is "misinterpreted and portrayed negatively".

He further accused the professor of calling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "Hindu fundamentalist".

"It was presented as a given and any affirmation of Hindu identity was framed as potentially fundamentalist and so that sort of creates this atmosphere where Hinduism is framed through suspicion and far as misrepresenting India's political landscape is concerned, I mean, in the early weeks of the course," Bhatt told ANI.

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"The professor called the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, a Hindu fundamentalist," he said.

Noting that a report showed that 89 per cent of Muslims feel safe in India, the professor made false claim that India is persecuting religious minorities, Bhatt told ANI.

"Made the false claim that India is persecuting religious minorities, when in fact, a Pew Research study, from 2021, says that 89% of Muslims in India feel safe to practice their religion," Bhatt said.

"So, clearly a lot of this, in the earlier weeks of this class, the course content was like overshadowed by, constant references to Hindu nationalism and political dominance, and it just creates this like ...picture of this, you know, tradition, and it just, leaves students with a sense of discomfort rather than, any meaningful insight or understanding of Hinduism," he added.

Later on Saturday, the university defended its Hinduism course, saying that it was rooted in the academic discipline of religious studies and employed specific terminology, including "fundamentalism", as part of its scholarly framework.

This comes in response to a student complaint regarding the course "Lived Hindu Religion."

Hinduphobic bias

Bhatt expressed his concerns over the course, alleging Hinduphobic bias and cited specific examples from the syllabus that he found troubling.

"I guess it began with specific examples from the course content and materials that sort of demonstrated this Hinduphobic bias. The clearest and most troubling example was found in the core syllabus itself and it stated that the word Hindu is recent, not found in scripture," he said.

"Hindutva or Hinduness is a term that Hindu nationalists, those who believe Hinduism should be the official religion of India, used to designate their religion and denigrate others, namely Islam. This is what was said in the syllabus, and this is not some neutral academic statement, right?" he added.

Bhatt said that it is a sweeping claim that delegitimizes the identity of over a billion people worldwide.

"It implies that the term Hindu is not historically or spiritually grounded and it's rather this political invention that's tied to colonialism and religious intolerance and as a practising Hindu...reading that in the syllabus was very painful because it was not phrased as an academic interpretation among many, but rather positioned as the baseline framing of the course," he said.

Bhatt also submitted a complaint to the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences regarding concerns over the syllabus.

However, he was questioned about why he had not directly addressed the issue with the professor.

(With inputs from agencies)