The Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) wrote a letter to Harvard University expressing outrage regarding a deeply racist and highly evocative cartoon on Hinduism.
On April 23, 2020, the Harvard University Press (HUP) tweeted an announcement regarding Dr. Ajantha Subramanian’s upcoming virtual talk titled “Meritocracy and Democracy: The Social Life of Caste in India,” which also featured guest speaker TM Krishna.
In promoting the talk by Dr. Subramanian, HUP failed to review the contents of the link, which contained a gory cartoon depicting a Hindu religious figure holding holy books while adding ingredients to a traditional mill stone and conjuring up a skeleton from the ingredients, crushing many black human figurines and killing them or throwing them into what seems to be waves of fire. One black figurine is also seen holding on to the feet of the religious figure in a desperate attempt to save itself, according to a press release by CoHNA.
Interestingly, the image is not from the book but was specifically selected for the tweet and the promotion of the event.
“In our view, the use of the cartoon is prejudicial and sensationalist, and without providing that context of colonial critique, the cartoon seems to present a racist view of Hindus and can be seen as pejorative, and reinforces the kind of narratives that were created about Hinduism to justify colonial conquest and conversion,” stated Nikunj Trivedi, president of CoHNA.
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