Press and Media Reports

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Awaaz - South Asia Watch Ltd is not responsible for the content or accuracy of the reports below.

THOUSANDS of pounds donated to charity by Coventrians have been used to fund Hindu extremists in India, a new report claimed this week.

Sewa International, the UK branch of right wing organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has an office in Foleshill Road which raised over £250,000 in 2001 to provide humanitarian aid for victims of 2001’s Gujarat earthquake.

But a report titled ‘In Bad Faith? British Charity and Hindu Extremism’ was submitted to the House of Lords by human rights watchdog Awaaz this week which claimed the bulk of the millions of pounds raised had been given to the RSS to fund its right wing activities.

The creed of the RSS is to turn India into a Hindu nation.

The organisation runs schools to promote its views and has also been linked to violent campaigns against some sections of Indian society.

Coventry City Council handed Sewa International a £10,000 cheque towards the Gujarat appeal, while schools in the city also raised large sums of money and collections were made from city centre shoppers.

The city council declined to comment on the content of the report this week.

The Charity Commission is already conducting an investigation into Sewa International and connected organisations but has had fact finding missions to India blocked by the rejection of visa applications.

A Commission spokesman said: “We take very seriously the allegations raised in the Awaaz report, and we will thoroughly examine the contents of the recommendations contained within it.”

Sewa International refuted the claims this week, branding the report “false, malicious and politically motivated.”

The organisation said it had a policy to fund only projects run by registered and reputable organisations.

WASHINGTON - For the second time in less than two years, an in-depth recent report has been released providing in detail links between charities based in the West and militant Hindu organizations in India.

The latest report, "In Bad Faith? British Charity and Hindu Extremism", has been published by Awaaz, a London-based secular network. According to the report, a significant portion of funds collected in the name of humanitarian causes is being spent on schools run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a hardline Hindu organization whose philosophy is intolerant of other religions and which advocates Hindutva - a militant brand of Hinduism.

In New Delhi, an RSS spokesman dismissed the allegations as "wild and false". "The whole report smacks of a sinister conspiracy to defame Hindu organizations," said RSS spokesman Ram Madhav. "We take strong objection to the propaganda unleashed by persons and organizations hither to unknown against the RSS and organizations connected with it like the Sewa Bharati [a fundraiser] with wild and false allegations of misuse of funds received from abroad."

In the past, independent human rights groups including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and India's National Human Rights Commission have reported that RSS projects directed at tribal and lower caste groups in Gujarat played a critical role in fomenting communal riots in 2002.

The Awaaz report claims that the RSS's front organizations collected millions of pounds from the British public, which was unaware of the charities' links to Hindu militants. A majority of these funds were collected by the Leicester-based and registered charity, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) and its fundraising arm, Sewa International (UK).

The HSS, an overseas branch of the RSS, actively promotes its ideology of turning India into a Hindu nation.

Sewa International (UK), though not a registered charity, became a high profile fundraising organization after the Gujarat earthquake in 2001. Allegedly using the HSS' charity registration number, its India Quake Appeal raised around US$4.2 million. The British public and patrons of Sewa International were apparently at the time unaware of its connections to the RSS.

Lord Adam Patel, member of the House of Lords and patron of Sewa International, resigned from his latter affiliation last year after learning of the group's links to RSS. Speaking at the release of the report in the House of Lords on February 26, Lord Patel said that Sewa International had "cheated me and cheated the residents of the UK".

"Like Lord Adam Patel, people have been shocked at the level of deceit carried out by Sewa International," said Suresh Grover, an Awaaz board member.

London-based Charity Commission is investigating the HSS and Sewa International. Last year, the Indian government denied visas to investigators from the commission who wanted to travel to India as part of their inquiry. Confirming that the commission had been "refused" visas, Rebecca Drake, a spokesperson said: "We have contacted them [the government of India] to ask them to reconsider their decision and are awaiting a response."

Another Charity Commission spokesperson said: "We are looking into potential links between the charity [HSS] and extremist organizations in India and alleged payments to these groups by the charity. We are looking at the relationship between the HSS and Sewa International, and also the administration of the funds that were collected for the Gujarat Earthquake Appeal."

Many are unaware of the extent of the political influence the HSS has cultivated within the UK. "It's a striking fact that as prime minister, Margaret Thatcher put a garland on [RSS founder Keshav Baliram ] Hedgewar's bust," said Awaaz spokesperson Chetan Bhatt.

Explaining the lack of public outcry, Bhatt said: "That's part of the British didactic multiculturalism ... people don't want to be labeled racist."

According to Grover, the main goal of the HSS and Sewa International is to "channel money to extremist RSS fronts in India, despite their claim to be non-sectarian, non-religious, non-political and purely humanitarian organizations". Funds raised by Sewa International run into millions of dollars.

While the report links the HSS, Sewa International and the Kalyan Ashram Trust to RSS-sponsored violence in India, Grover said: "Although we cannot say pounds collected here were used to buy guns in India, we can say with confidence that the money was used to build hatred against a minority. Most donors would be horrified if they knew the nature, history and ideas of the RSS," he added.

The Hostel-Dispensary-Cultural Center for Children and Nurseries, an affiliate of a US-based charity implicated in a similar report, states in its literature: "The Muslims are also trying to create chaos in these communities, either by enticing these tribals or by raping the tribal girls by force. The Kalyan Ashram at Sidumbar [Gujarat] is trying to put a stop to these activities of Muslims as well as Christians ... The workers of Kalyan Ashrams are required to give a tough fight to the Christian missionaries because they keep on harassing the local residents."

According to the Awaaz report, the village of Chapredi, rebuilt after the Gujarat earthquake, included an important dedication plaque glorifying the RSS, its founder and a key RSS affiliate. A Hindu temple topped with saffron flags was built in the village. No evidence was found of Sewa International funding the rebuilding of mosques or churches, though many of these were destroyed in the earthquake.

Some funds meant for earthquake reconstruction were also allegedly channeled to the RSS's Lok Kalyan Samiti in Chanasma village, which has been directly implicated in the violent "cleansing" of all Muslims from the village and the illegal occupation of premises and land belonging to the statutory Muslim Waqf board. Another RSS project, Jankalyan Samiti, was allegedly the recipient of Sewa International (UK) earthquake funds. The Samiti's Maharashtra branch has been involved in violence against Christians.

The report makes a pointed reference to the fact that despite these charities' claims of being non-sectarian and non-discriminatory, Sewa International (UK), the HSS (UK) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP - World Hindu Forum) did not launch any humanitarian appeals following the Gujarat violence in 2002. The majority of victims of that tragedy were Muslims.

Saying that the Sewa Bharati was governed by Indian laws, Madhav added: "Every single penny received by Sewa Bharati from within or outside India is judiciously spent on the causes for which it has been collected."

The Awaaz report is not the first to expose links between Hindutva groups and violence. In 2002, a Channel Four investigation in the UK documented the communal ideology espoused at Vanvasi Kalyan ashrams in India. Last year, the Financial Times reported a similar story. The Madhya Pradesh government has revoked Sewa Bharti's license because of its alleged involvement in violence against Christians.

The Awaaz report claims a large proportion of the $484,000 raised by Sewa International for Orissa cyclone relief in 1999 enabled the expansion of major RSS affiliates. "Funds were used for building RSS schools. The RSS and its leaders were glorified. The HSS said Orissa cyclone funds would be channeled through RSS volunteers and given to organizations which get their work force from the RSS," the report says.

Bhatt says that the British public was "duped" into believing they were contributing towards relief efforts for victims of the Orissa cyclone and the Gujarat earthquake.

Grover added: "We do not think it is a coincidence that the two Indian states where Hindutva networks, violence and hatred have grown phenomenally in recent years both had natural and human tragedies followed by massive amounts of funding to Hindutva organizations from overseas."

Almost a quarter of Sewa International earthquake funds raised from the British public were for building sectarian, highly controversial RSS schools. "These schools are mainly run by the RSS's Vidya Bharati, whose teaching material has been condemned by India's statutory National Council for Educational Research and Training as blatantly promoting bigotry, fanaticism and hatred."

Madhav claimed that the Sewa Bharati had constructed 124 schools, and that 49 of these had minorities on their rolls. "Sewa Bharati [Gujarat] has served the minorities without any discrimination during the relief activities," he added.

The UK report echoes findings by US-based groups in November 2002. The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) put out an exhaustive document linking a Maryland-based charity, the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), to the RSS. The authors of that report, "The Foreign Exchange of Hate", alleged IDRF was sending money to organizations implicated in violence against Christians and Muslims in India.

"The British report corroborates the assertion of the FxH [The Foreign Exchange of Hate] report that front organizations raise money in the Indian expatriate communities, ostensibly for the purposes of development and education, but channel these funds towards political agendas that are inimical to a tolerant, secular and plural society," said a CSFH spokesperson.

Linking the two reports, a spokesperson for Awaaz said: "Sewa International is the UK equivalent of the American charity, the India Development and Relief Fund; both organizations work towards the same purpose - to fund, promote and glorify extremist RSS fronts in India."

In a response to the CSFH report, "Factual Response to the Hate Attack on the IDRF," the "Friends of India" refuted charges against the charity saying: "Here is what a rational individual should ask: Is being for something always being against something else? Does loving your wife lead to hating other women? Is loving your nation an indication of hating other countries? Is helping those closest to you an attempt at undermining others?"

"Ordinarily, Hindutva is understood as a way of life or a state of mind and is not to be equated with or understood as religious Hindu fundamentalism," the authors of the "Factual Response" said.

"The response of the HSS has always been to simply deny all allegations rather than deal with specific charges," said Bhatt. "They never answer the key allegations which have been made to them repeatedly - which is that they are RSS fronts, they are raising money for the RSS and its affiliates, they are funding organizations which are linked to violence, and they are accountable to the British public from which they have raised this money."

The Awaaz report has asked the UK Charity Commissioner to withdraw charity status of the HSS (UK), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (UK) and the Kalyan Ashram Trust.

In New Delhi, Madhav remains confident that his organization will ride out the storm. "Similar futile efforts were made last year also by some groups in the US to denigrate and defame Hindu organizations working for the welfare of the people of our country," he said. "These campaigns have not harmed us earlier and they are not going to do so now either."

Ashish Kumar Sen is a Washington DC-based journalist.

A Midland charity has come under fresh attack for its alleged links with neo-Nazi style Hindu extremists.

A new report launched at the House of Lords has accused Sewa International, based in Leicester, of funnelling cash raised for Indian earthquake victims to anti-Muslim extremists Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The violent and secretive RSS organisation was blamed for the rioting in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002 which resulted in the deaths of nearly 2,000 muslims.

Sewa International raised £2 million from the British public to help the 2001 Gujarati earthquake victims.

But Awaaz, which campaigns against religious fundamentalism, said its investigations have shown that the cash was used to fund the militant RSS instead.

Cash was filtered through to the fanatics through Sewa International’s Indian counterpart Sewa Bharati, the report claims.

Awaaz, made up of South Asian academics, lawyers and human rights campaigners, has claimed that Sewa Bharati is actually a front for the RSS.

The extremists are known supporters of India’s ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata party.

The Charity Commission is now investigating Sewa International, which is registered under the name Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS).

But the Indian Government has refused to grant travel visas to its officers.

Labour Lord Adam Patel, who resigned as patron of the charity after the Sunday Mercury first exposed the charity in 2002, has backed the report.

“Sewa International has cheated me and cheated the residents of the UK,” he said.

“The organisation has been raising funds in the name of charity and giving them to extremist organisations that preach hatred against Muslims and Christians.

“The report demonstrates that Sewa International sent £2 million raised in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Gujaratin 2001, to its Indian counterpart Sewa Bharati.

“This organisation is a front to the RSS, which has been involved in large-scale violence or hate politics in India.

“Thousands of Indians have died over the past fifteen years as a result of religiously-motivated violence.

“Much of the money sent by Sewa International was spent on schools that promote hatred and fanaticism.”

The British Houses of Parliament are set to discuss the report.

Jeremy Corbyn, MP, and Vice Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights said: “I am sure we will all be asking questions about this in the Lords and Commons.

“No British organisation should be allowed in the name of charity to support extremists who have perpetrated this terrible violence.”

A spokesman for AWAZ said: “Sewa International and the HSS cannot continue to hide behind blanket denials, as they did after a previous report linked them to the violence of in Gujurat in 2002.

“Sewa International does not represent Hindu communities or Hinduism. They represent a political cult whose founders and early leaders were admirers of Mussolini and Hitler.”

Sewa International claims to “organise the entire Hindu society and to lead it to all round glory of Hindu Dharma and Hindu culture”.

Representatives from the group have denied the report’s allegations in a statement published on their website.

Full text of the response of February 29, by Awaaz to the RSS response to its report: "the main allegation of Awaaz's report is that Sewa International UK and HSS UK deliberately hid" their being fronts of the RSS.

February 29. Awaaz - South Asia Watch welcomes the statement of 27 February 2004 by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in India. The very fact that the RSS issued a statement at all supports our key argument that Sewa International UK, the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh UK (HSS UK) and Sewa Bharati (India) are all fronts of the RSS. The main allegation of Awaaz's report is that Sewa International UK and HSS UK deliberately hid this fact from the British public and continue to do so [1].

The RSS statement, however, contained a large number of inaccuracies and distortions.

'Misuse of funds'

The RSS claims that the Awaaz report accuses Sewa Bharati of misusing funds. In fact, the Awaaz report states the opposite: Sewa Bharati used funds raised from the British public by Sewa International UK for precisely the purpose it had always intended - to fund Sangh Parivar organisations. The Awaaz report makes no claim about Sewa Bharati's financial probity. What the report states clearly is that the British public were misled by Sewa International UK, that Sewa International UK was collecting funds almost exclusively for Sangh Parivar projects, and that the overwhelming bulk of funds went to the Sangh Parivar - findings that the RSS statement confirms.

We repeat that around £2 million raised from the British public by Sewa International UK in the name of humanitarian charity following the Gujarat earthquake went to fund the expansion of sangh parivar organizations in India. We repeat that the overwhelming bulk of funds raised by Sewa International UK from the British public for Orissa Cyclone relief went to RSS fronts. And we repeat that Sewa International UK and the India Development and Relief Fund (US) have misled the UK and US public respectively by not making explicit that they are the fundraising arms of the RSS abroad.

Schools

The RSS' claim about Sewa Bharati schools is irrelevant and has no relationship to the report's key findings. The Awaaz report is concerned with schools built with funds raised from the British public, and which are named under Sewa Bharati's 'Project 1' (such as the Saraswati Shishu Mandirs and Saraswati Vidya Mandirs). We stand by our claim that earthquake funds raised in the UK were used by Sewa Bharati to build sectarian sangh parivar schools, even though the British public was never informed of this intention.

Houses

The RSS statement says that a few houses for Muslims were built from Sewa Bharati earthquake funds. This fact is explicitly acknowledged in the Awaaz report. We think it ironic that the RSS should speak of building 13 houses for Muslims when, in 2002, the Sangh Parivar made 200,000 Muslims lose their homes.

Discrimination and intimidation in earthquake relief

The RSS seeks to claim that there was no discrimination in earthquake relief work undertaken by itself and its affiliates. Our report cites public fact-finding reports and press articles which stated there was discrimination against Muslims and Dalits during sangh parivar earthquake relief work. It also provides interview extracts that describe Hindutva propaganda and violence accompanying earthquake relief efforts. The clearest evidence of discrimination comes from Sewa International UK's complete indifference to the plight of the 200,000 people made homeless in 2002.

British delegations and UK Muslim endorsements

The RSS makes use of the fact that delegations from the UK went to villages and that a Muslim restaurant owner from Scotland endorsed Sewa International UK's work. This does not constitute a response to the specific and detailed allegations made in the Awaaz report. We shall send the report to members of the UK delegations and ask them to seriously consider their involvement with Sewa International in the light of the report's findings.

Awaaz is a non-partisan, secular network with no religious affiliation. We have no affiliations to any British or Indian political party. Awaaz members have been involved in combating Islamic fundamentalism, caste discrimination, racism and the oppression of women in the UK and in South Asia. Our members have raised funds for disaster relief in India, including for victims of Bhopal, the Gujarat earthquake and the Gujarat carnage. Awaaz members have attempted to bring charges against both Narendra Modi and General Pervez Musharraf for human rights violations.

Both the British and the Indian public will be dismayed at the latest RSS response, which is an attempt to distort the real issues and concerns rather than address them. Funding of extremist organisations is a serious public concern. Public faith can only be restored if the RSS and its British and Indian front organisations are willing to 'open their books' to public scrutiny. Awaaz proposes to initiate an enquiry by the British Parliament into these concerns. We stand fully by the findings of our report.

NOTES

1. Sam Jones, 'India refuses visas to charity investigators', The Guardian (online edition), 27 February 2004.

2. The Awaaz report is available from www.awaazsaw.org. The report is titled: In Bad Faith? British Charity and Hindu Extremism, published by Awaaz - South Asia Watch Ltd, London, 2004, ISBN 0 9547174 0 6.

3.The RSS, the 'National Volunteers' Corps', was formed in 1926 and is dedicated to turning India from a secular, democratic, multi-religious nation into an authoritarian anti-minority 'Hindu nation'. It has a large family of closely allied organisations operating in India and abroad. The founders and key leaders of the RSS were strongly inspired by Fascist Italy and supported Nazi Germany. The ideology of the RSS is 'Hindutva', a belief that India only belongs to Hindus who 'share the blood' of 'Vedic-Aryans' and who consider India as their 'holyland'.

4. 'Sangh Parivar' is the name for the RSS family of organisations closely related to and working under the ideology of the RSS.

5. Sewa International UK is the British fundraising arm for RSS front organisations in India. India Development and Relief Fund is the American counterpart.

6. Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh UK is the British branch of the RSS. It is a registered charity and is currently under investigation by the Charity Commission. Sewa International UK is its fundraising wing.

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London, Mar 1 (UNI) Expressing his support for the Awaaz report, accusing the UK-registered Sewa International charity of funding Hindu extremism in India, a former patron of the society said it had 'cheated' him and other Indians resident in UK.

''Sewa International has cheated me and cheated the residents of the UK,'' Lord Adam Patel, who resigned as patron of the charity in 2002, said.

''The organisation has been raising funds in the name of charity and giving them to extremist organisations that preach hatred against Muslims and Christians. The report documents that Sewa International sent 2 million pounds raised in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Gujarat in 2001, to its Indian counterpart Sewa Bharati, a front to the RSS, which has been involved in large-scale violence or hate politics in India,'' a Leicester-based paper quoted him as saying.

''Thousands of Indians have died over the past fifteen years as a result of religiously-motivated violence. Much of the money sent by Sewa International was spent on schools that promote hatred and fanaticism, '' Lord Patel, who is affiliated to the Labour Party, said.

The report could be discussed in Parliament also.

''I am sure we will all be asking questions about this in both the Lords and Commons. No British organisation should be allowed in the name of charity to support extremists who have perpetrated this terrible violence,'' the Vice Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights Jeremy Corbyn, MP, said.

Awaaz has maintained that Sewa International does not represent Hindus.

''Sewa International does not represent the Hindu community or Hinduism. They represent a political cult whose founders and early leaders were admirers of Mussolini and Hitler,'' a spokesman of the group said.