Our Story

Understanding Hinduphobia was born in 2021 at Rutgers University, in partnership with the Rutgers University chapter of the Hindu Students Council. That first conference was a landmark event. It was the first time scholars, activists, students, and allies convened to explore Hinduphobia with the depth, rigor, and cross-disciplinary examination the phenomenon demands. UH 2021 was the first time the Hindu community created a multi-disciplinary academic space to inform the general public about Hinduphobia. Nearly a thousand people from across the globe registered for the online conference. The conference marked the launch of the Working Definition of Hinduphobia, which serves as the conceptual and orienting framework for our work.

Since that first conference, Understanding Hinduphobia has blossomed into an ongoing educational initiative that works across institutions all year. Since the first Understanding Hinduphobia conference, we have been invited by students and faculty to conduct workshops and seminars about Hinduphobia on campuses across the country, from coast to coast!

Understanding Hinduphobia is an offering from the Hindu community to the broader American community. It is an opportunity, a platform, to create greater understanding within and about the Hindu community, to move through the uncomfortable and often painful process of unlearning what people think they know about us to see us anew.

We hold this space in the spirit of Saraswati Ma, the light and beauty of knowledge that dispels the darkness of ignorance and small-mindedness, the immense potential within each of us to spark new knowledge and new understandings so that we may work together towards a truly pluralist society that embraces all people and all traditions with compassion, awareness, and peace.