Activists say Germantown Library should remove books linked to controversial Hindu group

Activists who campaigned successfully to cancel a Hindi language book event scheduled for earlier this month are now blasting the centerpiece of that celebration — a collection of books housed at the Germantown Library.

A coalition of more than 12 local and national civil rights and other groups said the Montgomery County Public Library should not have acquired a portion of the 160 Hindi books because some who donated to buy them are tied to an alleged Hindu nationalist hate group.

Some of the donors are affiliated with Germantown’s Balvihar Hindi School, part of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, according to the county statement.

“The Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America has platformed multiple anti-Muslim hate mongers, and as Hindus, we are very alarmed,” Sravya Tadepalli, deputy executive director of Hindus for Human Rights — a part of the coalition — said in a statement.

The VHPA of Maryland, which is linked to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad movement in India, said in a statement that it is not a hate group and that the coalition had launched “a vicious smear” against it.

John Chu, a spokesperson for Montgomery County Public Libraries, said the Hindi books meet MCPL’s standards and that the system has no plans to remove them.

“To us, it’s about the Hindi language. It’s not about politics or anything else,” he said.

‘Hinduphobic and divisive’

Ariel Glucklich, a Georgetown University religion professor who specializes in Hinduism, said the VHP is a major player in India and its members generally believe the nation should be controlled by Hindus.

“It’s a supremacy. They might not hate Muslims as individuals. They might not hate Christians as individuals,” Glucklich said. “They just consider themselves as the owners of the sacred land, and the others are possibly guests.”

Hindus comprise about 80% of the population of India, which has been led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, since 2014.

Shyam Tiwari, a vice president of the VHPA, told The Banner that the controversy is “nonsensical, Hinduphobic and divisive,” and that the VHP in India has no influence over the VHPA in the U.S.

“We are independent entities,” Tiwari said. “We have no control of what the Indian government does.”

After the the coalition successfully lobbied against an April 12 event to unveil the book collection at the Germantown Library, MCPL cancelled it.

Propaganda?

Chu said in a statement that the Hindi book collection — worth about $5,000 — was built by a grassroots local movement.

From a list of the donors’ 250 purchase suggestions, he said, the county bought 50 books for a Hindi collection that includes more than 160 books. They were selected by MCPL librarians.

“MCPL intends to continue managing the collection in accordance with our established policies, as we do not censor library materials,” Chu said in a statement.

The coalition said books tied to funders affiliated with the VHPA are inappropriate for a county dedicated to inclusion and diversity.

“Selective diversity that vilifies, marginalizes, and excludes entire segments of our community is little more than hate propaganda, entirely incompatible with the mission of the Montgomery County Public Libraries to be safe spaces,” Scott Webber, a member of the coalition, said in a email.

The collection, the coalition said in statement, “is significantly skewed toward Hindu religious and nationalist content and significantly lacking in equivalent content from Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain, and Adivasi traditions — communities that are substantially represented in Montgomery County’s population and among Hindi-speaking residents.”