Use of British Charities for Funding Hindutva
In early March, AWAAZ: South Asia Watch Limited (ASAW) presented a report on the funding of Sangh organizations by British charities. The 80-page report In Bad Faith? British Charity and Hindu Extremism documented the use of millions of British pounds, collected from the public allegedly for disaster relief after the Gujarat earthquake and Orissa cyclone, by Sangh organizations.
According to an article in Outlook India, the report asked the UK Charity Commission to “revoke the charitable status of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh-UK (HSS-UK), VHP-UK and Kalyan Ashram Trust-UK (KAT-UK), all part of the Sangh parivar, and act against their trustees”:
ASAW’s charges are serious:
About a third of the money collected for earthquake rehabilitation was spent in setting up RSS schools.
The charity money went to Sangh outfits like the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (allegedly involved in the Gujarat riots), Lok Kalyan Samiti, Border Jankalyan Samiti, Sewa Bharati and Orissa’s Utkal Bipanna Sahayata Samiti (UBSS).
Sewa Bharati, on the vanguard of several anti-minority crusades, received over £2 million from SIUK, the fund-raising arm of HSS-UK.
The money was collected in Britain but the RSS leaders in India jumpstarted projects and handed the money over to the concerned people only after the projects were completed. This was meant to bring these territories into the parivar’s grip.
The money was also used to glorify the RSS, which used it to provide relief to upper-caste Hindus, run shakhas in camps, spread anti-minority messages, rebuild temples, villages and community centres, which it named after its leaders.
ASAW alleges accounts have been doctored—while SIUK claims it funded between 10 and 25 Gujarat villages after the quake, ASAW says it funded only six.
HSS-UK and SIUK have intentionally refrained from providing any comprehensive data on the disbursement of funds.
Read the full report on ASAW’s website.
The Gujarat section of the blog contains news relating to the 2002 carnage, such as developments in legal cases. The blog also links to reports on the role of Sangh organizations in the perpetration of violence during the anti-Muslim pogroms.
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