CoHNA (Coalition of Hindus of North America) General Secretary Shobha Swamy explained how wokeism is targeting families. Shobha Swamy in her interview with Infinity Foundation shared her personal experience to highlight why and how families are being targeted by wokeness.
Shobha and her husband who moved to the United States (US) three decades ago have lived in various parts of the country. Their daughters were born in the US and as a Dharmic parent, she was concerned about how she will teach Hindu Dharma to them. She says despite being a practising Hindu, she did not know where to begin.
Shobha also conducted Balvihar-type weekend classes named Gurukulum in Indiana along with her friend. They used Arsha Vidya Gurukulum’s Purna Vidya curriculum. Furthermore, she ensured that they introduced her children to Hindu culture by visiting Bharat during vacations, celebrating Hindu festivals, and other similar things NRI (non-residential Indians) parents usually do.
When her daughters reached middle and high school, they shifted to Atlanta. She joined Chinmaya Mission as a teacher and enrolled her daughters to ensure that they remained rooted and had a peer group with the same cultural background.
Shobha remarked the first signs of wokeism were noticed when her daughters went to college and the younger one, particularly, did not want to take part in the Ram Navami festivities and a family puja for the occasion. “They were basically telling me that Rama was not someone who took care of his wife and so they did not want to have any associations with such deities”, Shobha informs.
When the interviewer asked her whether such woke ideas came to their minds from their college, Shobha said she did not think she should question them deeply as to where they got such ideas. But the wokeness did not end there because after they graduated, her daughters refused to accompany her to temples.
Shobha adds that while she was the disciplinarian she did not go deep into their studies. Therefore, she expresses ignorance regarding what they were studying at college. Furthermore, she was not aware of the difference between pure sciences and social sciences. She believes that the seeds of wokeism were sown in their college.
“During the course of one of our conversations, we came to know that our younger daughter was getting trained by Equality Labs. It was a very structured four or six weeks training that she was undergoing as well as running book clubs for them”, she recalls. She subsequently researched about them and learned that it was an extremely Hinduphobic organization.
Shobha further notes that Equality Labs promotes the oppressor-oppressed model of viewing life and that along with the training it provides makes a person doubt themselves at every step. She states that it makes people view everything through this (woke) lens and not through the lens of Dharma.
“They have LGBTQ friends and they are supportive of their friends. They support the movement and the community”, Shobha replied to the question of whether other woke identities have permeated her children’s lives.
She adds that she makes peace with the fact that her daughters might have chosen a different path despite the Dharmic values she instilled. However, she sees a ray of hope and hopes their minds would open at some point in time. Further, she wants to talk to them about the fact that such woke lens of viewing the world is more detrimental to them than helping the world.
Shobha Swamy also stressed the need to create awareness not just among the Hindu community but also among the non-Hindu community. She was also disappointed with the kind of books her children are reading. She stated that she gifted them Shri Rajiv Malhotra’s books while ruing that they don’t have an open mind to view the other person’s perspective as a result of which it would hardly have made a difference.
She highlighted the need to create awareness among both the parents and the community at large. Furthermore, professional and sophisticated tools are required to fight wokeism. CoHNA is apprising congressmen regarding the Hindu community and its contributions.
While concluding she pointed out that it was a painful moment for her when her daughters testified in the Santa Clara County caste ordinance call-in (through call). While Shobha called in to vote against the ordinance, her daughters cast their vote in favour of the ordinance. That’s how wokeism divides families and takes away Hindu children from their Dharmic roots.