A Californian Hindu writes .. “SB403 poses an existential threat to myself, my family and the Hindu community and if passed into law, will herald the beginning of a conflict between California’s faith communities, since SB403 was sculpted and deployed by politicians with anti-Hindu religious ideologies, between ethnic groups since it was passed by overwhelmingly, non-Hindu origin politicians and indeed between the Hindu community and the Democratic party who have chosen to adopt this bill in the absence of any credible evidence, community consultation or due process.

1. I write to you Governor Newsom as an American citizen with freedoms protected by the Constitution and by international and American Human Rights laws.

2. I write to you Governor Newsom as a citizen ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and I deny the hate-inspired allegations levelled at myself, my family and my community.

3. I write to you Governor Newsom as a taxpaying resident of California aware and proud of the unblemished reputation of my community in terms of our contribution to the public purse, our under representation in criminal statistics, and of our contribution as Doctors, Educators and Technologists.

4. I write to you Governor Newsom as a resident of California denied due process and subjected to humiliation and dehumanisation by a hate campaign created and deployed by the notorious anti-Hindu Tanmozhi Sounderrajan and Equality Labs,

5. I write as a Hindu, historically persecuted in my own ancestral homeland by the same European Christians from whom the founding fathers of this nation fled, the same colonial oppressors who created and deployed ‘Caste Consciousness’ in India exactly as they created ‘Race Consciousness’ in this country, as ‘divide and conquer’ hate infused state strategies.

6. I write as a Hindu religiously targeted by the ancient hate tropes of ‘infidel’ and ‘kuffar’ by extremists of both religious traditions for over a millennium, extremist representatives of these traditions being overly present in the deployment and conveyance of this thinly veiled hate bill on its journey so far.

7. I write as a Californian Hindu who has been labelled as an ideological rapist by Sen Aisha Wahab, (amongst other reprehensible ‘Caste Hindu characteristics’)

8. I write as a Hindu aware of the millennia old Islamist anti-Hindu agenda, from Afghan Mahmud Ghazni who razed hundreds of Hindu temples as he slaughtered his way across Hindu India, to Nadar Shah who built hills of Hindu skulls to celebrate his Delhi Sultanate and the defeat of the Kuffar, to Afghan Bhaktiyar Khilji who killed 6,000 Hindu scholars, burned 9 million infidel books at the ancient Nalanda university, which was then also burned to the ground.

9. I write as a Hindu whose ancestors witnessed the beheading and immolation of Sikh Guru Teg for refusing to convert to Islam. Three of his colleagues were tortured to death in front of him, Bhai Mati Das was sawn into pieces, Bhai Dayal Das was thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, and Bhai Sati Das was burned alive. On 11th November, Tegh Bahadur himself was then publicly beheaded in Delhi, for the crime of being an infidel.

10. I write as a Hindu targeted by Christian extremists of colonial times who brought the Roman Catholic Inquisition to India with its horrific Papal Pear and the Auto Da Fe, which burned Hindus alive for being Hindus, in their ancestral Homeland.

11. I write as a Hindu from India, the Jewel in the Crown of colonial Great Britain, during whose illegal occupation, 165 million Indians died and $45 trillion was extracted and taken to Britain, by Anglican Christians.

12. I write as a Hindu person of colour whose family came to this country seeking refuge from 1400 years of persecution for being non-White, non-Christian, non-Muslim and find myself being targeted by an undisputedly un-necessary piece of legislation introduced by an Afghan Muslim, supported by Islamist organisations and supported by Islamist organisations and hurriedly propelled through the legislative process by predominantly white Christians.

13. I write as all of the above, one thing which I am not is a ‘discriminator by religion’ and I reject and deny any person or institution the freedom to define me and my community as such, for crass political gains.

Conclusion:

1. SB403 poses an existential threat to myself, my family and the Hindu community and if passed into law, will herald the beginning of a conflict between the entirely innocent, American Hindu and the corrupt undemocratic elements present at many levels of the state apparatus.

2. I urge you to veto this hate-infused divisive initiative, to halt the vilification of my community, to demand concrete evidence of all allegations, to set aside a budget to undo the mental and physical trauma which has been inflicted upon our families and communities and to ensure that those guilty of this institutionalised incitement to hatred, are brought to justice.

3. I urge you to veto this bill to end this text-book Goebbelsian ‘hate pogram’ which has already alienated too many of our Californian Hindu children, deliberately creating a rift between them and their allegedly ‘Casteist’ parents and ancestors.

4. As I have stated, we Californian Hindus are innocent and this is an existential threat to myself, my children and our community. As a capable community, part of a vulnerable minority, faced with such an existential threat and no alternative but to protest without surcease, we will need to use every legal means available to ensure our survival, indefinitely.

5. I have always supported the Democratic party, but if I am denied my democratic rights and denied participation in the democratic processes of governance, I see it as my obligation to not only withdraw my support for such a party but to challenge it with every fibre of my being,

6. I appeal to you to veto this bill, to end this clearly Hinduphobic program and to help us to reverse the wide ranging inter-community harm which has already been inflicted.

7. Finally, I appeal to you to veto this hate bill #SB403 and if you remain unconvinced as to the justness of our cause, please initiate a community consultation to factually establish the truth or otherwise of these devastatingly destructive allegations.’

(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @thebritishhindu on October 05, 2023, with minor edits to improve readability and conform to HinduPost style guide)