Hindu Unity

Part of a series on
Hindu politics
Concepts Integral Humanism Hindu Nationalism Hindutva Cultural Nationalism The Third way Litigation-Free Model Swadeshi Uniform Civil Code
Freedom Fighters Dattopant Thengadi Lala Lajpat Rai Bal Gangadhar Tilak Bipin Chandra Pal Sri Aurobindo Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Vallabhbhai Patel Purushottam Das Tandon Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Keshava Baliram Hedgewar
Political leaders Dattopant Thengadi Syama Prasad Mookerjee Deendayal Upadhyaya Nanaji Deshmukh Atal Bihari Vajpayee Lal Krishna Advani Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi Bal Thackeray Narendra Modi Sushma Swaraj
Major political parties Bharatiya Janata Party Shiv Sena Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party Bharatiya Janshakti Party Akhil Bharatiya Jan Sangh Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha Shanti Party Nepal Hindu Prajatantrik Party Hindu Mahasabha Defunct parties Bharatiya Jana Sangh Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad Organisations Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Vishwa Hindu Parishad Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad Hindu Munnani
Authors on Hindu politics Dattopant Thengadi David Frawley Koenraad Elst François Gautier Sita Ram Goel K.S. Lal Harsh Narain Yvette Rosser Arun Shourie Ram Swarup Christophe Jaffrelot Bojil Kolarov Chetan Bhatt Walter K. Andersen
Politics portal Portal:Himalaya region Government of India portal

Hindu Unity (H.U.) is the official website of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindutva youth organization, and was funded by Indian American Rohit Vyasmaan. The website advocates the defense of Hindu culture, heritage, and religion, and supports Hindutva organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

The site is notable for its "Hit List" of "Evil forces that are against the Hindu people," which includes a wide variety of people, including actors, film directors, academics, religious leaders, politicians, and terrorists. The list features personal information on many of its targets, sometimes including photos, phone numbers, addresses and passport particulars. As of 2010, the website is listed in the US-based Hate Directory, labeled as an "anti-Muslim" hate group.

Positions

• The website states that it will protect Hindus from Muslim terrorists and Christian missionaries.
• The website praises Jewish people and the state of Israel numerous times, and contains links to Kahanist websites. It contains an article on the Jews of India, their history and culture and publishes a favorable view of the small Jewish communities in the country. It is pro-Zionist.
• The website is pro-Sikh, and describes what it sees as historical persecution of Sikhs by Muslims in significant detail, referring to Sikh advocacy websites for background.
• The website also contains what presents itself as the History of Islamic Persecution in India.

Hindu Unity was strongly supportive of Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, and encouraged Indians to do the same.^{[citation needed]}

Background

As of 2001, the site was run by its president Sanjay Sharma (based in New Delhi), with two advisors: Raj Malhotra and Sanjay Shah. Other people involved in the running of the site are Avinash Narayanan, Nikeel Sinha, Amarendra and Atul Sen.

Censorship

Hindu Unity has twice been censored by Indian ISPs.

It was censored by several Indian ISPs in 2004, after an order from Mumbai police. According to Rediff, "Sources at the Mumbai police commissioner's office said the directive was issued because the web site published inflammatory material against Islam."

The website was censored by all Indian ISPs in 2006 in the wake of the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings, after a request from the Computer Emergency Response Team - India. According to the Inter Press Service, "the move was a response to hate messages on websites and 'blogs' that could have spread enmity between India's majority Hindus and minority Muslims." The website remains banned in India.

On February 2, 2007, its old web board was shut down and locked by ezboard, its forum's American host, for "Terms of Use" violations possibly related to its allegations of rape against Rahul Gandhi. However, by February 11, it had created an alternative phpBB-based web forum hosted at its own domain, although it lost its archives due to ezboard's swiftness in locking down its old board. The discussion board was subsequently shut down due to repeated spam attacks.

Hindu Unity's "Hit List"

Hindu Unity's website is perhaps best known for its "Criminals Hit List" of individuals and organisations labeled "Evil forces that are against the Hindu people." As of August 2006, there were 109 individuals and 13 institutions listed, including Indian political figures (e.g. Sonia Gandhi, for allegedly being a "Traitor to India and Hindus, Pro-Christian/Muslims agendas", Shashi Tharoor, Lalu Prasad Yadav, for allegedly "swindling money from Hindus", Jyoti Basu), other South Asian politicians (e.g. Pervez Musharraf, for allegedly "overthrowing the last hope of democracy in Pakistan and hopes for peace in Kashmir", Khaleda Zia, for alleged responsibility of the killings of many Hindus in Bangladesh), Indian actors (e.g. Shahrukh Khan, Shabana Azmi, Dilip Kumar, Sanjay Dutt), Christian religious figures (e.g. the late Pope John Paul II, for being the force behind "immoral, unethical and forceful conversions in India.", Pat Robertson and Benny Hinn for their anti-Hindu rhetoric), Indian artists and filmmakers (e.g. M F Husain, for his "offensive" portrayal of Hindu Deities, Deepa Mehta, "for producing movies that depict Hinduism as being immoral"), and various media outlets (e.g. The Hindu, The Times of India, India Today, STAR News, Zee News, The New York Times, PBS, BBC).

References

• "Two Unlikely Allies Come Together in Fight Against Muslims", New York Times, June 2, 2001, Saturday; (full text)

External links

• Hindu Unity - Official website