Vishva Hindu Parishad

Vishwa Hindu Pariṣad
विश्व हिन्दू परिषद

Logo of VHP
Type	Hindu nationalist Hindu reformist
Founded	29 August 1964 (1964-08-29)[1]
Founder(s)	Keshavram Kashiram Shastri Swami Chinmayananda Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar[2] Master Tara Singh S.S. Apte Satguru Jagjit Singh
Headquarters	New Delhi
Coordinates	28°20′N 77°06′E / 28.33°N 77.10°E / 28.33; 77.10
Key people	G. Raghava Reddy (president)[3] Praveen Togadia (executive president)[3]
Area served	India
Members	6.8 million[4]
Subsidiaries	Bajrang Dal (youth wing) Durga Vahini (women's wing)
Motto	Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः
Website	vhp.org

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v t e

Vishva Hindu Pariṣad (pronunciation: /vɪʃv(ə) hɪnd̪uː pərɪʃəd̪/, English: World Hindu Council), abbreviated VHP, is a Hindu right-wing organisation in India and is based on the ideology of Hindutva. It was founded in 1964 and its main objective is "to organise, consolidate the Hindu society and to serve, protect the Hindu Dharma." The VHP belongs to the Sangh Parivar, an umbrella of Hindu nationalist organisations. It has been involved in social service projects, construction and renovation of Hindu temples and in issues such as cow slaughter, conversions to other religions, the Ayodhya dispute and its role in the Babri Masjid demolition. The VHP has been involved in converting Christian tribals to Hinduism, including some reports of forced conversions and violence in 2004 and 2008.

History

The VHP was founded in 1964 by Keshavram Kashiram Shastri.^[5] The co-founders were the Hindu spiritual leader Chinmayananda, former RSS member S.S. Apte, Supreme Spiritual Head of the Namdhari Sikhs Satguru Jagjit Singh and Sikh leader Master Tara Singh.^[6] Chinmayananda was nominated as its founding President, while Apte was nominated as its founding General Secretary.^[6] It was decided at the meeting that the name of the proposed organization would be "Vishva Hindu Parishad" and that a world convention of Hindus was to be held at Prayag (Allahabad) during Kumbha Mela of 1966 for its launch. It was further decided that it would be a non-political organization and that no office bearer of any political party shall be simultaneously an office bearer in the Parishad.^{[citation needed]}

The VHP, which considers Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs as part of the greater Hindu fraternity, officially mentions that it was founded by the "Saint Shakti of Bharat". The VHP was first mooted at a conference in Pawai, Sandipani Sadhanalaya, Bombay on 29 August 1964. The conference was hosted by RSS chief M. S. Golwalkar. The date was chosen to coincide with the festival of Janmashtami. Several representatives from the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain faiths were present in the meeting, as well as the Dalai Lama. Golwalkar explained that "all faiths of Indian origins need to unite", saying that the word "Hindu" (people of "Hindustan") applied to adherents of all the above religions.^[7] Apte declared:

The world has been divided to Christian, Islam and Communist. All of them view Hindu society as very fine rich food on which to feast and fatten themselves. It is necessary in this age of conflict to think of and organise the Hindu world to save it from the evils of all the three.^[7]

Its main objective is "to organise, consolidate the Hindu society and to serve, protect the Hindu Dharma."^[1] It has been involved in social service projects and in encouraging the construction and renovation of Hindu temples. It is against the caste system, opposes cow slaughter and conversions to other religions. The other main objective which it has been involved with is the Ayodhya dispute.^[1]

The VHP is associated with the Sangh Parivar, an umbrella of Hindu nationalist organisations which also includes the centre-right Indian political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the right-wing organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Its slogan is Dharmo rakṣati rakṣitaḥ, which means "Dharma protects its protector" and its symbol is the banyan tree. The current international president of VHP is Raghava Reddy,^[3] while its executive president is Praveen Togadia.^[3]

Ayodhya dispute

The VHP had been involved in the dispute over the Ram Janmabhoomi, or Babri Mosque, for twenty years before its demolition. This activity involved demonstrations, petitions and litigation. According to the VHP and its affiliated organisations, the Babri Mosque was built by demolishing the temple at the birthplace of Rama (Ram Janmabhoomi) by the Mughal Emperor Babur in the 16th century CE. It further said that the mosque was in a dilapidated condition and not used for worship or any religious activity by the city's Muslims.^{[citation needed]}

In the late 1980s, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) brought the temple issue to national politics, and the BJP and VHP began organising larger protests in Ayodhya and around the country. In 1992 a large group of Hindus, including members of the VHP,^[8] were camped on the site of the Babri Mosque. On 6 December 1992 the mosque was demolished by elements of the crowd. Rioting followed across India with 2000 people killed.^[9][10]

The Liberhan Commission headed by Justice Liberhan was constituted to investigate the whole episode. A large number of VHP workers testified before the commission. Totalling 399 sittings over the span of sixteen years, the Commission finally submitted its the 1,029-page report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 30 June 2009.^[11] According to the report, the events of 6 December 1992, in Ayodhya were "neither spontaneous nor unplanned".^[12]

Organization and leadership

Local office of Vishva Hindu Parishad, at Haridwar

The Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the VHP, and it is organised in many states in major training camps called shakhas, where thousands of young men simultaneously train in various activities, receive sports, indoctrination in Hindutwa and cultural education. The Durga Vahini, founded in 1991 under the tutelage of Sadhvi Rithambara as its founding chairperson and the support of the VHP, is described as the "female arm of the Dal". Members of the Vahini contend that the portrayal of their group as a branch of the Bajrang Dal is an oversimplification, and that their goals are to "dedicate ourselves to spiritual, physical, mental and knowledge development".^[13] The VHP also have divisions made up of women. VHP secretary Giri Raj Kishore charted out highly visible roles for women in the group. He charted out two "satyagrahas" for women during their demonstrations.^[14]

The VHP has been a prime backer of the World Hindu Conference in which issues such as casteism, sectarianism, and the future of Hindus were discussed. Prior Conferences have included Hindu Groups such as Parisada Hindu Dharma.^[15]

Communal tensions and reconversions

The VHP engages in several programmes to reconvert Hindus who had previously converted to Christianity or Islam through their trained missionaries called "Dharma Prasaar Vibhag" (Religious Propaganda Cell), and some of them were sent to those remote villages and tribal areas which have substantial Christians and Muslims. On 4 March 2004, more than 200 Christians were reconverted in a ceremony organised by the VHP in the state of Orissa, part of its plan to reconvert 400,000 tribal Christians. According to them, the tribal folk were lured for monetary benefits and Christian missionaries were there to convert them under the pretext of community service. The Christian community denied this and there was an instance of six women being beaten for refusing to reconvert to Hinduism. Religious conversions were a debated topic in Orissa.^[16]

In Punjab, the VHP has played an active role to prevent conversions of Sikhs even if they chose their own religious path. The majority of them are low caste Sikhs converting to Christianity. This could be a result mostly from oppression by high caste Sikhs but there are considerable free will conversions among the higher class Sikhs too; however, the VHP have forcibly stopped Christian missionaries from converting Sikhs.^[17]

The VHP collaborated with Christian Association for Social Action and played an active part in providing relief to both Hindu and Christian families affected by the Love Jihad activity in Kerala during 2003–2013 period.^[18]

In August 2008, the VHP accused Christians for the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda,^[19] though Maoist militants had claimed responsibility for the killing. In the resulting disorder, Christian settlements were set on fire,^[20] and 250 Christians were forced to flee their villages.^[21] A Catholic nun was raped during the violence and the Roman Catholic Church said that at least 7 Christians were killed.^{[19][22][23][24][25]} A judicial commission probing the violence said that conversion and re-conversion were among the major factors that led to the disorder, without blaming any religious groups or the CPI (Maoist).^[26] Following the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda, the VHP engaged in reconversion programmes, involving both voluntary and forced reconversion.^[16][27]

See also

• Sushil Kumarji
• Hindutva
• Bajrang Dal
• Hindu Rashtra

References

External links

• Official website of VHP
• VHP firm on Pokharan temple, BJP silent, The Financial Express, May 21, 1998

v t e Sangh Parivar Organisations Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Bharatiya Janata Party Swadeshi Jagaran Manch Bharatiya Kisan Sangh Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh Vishva Hindu Parishad Muslim Rashtriya Manch Rashtriya Sikh Sangat Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram Hindu Vivek Kendra Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Bajrang Dal Durga Vahini Hindu Munnani Seva Bharati Vidya Bharati Balagokulam Rashtriya Sevika Samiti Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas Ekal Vidyalaya Hindu Janajagruti Samiti Sarsanghchalak Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (1925-1930 and 1931-1940) Laxman Vaman Paranjpe (1930-1931) M. S. Golwalkar (1940-1973) Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras (1973-1994) Rajendra Singh (1994-2000) K. S. Sudarshan (2000-2009) Mohan Bhagwat (2009-present) Other Major figures Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Syama Prasad Mookerjee Madhukar Rao Bhagwat Deendayal Upadhyaya Eknath Ranade Atal Bihari Vajpayee Lal Krishna Advani Ashok Singhal Narendra Modi Dattopant Thengadi Praveen Togadia Independent authors Dharampal Ram Gopal Sita Ram Goel Girilal Jain Rama Jois K. R. Malkani Harsh Narain Ramesh Nagaraj Rao Ram Swarup Arun Shourie Tarun Vijay Koenraad Elst François Gautier Subramanian Swamy Philosophy Hindutva Hindu nationalism Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Gandhian socialism Integral humanism Akhand Bharat Uniform civil code Out of India theory Hindu nationalism Hindutva Bengali Hindu Homeland Movement Bangabhumi Hindu Rashtra Panun Kashmir Banga Sena Topics Persecution of Hindus Ram Janmabhoomi Shuddhi Shah Bano case

v t e Hindu Nationalism General ideology Hindu Nationalism Hindutva Uniform civil code of India Saffronization Organisations Abhinav Bharat Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad Bangabhumi Banga Sena Bharatiya Janata Party Shiv Sena Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Vishva Hindu Parishad Hindu Munnani Hindu Rashtra Panun Kashmir Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party Bharatiya Janshakti Party Akhil Bharatiya Jan Sangh Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha Shanti Party Nepal Hindu Prajatantrik Party Hindu Mahasabha Defunct organizations Bharatiya Jana Sangh Akhil Bharatiya Ram Rajya Parishad Leaders Vinayak Damodar Savarkar M. S. Golwalkar Dr. K. B. Hedgewar Dattopant Thengadi Syama Prasad Mookerjee Deendayal Upadhyaya Nanaji Deshmukh Kailashpati Mishra Lal Krishna Advani Murli Manohar Joshi Bal Thackeray Narendra Modi Events and controversies Babri Mosque 1970 Bhiwandi Riots