Controversy erupts over Hindu temple float at New York's India Day parade

17/8/2024 11:37

        A carnival float featuring a Hindu temple that is planned for an upcoming India Day Parade in New York City has sparked controversy, with a number of groups calling it anti-Muslim and saying it should be removed from the event.
        
        The float depicts a temple to the Hindu god Lord Ram, which was consecrated earlier this year on a site in Ayodhya, India, believed to be his birthplace. But the temple site has long been bitterly contested between Hindus and Muslims, and in the early 1990s a mosque that stood there was razed by a Hindu fundamentalist mob.
        
        Some U.S.-based organizations have written a letter to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, calling the float anti-Muslim and saying it glorified the mosque's takedown.
        
        Among groups who signed the letter were the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Indian American Muslim Council and Hindus for Human Rights.
        
        "This float's presence represents these groups' desire to conflate Hindu nationalist ideology with Indian identity, but India is a secular country," the letter said.
        The Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, which is organizing the float, says it represents a Hindu place of worship and aims to glorify a deity seen as an important part of Indian and Hindu identity. The Hindu American Foundation said it was an exercise of free speech.