The Banality of Bigotry: Conference Targeting Hindus shows how little some Western Academia has Progressed

In times where one would hope that academia is more sensitized towards representations of colored peoples and non-globally-dominant religions, the conference “Dismantling Global Hindutva,” which claims to be co-sponsored by over 40 universities, mostly in the United States, belies that claim. This problematic conference, which is being supported by a signature campaign of academics, is an indicator that the genocide-fostering capabilities of Western academia have not really waned. Lacking self-reflection these elite institutions and scholars forget to check their own power and privilege as they work to dismantle the “other.”

It is worth remembering that modern racism is largely a product of Western academic studies. And this is not just those who claimed Biblical authority for racism and slavery, such as in the 19th century tract by Josiah Priest, called the “Biblical Defence of Slavery” but also in its dual, those who claimed a “scientific basis,” rather than the Holy Book as the justification of race supremacy. This thread runs through both the “Right” and “Left” of academia; the latter, often positing an “evolutionary basis” for their racial claims.

Darwin’s Origin of Species carries the subtitle “or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.” Other Western academics read “superiority of (White) race” into the notion of favored races. Scientific theories as a basis for racism, continued…