Hindu Human Rights celebrated the first dictionary entry of the word Hinduphobia in mid 2021. Lexico online dictionary, powered by Oxford University Press, recognises the origins of Hinduphobia are mid-19th Century. This is around six decades before the Lexico origins of Islamophobia in 1920s.
So why has it taken this long for the human rights of Dharma traditions to get any recognition at all? It could be that the United Nations anti discrimination portal and archives have nothing about the human rights of Dharmic traditions such as Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs.
In contrast, there are over 500 results for anti-Semitism, 154 results for Islamophobia and anti-Muslim, and 12 results for anti-Christian.
For Dharma traditions there is one result for anti-Hindu and zero for Hinduphobia. One result for anti-Sikh and zero results for anti-Buddhist and anti-Jain.
This is not to say that the United Nations does not know, and has not discussed persecution against Dharma traditions. It is that there is next to no research conducted on the particular forms of bias, prejudice, hatred and persecution.
Given that Dharma traditions are largely persecuted by those of non-Dharma traditions, the polarised representation of discrimination as being conducted against, but not by persons of non-Dharma traditions undermines recognition of the human rights of Dharmic faiths by smokescreening the role of non-Dharmic faiths in the historic persecution of those referred to as pagans, heathens, kafirs and idolators.
Hindu Human Rights calls for United Nations to engage with members of the Dharma traditions, especially their human rights defenders and to elevate concern for the human rights of more than Abrahamic cultures by including the terms for the discrimination and persecution of Hindus, Buddhist, Sikhs and Jains within the general United Nations literature.
In addition, there is a need for academic research institutions to fund quantitative and qualitative studies with official and cross referenced data on bias, prejudice, discrimination, hate speech, hate crime, massacres, genocides and ethnic cleansing conducted against those of Dharmic faith at individual, group, institutional, systemic and historic scales.
The United Nations is urged to issue a statement on their commitment to the human rights of Dharma traditions and affirm that they do, despite the evidence indicating otherwise, respect and support the human rights of more than Abrahamic traditions, in particular the ancient indigenous faiths of India: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.
Allies and Dharma Practitioners are welcome to use this letter as a template to send your support for recognition to the United Nations at their contact form.
Do you think dharma traditions have human rights?
Search results for language of bias, prejudice, discrimination and persecution.@UNHumanRights @AusHumanRights
Antisemitism
431/424+80 pic.twitter.com/oxY0c73Y5X— 𑆩𑆳𑆬𑆴𑆤𑆵 Sarah L Gates (@SarahLGates1) May 26, 2022
