Talk:Banu Subramaniam

By Anirudha Patel

Banu Subramaniam is a Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as of November 2022. According to her profile, her research explores the philosophy, history, and culture of the natural sciences and medicine as they relate to gender, race, ethnicity, and caste.

In 2021, she endorsed the "Dismantling Global Hindutva" conference and made the allegation

"the current government of India [in 2021] has instituted discriminatory policies including beef bans, restrictions on religious conversion and interfaith weddings, and the introduction of religious discrimination into India’s citizenship laws. The result has been a horrifying rise in religious and caste-based violence, including hate crimes, lynchings, and rapes directed against Muslims, non-conforming Dalits, Sikhs, Christians, adivasis and other dissident Hindus. Women of these communities are especially targeted. Meanwhile, the government has used every tool of harassment and intimidation to muzzle dissent. Dozens of student activists and human rights defenders are currently languishing in jail indefinitely without due process under repressive anti-terrorism laws."

In 2016, she signed a letter addressed to the State Board of Education, California Department of Education, dated May 17, 2016. The letter stated the following:

1. "There is no established connection between Hinduism and the Indus Civilization. The Rg Veda contains numerous mentions of horses and chariots but there is no conclusive material or fossil evidence for either at any Indus valley archeological site."
2. "It is inappropriate to remove mention of the connection of caste to Hinduism."
3. "The geographic location of the Indus Civilization lies in what is now contemporary India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The use of "South Asia" to describe this shared civilizational heritage is thus entirely appropriate in some places of the framework, even though South Asia is a modern term, and some source materials use the term ‘Ancient India.' "

Publications

Books

1. Subramaniam, Banu. Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism. University of Washington Press, 2019.

Journal Articles

1. Subramaniam, Banu. "Viral Fundamentalisms: Riding the Corona Waves in India." Religion Compass, vol. 15, no. 2, Feb. 2021.

   The author deviated from the topic of Covid 19 in the article, thus misguiding the audience to talk about "Hindu Nationalism".

   The author argues that Hindu Nationalism is on rise since BJP government in 2014. The author claims that the BJP's success in establishing the government is because of "Hindu nationalist groups—The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)" rather than democratically winning the elections. "After coming to power in 1998 in a coalition government, we have seen the steady rise of Hindu nationalists in government. Today, they are the majority party in power in India. The political success of the BJP draws on two other Hindu nationalist groups—The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), an organization of religious leaders, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a grassroots nationalist organization (These two are not political parties and do not contest elections.)"

   The author makes up statements about Hindu Nationalism, saying that it is about making India a Hindu country rather than a secular Country and that PM Modi has been working to make it a reality. "The power of Hindu nationalism lies in the effective way by which it has mobilized the country. At the heart of Hindu nationalism is the idea of Hindutva or “Hinduness,” and the imagination of India as a Hindu nation."

2. Subramaniam, Banu. "The Ethical Imperative: The Vegetal Frontiers of Technologized Meat." In Meat: A Transnational Analysis, edited by Sushmita Chatterjee and Banu Subramaniam.
3. Subramaniam, Banu, and Debjani Bhattacharyya. "A Viral Education: Scientific Lessons from India’s WhatsApp University." Somatosphere, 31 May 2020.
4. Subramaniam, Banu, and Debjani Bhattacharyya. "Technofascism in India." n+1 Magazine, 13 May 2020.
5. Subramaniam, Banu. "Counter-narratives of the Enlightenment: Tales from the Edges of Science and Religion in India." In Contradiction Studies: Mapping the Field, edited by Katrin Amelang, Gisela Febel, Michi Knecht, and Anne Rohrbach. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2019.
6. Subramaniam, Banu. "Overpopulation Is Not the Problem." Public Books, 27 Nov. 2018.
7. Subramaniam, Banu, Jennifer Hamilton, and Angela Willey. "What Indians and Indians Can Teach Us about Colonization: Feminist Science and Technology Studies, Epistemological Imperialism, and the Politics of Difference." Feminist Studies, vol. 43, no. 3, 2017.
8. Subramaniam, Banu. "Recolonizing India: Troubling the Anti-Colonial, Decolonial, Postcolonial." Catalyst: Journal of Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, vol. 3, no. 1, 2017.