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'''Hindu Students Council''' (also known as HSC) is an organization of primarily Hindu college students in the [[United States of America]] and [[Canada<ref>[http://www.hscnet.org/fact.php welcome to hsc<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>]. According to its website, it serves as an "international forum that provides opportunities to learn about Hindu heritage through various activities, events and projects." <ref>[http://www.hscnet.org Hindu Students Council - Registration for Annual Camp now Open<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> It is an independent non-profit organization under 26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3).
The HSC was set up in 1990 with support from the [[Vishwa Hindu Parishad]] of America, a constituent member of the right-wing <ref>''Performative Politics And The Cultures Of Hinduism: Public Uses of Religion in Western India'', Raminder Kaur, Permanent Black, London, 2003</ref>. [[India]]n It[[Sangh becameParivar]]; administrativelyits independentcurrent inassociation 1993with andthat fullybody independentis ina 2003matter of some debate<ref>[http://www.hscnet.org/fact.php"Contemporary welcomeAmerican toReligion", hsc<!--Wade BotClark generatedRoof, titleMacmillan, p305. -->]</ref><ref name=autogenerated2>[http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2001/9-10/60_college.shtml Hinduism Today | University | September/October 2001<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>. , though it claims to have become functionally independent in 2003<ref name=autogenerated4>[http://www.hscnet.org/fact.php welcome to hsc<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name=autogenerated2 /> Prior to its separation from its parent organization, it was considered to be the student-wing of the VHP. <ref>[http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2001/9-10/60_college.shtml Hinduismname=autogenerated2 Today | University | September/October 2001<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>"Politics After Television: Religious Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Indian Public", Arvind Rajagopal, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 257, </ref><ref name=autogenerated3>[http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/global/Publications/Yearbooks/2003/2003Chapter7e.pdf 2003 Yearbook, the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, [[London School of Economics]]]</ref><ref name=autogenerated1> "The Struggle for India's Soul", Mira Kamdar, ''World Policy Journal.''</ref><ref>>"Negotiating Hindu Identities in America", by [[Diana Eck]], in ''The South Asian Religious Diaspora in Britain, Canada, and the United States'' Raymond Brady Williams, Harold G. Coward, John Russell Hinnells eds., [[State University of New York]] Press, 2001, p.234.</ref>.
It maintains cordial relations with temples and organizations in America including the [[Chinmaya Mission]], [[BAPS]], [[Gayatri Parivar]], [[Barsana Dham]], [[Ramakrishna Mission]], [[Art of Living]], [[Arsha Vidya Gurukulam]], [[Indian Temple and Cultural Society of North America]], [[ISKCON]], [[Arya Samaj]], etc. The organization also has good relations with many Buddhist, Jain and Sikh organizations. Besides relations with Hindu/Indian organizations in America, HSC also maintain relations with youth organizations in Europe, Malaysia, and South Africa. <ref>[http://www.hscnet.org/fact.php welcomename=autogenerated4 to hsc<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
== Vision and goals==
*The Cornell Chapter is also the Cornell Hindu Chaplency. <ref>[http://curw.cornell.edu/chaplaincies.html Cornell United Religious Work<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
*In April 2007, the Emory Chapter, at the request of the Inter-Religious Council at Emory held a mock-Hindu wedding with over 200 attendees to show the study body how Hindu weddings are conducted and explain what the different rituals mean. <ref>http://media.www.emorywheel.com/media/storage/paper919/news/2007/04/24/News/Student.Life.Tying.The.Knot.The.Hindu.Way-2876121.shtml</ref>
*In July 2003, HSC along with other organizations organized the Global Dharma Conference 2003 which was attended by approximately 2000 people. Speakers at the conference included President of India Abdul Kalam, former Governor of NJ James McGreevey, Deepak Chopra, Shankaracharya of Kanchi Peetham, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Jain Spiritual Leader Mahapragyaji, Dr. Kiran Bedi and many others. Famous Tabla Maestro Zakir Hussain and Indian Reggae and Bhangra Star Apache Indian performed at the conference.<ref>[http://www.dharmaconference.org/index.html Welcome to Global Dharma Conference<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[http://www.dharmaconference.org/speakersguests.html Global Dharma Conference: Speakers / Guests<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>http://www.dharmaconference.org/news/global_dharma_coverage_india_newsweek.pdf</ref><ref>[http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa080403a.htm Global Dharma Conference 2003 - An About.com Hinduism Report<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[http://www.dharmaconference.org/news/IndiaAbroad.pdf comm-1&2.qxd<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Stephen Warner, of the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]] reports that many HSC members see the organisation as a method to "reaffirm their Hindu identity" and "link them to their families"<ref>[http://www.uic.edu/depts/soci/yrp/simple/_mod4.html Youth & Religion Project:Modules.4<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>.
==Allegations==
==Status of affiliation with [[Sangh Parivar]]==
Because HSC was founded with the assistance of the VHP, it has been described by Khyati Joshi as an organization "associated with Hindutva" <ref>"New Roots in America's Sacred Ground: Religion, Race, and Ethnicity in Indian America", Khyati Y. Joshi, Rutgers University Press, 2006, p88.</ref>
Because the Council was set up with the help of the [[Vishwa Hindu Parishad]] of America, [[Diana Eck]] calls it a "loose affiliate" of the VHP. She also notes that HSC emphasises a "strong sense of Hindu identity" and that "While many American Hindus would explicitly reject the religious nationalism of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in India, they have developed no alternative organizations to address the issues of Hindu identity in the United States."<ref>>"Negotiating Hindu Identities in America", by [[Diana Eck]], in ''The South Asian Religious Diaspora in Britain, Canada, and the United States'' Raymond Brady Williams, Harold G. Coward, John Russell Hinnells eds., [[State University of New York]] Press, p.234.</ref> A report by the London School of Economics also identifies the HSC as a "Hindu nationalist" organization.<ref name=autogenerated3 />. It has recently been described by scholars as "associated with Hindutva" <ref>"New Roots in America's Sacred Ground: Religion, Race, and Ethnicity in Indian America", Khyati Y. Joshi, Rutgers University Press, 2006: p88.</ref>;the "VHP of America's student wing"<ref>"Politics After Television: Religious Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Indian Public", Arvind Rajagopal, Cambridge University Press, p. 257</ref> and as one of "the major right-wing Hindu groups operating in the United States"<ref name=autogenerated1 />.
After studying a chapter of the HSC, Prema Kurian came to the conclusion that "there was a diversity of opinions, and it was only a minority who were militantly Hindu-centric,",while going on to say that the "Hindu-centric group in the second generation will come to represent the voice of [[Hinduism in America|American Hinduism]] in the future and will similarly comprise mainly male, upper-caste, upper-class, highly educated professionals. As an Indian American newspaper reported, it is no secret that the second-generation leadership for American [[Hindu nationalist]] [[Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh|organizations]] 'is being groomed in the HSC'".<ref>"Being Young, Brown, and Hindu: The Identity Struggles of Second-Generation Indian Americans", by Prema Kurian, ''Journal of Contemporary Ethnography'', Vol. 34, No. 4, 434-469 </ref>
HSC's national leadership have displayed significant anti-Muslim proclivities, especially on their vibrant list serve. Claiming that "Muslim invasions" decimated a fictional "Hindu Golden Age," HSC members have been known to propagandize young Indian Americans who are examining their ethnic and religious identities into an almost cult-like community that is rigidly conservative, exclusive and doctrinaire.
Biju Mathews and Vijay Prasad, members of the Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL), an activist organization<ref>[http://www.himalmag.com/99Dec/deceit.htm ''Himal'' magazine]</ref>, are involved in the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate, which on April 13, 2007 released a report entitled ''Lying Religiously: The Hindu Students Council and the Politics of Deception'', which accused the HSC of deceiving students about its links with the VHP, asserting that in the VHPA stated in 2003 that the HSC was "the youth wing of VHP".<ref>[http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EA10Df05.html Asia Times]</ref>.
Others, like Prof. Stephen Warner, however, see HSC simply as an organization promoting Hinduism on college campuses and helping Hindu students reconnect with their roots and develop their Hindu identity <ref>[http://www.uic.edu/depts/soci/yrp/simple/_mod4.html Youth & Religion Project:Modules.4<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>. After studying HSC, Prof. Prema Kurian has come to the conclusion that HSC is composed of a wide variety of students with a range of views ranging from those for whom Hinduism is an important and emotional part of their identity to those whose upbringing did not include an emphasis on Hinduism. <ref>"Hindu Student Organizations", by Prof. Prema Kurian, Feb 2007, Syracuse University</ref>.
==References==
Hinduism Today, notes that it is an independent Hindu organization serving students throughout the United States.<ref>[http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2001/9-10/60_college.shtml Hinduism Today | University | September/October 2001<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
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==Chapters ==
===West Region===
*CSU, Sacramento - CA
*University of California, Berkeley - CA
*University of California, Irvine - CA
*University of California, San Diego - CA
*University of Colorado, Boulder- CO
===East-Central Region===
*George Mason University - VA
*Johns Hopkins University - MD
*University of Maryland College Park - MD
*University of Maryland Baltimore County - MD
*[http://www.student.virginia.edu/~hindu University of Virginia] - VA
*Virginia Commonwealth University - VA
*Virginia Tech - VA
===East Canada Region===
*University of Toronto, St. George - Canada
*University of Toronto, Scarborough - Canada
*McGill University - Montreal, Quebec
*Carleton University - Ottawa, Canada
*University of Ottawa - Canada
===Midwest Region===
*Northwestern University - IL
*Purdue University - IN
*Washington University in St. Louis - Missouri
*University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign - IL
*Drake University - IA
*University of Illinois - Chicago - IL
*University of Michigan - Ann Arbor - MI
*[http://www.iit.edu/~hsc/ Illinois Institute of Technology] - IL
*University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - IL
*University of Iowa - IA
*University of Pittsburgh - PA
===Mid-Atlantic Region===
*[http://hsc.cornell.edu Cornell University] - NY
*[http://www.nyu.edu/clubs/hsc New York University] - NY
*Syracuse University - NY
*Drexel University - PA
*NetOHM (Network Of Hindu Minds) - Metro (NYC/NY)
*New Jersey Institute of Technology - NJ
*Penn State University - PA
*City College of New York - NY
*Princeton University - NJ
*[[Binghamton University]] - NY
*Middlesex County College, Edison - NJ
*University of Pennsylvania - PA
*CUNY - Baruch College - NY
*Rutgers University - NJ
*CUNY - Hunter College - NY
*St. John’s University - NY
*CUNY - Queens College - NY
===Carolinas Region===
*University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill - NC
*University of South Carolina - SC
*Duke University - NC
*North Carolina State University - NC
===New England Region===
*Northeastern University - MA
*University of Massachusetts, Boston - MA
*[http://people.bu.edu/buhsc Boston University] - MA
*NetOHM Boston - MA
*MIT - MA
===South Region===
*Louisiana State University - LA
*University of Houston - TX
*NetOHM Houston - TX
*University of Oklahoma - OK
*Oklahoma State University - OK
*Texas A&M, College Station - TX
*[http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/hsc/ University of Texas, Austin - TX]
*University of Texas, Dallas - TX
*Bellaire High School - TX
*Rice University - TX
===Southeast Region===
*Georgia Institute of Technology - GA
*University of South Florida - FL
*Florida Institute of Technology - FL
*University of Alabama, Birmingham - AL
*Emory University - GA
*University of Florida, Gainesville - FL
*University of Miami - FL
*Oxford College at Emory University - GA
==References==
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[[Category:Hindu movements and organizations]]
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