Understanding Hinduphobia

The term Hinduphobia is subject to discussion in various domains. The discourse of Hinduphobia, like other discourses of phobia, is no more restricted to News channels; instead, we see the discourse becoming popular in academia and International politics. The term gains momentum on and off not only after events that contain polemics against Hinduism in India, but recently we found how some international events happen to fuel this discourse. The controversial events like the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference and the U.N decision to observe ‘International Day for Islamophobia’ have raised concerns, which led to the debate and discussions on Hinduphobia that are sometimes mature but often chaotic. This podcast with Prof. Jeffery D. Long, Religious Studies Scholar from Elizabethtown College, is an attempt to discuss how we can understand and deal with the challenge of Hinduphobia in a more mature manner. This discussion is also based on a paper by the speaker titled ‘Reflections on Hinduphobia: A Perspective from a Scholar-Practitioner’ (published in Prabuddha Bharata)