“Parliament of World’s Religions – 2018”– Its Opening a Failure !

By: Ragini Sharma, MSW, PhD, Toronto

This is a letter written to the Board of Trustees – the organizers of the event “Parliament of World’s Religions – 2018”:

As a Hindu I was deeply dismayed at the exclusion of Hindus from today’s opening ceremony of the Parliament of World’s Religions. On behalf of the over a billion Hindus worldwide, I demand an official apology and explanation. I sat for four hours for the event, till after 10.pm waiting to a Hindu presenter. Not a single Hindu speaker came. Your slogan “The Promise of Inclusion and the Power of Love’ rings hollow to me. Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam and your opening ceremony feels like a big slap on the face of Hindus. I actually went up to the front of the stage after the closing prayers at 10 pm to express my dismay in public. After that Veena Howard, co-MC came over to tell me that there was a mix-up with the speaker. The speaker had not show up nor answered calls. But, another staff person, standing beside her, said that actually the speaker was present but he forgot to inform the MCs that the speaker was backstage. Your co-chair, came over to give me this ‘excuse’; she told me that my getting upset at situation was an indication that I was ‘not listening’. Why was an announcement not made about the cancellation of Hindu speaker as a way to inform Hindus that they were not being excluded? I am grateful for the words of support from many of the attendees who came over to me after I spoke. Hindus have experienced over 800 years of colonization during which an estimated 80 million Hindus were killed and millions more were starved, raped, converted and so on. However, Hindus mostly refrain from talking about their historical genocide, and attempted cultural genocide. Instead Hindus talk about their immense contribution to world peace through their ideas of Oneness of the whole universe, Ahimsa or non-violence, Self as divine consciousness, Yoga, meditation, vegetarianism, Ayurveda etc. The 2018 Parliament marks the 125 Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s famous speech at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893. He gave a beautiful speech, to thunderous applause, which opened the floodgates of the world seeking to learn more about Hindu philosophy. It is indeed a horrible feeling to see your Board’s failure to commemorate that important historical event. The Parliament of World Religions, in my view, is already a huge failure and disappointment – its already failed in its stated mission of inclusion and love. The least you can do is to offer an apology and make amends.