Images and machinery, both symbols of Hindu supremacy and Muslim subjugation, rolled down Oak Tree Road last month.
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This week, our No. 1 story shoved its way to the top of our most-read stories. Audrey Truschke, the director of Asian Studies at Rutgers University-Newark, wrote about the problematic symbolism of the bulldozer in modern Indian culture.
Commonly used and interpreted as a tool in construction, the bulldozer is the weapon of choice employed for the destruction of homes and businesses owned by Indians of the Muslim faith who dare to speak out against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indian Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath — both symbols of Hindu supremacy and Muslim subjugation.
As Edison and Middlesex County, home to 25% of Jersey’s South Asian community, celebrated Indian Independence Day with a parade last month, a bulldozer, replete with photos of Modi and the Hindu monk, appeared as part of the celebration. It rolled down Oak Tree Road like all the other colorful floats.
And the hate doesn’t stop there. Truschke said she’s faced threats from these groups and often travels with armed protection.
“Violence is baked into Hindu nationalist ideology,” she said in an email. “Every scholar of Hindu nationalism knows that basic fact, and yet it has provided me only cold comfort as I have endured being a potential target of such wrath. I have received death and rape threats, against me and my family, from far-right Hindu nationalists for years.”
“It is alarming that Hindu nationalists target scholars in this way,” she said, “and it is one of many red flags about their extremist ideas and actions.”
Now that we New Jerseyans are aware of that symbol of hate, we have decried its inclusion in the parade, or at least the Woodbridge/Perth Amboy chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has gone on the record issuing a statement against this display of Hindu nationalist propaganda.
What’s going on in New Jersey? Well, like the rest of the country, Edison’s Indian community serves as a microcosm of the larger political and racial division, often peppered with violent acts that we see bubbling at the surface of our daily lives.
Here are some other compelling issues we wrote about this week:
When Hurricane Ida killed four residents and flooded Karismah Tucker's apartment in Elizabeth last September, she and her daughters took shelter at the Doubletree Hotel in Newark. Tucker, 24, and her family were among the hundreds of residents displaced who found shelter in hotels after the devastating storm. John Jones | For NJ Advance MediaJohn Jones | For NJ Advance Media
The planet is choking and blistering, and one of the primary causes of this climate calamity and health menace is spewing from our tailpipes. We must search for ways to curb the pollutants and reduce pollutants that affect climate change. (Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press file photo)
Fans walk along roads choked with traffic on the way to the Woodstock festival in Bethel, N.Y., in 1969.. In the beginning, Donald Trump brought out big audiences to his rallies but now he's overstayed his welcome . (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)ASSOCIATED PRESSASSOCIATED PRESS
The former St. James Hospital in Newark's Ironbound section is being redeveloped into the proposed Newark High School of Architecture & Design.Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media For NJ.com
The New Jersey Education Association says there are storm clouds gathering in the form of mean-spirited and dishonest attacks targeting efforts to teach New Jersey children the truth. Apparently, the truth is threatening to some people.
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