Talk:Anjali Arondekar

By Sachi Anjunkar

Anjali Arondekar is Professor, Feminist Studies; Founding Co-Director, Center for South Asian Studies, University of California, Santa Cruzas of October 2022. According to her university profile, her research focuses on politics and poetics of sexuality, race and historiography, particularly comparative empires within South Asian and Indian Ocean studies.

She has published no books, papers, or research pertaining to Hindus, the rights of Hindus, the impact or relationship between Islam and Hinduism / Hindutva, India, the Indian Government in the context of BJP government, the Indus Civilization, the impact or relationship between caste system and Hinduism as of May 2023.

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 related to India

Books Publications

1. Arondekar, Anjali. Abundance: Sexuality’s History, Series: Theory Q, Duke University Press, 2023

Books Co-Edited

1. Arondekar, Anjali. Guest Co-Editor with Sherene Seikaly, “Pandemic Histories: Migrations and Meditations,” Special Issue, History of the Present, April 2023
2. Arondekar, Anjali. Associate Editor (Asia), with Chief Editor, Howard Chiang, “Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History”, Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2019
3. Arondekar, Anjali. Guest Co-Editor with Geeta Patel. “Area Impossible: The Geopolitics of Queer Studies.” Special Issue, GLQ: Gay Lesbian Quarterly, Vol. 22:2, March 2016, 151-172
4. Arondekar, Anjali. Guest Co-Editor with Cannon Schmitt and Nancy Henry, “Victorian Investments” Special Issue, Victorian Studies, Vol. 45: 1, Autumn 2002