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ANDOLI, INDIA, May 16, 2002: This New York Times article is an example of the Western media picking up the biases of the Indian press. Originally HPI had not planned to include it, but as several readers mentioned it to us in both a positive and negative light, we include it here in part: “Just beyond the bustle of this nation’s capital, is a microcosm of some of India’s most destitute: children from pockets of poor. The nearly 300 boys here at the Sewa Dham school, most of them from what are called the tribal belts of central and northeastern India, hew to a rigorous daily schedule from 5 in the morning until 10 at night. They learn Hindu chants in the ancient language, Sanskrit. They are taught to give up their meat-eating ways and to become vegetarians. Patriotic to some, frightening to others, this school represents a central project of the increasingly militant and powerful Hindu right in this country. It is substantially bankrolled by Indians in the United States and run by a charity affiliated with the oldest and most prominent of the Hindu nationalist groups, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or the National Voluntary Service, known as the R.S.S. Education is a centerpiece of the Hindu revivalist campaign, which is natural, considering its cause: to build a Hindu nation out of what is officially a secular country with rights accorded to religious minorities.”

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