Prepared by Awaaz - South Asia Watch Ltd, the report, entitled "In Bad Faith? British Charity and Hindu Extremism", says UK organisations have been raising funds in the name of charity for natural disasters, and giving them to extremist organisations that preach hatred against Muslims and Christians. Awaaz is a UK secular network of South Asian academics, lawyers and human rights campaigners.
The report demonstrates that the UK-based Sewa International sent 2 million pounds, raised in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Gujarat in 2001, to its Indian counterpart Sewa Bharati, a front for the secretive, violent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Money from the UK was given to RSS front organisations that have been involved or implicated in large scale violence or hate politics in India. Thousands of Indians have died over the past fifteen years as a result of religiously-motivated violence. Much of the money sent by Sewa International was spent on schools that promote hatred and fanaticism.
At the launch, Dr. Chetan Bhatt, Awaaz spokesperson and Reader at Goldsmith's College, University of London, said that fundraising by these charities "is strategic, political work whose aim is to enable the extremist RSS to penetrate Indian society at all levels in order to promote its hate-filled political agenda."
Lord Adam Patel, a former Sewa International patron who resigned in protest at the organisation's links to Hindu extremists, said Sewa International had "cheated me and cheated the residents of the UK." He asked that the Charity Commission take action regarding these groups. He announced that a new Parliamentary Committee is being formed to look into the human rights situation in the state of Gujarat, the destination of most of Sewa International's funds and the site of the 2002 carnage.
Jeremy Corbyn, M.P., said that "the growth of intolerance in India is frightening." He went on to say that "if these groups are being funded by Britain, they must be exposed, this should be investigated by the Charity Commission and by both Houses of Parliament."
The M. P., who is also Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights further said: "I am sure we'll all be asking questions about this in the Lords and Commons and I will be taking the matter up through the Parliamentary Human Rights groups and other colleagues who I know share our view that secular politics is the way forward. No British organisation should be allowed in the name of charity, lottery, public funding or anything else to support extremist organisations in India who have perpetrated this terrible violence against people many of whom have lost their lives." He added that he would be raising the matter in the House of Commons.
Sewa International and the HSS cannot continue to hide behind blanket denials, as they did in 2002 after the Channel 4 News report that linked Sewa International to the violence of the Kalyan Ashrams in Gujarat during 2002. They are morally compelled to respond in detail to the specific allegations of Channel Four News in 2002, by the Financial Times in 2003 and now by the Awaaz report. Nor can they claim that this report is an attack on the "Hindu community". HSS UK and Sewa International do not represent Hindu communities or Hinduism; they represent a political cult whose founders and early leaders were admirers of Mussolini and Hitler, said Awaaz.
The report recommends that the Charity Commission withdraw the charity status of three British charities: Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) UK, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) UK, and the Kalyan Ashram Trust. Awaaz has called upon officials, voluntary organisations and the general public to dissociate themselves from these groups and cease donating money to them.
Dr. Priyamvada Gopal, a Lecturer at Cambridge University and an Awaaz spokesperson, said the British public should continue to support genuinely humanitarian causes in India run by non-sectarian charities, of which there are many in the UK and India. She added, "funds sent from the UK must nurture life, democracy and peace - not water the killing fields of hatred and intolerance."
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The report is available at
http://www.awaazsaw.org/ibf/index.htm Also see
http://www.stopfundinghate.org 
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