Forum Of Inquilabi Leftist is an ultra-left wing organistaion founded by Biju Mathew and Vijay Parshad and dates back to 1980’s. Earlier it was called Forum of Indian Leftists. FOIL has more than 300 members who are also founding member of other organisations. They are well-known for their writings in Communist Party of India (Marxist) weekly magazine People’s Democracy. According to the founder they are wanted a forum as a “clearing house for radical Indian activist in the United States, Canada and England….[to] help build projects that make [their] radical politics more material.” They have a fund raising arm called SINGH (Secular and InterNational Growth and Harmony). FOIL is also called as PROXSA – Progressive South Asians. Below is a short profile of their key members. We aim to provide a detailed profile of each member and their affiliations in subsequent pages. Gadar is their online mouthpiece-magazine. Members of Coalition Against Genocide (CAG) have now formed a new group called Alliance for Justice and Accountability (AJA) sponsored by SASI-NYC (South Asia Solidarity Initiative-NYC) which in turn is sponsored by SINGH Foundation.SASI-NYC, AJA, CAG are all run by FOIL co-founder Bjiu Mathew, Prachi Patankar, Rupal Oza, Shaikh Ubaid, Khaled Azam and others.
Vijay Parshad – Vijay Prashad is nephew of Indian left wing politician Brinda Karat. Brinda Karat is sister of NDTV founder Radhika Roy and sister-in-law of Prannoy Roy. He is Professor of International Studies at Trinity College, Connecticut, United States and George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian history .He is a massive supporter of Hindu-hater Kancha Illaih. In an article on Hindu Holocaust, Parshad categorically denies slaughter of Hindus.
Biju Mathew – Associate Professor of Business Administration at Rider University, New Jersey United States. He too is al ideological supporter of Kancha Illaih’s take on Hindusim. He is obsessed with portraying Hindutva as a violent, nationalist ideology . He along with other members of FOILF launched Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH). in 2002 CSFH launched two attacks on US based Hindu organisations – India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) and Hindu Students Council (HSC) in the year 2007.
Rajasekhar Ramakrishan – Their domain name http://www.foil.org and http://www.proxsa.org is registered under his name and also for SACW (South Asians Citizens Web) and INSAF (international South Asia Forum). Works as Senior Research Scientist, Department of Paediatrics, Columbia University. FOIL member and Secretary-Treasurer of SINGH Foundation,
Angana Chatterji – Was Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at California Institute of Integral Studies, United States. She is rabid Hindu hater has used her position to demonise Hindus and India. She along with her husband, Richard Shapiro were fired from their positions after students complained of reckless violation of students confidentiality, professional ethics, harassment, misappropriation of Funds, among other charges. Angana is also involved in CSFH and is known to have provided critical assistance in demonising IDRF that was providing a good alternative to Christian missionary activities in rural India. Earlier she was teaching in ISI-Indian Social Institute run by Christian Jesuits. She is also associated with FeTNA, an academic front of LTTE. She also help found Coalition Against Genocide (CAG).
Prachi Patankar – is founder of South Asia Solidarity Initiative (SASI-NYC) and also Programme Director for Foundation for a Just Society, Racial and Gender Justice, anti-caste activist. SASI-NYC led the charge for protest against displaying Lord Ram’s images in Times Square, NYC. She is rabid Hindu hater, brahmin-hater and had in an article Ghosts of Yogas Past and Present made an observation that yoga was Islamophobic and that both yoga and Hinduism were both modern, brahmanical 19th and 20th century concepts. She also launched an attack on Hindu-American Foundation (HAF) as having links with “extremist and violent Hindutva organisations such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).”
Raja Harish Swamy – Assistant Professor South Asian Anthropology, University of Arkansas, United States. He also is key spokesperson for CSFH. He along with Shabnam Hashmir, member of India’s Congress party started a website http://www.pheku.com. Just like his fellow FOIL member, Raja Harish Swamy is a Hindu hater and supports racial Dravdianist ideology. He equates Casteism with racial discrimination of blacks in Western nations and declares Hindus as genocidal killers. Swamy is also very sympathetic to Islamic invaders citing “they brought much-needed stability” in India. He states “to millions of Indians, Islam provided an egalitarian alternative to the terrible oppression of Hinduism.”
Balmurli Natrajan – . Professor of Anthropology at William Paterson University of New Jersey, United States and visiting faculty at Azim Premji University, India. He is also the spokesperson of CAG and member of CSFH. In an article in a magazine called SAMAR (South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection), Natrajan derides Hindusim and Lord Krishna saying “humanist teachings in Hinduism arise not from our host of gods and goddesses whose life stories are many times filled with outrageous kinds of deceit, manipulations, selfishness and greed”. In an interview to The Polis Project, Natrajan calls Hindus as racist saying “It’s actually a racial identity. Hindu, in a sense as a racial stock, and they go back to very dubious theories of origins, autochthonous theories of the origin of Hindus as Aryans and things like that. The linguistic identity of Hindi is a hegemonic identity.”
Vinay Lal – Associate Professor of History and Asian-American Studies in UCLA, United States. He writes a blog called Lal Salaam (translated Red Salute) a Communist salutation in India. He also the spokesperson for CSFH. He shares the same hatred for Hinduism like his fellow members of FOIL. In his book Introducing Hindusim paints Ramayana as a misogynist text and refers Shiva as a ‘Pre-Aryan’ transplant into ‘Vedic Hindusim’. As much as he hates Hinduism, Lal defends Islam to such an extent that he readily whitewashes their actions, is sympathetic to their ideology , and justifies their actions.Lal also defends Islamic invaders into India.
“Ra” Ravishankar – Rajeev Ravishankar is a PhD student in media studies at the University of Oregon, is an emerging leader from FOIL. He has written many articled demonising Hindus and Hinduism in FOIL’s mouthpiece ‘Ghadar‘. He is a member of CSFH and South Asia Collective (SAC). SAC is no longer active. CSFH’s website is registered to Ravishankar’s email-id. Ravishankar was a key member of FOIL who attacked HSC and launched a smear campaign against them.
STOP HINDU HATE ADVOCACY NETWORK 