Sadhvi Ritambhara is a Brown woman I find unsettling and offensive.
But because she’s not an undocumented laborer “stealing” a working-class job or condemning Israel’s bombing of Palestinians, she might not scare off xenophobes and patronizing liberals deft at accommodating casual anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry.
Ritambhara, an Indian, actually does have a lot in common with many U.S. citizens, including some elected leaders and a handful of my Facebook “friends” who have openly disparaged Muslims, yet still manage to be characterized as good, thoughtful people.
What sets Ritambhara apart is that her greatest hits of Islamophobic rants were recorded and sold on cassettes, inspiring Hindu nationalist mobs to demolish a 16th century mosque in northern India and the deadly communal riots that followed over three decades ago.
Ritambhara, who was scheduled to appear at the Hanuman Temple of Greater Chicago in Glenview this weekend, once likened Muslims to lemons in milk, causing the milk — a metaphor for India — to curdle.
She also reportedly compared Muslims to flies on a mass-breeding mission to surpass India’s Hindu population, which currently hovers around 1.1 billion out of 1.4 billion.
Ritambhara, 61, has used her verbal venom to smear India’s Christians, too. But she’s best known for her old hate speeches targeting Muslims. Those vintage pep talks, which “masterfully combine religious imagery with emotional appeals” have helped normalize brutality in an India that is veering away from a secular democracy, said Kalyani Menon, a religious studies professor at DePaul University.
“Airing contentious views is not the problem,” said Menon, whose scholarly work examines contemporary religious politics in India. However, “Words that can justify or incite violence against particular groups is concerning,” she said.
I emailed and rang a number that was on a flyer showcasing Saturday’s event on the Hanuman Temple’s Instagram page to check whether officials were considering a request made by nearly 100 individuals and organizations to rescind Ritambhara’s invitation. As of Friday, I hadn’t heard back.
Giving Ritambhara a platform in a Hindu temple is “an affront and insult to us as Hindus because what she represents is antithetical to the Hindu teachings of love, compassion and tolerance,” said Pranay Somayajula, director of organizing and advocacy for the Hindus for Human Rights’ national office in Washington, D.C.
Other groups who joined Hindus for Human Rights in urging the north suburban temple to uninvite Ritambhara, included SACRED — the South Asian American Coalition to Renew Democracy — and the Muslim Civic Coalition.
Since her arrest for inciting violence as the city of Ayodhya’s pied piper, Ritambhara has softened her image as a cuddly elder sister and maternal “Didi Maa” who uplifts underprivileged women and children.
This deceptive glow-up is why “many in the Hindu diaspora are unaware of her political lineage, revering her as they would any Hindu ascetic,” Menon said.
In the past, religious centers in other parts of the U.S. and United Kingdom canceled Ritambhara’s planned appearances once they were informed of her notoriety. Others, aware of her history, unabashedly embrace her troubling ideology.
Ritambhara has never apologized for her incendiary remarks and role in the destruction of Babri Masjid, which she and others on the Hindu right claimed stood at the site of a temple marking the birthplace of Lord Ram, a revered Hindu deity.
Not only were she and 31 others acquitted for the flattening of the mosque by a judiciary sympathetic to India’s right-wing extremists in 2020, Ritambhara was awarded, in January, with the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honors.
The “religious saint,” as Ritambhara was called by the Hindustan Times, cried last year at the inauguration ceremony of the grand Ram Temple before an exuberant crowd teeming with Bollywood stars.
Many Indians of varying faiths here and abroad haven’t forgotten the tears they shed when they saw the Babri Masjid crumbling on the same spot in 1992.
“No amount of disinformation or number of awards can change” Ritambhara’s ungodly legacy, said Pushkar Sharma, co-founder and executive director of SACRED, which was founded in 2024 to overcome hate in the South Asian American community in Illinois.
I flew into India a few days after the Babri Masjid was toppled. Thankfully, my parents’ home state of Bihar was spared from the ensuing bloodshed. But the fear and tension were palpable.
My cousins begged me not to bring up the leveling of the mosque and rising anti-Muslim sentiment in public. An uncle suggested some Hindu names to use if I encountered police.
The hate propelled by Ritambhara’s diatribes has only gotten stronger as India keeps nosediving further into fascism.
By the time this column runs in print, Ritambhara might be digging into a black bean burger at Hackney’s on Harms, basking in a post-speech glow.
Or she could have been run out of town.
But wherever she is during her latest American tour, I doubt she’ll be disappeared or taken into custody for her despicable worldview. If only others who never caused harm were so lucky.
Rummana Hussain is a columnist and leads the opinion coverage at the Sun-Times.
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