If you do not understand the traumas of your past, you will repeat them in every generation of your family. That is a psychological fact.

If you have a gaping wound that is slowing bleeding you to death, should you ignore it? Ignoring it might help you forget the pain but it will not save your life. Similarly, when we have experienced a trauma, a coping mechanism is to ignore that trauma by pretending it didn’t happen, or pretending we don’t need to think about it because “it was a long time ago”. We might think that coping mechanism is helping but underneath, we’re suffering and not even realizing why. We don’t understand where our health issues are coming from, including our mental health issues. We wonder why we have so many family problems, so many quarrels between partners, cousins, generations. We might struggle to trust others. We might have unhealthy or abusive relationships. We might hover over our children because we’re terrified someone will hurt them. We might hurt our own children. These are possible symptoms of unaddressed traumas.

Not wanting to look at our past is a symptom of colonial trauma.

We cannot move into the future without addressing the past.

Do you want to educate your children in your culture and faith? If yes, then teach them our colonial history. Only then will their attachment to their culture and faith be firm, because they know what their ancestors went through to preserve that culture and faith. To teach them, you need to know the history yourself. That’s why you need this course.

Do you want to resolve family traumas and not repeat them? If yes, then you need this course, to help understand what your family has been through in a way that will heal both past generations and future generations.

Do you think you already know our history? If yes, then I urge you to watch this course. You will be surprised. I thought I was very well informed about our history. Then I researched to create this course and shocked myself with how ignorant I’d been.

Do you want to address the slander and attacks that the Hindu community deals with on a regular basis? If yes, then you need to know how to address that slander and what language to use, so that your valid points are not lost in translation. If you don’t address that slander in an effective way, you will be attacked with it at your workplace, in your social circles, in your children’s school, everywhere. It will happen when you least expect it, when you have no defense.

If you do not understand your own past, you cannot understand your present which means you will not be able to protect your future. This is critical, because it is about the very survival of Hindu existence. Our next generations are converting away from Hinduism precisely because of our traumas. We have to help them remember who they are. Once they lose that connection to their ancestors, it is very difficult to regain.

Do this course. You need it if you are a Hindu

It depends. Are you white, or Black, or brown? Mixed? If you identify as any of those racial identities, Hindu Colonial Trauma is irrevocably connected to your struggle.

If you’re white, your ancestors have been part of exploiting and oppressing Hindus for hundreds of years. You have profited from Hindu pain. This is true if you’re white in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, in the Global North, in Africa, in the Middle East, in the Americas, everywhere. You’re still doing it but you’re so used to committing atrocities, you don’t even recognize how your actions are genocidal. That means you’re not aware of what you need to do to stop the relentless violence your people have caused Hindus. You need to learn in order to be accountable.

If you’re not white then the racial oppression you’ve suffered in a white supremacist system is directly connected to Hindu colonial trauma at its root. Your best chance of successfully opposing white supremacy is by allying with Indigenous Hindus. This is not hyperbole, it's a political and economic fact. You’ll only learn how and why this is true when you understand Hindu colonial trauma. You’ll understand your own struggle in a more holistic way by understanding my people’s struggle. This information has been kept from you on purpose by white supremacists. So do you want to win or not?

Anti-Black racism is integrally linked to Hindu Colonial Trauma. Did you know that Hindus in India had ancient friendships and relationships with Indigenous Black African nations throughout history? Hindus and Africans were divided and conquered by imperialists so they couldn’t unite to fight imperialism together. Did you know that millions of Black people are Indigenous Hindus? If you think Black people are only from Africa, that’s anti-Black. Not all Black people are African and not all Africans are Black. Did you know that Hinduphobia is a form of anti-Blackness? Did you know that the European search for India led to many parts of Africa being “discovered” by Europeans and thus colonized by white supremacist colonial powers? Did you know that Hindus and Black Africans were being abducted at the same time and sold into the same slave markets by the same imperialists? Yet India is majority Hindu while most of Africa got colonized into following their colonizer’s religion. What did Hindus do differently that protected their culture, heritage, and diversity? It’s necessary to know in order to understand how to win against white supremacist imperialism.

If you’re Indigenous to the Americas then I’m sure you’ve heard before that Columbus was looking for India. I repeat: Columbus was looking for India. What he wanted to do to India, he did in the Caribbean and Americas. What happened to you also happened to India for a lot longer because Columbus was not the only white man looking for India.  Yet somehow, India today is majority Hindu Indigenous while most of the Americas are colonized so thoroughly that Indigenous people only exist in 1% - 5% pockets in the US and Canada, and in larger minority pockets in Central and South America. (The only American country to have a majority Indigenous population is Bolivia with 62% identifying as Indigenous.) What did India do differently to the majority of the Americas? Indigenous populations need to know what will help them in their struggle against ongoing colonialism.

East Asian and Southeast Asian: Did you know that your own ancestors were Hindu? Did you know that they were decimated by Hinduphobic imperialists? By learning about Hindu colonial trauma, you will be able to recognize the ongoing imperialist Hinduphobia that continues to characterize your civilizations and politics. If you want to be free from imperialism, you need this information.

Middle Eastern: Do you know how Islam, Christianity, and Judaism entered India and the history of those religions in India? Do you know about India’s pre-Islamic relationships with countries in the Middle East? It’s important to learn about your region’s relationship with India throughout history in order to understand the benefits of friendship and healing instead of enmity.

Jewish: Are you aware of how Hindus are the only civilization that has never harmed Jews? Are you aware of how Hindus have sheltered Jewish communities from imperialists for centuries? Are you aware of how Jewish people, instead of helping Hindus in return, perpetuate Hinduphobia? Are you interested in being accountable for Jewish Hinduphobia?

Indigenous to Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, and more: Everything I said above about Hindu colonial trauma being connected to other Indigenous struggles is important for you also. Do you want to win against your colonizers or not?

a. See above.

b: Are you aware that Hindus are human beings? Are you aware that whether you are Hindu or not, Hindus live amongst you, walk amongst you, try to survive amongst you, and most people don’t even realize there’s a genocide of Hindus happening right now? That should bother you if you care about genocide.

If you say you care about justice and healing, you should care about justice and healing for Hindus also.

If you don’t care about human suffering then that says a lot about you, none of it good.

c. Hindus are Indigenous people, the largest Indigenous civilization still in existence on Planet Earth right now. It is only with Indigenous Hindu leadership in partnership with other Indigenous communities that humans will be able to survive the complete environmental disaster caused by resource extraction, wars including nuclear war, and other devastating results of colonization and imperialism.

The question is, do you want to live? Because if you do then you will need Hindus.

1. You will never view the world in the same way again.

2. You will open yourself to a whole new community of Indigenous thinkers.

3. You will notice subtle manipulation tactics from those in power – tactics that you never noticed before.

4. You will not be as easily fooled by colonial propaganda.

5. You will understand your Hindu colleagues, clients, friends, and family better than you ever have before, leading to improved relationships with deeper trust.

6. You will likely make changes to your self-care practices, including your relationship with yoga and ayurveda.

7. You will likely educate your children differently.

8. You will go deeper into your healing journey, which will look different to others because it will be personal to you. Deepening your personal healing can increase your sense of self worth and identity.

9. You might consider different decisions for your business to be more in line with decolonial values. That may translate to more abundance because improved ethics in your business will attract ethical and loyal clientele.

10. You might have conversations with family members and elders that you never considered having before.

11. You might be moved to research your own lineage and connect with blood ancestors you never before knew existed.

12. You might connect with nature differently.

13. You might learn to let go of toxic relationships that enforce colonial values.

14. You might develop the courage to speak up for Hindus.

Assuming that you’re well informed when you’ve been raised by an imperialist system, educated by an imperialist system, and propagandized by an imperialist system is the height of imperialist brainwashing. Even if you follow “independent media”, guess what? The people running that independent media have still been raised by that same imperialist system, educated by that imperialist system, and propagandized by that imperialist system.

Here’s an example: An independent media journalist goes to a global south country to learn about some war. They want to talk to the people on the ground and find out what is happening. However, due to their deeply ingrained biases – that may even be unconscious biases – they only look for people on the ground who are going to confirm those biases. They’re not looking for contradictory voices. They’re not even looking for honest voices. They just want to be told what they already think about the situation, with some tragedy porn thrown in to give the appropriate flavor of war. The people they latch on to there are usually the people who invited them to that country to the country in the first place. Those people might have agendas that lead to them only showing evidence that confirms imperialist biases. That “evidence” is never authenticated in any legitimate way, or cross-checked with other voices to look for inconsistencies. It’s presented as “the truth”. That twists the story into already ingrained stereotypes dressed up as “groundbreaking reporting” while erasing many vulnerable voices.

Meanwhile, your “critical analysis’ has been skewed by such biases and narratives your whole life. This is true even if you hold marginalized identities in the global north. That is because you have the privilege to not know. You don’t need to look deeper at this issue because you think you’re not suffering from it. The truth is that you are suffering from this issue, you just don’t know how, and your privilege has prevented you from developing the curiosity to find out.

Even if you’re been trained by racial justice trainers in the grassroots, guess what? They’ve also been raised by an imperialist system, educated by an imperialist system, and propagandized by an imperialist system. Their marginalized identities don’t prevent their perception from being skewed just like yours. So now we’ve got individuals, racial justice trainers, and independent media who all think from an imperialist lens. That creates an echo chamber that reinforces imperialist narratives under the guise of “racial justice”. That “racial justice” analysis might be fine when looked at from a western-centric lens, but it is insufficient and incomplete when looked at from a global lens. The worst thing about it is that many people think they are “doing the right thing” by following their skewed outlook. They end up enacting violence on marginalized Indigenous communities in the global south while spouting “justice” talking points.

In order to understand racial justice from a global perspective, you have to listen to decolonial Indigenous voices in the global south. Hindus are the largest Indigenous community in the global south and worldwide, with the most successful historical record of resistance to imperialism and racism. How did they resist? How do they still exist in such large numbers? How do they thrive despite repeated attacks? You don’t know the answers to these questions because your media, your education system, and your racial justice trainers will never tell you. How can they tell you when they themselves don’t know?

You don’t know what you don’t know. Be brave and find out. You will be surprised at how ignorant your “well-informed and educated” mind actually is. You will be shocked at how uncritical your “critical thinking” actually is. That is what global north and western privilege looks like. That is what bigotry looks like. Don’t you want to know how you are perpetuating the problem?

I advise you to find out.

I encourage ages 14+.

From age 14 and onwards, this course will benefit all. Teenagers, students, workers, parents, elders, all are welcome 14+.

The term “trigger” is psychological terminology. It means when something is said, or happens, that activates a memory of a previous trauma. Activating such traumatic memories within an individual can cause that person to re-experience the feelings they experienced during those real life traumas. It can be very painful and distressing.

Colonial trauma is not an easy subject to discuss. We will delve into many painful histories and those stories may trigger memories and emotions within each of us due to our own experiences. This can happen even in people who are not Hindu.

If we are warned beforehand that this might happen, it helps us navigate such feelings individually should they arise. It also helps us be better able to support each other if triggers occur in others. It can also help us to set up support systems beforehand, such as friends or therapists we can process with outside of class, or we might attend class with a colleague or family member who can be our support buddies during the process.

The presence of trigger warnings indicates the power of this education. This is not about gratuitously shocking or upsetting people, this is about addressing long unaddressed traumas that need to be brought into the light so they can be healed.

Hurt people can hurt people. Healed people can help others heal.

There is no solution to any of our triggers as a society without healing, which is the whole point of doing this course. We must understand what has happened so that we can heal from it.

That is why there are trigger warnings: So that we can engage with difficult healing education in the safest and most supportive way possible.

Let’s take a look these “rich minorities”:

• US and Canada: Hindus are 5.8% of the population in the US and 2.3% of the population in Canada. Many Hindus of these tiny populations came to these countries as economic refugees. In these countries, they work their way through racial and religious discrimination, school racial and religious bullying, social isolation, low paying jobs, visa and immigration hell, and much more. Hindu Indian citizens are not allowed to directly apply for citizenship in the USA which means they work here, live here, pay taxes, but cannot vote for their own representation in government. Even the Hindu workers in the tech industry, who are arguably making decent salaries, are exploited by the tech industry, paid less than western colleagues, forced to stay in departments that offer no career advancement, and then fired when they are no longer needed. Once they are fired, they get deported because their visa is dependent on their job. Are easily disposable workers considered “rich minorities”? Shouldn’t “rich” imply “power”? Some Hindus, particularly Hindu women, are unemployed because their spouse is a worker in the tech industry and their worker visa does not allow a spouse to work. This means that those Hindu women cannot economically support themselves and are reliant on their husbands for survival. Some Hindu women might be forced through those economic circumstances to stay in marriages that are abusive. Are unemployed abused Hindu women “rich minorities”? What about the Hindus who are undocumented, with no support from any immigration justice organizations because they don’t fall into the identity categories considered “oppressed” by the social justice movement? Are they “rich minorities”? Some Hindus are refugees from literal wars and ethnic cleansing in their home countries. Are refugees from war and ethnic cleansing considered “rich minorities”?

• In the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, it is much the same as the USA and Canada. My own family ended up in the UK due to Idi Amin’s ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Uganda. My family were only living in Uganda because they ended up there as refugees from the genocidal British regime in India. I was born in the UK and I’ve lived below the poverty line both in the UK and in the USA almost my entire adult life. Am I a “rich minority”?

• In Bhutan, Hindus were ethnically cleansed from the country and ended up as refugees around the world. The BBC declared Bhutan the “happiest” country in the same year. Are Bhutanese Hindus “rich minorities”?

• In Vietnam, the Indigenous Cham Hindu minority were and are oppressed by their own government, by other Vietnamese people from other religions, and by communists. Most westerners don’t even know Cham Hindus exist. Are Cham Hindus “rich minorities”?

• In Indonesia, Hindus are regularly oppressed by the majority population.  The most popular vacation destination of Indonesia is Bali, the last majority Hindu place in what used to be majority Hindu Indigenous Indonesia. Most tourists do nothing to help the minority Hindus except exploit them, culturally appropriate from them, and buy up Bali housing so property prices sky rocket for the native population. Are Indonesian Hindus “rich minorities”?

• In Nepal, Hindus were the poor majority in the only declared Hindu country in the entire world. That Hindu national identity was wiped out in 2006 by a communist coup. Being the “majority” did not help Hindus then. Are Nepalese Hindus “rich minorities”?

• In Myanmar, Hindus were targeted for slaughter by imperialists, Whole villages were wiped out. That is what led to the Rohingya refugee crisis but the Hindu Rohingya refugees were never mentioned by western media and were refused entry in most countries around the world, including India. They were left to die. Are Rohingya Hindus “rich minorities”?

• In India, most Hindus are not rich, nor are Hindus the majority in all of India. In some states Hindus are poor minorities. In the states where Hindus are minorities the country’s central government still considers them to be part of the “majority” population. Those minority Hindus are not entitled to minority benefits despite poverty, abuse, and violent targeting from the majority religions in their state. Are those Indian Hindus “rich minorities”?

• Worldwide: Most Hindus in different countries are scattered around the world because they were transported there as slaves or indentured servants by imperialists who profited by exploiting their labor and bodies. Those imperialist rulers were not just the British. India has suffered many imperialist tyrants other than the British. Are these Hindu populations around the world considered descendants of slaves and indentured servants or “rich minorities”?

• The imperialist narrative has completely erased how many Hindu slaves built the USA. Were those erased Hindu slaves “rich minorities”?

• Take the narrative you have been taught about Hindus being a “rich minority” and throw it in the trash.

Who told you that and how can you be sure it’s true?

Let’s consider what imperialists have said about other communities. For example, let’s think about the US anti-Black narratives about “gangs” and “thugs” in the 1980s and 1990s. Those media stories were designed to make it seem as if Black people were inherently criminal to cover up how Black communities were being systematically criminalized by an imperialist white supremacist drug war. That drug war led to Black people being disproportionately imprisoned and forced to labor for very little money for corporations, in a system of neo-slavery. This is after the historical transatlantic slave trade in which millions of Black Africans were enslaved and trafficked to the Americas for centuries. Does it seem like the colonizers who originally enslaved Black people might have a vested interest in lying about them in the modern age?

Did you know that the word “thug” was created by British Hinduphobia? It was designed to criminalize innocent Hindus so that the British population wouldn’t feel guilty about how many millions of Hindus they were enslaving and slaughtering. Hindus are the original “thugs”. As I said above, anti-Blackness is integrally linked to Hinduphobia.

Lying about a native or non-white population is a pattern of imperialists to erase their genocidal deeds and gaslight their victims. This is well known and yet so many assume that imperialists somehow aren’t lying about Hindus.

Narratives that demonize Hindus and Hinduism for an ancient entrenched system of caste oppression stem from imperialist regimes that were slaughtering and enslaving Hindus in the millions. Those imperialists’ descendants are spreading the same lies today for the same effect.

Be brave enough to look at the evidence I present about this topic and many other topics. Then consider how you might have been complicit in spreading Hinduphobic narratives. If you are complicit, you need to know the truth to be accountable.

The US is majority working class. Are workers in the USA in charge of how the USA is run, or are those workers controlled and looted by a vicious and greedy 1%?

The Global South is the majority population on planet Earth. Does the Global South rule the planet or does the Global North take the majority of the resources, cause the majority of the wars, and destroy the planet’s delicate ecosystems which cause the most disasters for the Global South?

The minority Christian white British government ruled majority brown Hindu India for almost 200 years, causing untold death, slavery, and famine, disease, and destruction of national identity and culture. Were the majority brown Hindus able to protect themselves from that or did the white Christian British rule over them with guns?

The narrative about “minorities” and “majorities” is US-centric, Euro-centric, white-centric, and deeply colonial. It does not reflect reality because it is imperialist propaganda. You have to understand how to recognize who the imperialists are in order to understand who has power in any given situation. Just because a community is in the majority does not mean they are in power. Wake up.

If you think that a 1.2 billion population of people worldwide, with thousands of years of civilizational culture in India and many other countries, can be summed up by one man in India’s government today, that is deeply racist and Hinduphobic. It says much more about you then about Hindus or Modi.

And yes, even Hindus can be Hinduphobic.

Understanding a nation’s politics today means understanding the context of their politics. Context comes from much more than an imperialist media story you read from the New York Times. It comes from history, from Indigenous narratives, from understanding that community’s colonial trauma.

Perpetuating imperialist bigotry and Hinduphobia with “But what about Modi” is exactly why Global South countries have suffered for so long.