Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL) called off a Hindi-language book event planned for Sunday at its Germantown Library after a coalition of religious and civil rights organizations objected to the participation of a local Hindi school associated with what the coalition described as a “hate group.”
“This concern is not about Hinduism, Hindu culture, or the Hindi language,” the coalition wrote in a Wednesday letter to county and library officials. “Our concern is about political ideology entering public institutions under the guise of cultural programming, particularly when that ideology has been documented as exclusionary, hateful, and violent.”
MCPL had planned to host “Many Languages, One Library: Celebrating Hindi,” on Sunday. The free event would celebrate the unveiling of a new collection of 160 Hindi-language books at the Germantown Library at 19840 Century Blvd.
Among the funders of the new book collection was Germantown’s Balvihar Hindi School, part of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA). The VHPA describes itself on its website as “the oldest and one of the largest Hindu organizations in the U.S.” Representatives of the Hindi school were expected to speak at Sunday’s event.