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…