8 Indian Anti Hindu Intellectuals

1. Angana Chatterji

 Books:

• Violent Gods: Hindu Nationalism in India’s Present; Narratives from Orissa
• Land and Justice: The Struggle for Cultural Survival in Orissa

Pronouncements:

•  In Gujarat, Hindu extremists killed 2,000 people in February-March of 2002. 
•  Grassroots democracy threatens upper-caste Hindu dominance and contradicts elite aspirations.
• In Orissa, egregious infringements of human rights are taking place with the disintegration of Adivasi and other non-Hindu cultures through their hostile incorporation into dominant Hinduism.
• After being nominated Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001, Mr. Narendra Modi incorporated the teachings of Hindutva in his governance of Gujarat. .
• India’s contrived enemy in Kashmir is a plausible one — the Muslim “Other,” 
• Disenfranchised caste and other groups, Assamese, Nagas, Sikhs, Dalits (erstwhile “untouchable” peoples), and Muslims from Kashmir

(Links 1, 2 & 3)
Career Summary

•  Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA, “Save the Narmada Movement”).
• Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL), , Friends of South Asia (FOSA) 
• PhD in the Humanities from California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).
• United Nations Bodies, the European Parliament Human Rights Subcommittee, United Kingdom Parliament, and United States Congressional Commissions and Task Forces.
• Chatterji is the Co-chairman of the Research Project on Armed Conflict and People’s Rights at the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership, University of California at Berkeley
• Chatterji co-founded the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-administered Kashmir with Parvez Imroz in 2008 and served as Co-Convener from April 2008 to May 2012.
• Angana Chatterji was suspended from CIIS on 19 July, 2011 and on 25 October the CIIS Academic VP has recommended her termination. This was due to her links with Ghulam Nabi Fai, an ISI mole in the USA.

2. Romila Thapar

Books:

• Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations, 1978
• Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History, 2003; Oxford University Press
• Cultural Transaction and Early India: Tradition and Patronage
• Dissent in the Early Indian Tradition
• Early India: From Origins to AD 1300

Pronouncements:

• Early India: “Some settlements in the north-west and Punjab might have been subjected to raids and skirmishes [by the Aryans], such as are described in the Rig Veda…
• “I do not see the medieval period as one where the Muslims are the conquerors. 

Career Summary:

• After graduating from Punjab University, doctorate School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London in 1958. Professor of Ancient Indian History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.visiting professor at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the College de France in Paris.
• General President of the Indian History Congress in 1983 and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1999. members of t Delhi Urban Heritage Foundation due to her proximity with Najeeb Jung, Lt. Governor of Delhi.
• believes in the discredited theory of Aryans invading India.
•  non-existence of a temple in the disputed site of Ayodhya. 
• Romila Thapar’s named in the factual expose by Arun Shourie in  Eminent Historians: Their technology, their line, their fraud. Exposed by Sita Ram Goel,  Arun Shourie and similar scholars  the fact that she does not know Sanskrit.

3. Father Cedric Prakash

Books : Yes, We Can! Book series. (Books on moral science)
Notable articles: 

• Let Us Not Be Naive About Naveen Patnaik
• Can the election on April 16 in the Kandhmals ever be free and fair?
• Vibrant Gujarat: Lies, Half Truths and Illusions
• India: Gujarat Government Continues With Communal Agenda
• Gujarat Carnage: Seven Years On . . . Seven Major Concerns and More

The aforementioned articles are mainly about the Kandhamal violence and the Gujarat government then headed by Narendra Modi.
Pronouncement:
In June 2002, he testified before the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in Washington. Gujarat riots
Career Summary 

• Father Cedric Prakash is a Jesuit Priest of the Gujarat.
• He graduated from St. Xavier’s College in 1972.
• AICUF (All India Catholic University Federation) in Chennai  World Council of Youth.
•  Director of PRASHANT, the Ahmedabad-based Jesuit Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace 
•  critic of Narendra Modi,  in collaboration with John Dayal and Teesta Setalvad.
• associated US-based think tank, Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC),activistLocal Capacities for Peace Project at the Harvard University. ­
• Cedric Prakash was also invited to Luxembourg in 2002 and later, to London for discussions with the European Union and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government.

Prakash has won several awards including:

• The Kabir Puraskar by the President of India in 1995.
• The Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award by the Indian Muslim Council (USA) in June 2003.
• Chevalier de la Legion Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) by the President of the French Republic in July 2006.
• Minority Rights Award from the National Minority Commission, Government of India in December 2006
• The Human Dignity Award from the Diocese of Ahmedabad in February 2010.

4. John Dayal

Notable books:

• Human Rights: A Close Look.
• Justice & Peace Commission, All India Christian Council: Gujarat 2002: untold and re-told stories of Hindutva lab.
• John Dayal : A matter of equity: freedom of faith in secular India.

Pronouncement: 
AT the Policy Institute for Religion and State (PIFRAS) held a South Asia Conference, sponsored by “United Methodist Board of Church and Society and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA” John Dayal, as a participant, had contended that “minorities could not count on the Indian state to protect them, or to prosecute crimes committed against them.” 
Career Summary: 

• Closely associated with the activities of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC), which was instrumental in several nation-wrecking legislations.
• National Integration Council,a witness to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC)’s hearingtitled “Plight of Religious Minorities in India” 
•  Communal Violence Bill.
•  supported, sponsored, nurtured and protected by the Congress party.”

5. Vinay Lal:

Books:

• Empire of Knowledge: Culture and Plurality in the Global Economy
• The History of History: Politics and Scholarship in Modern India
• Empire and the Dream-Work of America.
• Introducing Hinduism

Pronouncement:
Labelled the Ramayana as a sectarian text that spoke of a clash between Shaivites and Vaishnavites because Ravana is a follower of Shiva and Rama is believed to be an avatar of Vishnu. He also dubbed the Puranas as sectarian texts.
Career Summary:

• He was a Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku).
•  Presently associate professor of history at UCLA.
•  Earned his B.A. and M.A., both in 1982, from the Humanities Center at The Johns Hopkins Universityand wrote his Master’s thesis on Emerson and Indian philosophy.
•  Studied cinema in Australia and India on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship before commencing his graduate studies at the University of Chicago, where he was awarded a PhD with Distinction from the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations in 1992.
•  Was William Kenan Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University in 1992–93.
•  In his blog titled Lal Salam (Red Salute, making no secret of his commitment to Communism), he describes himself thus: His views on American foreign policy and the pax Americana have earned him a place in David Horowitz’s book on the 101 ‘most dangerous’ professors in America today, while his critiques of extreme Hindu nationalism have made him a target of Hindutva venom in the US. These are reliable indicators, to his mind, that he is performing some useful public service, and that academics and scholars must remain vitally engaged in the wider public domain.

6. Martha Nussbaum:

Books:

• Cultivating Humanity
• Sex and Social Justice
• From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law
• Plato’s ‘Republic': the good society and the deformation of desire
• The clash within: democracy and the Hindu right
• The new religious intolerance: overcoming the politics of fear in an anxious age

Pronouncements:

• In India, the perpetrators of violence are not Muslims (who are usually poor and downtrodden, but not involved in perpetrating violence, except in the special case of Kashmir) but Hindus who sought ideology in Fascist Europe and who model their stance on European anti-Semitism of the 1930s.
• A Hindu nation is not a benign establishment like the Lutheran Church of Finland.
• The people who spoke Sanskrit almost certainly migrated into the subcontinent from outside, finding indigenous people there, probably the ancestors of the Dravidian peoples of South India. Hindus are no more indigenous than Muslims (The clash within: democracy and the Hindu right)
• What has been happening in India is a serious threat to the future of democracy in the world.

Career Summary:

• current Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago,
• Committee on Southern Asian Studies, and a board member of the Human Rights Program.
• philosophy while at Harvard University,
• Amartya Sen with whom she shared an intimate relationship,
• She does not have any qualification or training in archeology, Sanskrit, geology, or metallurgy, yet writes with authority about the dating of the Vedas.

7. Vijay Prashad

Books:

• The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South
• The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World
• Arab Spring, Libyan Winter
• Uncle Swami: Being South Asian in America

Pronouncements:

• caste system that is Aryan in origin,the Dalits or Untouchables.
• . Early conversions are not by the sword but by the merchants .historian Romila Thapar’s superb book ‘Samantha: The Many Voices of a History’ (Penguin, 2005). …..

Career Summary:

• Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies, at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
• Prashad is one of the founding fathers of the FOIL and is the author of several books regarding South Asia, and has often written articles and papers on US imperialism and capitalist hegemony and impacts of this across the world.
• In case of India he has often supported Kancha Ilaiah who made his academic repute by tossing out ill-informed interpretations of Indian mythology, presenting them as ‘Aryan-Brahminical’ conspiracies against the down-trodden, while simultaneously claiming to be a follower of the rationalist Ambedkarite school of thought.

8. Meera Nanda

Books:

• Breaking the Spell of Dharma and Other Essays
• Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and the Hindu Nationalism in India.
• Postmodernism And Religious Fundamentalism: A Scientific Rebuttal To Hindu Science
• The God Market

Pronouncements:

• The roots of “Vedic science” can be traced to the so-called Bengal Renaissance, which in turn was deeply influenced by the Orientalist constructions of Vedic antiquity as the “Golden Age” of Hinduism. Heavily influenced by German idealism and British romanticism, important Orientalists including H.T. Colebrooke, Max Mueller and Paul Deussen tended to locate the central core of Hindu thought in the Vedas, the Upanishads and, above all, in the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Shankara. Despite the deeply anti-rational and idealistic (that is, anti-naturalistic) elements of Advaita Vedanta, key Hindu nationalist reformers – from Raja Ram Mohun Roy and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee to Swami Vivekananda – began to find in it all the elements of modernity. Vivekananda took the lead in propagating the view that the monism of Advaita Vedanta presaged the future culmination of all of modern science. Since modern science denied the role of any supernatural force outside nature, Vivekananda claimed that only Vedantic monism was truly scientific for it treated God as an aspect of nature and did not invoke any force external to nature…. (Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and the Hindu Nationalism in India)
•  The Hindutva literature is replete with glowing tributes to Hindu “renaissance”, which they claim to be similar to the European Renaissance that ushered in the modern age in the West. What they forget is that the Renaissance in the West re-discovered the humanistic and naturalistic sources of the Greek tradition that had been overshadowed by the Catholic Church – the Renaissance humanists rediscovered this-worldly philosophy of Aristotle and critical-realist Socrates over the other-worldly philosophy of Plato. The neo-Hindu “renaissance”, in contrast, re-discovered the most mystical and anti-humanistic elements of the Vedic inheritance – Advaita Vedanta – that had always overshadowed and silenced the naturalistic and scientific traditions in Hinduism and Buddhism. Neo-Hinduism is no renaissance, but a revival. There is no denying that the neo-Hindu “discovery” of modern science in ancient teachings of Vedas and Upanishads had a limited usefulness. Since they had convinced themselves that their religion was the mother of all sciences, conservative Hindus did not feel threatened by scientific education. As long as science could be treated as “just another name” for Vedic truths, they were even enthusiastic to learn it….. (Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and the Hindu Nationalism in India)
• Far from being considered the crown jewel of Hinduism, yogic asanas were in fact looked down upon by Hindu intellectuals and reformers—including the great Swami Vivekananda—as fit only for sorcerers, fakirs and jogis…. “Not as Old as You Think… …nor very Hindu either. There is telling evidence to debunk this nationalistic myth”, Open The Magazine, Online Edition,

Career Summary:

• Meera Nanda is an Indian writer, historian and philosopher of science with a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She was a John Templeton Foundation Fellow in Religion and Science (2005–2007).
• From January 2009, she became a Fellow at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute for Advanced Study, in the Jawaharlal Nehru University for research in Science, Post-Modernism and Culture besides being a visiting faculty of history and philosophy of science at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali.
• The bulk of her writings is a critique towards any attempt to study Hinduism in the light of science. Interestingly as she was associated with the John Templeton Foundation, she did praise the Protestant work ethic whereas the notion of Practical Vedanta is criticized.

HIDDEN AGENDA OF INDIA'S NGO'S

INDIA'S NGO'S THEIR ACTIVITIES  AND WHO FUNDS THEM AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE.
BEWARE AMERICA HIDDEN AGENDA TO DESTABLISE THE WORLD AND ON BREAKING INDIAUSA  USA contributes USD 145 Billion every year to fund Christian Missionaries across the world for fraudulent conversions but "monitor and use media"  exposing  re-conversions as a deliberate NDA BJP policy ! USA get bias Indian TV to propagate their agenda UNDER THE BANNER "Freedom of Religion" means "Christian Freedom to Convert" according to their USCIRF Policy!

Churches across the world spend USD 1.1 Billion towards research aimed at achieving THEIR AIM 

They publish propaganda material in 300 languages about 180 topics. Books and articles are printed in 500 languages. They total 175,000. Every conversion costs USD 3,300. It does not mean that this amount reaches the Convert. 

It is the expense incurred in activities related to administration, planning and implementation of the conversion programme.

In 1500 A.D, there were 30 Lac active Christian Missionaries. Their number stands at 64.8 Crore today. 54% of these people are non-Whites. The strategy is to train selective non-Whites, and ex-other faiths and provide them with funds, housing and other expenses. Get them involve  in the specific task of selling and religious conversions. 

This is similar to the time when the British employed Indians as Soldiers to rule India!

THE NDA-BJP GOVERNMENT RECOGNIZES THIS DANGER TO INDIA'S PROGRESS, INTEGRITY AND APPOINT A COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE

" IMPACT OF NGO'S ON DEVELOPMENT PREPARED BY THE PREVIOUS UPA GOVERNMENT." THE INTEGRITY AND FEDERAL UNITY OF BHARAT IS AT STAKE.

NO NEWS TV CHANNEL HAS BROADCAST THIS OR HAD/HAVE A DEBATE ON THIS SUBJECT: WHY? 

ARE THEY FUNDED BY USA AND PROPAGATING USA AGENDA?

Background Note

 

Some months ago the present NDA government imposed certain restrictions on select NGOs on the basis of IB report entitled, “Impact of NGOs on Development” prepared by the previous UPA 
Government listing certain NGOs like Green Peace for leading high-powered campaigns against key development projects in the country ostensibly at the behest of foreign powers hostile to India’s progress.

Subsequently, Ministry of Home Affairs sent notices to 21,493 NGOs registered under the FCRA (Foreign Exchange Regulation Act), 2010, for their failure to submit accounts as is mandatory under the law.

But as per the CBI report submitted to the Supreme Court, only 10% of 22 lakh plus NGOs in India submit their tax returns to the Government. So why were only 21493 NGOs selected for notices? (Reported in The Hindu, January 6, 2015).

 

On January 1 2015, the NDA government clamped down on four US funded groups—namely AVAAZ (New York), BIC (Washington), 350.org (New York) and Sierra Club (California). According to RBI, these NGOs were not registered with the Government of India.

The MHA has directed the RBI to freeze all foreign funding into the accounts of these NGOs.

 

Leading NGOs (NGOs) have dubbed this crackdown as political vendetta and accused the BJP of crushing political dissent in the country through these means.

It is unfortunate that the government has not clarified why the clamp down is restricted to select NGOs whereas numerous others working on similar or identical issues have been spare

 

Types and Varieties of NGOs

Broadly speaking, there are nine kinds of NGOs However their functions often overlap:

1.   Advocacy groups: These NGOs pick up select issues and causes –such as environment or the cause of specific social groups perceived to be disadvantaged—such as women, SCs, STs, religious minorities--for advocacy campaigns. ANHAD, MAJLIS, Lawyers Collective, Centre for Science and Environment, Voluntary Health Association of India, Citizens for Justice and Peace fall in this category.

2. Consultancy and Research organisations working on social, political and developmental issues such as Centre for Policy Research;

 

3. Training/ Capacity Building organisations: Such NGOs claim to help other

NGOs with capacity building programs of the staff of other NGOs;

 

 4. Networking organisations: They provide supportive platforms for other NGOs in specific fields. AVARD, VANI and NAWO are examples of this type;

  

 5. Service Providers:  Secular NGOs involved in providing services to neglected populations by setting up schools, health centers, hospitals and undertaking rural development work. They directly work with select communities, both in rural and urban areas. Anna Hazare’s Hind Swaraj Trust, SEARCH founded by Drs. Abhay and Rani Bang are good examples.

 

 6. National organisations: They operate at a national scale for specific vulnerable groups or causes as for example CRY, Help Age India, Concern India, etc.;

 

 7. Religious NGOs: These include organizations setup by various denominational groups of various faiths – Hindu, Muslim, Christian, etc. They may also be involved in servicing communities and undertaking development work in villages or urban slums. Many of them are aggressively pursuing proselytization backed by the enormous financial resources and political backing they get from foreign agencies. World Vision is a good example of such an NGO;

 

8.  NGOs working for law and policy reform such as Lawyers Collective, PILSARC, Human Rights Law Network, Centre for Science and Environment;

 

9. International Mother NGOs: These are recipients of funds as well as givers. They have a work focus but instead of implementing projects they identify projects and monitor, evaluate and build capacities of other participating NGOs. CARE and Oxfam are examples of such mother NGOs.

 

However, these categories are not mutually exclusive. In fact, many NGOs are active in multiple domains. 

 

^{Government Charges against NGOs}

On the one hand, NGOs have come to acquire unprecedented influence and clout over policy and law making by the Government of India as well as defining political agendas and terms of public discourse in our country. They have been included in decision-making bodies of various ministries and key government departments.

 

On the other hand, the Government of India claims to have accumulated massive evidence of malpractices by foreign-funded NGOs. The charges include:

Ø  Misappropriation of funds, corruption scams, lack of transparency and accountability: CBI analysis of 22 lakh NGOs across the country showed that of the 22,39,971 NGOs functioning in 20 States, only 10% (about 2,23,428) submitted annual returns. In six of the Union Territories, of the 5,684 NGOs, only 50 filed their balance sheets. In the Northeast, none of the NGOs in Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura file returns. ( as reported in The Hindu, January 6, 2015)

Ø  Indulging in political activity, including interference in electoral politics, in violation of one of the core conditions of FCRA rules and regulations, which specifically prohibit NGOs from engaging in politics.

Ø  Interventions in economic policies allegedly at the behest of foreign agencies causing enormous damage to India’s growth potential;

Ø  Endangering geopolitical security of India, including support to secessionist movements; Many NGOs claiming to be involved in “human rights”, “social studies and empowerment”, “rural development” are alleged to be fronts for India-based or foreign-supported extremist political organisations with socially disruptive agendas.

Ø  Damaging the delicate social fabric of India by indulging in proselytisation activities.

Our Conference will debate the following issues:

1)    Are NGOs being targeted arbitrarily and maliciously or is there concrete evidence of malafide actions by the NGOs put under government scanner or those whose funds have been frozen?

2)    Is foreign funding of NGOs desirable and necessary? Or is it due to lack of other options?

3)    Does government funding of NGOs leave them easy targets of political manipulations? Can organisations call themselves “Non Government” if they are dependent on government funding?

4)    Are NGOs dependent on government and foreign funding because none is available within India? What other sources of funding can be made available to NGOs?

5)    How satisfactory are the existing accountability mechanisms for NGOs?  Is there need for better mechanisms to ensure that NGOs function in a transparent manner?

6)    Need for a coherent, rational and transparent policy towards NGOs and ways to arrive at it.

About Calling A Spade A Spade

By Maria Wirth

Observations by someone who grew up in the stifling atmosphere of dogmatic Christianity and appreciates the freshness and freedom of undogmatic Hinduism– and wonders why Hindus are so apologetic about their religion when it actually is the best bet for a fulfilling life.

 

Hindus used to say, “All religions are equal”. They did not want to see that the two biggies, Christianity and Islam, did not agree. Each of those religions claimed for itself, “We alone are the only true religion. Our God is the only true God.” They pitied Hindus that they might actually believe that by stating that all religions are equal, Hinduism would be elevated to their level. Of course, the ‘true religions’ will never allow this.

Now Hindus say, “We respect all religions. We teach it to our children. Our children hear a lot about Christianity and Islam and how good these religions are. We don’t want to offend anyone, so we teach very little about Hinduism and what we teach is only about superficial things, like festival and customs and not about the deep philosophy and scientific insights which would portray Hinduism in a good light and might irritate other religions.”

Again, Hindus don’t want to see that Christianity and Islam do not respect Hinduism. The clergy of those religions don’t say it into their face, but to their own flock: “Hindus go to hell, if they don’t convert to the true religion. It is their own fault. We have told them about Jesus and his Father or the Prophet and Allah respectively. Still, they are so arrogant and foolish and hold on to their false gods. But God/Allah is great. He will punish them with eternal hellfire.”

 

In a variation of “We respect all religions” Hindus also say, “All religions teach the human being to be virtuous and good and lead him to God, the creator. Hindus attend Inter Faith Dialogues and try to find the communalities. Of course these are there. Hindus try to build on them. “Yes, all religions have good points. Yes, all religions have good people.” They keep repeating that all religions teach goodness, as if to convince themselves. However, deep down, Hindus know that this is not honest and lacks intellectual integrity. They know that Christianity and Islam have gone off track by preaching exclusiveness and hate to their flock. Those religions have encouraged persecution of others and brainwashed otherwise kind human beings into fighting for an imaginary god who supposedly hates all those ‘others’ who don’t believe, what they are told to believe. They have left a trail of bloodshed in history. But Hindus choose to ignore it. ‘Why provoke unnecessarily?’ they might feel, still betraying a psyche wounded by thousand years of oppression.

Is it not time that Hindus call a spade a spade? Swami Vivekananda has said that every Hindu who leaves his faith is not one Hindu less but one enemy more. He said this while India was ruled by the British, and Christians and Muslims were encouraged to feel superior to the “idol worshipping Hindu”. Hindus were not in a position to put the record straight, as their own elite put Hinduism down due to a malicious British education policy. Yet today, 66 years after independence, it is about time to tell the world loudly and boldly what Hinduism is about.

 It is not about ruling the world. It is not about believing in unverifiable dogmas. It is not about being nice to those of one’s own faith and not nice to those of other faiths. But it is about discovering what we really are, apart from the ever-changing body and mind. The ancient rishis have discovered the oneness underlying the apparent multiplicity, long before western scientists did. This conscious, blissful oneness is not somewhere out there. It is permeating everyone (and everything) and can be felt as one’s own essence. This essence can be called God or Allah or Brahman, but the main thing is, that it is within everyone and within everyone’s reach. So, we truly are all children of the same God. We all belong to one big family. Vasudhaiva Kutumbhakam. This truth provides the basis for a harmonious world and it makes sense, or does it not?

True Indian History

Introduction: roots of distortion

India gained independence from the British in 1947, or more than fifty years ago. But intellectually and educationally India continues be a European colony. This is because, during the first forty years of her existence as a free nation, the Congress Party and the intellectual establishment, continued to encourage colonial institutions and thinking. The result today is that there is an English educated elite that identifies itself more with the West than with India and her ancient civilization. And the Congress Party, especially after the death of Sardar Patel, has identified itself more with foreign values rather than Indian values. The Communists, who have always been hostile to Indian nationalism, have now joined hands with anti-national forces, which are fiercely anti-Hindu. This is reflected in the attitude and behavior of the English educated intellectuals, including the media.

The signs of this are everywhere � from hostility to Sarasvati Vandana and the Pokharan nuclear tests to begging a European woman of no experience or service to the nation, to rule the country. As a result, this colonial holdover consisting of the Congress, the Communists and the Leftist intellectual class (including the media) have come together to perpetuate anti-national values and interests. This naturally makes them intensely anti-Hindu. It views with fear anything that has even a suggestion of nationalism rooted in Indian history and tradition.

Since Indian nationalism can only exist as a product of the Hindu Civilization, these forces hostile to Hinduism have combined to oppose the rise of national awareness that is now sweeping the country. The result is that they will go to any length to give a negative picture of India and her past. The first step in this is to distort Indian history. Fortunately for them, most of the distortion had already been done for them by the British, and their successors during the Congress rule. So all they had to do was to continue with the colonial version of Indian history. As Swami Vivekananda pointed out more than a century ago:

"The histories of our country written by English [and other Western] writers cannot but be weakening to our minds, for they talk only of our downfall. How can foreigners, who understand very little of our manners and customs, or religion and philosophy, write faithful and unbiased histories of India? Naturally, many false notions and wrong inferences have found their way into them.

"Nevertheless they have shown us how to proceed making researches into our ancient history. Now it is for us to strike out an independent path of historical research for ourselves, to study the Vedas and the Puranas, and the ancient annals of India, and from them make it your life's sadhana to write accurate and soul-inspiring history of the land. It is for Indians to write Indian history."

As Swami Vivekananda pointed out, the goal of the British was to weaken the Indian spirit, particularly the Hindu spirit, because the nationalist movement in India was mainly a Hindu movement. The nationalist movement, which rose to great heights during the Swadeshi Movement following the Partition of Bengal, lost its direction and focus in 1920 when Mahatma Gandhi sacrificed Swaraj for the sake of the Khilafat. This in turn led to the anti-Hindu orientation of the Congress under Jawaharlal Nehru. This was soon joined by the Communists, who worked hand-in-glove with the Congress. The Communists now are little more than camp followers of Sonia Gandhi and her party.

So it is in the interests of these anti-national forces to keep alive the colonial version of Indian history. Thanks to the domination of the Indian political scene by the Congress, Communist intellectuals and fellow travelers were able to dominate the intellectual scene also. As a result, the colonial version of history continues to be taught in Indian schools and colleges. This has led to gross distortions in the history being taught in Indian schools and colleges. These distortions may be classified as follows:

 Distortion of ancient history through the �Aryan invasion� and the Aryan-Dravidian wars, presenting the Vedic Age as an �age of conflict�

 Distortion of the Medieval history, by whitewashing the Islamic record and presenting it as the 'age of synthesis'.

 Distortion of the period of the Freedom Struggle, by whitewashing Congress blunders and suppressing the contribution of the revolutionaries, Sardar Patel and Subhas Bose.

 Distortion of post-independent India, by whitewashing the monumental blunders of Pandit Nehru and his successors to bring about dynastic rule under the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty at the cost of national interest.

It is worth taking a brief look at each one of them, beginning with the ancient period. The first point to note that it was the ancient period that gave India both its unity and its sense of the nation. The Medieval period was a Dark Age, during which the Hindu civilization was engaged in a desperate struggle for survival. In addition, the forces of medievalism contributed nothing to Indian nationalism. They acted as a negative force and held back progress, taking the country into a Dark Age. They continue to act as a check against progress by holding on to medieval ideas and practices.

The important point to note is that the ancient period was an age of synthesis, when people of different viewpoints like the Vedic, Tantric, Buddhistic, Jain and other sects lived in relative harmony. There was also free exchange of ideas and unfettered debate. The Medieval period was the age of conflict when Hindu society was engaged in a desperate struggle for survival against the onslaught of Jihad � something like what is happening in Kashmir today. What the Congress sponsored Leftist (�secularist�) historians have done is to exactly reverse this. They have said that the ancient period was an age of conflict between Aryans and non-Aryans, while trying to portray the Medieval period � dominated by Jihad (or religious wars) � as a period of synthesis.

Ancient India: age of freedom and synthesis

History books today begin with the Aryan invasion of India, which is said to have taken place in 1500 BC. Students are told that the ancient civilization of the Indus Valley or the Harappan Civilization was Dravidian that was destroyed by the invading Aryans. According to this theory, the language of the Harappan seals, which contain a good deal of writing, is some form of Dravidian language, unrelated to Sanskrit. There are nearly 4000 of these with writing on them, but until recently, no one could read them. Recently, the great Vedic scholar N. Jha made a major breakthrough in deciphering it. Following the breakthrough, Jha and I have read and published the writing on nearly 2000 seals. (We have read many more that are yet to be published.) The language of the seals is Vedic Sanskrit. This means the Harappan Civilization was Vedic.

This also means there was no Aryan invasion and no Aryan-Dravidian conflicts either. In Sanskrit, �Aryan� simply means cultured and not any race or language. I am myself a so-called Dravidian who speaks Kannada. Kannada, like all South Indian languages, is heavily influenced by Sanskrit. South Indian dynasties going back time immemorial called themselves �Aryas� because they were followers of the Vedic culture. South has always been a stronghold of Vedic culture and learning. Sayana, probably the greatest Vedic scholar of the last thousand years was a South Indian. (He was the brother of Vidyaranya, who helped Harihara and Bukka found the great Vijayanagara Empire.)

The idea of Aryans and Dravidians as mutually hostile people was created during the colonial period, in which Christian missionaries played an active role. It was part of the British policy of divide and rule. Bishop Caldwell was probably the most influential Dravidian scholar. When criticized for his theories, he defended them "as not only of considerable moment from a philological [linguistic] point of view but of vast moral and political importance." By �moral and political�, he meant Christian missionary and British colonial interests.

This shows that one of the main forces behind the Aryan invasion theory, and of education policy in general, was the conversion of Hindus to Christianity to make them accept British rule. According to the Aryan invasion theory, the Vedas and Sanskrit language were brought by these Indo-European invaders and not native to India. (This is now demolished by science and also the decipherment of the Harappan writing.) Using this false theory, the British could claim that India had always been ruled by foreign invaders � first the Vedic Aryans, and later the Muslims. The British claimed to be Aryans (as Indo-Europeans) and therefore only the latest rulers of India, but related to their own ancient Aryans who also were foreign invaders! Christian missionaries took advantage of this by enjoying the patronage of colonial rulers. The presented the Bible as �Yesurveda� � or the Veda of Yesu (Jesus).

Many influential British officials felt that the conversion of Hindus to Christianity would make them readily accept British rule. The most influential of these was Thomas Babbington Macaulay who introduced the English education system in India. He made no secret of his goal of conversion of India to Christianity. In 1836, while serving as chairman of the Education Board in India, he enthusiastically wrote his father:

"Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully. The effect of this education on the Hindus is prodigious. ...... It is my belief that if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolator [Hindu] among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence. And this will be effected without any efforts to proselytise, without the smallest interference with religious liberty, by natural operation of knowledge and reflection. I heartily rejoice in the project."

So religious conversion and colonialism were to go hand in hand. Christian missions always supported the colonial government, with missionaries working hand in glove with the British government. They supported the Jallianwallah Bagh Massacre also, even though many Englishmen were ashamed of it. In a real sense Christian missions were not religious organizations at all but an unofficial arm of the British Administration. (The same is true of many Catholic missions in Central American countries. Many of them are in the pay of the American CIA. This was admitted by a CIA director, testifying before the Congress.)

It was part of the Macaulayite education program to distort Indian history to serve British colonial and Christian missionary interest. To do this, he employed a German Vedic scholar now famous as Friedrich Max Müller. Macaulay used his influence with the East India Company to find funds for Max Müller's translation of the Rigveda. There can be no doubt at all regarding Max Müller's commitment to the conversion of Indians to Christianity. Writing to his wife in 1866 Max Müller himself explained his purpose:

"It [the Rigveda] is the root of their religion [Hinduism] and to show them what the root is, I feel sure, is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last three thousand years."

Two years later he also wrote the Duke of Argyle, then acting Secretary of State for India: "The ancient religion of India is doomed. And if Christianity does not take its place, whose fault will it be?" His job was to uproot Hinduism by giving a negative version of the Vedas!

Unfortunately, the version of history being taught to children in Indian schools and colleges, including the Aryan invasion, is the version created by Macaulay and Max Müller. It is a tragedy. It is not only anti-national but also totally false.