Skip to main content

Indian right doesn’t seem interested in advancing vetted scholarship: US-based Hindutva thinktank scholar

DD Kosambi
A top US-based Hindutva scholar, representing a prominent pro-Narendra Modi thinktank, has regretted that right-wing historians in India have failed to develop what he calls "alternate history or even a robust theology in academia, either within India or the West." In a well-researched article titled "Saving History from Historians", Murali Balaji says, there is in fact, a "general lack of interest by most Indian academics to pursue a robust Hindu theological scholarly agenda."
Approvingly quoting editor of the right-wing journal "Open" S Prasannarajan (‘Wrongs of the Right’, July 20, 2015), Balaji says, "The Indian right doesn’t seem interested in advancing vetted scholarship, choosing instead to promote ill-qualified political patrons to head influential humanities and cultural bodies."
The comment from Murali Balaji -- who is director of the Education and Curriculum Reform at the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), the pro-Modi lobby group in US, which is known to have worked with organizations like the American Jewish Committee to counter "biases" against Hindus in US -- comes when the controversy surrounding appointment of Y Sudershan Rao as chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) refuses to die down.
Reddy declared recently that the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi issue was "not a historical problem but a political one", adding that “Leftist historians” refuse to accept that Ayodhya was the birthplace of lord Ram. Reddy, who was speaking at a seminar organised by the RSS-linked Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana at National Museum, Delhi, on the Ayodhya issue, said even walking through Ayodhya's "streets" was enough to "get a feeling of living in Ramayana times… You can’t call it a myth, that’s my experience,” he added.
Balaji, on the other hand, asserts, "While there are attempts underway in the US to develop a Hindu theological approach within the academic sphere, those efforts will take years to become a force in shaping a constructive Hindu narrative. Sadly, it will take much longer in India, owing to the dominance of Marxist intellectuals in universities."
Balaji complains, "The absence of a Hindu theology is why specialised Indologists such as Wendy Doniger, whose hermeneutical approach to Hindu texts is a tiny sliver of the expanse of scholarly approaches to Hinduism, have helped propagate the power/ privilege/hegemony paradigm that has served to present Hinduism within academia (and in textbooks) as a regressive, casteist and patriarchal way of life."
Criticizing Indologists such as Doniger -- whose book "The Hindus: An Alternative History" was withdrawn by Penguins following saffron protests -- for following the "racialized" German Indologists of yesteryears, Balaji says, they "have tried to re-create a Hinduism they see as authentic, and in doing so, have only entrenched long-held misconceptions about Hindu philosophy’s application to daily practice."
Balaji believes, these Indologists are all followers of well known Marxist historian of ancient India, late Dr DD Kosambi, whom he characterizes as "one of the most influential scholars of Hindu studies. Even as calling Kosambi a "giant of Hindu studies", Balaji says, others who followed him, including Romila Thapar "zealously ignored" Hinduism’s diversity.
Balaji believes, crux of the problem lies in the fact hat Kosambi was "influenced by two types of German intellectual approaches: traditional Marxism and German Indology", which "saw as closely linked to a mythical Aryan race despoiled by ruthless Brahmins."
In fact, Balaji adds, "Indologists such as Adolf Holtzmann Jr went so far as to claim that Buddhism was the natural precursor to German Protestantism until it was maliciously attacked and destroyed by a cunning Brahmin class."
Criticizing "German Indologists" for recreating a mythical Indo-German ideal, Balaji says, they "historicised and racialised" Indian philosophy while presenting their textual interpretations (including the claim of a ‘master race’ of light-skinned Aryans invading India) as historical fact." He adds, "Most German Indologists were not just against Brahmins, they were virulent racists".
"Scholars like Thapar have relied on the literal meanings of texts (or often relied on second- hand interpretations). More contemporary Marxist approaches to Hinduism look for the hidden meanings of texts (the ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’, as Adluri and Bagchee call it) -- particularly their agendas of oppression and religiously sanctioned hierarchy -- without actually knowing the surface meaning of the texts,” Balaji argues.
"They also continue to rely upon a reading of Indian society as an essentialised Hindu versus non-Hindu or ‘high-caste’ versus ‘low-caste’ dichotomy (or of caste as solely a Hindu issue), playing up the idea that India is beholden to unshakeable Hindu and Brahmin hegemonies," Balaji points out.
According to Balaji, "Indian Marxist frameworks over-rely on neo-Marxist ideas of false consciousness and the formation of permanently oppressed classes. Through this narrative, Muslims, Christians, Naxals, Adivasis, Scheduled Castes and women are constantly being held in a subaltern state by the invisible power of a coordinated Hindu elite."
Singling out "Diasporic scholars" like Vijay Prashad, Sunaina Maira and Prema Kurien for this, Balaji says, their view is "often skewed by their desire to create a Hindu/Hindutva bogeyman seeking to oppress and absorb non-Hindu Indians into a homogenised Indian Diasporic identity."

Comments

TRENDING

World Hijab Day? Ex-Muslim women observe Feb 1 as No Hijab Day, insist: 'Put it on a Man'

I didn't know that there could ever be a thing as World Hijab Day until I received an email alert from Maryam Namazie of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), stating that several ex-Muslim women's groups had observed the same day—February 1—as No Hijab Day! According to Namazie, the day "was created on February 1 as a direct response to World Hijab Day" to "illuminate the coercive and oppressive realities of the hijab as a pillar of sex apartheid and a war on women."

Why predictions of an imminent collapse of the Russian economy may be wrong

A veteran Canadian journalist, settled in Russia, stated in a Facebook post that President Donald Trump "is apparently listening to experts who tell him that Russia's economy is on the verge of 'imploding,' and if he just squeezes a bit harder," his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "will fall into line."

Talking of increased corporate control over news, Rajdeep Sardesai 'evades' alternative media

When I received an intimation that well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai was to speak at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) on February 2, my instant reaction was: I know what he is going to say—his views are quite well known; he wouldn’t be saying anything new. Yet, I decided to go and listen to him to catch his mood at a time when the media, as he (and I) knew it, is changing fast due to the availability of new technological tools that were not accessible even a decade ago.

Google powered AI refuses to correct grammar of a 'balanced' piece on Trump sending chained immigrants to India!

This is a continuation of my blog on how, while the start-up-developed AI app DeepSeek is being criticized for consistently rejecting content related to China or Maoism, there appears to be no mention in Western media about why another app, developed by the powerful Google, Gemini, remains silent on Indian political issues.  

Gujarat a police state? How top High Court advocate stunned a senior-most journalist

Rajdeep Sardesai, Anand Yagnik This is a continuation of my earlier blog on well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai's lecture in memory of the late Achyut Yagnik at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA). I was a little surprised when I received the intimation about the venue for the lecture.

5% poor in India? Union govt claim debunked, '26.4% of population below poverty line'

A recent paper, referring to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 of the Government of India (GoI), has debunked the official claim that poverty has substantially declined. Titled "Poverty in India: The Rangarajan Method and the 2022–23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey", the paper —authored by scholars CA Sethu, LT Abhinav Surya, and CA Ruthu—states that "more than a quarter of India’s population falls below the poverty line."

DeepSeek censors uncomfortable queries on China, but why's Gemini so touchy on India?

The powerful Chinese AI app DeepSeek, which has taken the Silicon Valley by surprise, as it has capacities matching Google’s Gemini and Open AI's ChatGPT, is being criticised for restricting free speech, and rightly so. It is being said that those signing up for the chatbot and its open-source technology "are being confronted with the Chinese Communist Party’s brand of censorship and information control."

Gujarat's water anarchy? 16.7% of Narmada water going to industry, 33% of targeted area irrigated: Govt insider

The Narmada project is something that has always excited me, including how much water will be distributed and to which sector. A few days ago, when I was talking to a top Gujarat government insider, I was a little surprised when I was told that it is up to the “respective states to decide how much Narmada water they would distribute among various sectors” out of the total quota allocated to the four states—Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan—as per the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal award of 1979.

Russians at a Bali yoga camp to avoid drafting for war? Things aren't any different in Ukraine

Are people in Russia becoming frustrated with the prolonged war in Ukraine? And is the war having a similar impact on the people of Ukraine? I have no firsthand information about this, but it is well known how nationalist hysteria often seeks to conceal such frustration, particularly among the youth.