Showing posts with label Tamil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tamil. Show all posts

Sheldon Pollock's 'Aestheticization of Power' Targets Tamil Pallavas

(shared by HemaC, forum member. Comment by Rajiv Malhotra at the end of this post)
 
Dear All,

Literary, Arts and Heritage Forum
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES
Indian Institute of Science Campus,
Bengaluru - 560 012

is pleased to invite you to a talk on

“The Aesthetics of Power: Representations of Kingship within the Early Pallava Imperium”

By

​​Mekhola Gomes
Doctoral Scholar, Centre for Historical Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Chairperson : Naresh Keerthi, NIAS

Date:               Monday, 21st March, 2016
Time:               4:30 pm
Venue:             Lecture Hall, NIAS

Abstract:   The period of Pallava rule in Tamil Nadu was a dynamic time in South Indian history, with innovations in several spheres. These included the construction of cave-shrines, structural temples, creation of new iconographies, and inscriptional encomiums. In this talk, I attend to the changing aesthetics of power in the Pallava kingdom through a juxtaposition of texts and images. Starting the 4th century CE, inscriptional genealogies praised Pallava kings in innovative ways. These innovations were elaborated within and through the construction of royal cave-shrines and structural temples beginning the 7th century CE.  Through inscriptional  panegyrics, the construction of cave-shrines, and structural temples, the Pallavas inaugurated a new aesthetics of power. This emergent aesthetics of power was created within and through a larger field of representation. I will compare representational strategies of kingship within inscriptions of the Early Pallavas with visual delineations of power in rock-cut cave- shrines and stone temples.  I suggest that the Pallavas created a new aesthetics of power in early south India, through both the textual and visual and it is only through the interpretation of text and image together that we can fully appreciate the emergence of this new aesthetic.

About the Speaker: Mekhola Gomes is a doctoral scholar in early Indian history at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her thesis, explores representations and practices of political power in the Deccan, between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. She is co-editing a forthcoming volume on the epigraphical (re)turn in the study of ancient Indian history.

* * * * * * * *

All are cordially invited

For further information, please contact. Naresh Keerthi


K S Rama Krishna

--
N.I.A.S., I.I.Sc Campus
Bengaluru 560012
Ph:   2218 5000
Fax: 2218 5028
Email:

Rajiv Malhotra: Thanks for this post. It shows my claim that Pollock's thesis has spread far and wide, getting installed deep into our intellectual institutions. Yet our side has very few IKs bothering to read my response, as that entails serious study. Also, note that NIAS did not want to invite me whereas the Pollock side gets hosted there. I would love to debate this fellow whose job seems to be to implement Pollock's theory by supplying Indian examples.

RMF Summary: Week of December 16 - 22, 2012

This first thread is quite an important one with lots of insightful discussions where contributors debate Rajiv ji, and in turn, respond to his followups. Please read the original thread in its entirety, given the nuances in this delicate debate. The thread starts of a video discussion of Hindu identity in the west (USA), where the students ask some frank questions that has resulted in some deep Q&A in this post.
 
December 16 (New Thread)
Important video: My debate/panel with Hindu American youth on identi

This is an important video to watch. I am glad the lady representing Brahma Kumaris preached the standard "sameness" ....

Thakare responds:
"...  1.) The concepts of Brahmakumari are the core of "vyashti sadhana". Sadhana done for personal spiritual upliftment.
2.) Mr. Malhotra's form of sadhana currently is "samashti sadhana". Sadhana done for society at large.
3.) One cannot do samashti sadhana if one is weak in vyashti sadhana. ...

Even Mr. Malhotra explains to the BK lady that what she is talking about is general vyashti sadhana (who am I, peace etc) but the need of the hour is to fight adharma through samashti sadhana. Hindus are ignorant about their own identity thus are confused about the term sadhana itself. Do NOT be egoistic but be firm."


Rajiv comment: 
"I have no problem with such organizations that pursue self-realization of the individual through strictly the inner journey, what I call adhyatma-vidya. In fact I have great respect for the true sannyasi.

But then why do many of them send representatives to speak at a panel on youth identity? Why do such gurus and their followers go to educate students and householders in a manner that is inappropriate for those stages of life. Why are they confused in their own minds about the difference between dharma for different varnas and different ashramas. They live (or claim to live) as sannyasins (stage of life) and brahmins (varna). But 99% of those they teach are not in this category. So its medicine meant for themselves as individuals which they are distributing to the general public.

I ask many of them embarrassing questions like: Why are you raising funds for your organization, working so hard to expand more centers and get more followers, etc. if your pursuit is for your own self realization?

My point is that there is massive hypocrisy. What is lived is not what is being taught in most cases. The teaching is like an iPod reciting mechanically the words that create some lofty impression. The harm caused is that this confuses the general public who revere such guru movements as their supreme authority. Notice how confused the students start out in the panel. Their parents and most lay Hindus are likewise. Where did this come from, and who is accountable for this?

The buck stops at the doorstep of the gurus. They need to be re-educated for modern times."


Narendra comments:
"One cannot be both a Dharma guru and a moksha guru. They are incompatible. One requires complete renunciation and the other renunciation of selfishness only. This is probably why Sanyasis were separated from Grahastas. Sanayasis are not meant to talk/advise about  life they have not experienced. As Prof Kundan in Florida discussion mentioned, we need to develop a dharmic ego/identity  (integration of ego/soul) before striving for Moksha or go straight to mountains and not interfere with dharma process. I have two gurus. A 'Mokha Guru' (self- realized?) who initiated me with a 'Moksha mantra" which  I chant only during my meditation. I have a dhrama guru or a mentor. I  chant 'Dharma mantra' such as 'love, courage,patience etc...' most of the free time to create a stable ego and motivate me in dharma. .."

NV responds:
"In my limited experience, I have found that jivanmuktas do not ask one to give up one's dharma in life. In fact they make one stronger to deal with life. It is wrong to think that moksha and dharma are at loggerheads. Nobody is going to attain any moksha by giving up his/her commitments and responsibilities in life. The sadhus do renounce married life among other things. But I have seen them delve into the problems of householders and guide them in their worldly destinies. As Rajivji pointed out very eloquently in one of his videos (the one with the Brahmakumari), most of us are not going to attain moksha in the near future and it is our duty to protect  Hindu dharma so that it exists to help us in our future lives!.."

Ashay has a detailed post that Rajiv notes as important and responds to:
"This debate is interesting because it gets at the core of what is called neo-Hinduism. I am also alluding here to the recent post where Rajiv mentioned that the attacks on BD by Rambachan and so on, parallel the attacks on Vivekananda. I approach this issue with mixed feelings for while I do support Rajiv's cause, I think Vivekananda as the architect of neo-Hinduism is atleast
partially responsible for the confusion caused by the 'guru movements'. Let me explain how.

1. I think the BK lady articulated what has now become the grand narrative of modern Hinduism. Its origin lies in the so-called Schopenhauerian ethic which has influenced many Vedantic scholars, including Vivekananda. In the 'Philosophy
of the Upanisads', Deussen, one of Schopenhauer's disciples, remarks along these lines: "The Bible teaches that we must love our neighbour. But why should we? Because, the Upanisads say, your neighbour is your own self."...

2. This has now become also the position of Vedanta. The Christian critique of Vedanta is that it is too selfish in that one strives for one's own self-realization and does not care about the world. Intellectuals such as Vivekananda used the Schopenhauerian ethic to address this problem. To be Brahman means to realize that everything including oneself is Brahman and thus to serve the world as Brahman. From the former realization proceeds the latter action. What the BK lady said and what thakare_parvata has elaborated is the same thing. This has unfortunately become the modern self-understanding of Hinduism....

3. Based on my reading of Vivekananda's speeches, I think that he not only endorsed but was probably one of the authors of this narrative. Furthermore, he (or his followers) have wrongly claimed this view to be that of Sankara which I
have attempted to differentiate below. I do realize that many people on this forum have the utmost reverence for Vivekananda and so I would like to clarify that my intention is neither to give offence nor to show disrespect. Neither is
my distinction between Vivekananda and Sankara's ideas based on the same reason as Rambachan's who takes issue with Vivekananda's privileging of mystical experience over scriptural authority...

4. I completely agree with and appreciate Rajiv's efforts to formulate a distinctive laukika Hindu identity instead of this warm and fuzzy spiritualism that dominates Hindu thought today. In this endeavour it would be useful to understand how Sankara's views differ from Vivekananda's. In the Adhyasa-bhashya, Sankara has distinguished between pramana-prameya-vyavahara which is the pre-reflective fight-or-flight kind of responses common to all living creatures including humans, and a reflective, identity-based sastriya-vyavahara which is specific to humans...

5. Of course, Sankara was categorical that jnana is superior to karma and moksa is realized only through jnana. Sastriya-vyavahara, based as it is on worldly identities, is also a form of avidya but that does not mean, as Arjuna found out
in the Gita, that everyone is eligible for jnana. Every living being automatically undertakes the path of karma but only a privileged few can tread the path of jnana. Sankara explains in the Gita-bhasya that the pravrtti-dharma assigned to varnas and asramas is relatively inferior and meant for worldly and
heavenly prosperity only, but when it is selflessly performed, it leads to sattva-shuddhi. This sattva-shuddhi makes one eligible for nivrtti dharma, i.e., the path of jnana leading to moksa. This serial ordering of pravrtti and nivrtti
is relevant even today, only the pravrtti-dharma that addressed varna and asrama identities in the traditional world needs reinterpretation and readjustment to address a Hindu identity for the modern world. I regard the BD as part of the sastric efforts to construct an identity relevant for our times.

6. On the other hand, Vivekananda, and many other modern Hindu intellectuals including the BK lady, see nivritti as the basis for an ethical pravrtti. This is following the Christian model where God's will is seen as the basis of worldly ethics. All that the modern Hindus did was to replace God's will with
nivrtti and claimed, following Deussen and such-like, that it is a more appropriate basis for morality and therefore superior to Western religions. But this has only Christianized us and made us more susceptible to digestion. In Sankara's model this order is reversed. Pravrtti has its basis in the sastras and not in nivrtti. In our case that means we must first have a sastric, i.e., a worldly understanding of a Hindu identity that is reflective and scholarly, and selflessly profess this meaning in everyday life. This way we attain sattva-shuddhi and then, and only then, do we become eligible to make the idealistic claim that Hindu identity is only another form of ignorance and move
beyond it to realize ourselves as the soul or whatever else.

7. Just as colonialism encouraged certain interpretations of varna/jati, so did it encourage an understanding of religion as selfless service to humanity based on a non-denominational, divine self-realization, and a corresponding disregard towards the intellectual interpretation of tradition. Vivekananda was as much a victim of this shift for he dismissed, as did Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the argumentative aspect of Vedanta as 'intellectual gymnastics'. Such thinking has
caused great harm to the tradition and has produced the current crop of anti-intellectual gurus and matas. But there is nothing hypocritical about them performing the activities Rajiv mentions. When you take their model of religion into consideration, as explained above, it makes perfect sense. So my answer to Rajiv's question regaring the current confusion among Hindus, 'where did this come from, and who is accountable for this?' would be not the gurus but this
anti-intellectual paradigm that they follow....

Rajiv's response: 
First I agree with Ashay that SV co-founded modern Hinduism, which its critics call neo-Hinduism. This had many good and bad things in it. Sameness was one of its curses that we live with today. This was due to SV and others having difference anxiety from below. But it also did many good things - unifying various diverse schools, modernizing it in line with new science and other developments, which is not anything wrong and our tradition calls for this evolution. ...NOTE; BD unifies dharmas without also including Abrahamic religions in the same fold. This is where the pioneers failed last time around. In unifying Hinduism the arguments became too generic and could not differentiate other religions. If you get this point, you will appreciate why the BD project is so challenging to do and why BD can make a big difference if it is understood: HOW TO SHOW UNITY OF DHARMA IN A MANNER SUCH THAT IT SHOWS DIFFERENCE WITH ABRAHAMIC FAITHS. But there is a SECOND truth that I am concerned about. Rambachan is a member of a school of social constructivism that is basically undermining Hinduism in total. Not Rambachan himself is not rejecting Hinduism in total, but those who use the arguments and base established by this school end up claiming that:
Hinduism = Hindu Nationalism = Fascism = Exploitation of minorities, dalits, etc. I am in the middle of writing a short book arguing against this school that was started by western Indologists and now is very popular amongst many Indians.  These two truths correspond to two camps and we must fight both.  

Surya adds:
"By serial ordering, what you are saying is that good dharmic living leads to antah-karan-suddhi.  This in turn facilitates jnana.  You contrasted this to neo-Hindu idea of jnana leading to selfless service and see that as undermining tradition.  You called it Schopenhauerian ethic, suggesting that such ethical thought was alien to Indians.

Some questions to you:  In your view of tradition, are there no benefits to the laukika life of an Advaitin as he aspires for liberation?  Are there no benefits to his society?  Are laukika life and adhyatmika life unrelated to each other?  Do liberated Advaitins have anything more to their life than just be world-renouncing sanyasis?..."


Rajiv's response:
I agree with Surya and have issues with the person he responds to. The theory that "tat tvam asi" as basis for ethics in Hinduism was started by Schopenhauer and taught to Vivekananda by Duessen, was promulgated by Paul Hacker, the German missionary-Indologist, and spread by other western Indolgists. Then Rambachan started adding philosophical depth to it. This and many other attacks on Vivekananda that followed from the same school of anti-Vivekananda...

... welcome others who have something concrete to offer during the next 30 days to contact me offline. In particular I need those well versed in Vedanta literature by Shankara as well as his critics..."
 
Arun shares a link and comments:
"I do not know how much clearer SV has to be, April 8, 1900, San Francisco "

Rajiv's response:
"There is a distinction he makes between Jesus and Christianity. He sees Jesus on par with enlightened masters that we are familiar with, and at the same time criticizes Christianity as an institution that does live up to the true Jesus.

Many modern Christians also say similar things: "We believe in the true Jesus, not the Church." My question remains: How did Swami Vivekananda validate Jesus based on third-person accounts in the Bible?

When pressed philosophically, those who teach whats being called "Christian Vedanta" (and now the "Vedanta" portion is being dropped and its being digested into a Neo-Christianity of sorts), like to say that they re-imagine Jesus in light of Vedanta, and not as taught by the Church. ...

These new Christians go through various stages of digestion: .... So church as institution comes back, reborn with Vedanta digested. Many such movements are starting. In fact, the Vatican is looking the other way...   Somewhere along the way, Hinduism-Buddhism get rejected using various arguments, a combination of:
A) theology (that without the historicity of Jesus such faiths can at best be preparations for Christianity); and
B) social sciences (citing caste and other abuses as reason to reject)...."

Jalan has a detailed response, which we only excerpt below.
"    Any grand commentator on scriptures may appear to some as creating a "new version" of them (neo-vedanta, neo-Hinduism, etc.) Whose interpretation to believe, whose commentary to consider authentic?
    An Apta, on the authority of their first hand experience/realisation, is the only competent interpreter. A scholastic/intellectual analyst of scriptures is not competent to overrule an Apta's interpretation/commentary on the scriptures. The question is if RK/SV qualified as Aptas. Better still, can we think of someone who qualifies as an Apta and who overrules SV/RK version or is it just "intellectuals" who are beating their chests? ....

    [Ashay] writes: "...Deussen, one of Schopenhauer's disciples, remarks along these lines: "The Bible teaches that we must love our neighbour. But why should we? Because, the Upanisads say, your neighbour is your own self." He thus saw the Upanisads as complementing the Bible." This line of argument is wrongly being ascribed to SV...
 ... "The Christian critique of Vedanta is that it is too selfish in that one strives for one's own self-realization and does not care about the world."

I would be very sad to see someone actually buy such a shoddy and meritless critique. (And of all the peoples in the world this coming from the Christian, whose only motive power is seeking an eternal heavenly pleasure garden and avoiding eternal damnation and hell-fire! Irony cannot go farther.) "One's own self realisation at the cost of the world" is perfectly antithetic to SV's message. [Ashay] would do well to research better and come up with EVEN ONE SINGLE QUOTE where SV even alluded at such an idea. On the other hand, try these:
        "May I be born again and again and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls - and above all my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, and of all species is the special object of my worship."
        "If you seek your own salvation, you will go to hell. It is the salvation of others that you must seek and even if you have to go to hell in working for others, that is worth more than to gain heaven by seeking your own salvation."
   ....

I also disagree with Shri RM that SV proposed sameness in religions out of difference-anxiety from below - there is nothing in the known life - action or words - of SV that shows he suffered from such an inferiority-complex as to generate this anxiety. On the contrary, the sameness that SV professed was to aggressively debunk the very exclusivity and history-centric creed that the Abrahminic religions claim as truth. It was certainly not anxiety-driven. He spoke from a position of strength alone, hardly diluting Hinduism.

After being really impressed with the BD revolution, I had many times wondered whether what SV said in 1893 in Chicago to the American audience, surrounded by the superiority and exclusivity claim of Christianity, was in fact amiss; that it in any way compromised the status or principles of Hinduism. I concluded otherwise....It also deflated the Christian agenda which was prepared only for words of hatred and not for a message of inclusiveness - they ran like headless chicken and in response to this unexpected attack of love, could only mumble and prattle senselessly. Their defeat was clear and conclusive. Is such an aggressive dharma-sangat sameness missing the point? I guess not. ...Just because foolish Hindus could translate anything in a defensive and escapist way, being victims of their own tamasik tendencies, we must not start to denounce the source. It is the self-same Hindus who would quote the Gita in a most twisted fashion to justify the inaction and cowardliness that it clearly tries to demolish.

What we are asking for now is something unreasonable - that what someone says must carry the same message and be interpreted consistently across ALL space-and-time points, all contexts, all audiences and societies. This is unfair.

Just like Shri RM, SV was also engaged in the samashti sadhna serving the cause and purpose of Hinduism - the former used the sameness route while Shri RM is using the BD route, each being appropriate in the respective spatio-temporal environs to which they belong/-ed. Both sameness of SV and BD of RM are attacking/controverting the same exclusivity claims of Abrahminic  - the contradiction is only apparent.

At the same time, I do personally believe that in the inter-religious encounter - and equally/more importantly in the intra-Hinduism forums - our position today must be based on the Being Different principles and not the sameness principles. " 
Rajiv responds to Jalan:
"Abhishek Jalan disagrees that SV proposed sameness in religions out of difference-anxiety from below...

My response:
  • Please note the following quote from SV: "Truth came to Jesus of Nazareth, and we must all obey him. But the truth came to the Rishis of India - the Mantra-drashtas, the seers of thought - and will come to all Rishis in the future, not to talkers, not to book-swallowers, not to scholars, not to philologists, but to seers of thought." (Complete Works, volume 3, p. 283.)
  • In his Collected Works....
  • In his Collected Works, vol. 7....
First I want to have someone verify these references as I am rushed for time and have not checked lately to make sure. [Dear reader: please contribute here if you can]
But regardless, I can find similar references in SV's writings and much more directly pro-Jesus/Bible teachings by his followers. My issue with such remarks is as follows:
  • How does SV know what "state" Jesus had? Most of the Bible is third-person accounts by various onlookers, making it smriti, which cannot be equated with first-person accounts of rishis...
  • ...
This message opened the door slightly, which others later flung wide open. Swami Prabhavananda who was sent by the RK Mission to lead Vedanta Society in USA in the early 1900s, was a big factor in making this new kind of Vedanta that was de-contextualized...... small sample of whats being propagated in the name of Vedanta by both Hindus and Judeo-Christians alike:
...[more refs snipped for brevity]
... BD does NOT want to find common ground among dharma traditions in a broad/generic way (like we all believe in love for mankind) that includes Abrahamic faiths as part of the dharma family or vide versa. In other words, the differences must be non-digestible into Abrahamic frameworks or the digestion must undermine those frameworks. .."


Jalan responds:
"
I almost entirely agree with Shri RM. I would still like to clarify as below:

  1. None of the quotes or the objections actually show difference anxiety from below, something which I think even Shri RM concedes. SV did believe in what he said and it was not driven by some flawed psychological/social condition.
  2. RK had meditated on JC for a long period .....
  3. SV is not comparing Bible to the Vedas but yes he is indeed comparing JC with Rishis....
  4. I do not think that admiring JC and a few sublime parts in the Bible makes you Christian - and it is hardly anti-dharma. 
At the same time I do completely agree that:

  1. such nuances and subtleties may be lost on normal Hindus that do not invest too much time in understanding their own tradition or others' and coupled with the grand Church machinery that has aggressive designs and the weak status of Dharma, there is a clear danger of digestion if Hindus start to parrot it. Hence it should be avoided by everyone including the Hindu leaders.
  2. digestion as propounded by Shri RM is something phenomenal and needs to be urgently addressed. This is a great service to Dharma, similar to what earlier great Hindu leaders like SV have done.
  3. Shri RM's idea of unifying the Dharma schools/religions/traditions while at the same time maintaining their distinct identity against the Abrahminic religions and their dharma-viruddth principles is a pioneering effort and merits full appreciation and support, from the ordinary Hindu and the leadership. (Someone conversant with statistical analysis could see that this is conceptually similar to the ratio of within-group and between-group variances being the true statistic of difference.) .."
Sandeep responds:
"Later in life, Swami Vivekananda felt that Jesus may have been a fictional character but he continued to believe in him because Ramakrisha, when questioned about the veracity of Krishna-Gopi tales, had told him that the people who created such myths must have had some divine perception (bhava).

His inference about the fictionality of Jesus was based on a dream he had in Dec 1896 while returning from Europe and Asia.  The text that follows is based on Nivedita's account...

Vivekananda : "....On the whole, I think old Rabbi Hillel is responsible for the teachings of Jesus, and an obscure Jewish sect of Nazarenes — a sect of great antiquity — suddenly galvanized by S. Paul, furnished the mythic personality as a centre of worship.

"The resurrection, of course, is simply spring-cremation. ..."

Kaushal comments:
" I am not a scholar in this field. But, after reading text in this blog and our experience(3-4 years back) at Pune Ram Krishna Mission Office, now I realize that how much true this digestion theory is. The Pune based Ram Krishna Mission is under control of Christian Missionary.  It seems that, Christian missionary has planted their own men in charge of the mission. The head of center wearing saffron dress was more aware of Jesus and Bible than Puran and Upnishad, The Library was full of Christian books.."
Rohit adds:
"This is the modern way of destroying a temple and building a church over it.  Apparently, missionaries have realized that buildings and institutions themselves are valuable assets.

A similar incident happened at the Universities in Tirupati - a Christian vice-chancellor decided to secularize the universities by removing anything to do with Hinduism..."  

Mokashi responds to a previous comment:
" "I wonder whether the validity of Rama and Krishna could also fall prey to such a query"

The divinity of Rama and Krishna follows from what are known as pramaana texts and not from meditation or experiences. This concept of pramaana is outside the
scope of discussion, but is followed rigidly by more traditional scholars..."

Rajiv's response: 
The above view represents the Paul Hacker school... I disagree that the role of experience has caused sameness. BD emphasizes experience (adhyatma-vidya) over history-centrism. In fact the abrahamic religions do not allow knowing God bypassing the history centric canon and relying upon a higher state of consciousness. Such a state is not easy and cannot simply be proclaimed arbitrarily. There are processes, tests, pre-requisites. Thats what is missing in Judeo-Christianity, hence the craving to digest this from us."


CR responds:
" .. The concept of pramana comes from the principle that the nature of a thing is what the thing itself is, and not something that is dependent on the mind and
intellect that sees it. A pramana is that which reveals the thing in its own intrinsic nature. In the case of Sruti, which speaks about the knowledge that is Self-established (svatah-sidhha), the Sruti reveals the Truth by reflection of the Self-established Truth that exists in one's Self when the obstructions to
seeing it in the form of mental impurities are removed.


> SV and RK popularized that Vedas are notes of "experiences"
> of Rishis which is at odds with what they are viewed in
> tradition before.

This is wrong. Swami Vivekananda never spoke of the the truths mentioned in the Sruti as products of experience. On the contrary, he compared them to the law of gravity which exists whether people discover it or not. The Rishis, said SV, are
like the discoverers of the law of gravity. How does this raise the status of experience over the eternal truths revealed by Sruti? ... In the Christian world, the practice of religion is seen as merely holding on to some articles of faith rather than in obtaining direct communion with the Divine
through 'experiencing here and now'. I think this is what Rajiv-ji is emphasizing with these words below. ."



Vish adds:
"This is the best rendering of the 'Bhagawad Gita' for the 'Kurukshetra' of our times! The clarion call from the original Geeta and from Vyaasa himself, has always been crystal clear - "Rise up when Dharma is under siege". ...There is a huge lack of "Poorva Paksha" in those who box the Geeta into a tool to advance their own ideology, without first inviting all rich thoughts into the theatre and then only allowing the one with the merit to cream to the surface. .... We were always called to provide a "Raksha" for the Dharma by keeping it alive. Dharma was also shown symbolically as a Bull completely strong and rooted when on four legs, but pitiful and tot erring when reduced to a single weak one."
 
December 17 (Continuing Thread)
Hindi Edition of Being Different
As some of you may know,Hindi version of Shri Rajiv Malhotra's pioneering book,'Being Different' will be published in a few months. The English version was a best seller...
[lots of great comments that suggest titles. here is the latest sample, sent by Srinath]:
"Not an extensive title, but closer in translation to the English

"Being Different - an Indian Challenge to Western Universalism"

might be:


Dhaarmik Bhinnataa - Pashchimee Aatyantikataa kaa Bhaarateeya PratikshepaN "

December 17 (New Thread)
The importance of Being Different
Venkat shares a video: 
Dear Friends Please watch this short video (thought provoking and humorous) .of a few generations of Indians in the US and how they lose their identity It...



December 18 (continuing thread)
Rajiv's new blog on FirstPost.


Please read Rajiv's blog on FirstPost (an Indian blog). This is the 3rd blog on FirstPost. This one reiterates Rajiv's demands for rhetorical changes in...

Arun posts:
"> Claim 3: Only Christianity is the true religion.
> Argument: Historical evidence shows that Jesus resurrected after crucifixion. This is proof for his divinity. Christianity is the only religion that can offer proof for its truth claims. Therefore, those claims are true. Therefore, Christianity is a true religion.

Excellent layout of the argument. The American Founding Fathers, who were more deists than Christian, accepted the idea that:

Claim 4: Religious truth-claims cannot be decided.
Moreover toleration has the implication that one side has the upper hand and permits the other side to exist, and this is inconsistent with liberty. And therefore mutual respect was necessary.

PS: Wiki: Deism is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world are sufficient to determine the existence of God, accompanied with the rejection of revelation and authority as a source of religious knowledge. "

Maria adds: 
"Surya, You are right that egalitarian thinking is wasted on Christian 'fundamentalists', who stick to the fundamentals, but less and less people are enamoured by these fundamentals, and that's where Hindus can have influence. The Time article quotes some 'fundamentalists', but also asks "Is Bell's Christianity” less judgmental, more fluid, open to questioning the most ancient of assumptions on an inexorable rise? And ends on a positive note with a quote of Bell: something new is in the air...."

December 19 (continuing post)
Myles Collier of Christian Post
Dear Rajivji: What a wonderful response to the questions from Myles Collier of Christian Post! What you have started is similar to what Adi Shankaracharya did...

Latest comment by Mohan:
".... These conversations really inspire us. I hope we find youngsters dare enough to do such. (In Samskrita Bharati Tamilnadu 11 of us in early 20s 'abandoned'  our homes, lucrative career just for Bharata Mata seva.But we require Quantity too (of course quality also)..." 

December 20 (New Thread)
Discussion at Vidya Bharati Foundation: Youtube audio
Could some one provide me an alternate video/audio link on the talk made by Dr.Rajivji at Vidya Bharati foundation, May 2012 at Canada. I could find that the... 
It works fine if you wear headsets. Most of the talks on Youtube we posted require wearing headsets.


December 21 (New Thread)
People it is my misfortune to inform you that unofficial Christian population of Andhra has reached over 30 percent. I am not exaggerating, this is from... 
 
RD99 responds:
"Conversions are mostly confined to andhra regions and not telengana.It is business strategy to form a NGO and get funds from europe, in the name of conversions,and lead a  comfortable life.  Late YSR  was instrumental in introducing funding for christian piligrims similar to HAJ subsidy.His son Jagan languishing in jail won recent by-elections, because SC converts voted 100% to him deserting traditional congress..."



RMF Summary: Week of August 15 - 21, 2011

August 16
John Dayal (featured in BI) targets Rs 3,500 crores of GOI funds for
A Crore of Christian Youth may Get Good Education at Government Expense if the Church Wakes Up More than Rupees 3,500 crores to be had in scholarships and...


August 19
Is Sonia Gandhi co-President of a pro-Kashmir separatist organizatio
Rajiv comments: I have blocked posts that divert from the thesis of the book being discussed. Hence, the common chatter on all sorts of issues, scandals and personalities get...
....Here is what was sent to me:
There is a forum of which Sonia Gandhi is co-president: http://nancho.net/fdlap/
It supports actively the separation of Kashmir and ' invite your assistance to expose other movements which desperately require public attention and support':  http://nancho.net/fdlap/fdlalert.html

It is financed by (among others) Soros Foundation and Olaf Palme International Center,. : http://truthgun.com/2011/08/16/did-you-know-look-who-george-soros-is-funding/
Ganesh shares:
"..I think this pdf file of a 15 point programme tells a lot on how to ensure breaking India based on minorities and majority. Look at the impetus of points 3,4,5 and 6.

Here's an ad that appeared to this effect. .."

August 19
New Website and Report Citing Breaking India
Abhimanyu reports on the "forum of Inquilabi Leftists": ... Hinduism is spiritual fascism. Ramayana is a book of colonizers. Hinduism is a religion of violence where the killers have become Gods. NRIs (non-Resident Indians) are slaves of corporate America that are motivated by issues of exploitation and oppression of 'desis' and others in the US. The Forum of Inqualabi Leftists (FOIL) and its affiliates subscribe to the above views on Hinduism, India and the Hindu diaspora..."

This thread below had a lot of discussion, including comments by Vijaya Rajiva, N. S. Rajaram, and several others. It is worth reading this thread in its entirety.
August 19
Selling out to the establishment has its rewards
Rajiv Malhotra shares a HuffPost link and comments:
"Anju Bhargava, the self appointed "Hindu American leader" whose misrepresentation of the community is examined in chapter 15 of Breaking India, has climbed her personal career ever since she played the role of "complicit Hindu" in the US government appointed inter-religious council. (This council, during her one-year term, passed resolutions and recommendations to the federal government that expand the faith-based initiative grants (i.e. mostly to Judeo-Christian groups) in almost every branch of the government, and overseas as well. This means more infiltration by evangelists into various federal agencies, done legally and as a mandate of the government policy...

Breaking India shows how President Clinton succumbed to this pressure from the Christian Right at a time when he was vulnerable and needed their support. His Religious Freedom Act led to setting up of the USCIRF....

... I pleaded without success for Anju to take a principled stand by going on the formal record to state her opposition to the latest initiative. She refused, citing her personal goals in Washington circles. I admit that she was pained having to take a weak stance, but cited personal career factors...

...After a well-orchestrated media blitz, Anju has climbed to being listed as one of the top ten women in world religions today - the only Hindu on it. (See article above.) Wow! Congratulations, Anju, you finally made it into the big league. But I cannot help remark that you sold your soul somewhere along the way."

August 21
Tamil book on War Criminals released
Chennai, India: “Por Kutravali” (meaning ‘War Criminal”)- a book in Tamil language, based on the  UN panel report on Lankan War crimes, published by Manitham Publishers (Chennai)  has come out in the market this week. A Tamil translation of the entire report is printed and about 240 pages of 328 are dedicated to the UN report.  The book’s preface has been written by prominent Tamilians... 

RMF Summary: Week of June 13 - 19, 2011

June 13
Thanjavur a Cultural history by Pradeep Chakravarthy and Christian Fabre
Ganesh has a very useful informational post: I request people to visit this link and watch the interviews of Pradeep Chakravarthy on NDTV Hindu...

Pradeep Chakravarthy is the Principal, Infosys leadership institute who has been using the age old teachings inscribed by our great kings in the temples they have built as lessons to up one's leadership quotient. Here's one article by him in Outlook business April 02,2011.

Those who are in India, should get hold of Outlook Business, June 25,2011 edition. His second such article using the wonders of Krishna Deva Raya  of Vijayanagara Empire, is penned in it.

Also Outlook business has a small review of an autobiography called THE HOLY CEO: An autobiography authored by Christian Fabre alias Swami Pranavananda Brahmendra Avadhuta. Here's the excerpt from the review from this link ...

June 13
Polish University To Set Up Tamil Chair !?
[Given the explanation in "Breaking India"] I am suspicious... Polish University To Set Up Tamil Chair ...
 [If anybody has an update on this, please post in comments section and/or RMF]
 


June 13
Indian Bishop in charge of Asian Evangelization is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
A similar effort is on in Pakistan where the Roman Catholic Church has planted a "nun" to serve the poor (read "the remaining Hindus" numbering 4 million) of...
Here is a followup link by Manas.

June 14
Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum is mentioned in "Breaking India
On page 228, 232: "In 2006, a `Religious Freedom Day' was organized on Capitol Hill in Washington by the right-wing Christian fundamentalist, Senator Rick..

June 14
American tourists on 'conversion drive' asked to leave
Times of India reports: American tourists on 'conversion drive' asked to leave: Three US women tourists were asked to leave the country following complaints that they along with local pastors were trying to convert "poor families" to
Christianity.

KOCHI: The fear of proselytization by Christian missionaries has gripped the southern most state Kerala yet again...

June 14
A decade old fight against US govt anti-Ram bias put into school textbook
Rajiv Malhotra: In the 1990s, when Lynn Cheney (Dick Cheney's wife) was head of the US National Endowment of Humanities, it gave a grant to Syracuse Univ's famous anthropologist to develop a school text on teaching Ramayana. This was widely promoted as a good way to teach multiculturalism, One of the lesson plans in that text was an anti-Ram song which was to be enacted in classes. Ram is accused of being an Aryan oppressor of Dalits and Dravidians, killing of Muslims and violence against women. Infinity Foundation led a protest against this material...

A copy of this letter appears at the end of this post below.

June 15
The duo "father-daughter" and the book!
M. Deivanayagam has been so happy for the prominence given to him and his daughter in the book. He has brought out 4 page coverage including the scanned copy...
June 15
US Christian evangelistic network gets FIPB nod to launch channel in
US Christian evangelistic network gets FIPB nod to launch channel in India May 5, 2011 http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k11/may/may22.php MUMBAI:...

June 15
What we could learn from Mormons about higher education
 God's MBAs: Why Mormon Missions Produce Leaders ...

June 16
Re: Gandhi and the Khilafat
N. S. Rajaram: I  I have discussed it in my book Gandhi, Khilafat and the National Movement: A revisionist view based on neglected sources. A version is available here.

June 17
Huffington Post: How Evangelists are inventing "Dravidian Christianity"
Rajiv Malhotra: Please read my latest Huffington Post blog, comment on the blog itself, and pass it to friends.

June 17

Ramakrishna and Islam
Vijaya Rajiva writes:
Re: Kanchan Bannerji's quote from Christopher Isherwood's Life of Sri Ramakrishna(1963). Isherwood borrowed from the earlier work by Romain Rolland The Life of..
 ...It is interesting to note that Max Mueller also wrote a Life of Ramakrishna. Max Mueller's interest was brought about by his association with Keshab Chunder Sen of the Brahmo Samaj (influenced by Christianity).

As Breakingindia points out : MM's motives in studying Sanskrit etc. had an ulterior motive, the conversion of pagan India to Christianity.
Vijaya Rajiva has a followup on this.

June 17
This thread covers a debate on the Ramakrishna Mission and sameness and elicited a lot of feedback. We will try to cover this in-depth in a separate post.
RKM and sameness - debate
I have been following the discussions concerning Christianity and Hinduism, especially the last one by Jataayu. I agree with him that the widespread grassroots...

This is an intriguing post, so I'm including this post by Chitra in this summary!
June 17
Scottish bill would criminalize sectarianism in football
It was announced just this morning over the BBC that Scotland is proposing introducing laws that would make inciting sectarian violence connected with football...

The thread below also produced a lot of comments.
June 17
Even in the USA, Baptism had difficulties...
Amritasyaputra discovers:
Just read on internet:

"Baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention (USA), the nation's largest Protestant denomination, have dipped to their lowest point in 60 years..."

In Germany, the number of members is actually decreasing.
Everywhere people have enough of it, so they export it to the innocent foreign countries....

Koenraad Elst responds:
"No, people in the West who have had enough of Christianity, do not export it to foreign countries. Not today, at least. In the colonial age, the militantly secularist French Third Republic (1871-1940) promoted Catholicism in its colonies to forge ties of loyalty to France (as against their native society as well as Protestant Britain, Holland, US etc.) among the natives. But that is kind of long ago. Hindus would do well to outgrow the anachronism in their view of the West... 

...Remember that the EU elites refused to have a reference to Christianity in the
preamble to the EU Constitution. Now that Hungary has included such a reference
in its own new constitution, reactions in EU circles were very hostile...

... To be sure, the Church has ways to get around this hostile attitude: they simply clothe their projects in the language of social justice and human rights. On that condition, most powerful circles in the West will still support the agenda
of those who want to break India...

...At any rate, ex-Baptists and ex-Catholics are *not* dumping their rejected religion on India. Only the committed believers are promoting the mission.

... The claim that ex-Baptists send Baptism to India, stems from the long-standing Hindutva refusal to think ideologically, preferring to reduce everything to matters of nation vs. nation...

Church history should teach you this much: all your hectoring about the mission as a "Western" strategy, though it had a point during the colonial age, is oblivious to the Church's tradition of shifting alliances. When US power collapses, and when Baptist pews in the US fall empty, the Baptist missions in India's Northeast will readily write their American origins out of the record, identify with Naga or Mizo etc. nationalism, and then continue to weed out the remnants of Hinduism with renewed zeal. And all these brown- and yellow-skinned Baptists will have a good laugh at the silly Hindus who keep on wailing about "white Christians". "

Rajiv Malhotra disagrees with K. Elst on a point:
"I disagree with Koenraad that Europeans are not exporting christianity.

Breaking India discusses details of how and who is doing this. The Lutheran Church in Europe is covered in detail as an example and there is also a whole appendix devoted to this.

Let us not quibble about whether this is state or church; it is European institutions doing it. I had an extensive discussion with evangelists from Finland in south India last year. This group pretending to be "tourists" were rather shocked when I asked them point blank "are you missionaries" after they told me the name of the village they were headed to. They were exceedingly nice and pleasant in their characteristic style, very well educated.

In fact, countries like Finland give a formal status to Christianity. Germany gives a portion of tax collected to the church. Though the public at large is secular the church is rich in assets and ambition, and this is externalized. The Scandinavians have had a lot of interest as mediators in Sri Lanka where their missions are rampant."

 N. S. Rajaram agrees with K.Elst on a different point:
"Koenraad is absolutely right about Hindus not making
friends. Even people like me are turned
off by the indifference and being taken for granted.

When Jayalalithaa won the TN election, several Christian leaders went and congratulated her and greeted her. No Hindu leader did, except Narendra Modi, and he too as a fellow CM. Hindu leaders should learn to be more outgoing and reduce their whining." 

Prahalad adds:
"certificates of de-baptism" are gettin popular and we ave every reason to make them popular!
Raj Kashyap is less enthused:
"This is the typical unanalyzed overexcitement that we can see among Hindus. Just because one denomination reports a drop in number of baptisms, it really does not mean anything for us. We will only end up wasting our time which we should be focusing on serious issues - we have already lost a lot of time..." 

June 17
Fwd: A talk on 'Breaking India' in Hosur Tamil Sangam
Srinivasan notes: Reestablish the Indian Integrity Speech given in Hosur Tamil Sangam on12.June, 2011. in Tamil on Breaking India ,and the following is based on rough notes by a...

June 17
Inventing the 'Dravidian' Race - Excerpt from 'Breaking India'
Excerpted with permission from Malhotra, Rajiv and Aravindan Neelakandan, "Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines," Amaryllis...

June 17
Research paper: Exporting Christianity: Governance and Doctrine in t
Chitra provides a link: An academic research paper worth reading. Has lots of data and statistical models. ...

This thread below got lots of feedback. Check it out in the form by clicking this link. We will try to cover this in a separate post. 
June 19
"Jesus in India" thesis is a form of inculturation like St. Thomas m
I dont personally believe in the jesus-in-india thesis. it is entirely speculative and based on one-sided evidence. But many indians like to believe it. THIS...
 
June 19
Book Review by UCLA Prof. Sardesai
Prof. Sardesai has given permission to publish, copy and distribute the following review.

Book Review:
Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan, Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines, Bhopal, India, Amaryllis, 2011.
This is a very important book both for students of Indian politics and society in the post-Independence era. It is also important for Westerners, particularly Americans, who are interested in the preservation and strengthening of the Indian polity,  more so as a thriving democracy, the largest on the planet. If the policy-makers in the Western capitals, including Washington D.C. are working for  India to emerge  strong and united as a bulwark against arising China, they should closely read this tome, as providing  substantial and irrefutable evidence of a  section of its citizenry working to contrary purposes of breaking India to facilitate the proselytizing of its Hindu population,...

June 19
Foreign Policy Magazine on: Faith in the Market
A few years ago there was a front page article in the Foreign Policy Magazine ...

RMF Summary: Week of March 29 - April 4, 2011

March 29
Commentary on Breaking India on Indian Realist
*Authors of the just released book *Breaking India *allege that Christian organizations are engaged in a divisive program to expand in countries like India ... Here is the link.

March 29
Asian Studies Review paper on Rajiv Malhotra in 'Mythology Wars'
A draft of McComas Taylor's paper on Rajiv Malhotra in 'Mythology Wars' can be seen here [pdf]. This thread elicited a lot of responses, with Taylor's work generally receiving a lot of rotten tomatoes.


Karigar was the first to comment on the contents:
"..The 30+ page paper seems like a scholarly trivialisation of the critiques offered to Wendy & her childrens' works. The author essentially contradicts himself, when he titles his tract "Mythology Wars", thereby classifying the subject under discussion (Hindu texts & practices) as "mythology", and then proceeding to defend western academia for creating fresh overlays of mythology on top of traditional "mythology"..."

N.S.Rajaram does not beat around the bush and gets to the point:
"The author also makes no mention of the fact that Indology including what its present day practitioners are putting out is steeped in racism. In language and spirit it is similar to the anti-semitic literature of the Nazi era.

I plan to do a couple of columns on it highlighting both the racism and the anti-science of these Indologists. I will not engage in their kind of abusive, pornographic language but it will be no holds barred. Western Indology must be destroyed."

Meanwhile, Koenraad Elst adds:
" ..Taylor never really addresses the truth claims in the Hindu criticism of the truth claims by Wendy c.s. Thus, Vishal and Venkat's "fault-finding" with Courtright's Sanskrit translations does not question his integrity as a scholar (though that has been done too, but on other grounds), but his *competence*.
Views, which in Taylor's view are outside the scope of criticism, are inevitably related to data, and it makes a big difference if an academic is shown to have no proper command of the data. V & V have also dug up virile Ganesha references from the literature that completely refute Courtright's limp image of Ganesha. So, before  psychologizing the critics, Taylor ought to have acknowledged that they have proven Courtright's thesis *wrong*. If people insist on maintaining a thesis demonstrated to be wrong, one might start looking for psychological motives...


... most Westerners don't care one way or the other, and this includes many India-watchers and most of the old Orientalists, to whom, in their study in Vienna or Leiden, Hinduism was just a museum object on a par with ancient Greek religion. Courtright's book is of just that type ...

... It is like the Christian missionaries: when I was asked, during a lecture at Balagangadhara's conference on Religion in India (Jan. 2009), why the missionaries are out to destroy
Hinduism, I had to answer in truth: "Because they love you." With their limited knowledge, they believe that by converting you, they are freeing you from evil spirits and opening the road to salvation for you ....

... Subjectively, their love for Hindus (though not for Hinduism) is genuine and heartfelt. At the same time, its objective quality is indeed best summed up in Vishal's spot-on quip that "Wendy saying she loves Hinduism is like a pedophile saying he loves childen".

Vjiaya Rajiva has the final word in this thread:
"The Hindu diaspora is concerned with the effect this type of garbage has on their children. One of the books, I believe it is Courtright's work, is not just being delicately discussed in the genteel halls of the academy. It was being used as the basis of a textbook for children.

Secondly, although both Jewish and Christian authors have attacked their tradition, none of this is brought out to the schools, where the tradition is held up as pious and righteous thinking. Clearly a double standard where the Hindu faith is concerned."
 
April 1
Iain Buchanan - The Role of Evangelicals in U.S. Imperialism

Iain Buchanan - The Role of Evangelicals in U.S. Imperialism from TV Multiversity on Vimeo.

Iain Buchanan's presentation on 'Unholy Crusaders: The Role of Evangelicals in US Imperialism' at the International Meeting on Resisting Hegemony held 2-5 August 2010 in Penang, Malaysia.

April 1
Breaking India: Fire works start at Tamil Net world


In a discussion about the latest book on Gandhi, I introduce 'Breaking India'to the group members. I show how people like Jaffrelot have tried to depict Gandhi in a bad light and how 'Breaking India' shows such deconstruction of Indian
culture and state icons is an institutional activity in the west in order to depict Indian culture as inherently deficient or flawed seeking western intervention. (http://www.jeyamohan.in/?p=13680)

Kumar reacts: He states that the book has distorted the facts. It has slandered the Berkeley Tamil chair. He denies any Western influence or support. (http://www.jeyamohan.in/?p=13757) He also produces the related portion from the book.

I respond: I give the full context as well as the related citations. Comparing Thiruvachagam with Mormon scriptures by one of these 'professors' who adorned the Tamil chair, the Telugu chair of the South Asian Studies of the University being given to a declared evangelist etc. are also mentioned by me in the passing. Puncturing George Hart who has been paraded by Dravidianists as a great authority on Tamil literature, reallys hurt their agenda. http://www.jeyamohan.in/?p=13821