|
|
||
| a r t i c l e s o n a r y a n i n v a s i o n | ||
|
Hindutva:
Threat to Harvard? Some Western
Indologists and Indian ‘secularists’ are resorting to desperate tactics to
save their discipline from collapsing. This is compounded by the bigger problem
of the decline of humanities in the West. So the horse on the seal must be a fake! This charge is the sum and substance of their ‘refutation’ of our decipherment. No matter that the photo of the seal in question—actually they give two—makes it clear that our identification is probably correct (see photo). But that is beside the point, for our book is about the Indus script, not any horse. In a book of nearly 300 pages, we devote less than one footnote to the issue to which Witzel and his associate devote ten pages of small print. And this is endorsed by Romila Thapar (who else?): “History as projected by Hindutva idealogues, which is being introduced to children through textbooks... precludes an open discussion of evidence and interpretation. Nor does it bear any trace of the new methods of historical analyses... Such history is dismissed by the Hindutva ideologues as Western, imperialist, Marxist or whatever... The article by Witzel and Farmer is a serious critique of the claims that have been made by Rajaram and Jha about the Aryan identity of the Indus civilization and the decipherment of the Harappan script.” So this is their real concern— The Aryan (Vedic) identity of the Indus civilization. The rest is diversion. The real agenda is clear: protect their discredited Aryan invasion/migration version and the non-Indian origin of the Vedic civilization by labelling opponents as ‘Hindutva propagandists’. But there is more, for what is at stake is the survival of Western Indology itself, with its roots in European colonialism and Christian missionary propaganda. It was Indologist W.W. Hunter who said : “Scholarship is warmed with the holy flame of Christian zeal.” And Bishop Caldwell, who created the Aryan-Dravidian theory, admitted that his linguistic theories were of “vast political and moral importance”— meaning they served British colonial and Christian missionary interests. Men like Witzel are successors to these colonial-missionary scholars, while Indians like Thapar and her tribe are their camp followers. Our book exposes this. So their tactic is to discredit the book by attacking us personally. This is exactly what the ‘secularists’ did to the distinguished archaeologist B.B. Lal when he exposed their lies at Ayodhya. The more things change, the more they remain the same. The ‘White Man's Burden’ Anyone reading the Frontline article will naturally wonder—why a prominent Western academic like Witzel should devote so much time and effort to attack two relatively unknown persons like this writer and Natwar Jha, especially when Witzel himself dismisses me as one whose academic career in America was undistinguished and Jha as a “provincial religious teacher”. Nor are we his only targets. He had earlier denounced Shrikant Talageri's important work as of “political motivation... (and) devoid of scholarly value”. What is interesting here is that Witzel had not even seen Talageri's book much less read it. (He had earlier dismissed our decipherment also without reading our book.) So why now this long article attacking us? According to Witzel it is to save India and her scholarship : “Hindutva propagandists like Rajaram do not belong to the realm of legitimate historical scholarship... they falsify history to bolster national pride.” What concern is it of this German-American duo? “We fear for India and for objective scholarship.” So Witzel and Farmer have to save India and Indians from being corrupted by devilish ‘natives’ and ‘heathens’ like Rajaram, Jha and Talageri! This is pure colonial-missionary conceit that revives the White Man's Burden. No one can believe such sanctimonious nonsense. Surely, there must be other reasons. One is probably emotional. Witzel is a German Romantic. His heroes still are nineteenth century German Indologists like Bothlingk and especially Oldenberg. So it is natural that he should be attached to nineteenth century German ideas like the “Aryan nation” and the “Aryan invasion”. But there is a more serious concern: fear of survival in the face of “downsizing the humanities” at American universities. The collapse of the Aryan invasion model of history, which our work records, and which is receiving wide notice, could not have come at a worse time for the likes of Witzel. This is what we need to understand. Downsizing the humanities American universities operate much like businesses. Programmes that are unproductive are ruthlessly cut. Due to uncontrolled expansion for over three decades, most universities have too many humanities professors (like Witzel) while there is severe shortage in fields like computer science and business. Also, many humanities programmes have reached absurd limits, consuming money that could be put to better use. To take just one example, The University of Illinois at Chicago, supports one Professor Stanley Fish to the tune of $230,000 of taxpayers' money a year for his research in “para-proletariat studies” that according to him will study “body parts, excretory functions, the sex trade,... bisexuality,... and lesbian pornography, and other things that I do not care to reproduce here. This is irresponsible to say the least. There is now an inevitable reaction leading to what is being called “downsizing the humanities”. Students no longer want to study them and administrators are looking for ways to cut such programmes. Harvard is no exception. This has had the effect of sending humanities scholars scrambling for funds. For Indology departments, which have particularly low priority in the humanities, the last thing they can afford is any threat to the status quo coming from new knowledge. As universities cut budgets, their hope is to find sponsors in the wealthy NRI community. Although impressed at first by their academic credentials, NRIs are beginning to see that these Indologists are only rehashing outdated colonial and even racist ideas as ‘research’. Some NRIs also feel that these ‘scholars’ are little more than parasites of India and her civilization but affecting superiority over it. As a result, some NRI sponsored faculty positions at US universities have been terminated and plans for new ones are being shelved. So the frustration behind the rage is easy to understand. As Shri Shankaracharya said centuries ago: Udara-nimittam bahu-krita vesham (To fill the stomach, many poses are assumed). That is what is really at the bottom of this ‘horseplay’—not any concern for India or her scholarship. That Harvard Indologist Michael Witzel and an independent writer Steve Farmer have to save India and Indians from being corrupted by devilish ‘natives’ and ‘heathens’ like N.S. Rajaram, N. Jha and Shrikant Talageri is pure colonial-missionary conceit that revives the White Man's Burden. The real agenda of Witzel is clear : Protect the discredited Aryan invasion/migration version and the non-Indian origin of the Vedic civilization by labelling opponents as ‘Hindutva propagandists’. But there is more, for what is at stake is the survival of Western Indology itself, with its roots in European colonialism and Christian missionary propaganda.
|
||
|
|
Copyright © 2001 - All Rights Reserved. |
|
|
a r t i c l e s o n a r y a n i n v a s i o n |
||
|
|
||
