I was trying to convince a friend through a dialogue and was tough to do it though I hopefully made some helpful suggestions. Without naming the friend I wanted to print the dialogue and ask you of what else I could have done. I welcome help from anyone else who would like to give me some advice. I have read invading the sacred and am reading the first book Breaking India. I am quoting a PERSONAL conversation so please do NOT take offence.
Conversation --
Me : A favor to ask of you. We need a lot of signatures for this petition. I don't usually ask for it but this is really urgent. https://www.change.org/p/mr-n-
Also if you are interested here is a video to watch to learn more of the issue at hand https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Friend : Can't support RSS/VHP petition
me: nope
nothing to do with rss vhp. please read the thing and then decide. Also before you decide I request you to go through the actual book. The latest news report want to take credit connecting it to JNU incidences etc and make it political the issue itself is started by major academecians and all sanskrit professors and helped by the book "The battle of Sanskrit" by Rajiv Malhotra If you take a look at any presentation by Rajiv Malhotra you can yourself understand if it is anything political But yes Rss and VHP will try and are trying to gain out of it and give it a political twist.
fr: Rajiv Malhotra is the voice of internet Hindutva because of his unverified writings.
me: really ?
fr: RSS and VHP took control of our country . yes
me :ok not worried about rss vhp. but tell me about rajiv malhotra
fr: He is in duel with Pollock and other westernly scholars from a long time
me:sure he is and pollock is making a mockery of Indology but my question is can you give me the source on which you claim his writings are unverified ?which particular writings / pieces are unverified.
fr: In a lawsuit filed in 2011, Dinanath Batra, an old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh apparatchik, accused Doniger’s book, The Hindus, of causing offense to, well, Hindus. Interestingly, the legal notice sent by Batra to Doniger, characterised her as a “woman hungry of sex”, obviously inspired by Malhotra’s original attack on her 13 years back, which linked Doniger’s academic work to her supposed sexual desires. http://scroll.in/article/
me: True but says nothing about what writings of Rajiv malhotra is unverified. Still awaiting that. As to Doniger she calls Ganesha having an engorged phallus and having sex with his mother and stuff. I have read those things quoted by her. Forget Batra and malhotra. I personally demand such demeaning vile westerns to get their act straight !! I will give you 3 simple facts about her. and if you wait I can quote sources for you too
me : She psychoanalyzed Indian sacred texts. 1. She doesn't know or understand sanskrit 2. She uses Freud for analyses of our texts whereas Hermeneutics is used for analysis of Bible ( and not freud) 3. She doesn't have a degree in psychoanalsyses from any unviersity and her analyses have been criticized by psychoanalyses degree holders in her own country and 4. She never got herself psychoanalysed ( to find out if she actually has deviant tendencies in her own self). She herself claims all of these
fr: Read about this post too
me: Yeah I have read her post too. What is your claim there ?Also, wouldn't , as an educated guy, be good to actually read something rajiv malhotra wrote himself ie one of his books and give your own views. I would love that instead of this.let me show you a debate that just started 2 days ago and rajiv malhotra himself wrote something there please take a moment and read it and THEN decide ie not on heresy
fr: No dude I just checked the book and there is no mentioning of Ganesha
me: which one ?gimme a seche has 4 books out
fr: as having long phallus and having relationship . the book "The hindus" . has created this internet army of trolls who fight on debates not based on factual information5:49 PM
me: nope. the names of the books are 1. Invading the sacred 2. Breaking India 3. Battle for sanskrit ( current) one and another I forget just gimme a min.
how do you recon that ?
look I don't know about others but I can tell you I am fighting for this too and I am not a troll. I read Invading the sacred halfway and will finish that
you can check that book to see if I am right about Ganesha and all and What a Bindi means. and second just read one blog if you aren't convinced I will retract my request no issues all I want is for you to read a few pages is that too much to ask ? Actually my question should be is that to much for you to do ?
THIS next part got me stumped as I wasn't very sure how to respond to him. I still tried
fr: See do you really think there is point in discussing that? many of the alternate hindu versions come from tribal communities or non cow belt areas in my part of region they worship Indrajit, son of Ravana and perhaps have similar contempt stories about Ram as we have against Asura's but we need to understand both Ram and Ravana, Sur and Asur come under hinduism and nothing is right
me : That is fine. It is not about contempt stories. The idea is sheldon pollock wants to do what max mueller did but on a much grander scale. Who you respect is your choice but you are being funded to distort things which HAVE vertibable words agaist it present in the language is wrong that is all .
fr: If you check Kamasutra temples in Khajuraho which was heavily funded temples u will see all gods having sex with each others wives or multiple partners How many people knows Pollock? not many there is a recent book by RSS founder that suggests Christ was a Tamil Brahmin now India's PM is RSS pracharak and RSS is releasing that book they are doing much damage to Hinduism than Pollock is doing imagine what will happen with Christians, Vatican, and other sects of Christianity retaliate and may be adopt Pollocks version
me: Yes so noone denies they exist. Currently sheldon pollock is denying that texts have a sacred dimension and what he is doing is saying it is political ONLY. Also sringeri mathas were going to give him full blessings to set up pithas in Harvard without even doing due diligence coz he speaks nicely. What you said has proof and no issues there but you cannot also deny there were sacred aspects to Ramayana and Mahabharata and these were not 'secular' and human rights violation texts ie vyavaharika texts only
fr: Listen I don't want to get into this debate there are much more better things to do in life than squabble over these all they are doing is abusing girls in their ashrams.
me: I never said you should invest your time in doing things that don't matter. you think this doesn't matter but this matters a huge deal . How ? The aryan invasion theory has been debunked and yet it filters down to texts and causes dravidians and northers demand differences. Mr. corwell came up with the word Caste and brought it to India. India had Jaati and Varna. This is the cause of the caste system and tonnes of people going around demanding caste based things and politics.
and now they are defaming and degrading the base culture.
Btw are you sure khajuraho having GODS having sex or it is the king and consorts ?
there is a huge difference.
Also see what is filtering down into books which are factually wrong
Here is the debate that just began 2 days ago. It is incomplete. If you read this and are convinced along with evidence of doniger in invading the sacred. here link 1 is to the ongoing debate ( not complete) and 2 is what you can read and assess for yourself. It is cited profusely. 1. http://beingdifferentforum.
thanks
