The Argumentative Hindu: Essays by a Non-Affiliated Orientalist by . – 2012, ix, 518p., ind., bibl., 23cm. ISBN 978-81-7742-124-8

About the book: The Argumentative Hindu is the man who rejects the imposed “secularist” consensus. The author, Dr. Koenraad Elst, is a non-affiliated Orientalist who sympathizes with this Hindu dissenter. But he also made himself some enemies, not only among the secularists but also among the very whose cause he champions. In this book, he defends himself and, more importantly, the late mentors from whom he got his view of and of the challenges to its survival: and . He also makes some new suggestions to his Hindu friends, on how to be more effective and how to remedy existing mistakes.

About the author: Koenraad Elst ( 1959) distinguished himself early on as eager to learn and to dissent. After a few hippie years he studied at the KU Leuven, obtaining MA degrees in Sinology, and . During and following a research stay at Benares Hindu University, he did original fieldwork for a doctorate on , which he obtained magna cum laude in 1998. As an independent researcher he earned both laurels and ostracism with his findings on hot items like , multiculturalism and the secular state, the roots of Indo-European, the Ayodhya temple/mosque dispute and ’s legacy. He also published on the interface of religion and politics, correlative cosmologies, the dark side of Buddhism, the reinvention of Hinduism, technical points of Indian and Chinese , various language policy issues, Maoism, the renewed relevance of Confucius in conservatism, the increasing Asian stamp on integrating world civilization, direct democracy, the defence of threatened freedoms, and the Belgian question. Regarding religion, he combines human sympathy with substantive skepticism.

Introduction: the real Hindu, or ideological decolonization

It is a fact as well as a matter of wonder that sixty-five years after gained her independence, it still makes perfect sense to discuss “decolonization”. The omnipresence of the English language is the most visible factor of a permanently colonized condition, others are the total reliance on Western models in the institutions and in the human sciences. But unlike China, that has wholeheartedly suppressed its own cultural identity (except in language) to embrace Soviet and Anglo-Saxon standards and ideas, India has maintained more of its identity and shows a stronger resistance. That is why in India, the colonized condition can be an issue at all. Recently, China has rediscovered its identity, witness the numerous Confucius Institutes. China has less complexes about its identity than India, which wouldn’t dream of naming its cultural representation after one of its ancient sages. At the same time, it has a far more historical view of decolonization: somehow there are no Chinese intellectuals imagining that the colonial Opium Wars are still going on. In India, meanwhile, an outsider may observe that matters are made worse by vocal Hindu activists whose discourse gives the impression that decolonization hasn’t happened at all. They are as Eurocentric in the negative as the “secularists” are Eurocentric in the affirmative. Many problems in which the past or present role of the West is at best secondary are being misconstrued as neo-colonial conspiracies, e.g. it is often suggested in all seriousness that jihadi terrorism is actually a ploy by the US against India, the way the Afghan Mujahedin had been propped up against the Soviets in the 1980s. This denies agency to Islamic anti-Hinduism, a movement which predates Western colonialism by almost a millennium. This condition of stunted ideological development and an anachronistic worldview is a serious obstacle to be tackled if ever a genuine reaffirmation of Hindu civilization is to win through. Today, illiteracy about Hinduism among Hindus, the limitation of their knowledge to a very small part of their heritage, is the most consequential weakness in the struggle for survival. Many Hindus, including the majority of those in elite positions, have no idea of why their civilization should survive, or what it is that should survive. To themselves and to the outside world, too many Hindus including Hindu activists misrepresent Hinduism. That fact has been noticed often enough, and the remedy is so obvious and simple that there seems no need for further diagnosis: the first and most urgent need is to make Hindus more aware of the depths and richness of their own heritage. Then again, identifying the factors of this strange problem might be helpful in that they are equally the causes of related problems, like the susceptibility of Hindu politicians to appeasement policies or the social infighting between sections of Hindu society. In my modest way, I have contributed over the years to this Hindu consciousness-raising. This book is a collection of papers written in the last decade, and mostly in the last few years, to wake up the Hindus to their mistakes as well as to their potential. I want to dedicate this book to a friend’s neighbour, a Hindu palmist who in 2006 read my hand without my asking. I expected to have a year or so to live due to my heart condition, but without my informing him, he predicted many more years. When I told him the medics’ prognosis, he wasn’t impressed at all and insisted my hand said nothing about an impending death. Maybe he applied the astrologer’s trick of always predicting a long life, no matter what the indications, but circumstances and his face pleaded for his genuineness. So far, he has been proven more right than the medics with their doomsday prognosis. However, I also thank the donors who supported me through my medical ordeal, and the gods and the surgeons for dear life. Above all, they gave me the chance to answer the critics of my mentors Ram Swarup and Sita Ram Goel; see the present book.

Mortsel, May Day 2012