Author: Adity Sharma
Publication: HinduVivek Kendra
Date: August 5, 2006
In academia, when a myth is punctured through empirical analysis, credited
scholars are allowed to come on stage to propound their contradiction and
alternatives to the evidence that has been disproved. Well, not according
to the Indian secularists and apologists for Christian missionaries and the
quotidian disquisitions dished out as absolute truth even though it has been
confounded again and again. The scholars propounding alternatives to a popular
myth or theory are quickly dubbed as Hindu fanatics. These apologists are
not just unwittingly supporting the anti-Indian cabal, but they have a long
standing agenda, i.e. to malign anything Hindu or concerning India's true
history.
From time immemorial, the Christian missionaries
in cahoots with colonialists have devised maleficent designs to discredit
the history of Sanatan Dharm, falsely plant Christianity in Bharat, and aggrandize
so-called Saints for their charity which had an ulterior plan of its own.
These designs have become more pernicious and pronounced, because they now
not only exist in India to poison people's mind but have transgressed beyond
its borders.
Origins of Sanatan Dharm
A very good transnational example of this venom masquerading as history is
the recent furor over the proposed edits by the Hindu Education Foundation
(HEF) and Vedic Foundation (VF) to the California school Board of Education
concerning the prejudicial portrayal of Hinduism in school history textbooks.
Here Michael Witzel and Steve Farmer tried
to argue that the Aryan invasion theory is indeed veritable, why? By claiming
that the Aryans brought Hinduism, wrote the Vedas, and subsequently ruled
by force. This is not only denying Sanatan Dharm its rightful place in shaping
the history of Bharat, butt it is also with all intent and purpose gratuitously
pitting the putative indigenous Dravidians of the southern part of India against
the supposed foreign Aryans.
The theory posits that Hinduism was really
imported from central Asia by nomadic Indo-Aryan tribes that conquered the
Dravidians an advanced society around 1500-100BC. It goes on to claim that
the Dravidian people were defeated, subjugated and pushed to the south by
the light-skinned Aryans. This noxious theory was engineered by a Christian
chauvinist named Friedrich Max Muller during British rule in the early nineteenth
century. It is ironic that texts such as the Bible and the Quran that have
no standing in the scientific world are not refuted, but a religion that has
produced a large corpus of not only literary and Dharmic ideals, but has also
provided us with sufficient proof that a civilization's existence in the particular
places that are being haughtily disputed today were indeed its homeland is
not taken seriously.
Now, anyone even remotely familiar with the
Aryan migration premise, knows that it is spurious. there is ample archeological,
linguistic, anthropological, literary, astronomical, and historical evidence
that turns this theory on its head. For instance, Vedic scholar Dr. David
Frawley in his article titled _Solid Evidence Debunking Aryan _Invasion, summarizes
that this couldn't possibly be true for the following reasons: first, according
to Dr. Frawley, many propagators of the Aryan migration premise have claimed
that the Aryans used Horse-drawn chariots and had sophisticated weaponry like
iron that the Dravidians eventually succumbed to. The refutation is that there
was no evidence of iron in the excavation of the Indus Valley sites. However,
horses were discovered not only in the Indus valley sites, but also in the
pre-Indus sites, this according to Dr. Frawley means that horses were very
much a part of ancient Indian economic life.
Furthermore, chariots can not travel over
mountains and deserts, they are more suited for flat lands. Second, the claim
is that there is a prevalent and sustained conflict between the light-skinned
Aryans against the dark-skinned Dravidians. Some fatuous secularists have
even gone as far as to claim that the Dravidians are the modern day untouchables.
They have gone on to say that the attempt to dispute the Aryan Migration Premise
stems from a desire by Hindutva proponents to make an Aryan nation modeled
on the hitlerian concept of a supremacist Aryan race fashioned in the 1930s
by the Nazis. The first claim is false because there is a constant theme of
light and dark in the Vedas. But this has nothing to do with Aryan racism;
it simply means a struggle between good and evil. The Sanskrit word Arya did
not even explicitly or implicitly suggest race or ethnicity, but the word
Aryan of the Nordic concept had nothing but race in mind. It is probably made
to look like a race struggle because many Westerners upon seeing the words
light-skinned versus dark-skinned immediately shun Hinduism, and all intellectual
gumption is quickly jettisoned, and hence this ploy was an excellent conversion
tool for the Christian missionaries. Racism is an ethnocentric concept that
only the Europeans can claim credit to. We usually are weary of anyone tagging
us as racists, obscurantist, or fanatics, so, this was a clever trick on the
part of Muller and today's propagators of this vicious lie and it puts many
Hindus on the defensive. Therefore, it becomes facile to alienate the Hindus
from the cradle of their civilization by telling them that Bharat was never
their true homeland to begin with. It is likely that the Indus valley civilization
was destroyed by floods as discovered in the excavation by the (National Institute
of Oceanography in India). Dr. Frawley also states that the inhabitants of
Gujarat and Punjab are more or less the same ethnically and linguistically
as they were before the so-called Aryan invasion.
Still, anti-Hindu academics whearring the
garb of scholarly research like Ramila Thapar, Michael Witzel, Steve Farmer,
and Wendy Doniger continue to float lies as truths. In the face of more than
sufficient evidence, they keep repeating that there is not enough evidence
that shows Hinduism was indeed an indigenous religion to India; it seems that
these "scholars are suffering from what is known in psychology as confirmation
bias. This is when the victim ignores all the proof that he/she finds in conflict
to their point.
When elementary school children learn about
the Aryan migration premise and other malicious concoctions, they only have
one thing in mind i.e. Hinduism is a foreign and intolerant religion imposed
forcibly on a people, that were coerced in to the rigid fold of a discrimination
oriented creed. The book titled "Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate"
by European historian Dr. Koenraad Elst offers contradiction to the Aryan
migration premise and discusses just why such a theory was floated by the
British, present day Western Indologists, and Indian "secularists"
in full cooperation with Muslim and Christian theologians.
The reason given by Dr. Elst for the expeditious
acceptance of the theory is that at the time of its concoction there was no
disputation proffered by anyone, it seemed like the right thing to do. Another
more sinister aspect according to the author is the abrogation of Sanskrit
as an Indian language by Indian politicians to be taught as school subjects
under the pretext that it is a foreign language brought by foreign peoples
(Elst, 33). The second reason is, to mobilize the Dravidians to hate everything
that represents traditional Brahmanism (46). An example sited by Dr. Elst
is that many Dalit organizations have published vitriolic writings on the
so-called blatant arrogance and opulence of Brahmans; it is wholly specious
and propagandistic to say that the Brahmans are the only wealthy class in
India (50). The author states, "It is legitimate to criticize caste;
but it is perverse to do so on the basis of false history (64)."
The astronomical evidence presented in Dr.
Elst's book explains how the Rg Veda described the exact location of the Indus
valley civilization.
It also says that the dates propounded by
the Hindu astronomers during the Vedic age were more or less correct (89).
When John Playfair, a European historian put forth the supposition that the
Rg-Veda was as old as 4300 B.C., it was considered to be inordinately insane.
But it was not disputed by any scientists of the day, and presently, it is
a powerful counterpoint to the Aryan migration premise. Saint Thomas in India?
Just as the Aryan invasion theory has done
its damage in history, so has another myth decorated with variegated frosting
of clever ploys with an obvious purpose. This particular creativity comes
from the Christian Theologians/missionaries in India, and it is the myth of
St. Thomas. This so-called apostle St. Thomas, according to popularized missionary
propaganda, came to India around 52 A.D., he founded the Syrian Christian
community, and was murdered by" fanatical" Hindu Brahmans in 73
A.D. This not only served to vilify the Brahmans but it is also used to play
the lower Christianized castes against the upper castes. Christianity's history
abounds with self-victimization and self-imposed and most of the time false
martyrdom. I was shocked to learn from a peer belonging to the (Bible Society)
on campus who told me that, "The only way to discover Christ, was from
suffering, and that it was good that people were suffering." "That
way they will discover Christ's love." How can a faith that supposedly
inculcates fear and a fervent desire to suffer, uplift the so-called uncivilized
peoples of the world? Christianity's flocks, it seems have stuck to its dogmatic
doctrine not out of devotion, but from fear.
The Saint Thomas story is not a novelty at
all; in fact it is a long running exercise to indigenous and sanitize the
fanaticism of Christianity more specifically Roman-Catholicism in India. This
most likely is a sustained effort to efface the outrageous enormities perpetrated
by the Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries in places such as Goa and
the Malabar coast. In his piece "In Memory of a Slain Saint", which
appeared in the Indian Express in December 1989, C.A. Simon emphatically contended
that Saint Thomas really did exist and his visit to India was a blessing to
the downtrodden and oppressed classes. He further aggrandizes St. Thomas by
claiming that there were miracles performed everywhere, and sure enough many
converted. Does this line of reasoning sound all too familiar? Of course,
the downtrodden were just waiting for a cultured and "egalitarian"
faith like Christianity to rescue them from the evils of Hinduism. This reasoning
is as old as Christianity's exclusivist existence is.
In a rejoinder to C.A. Simon, titled "The
Legend of a Slain Saint to Stain Hinduism", by Swami Tapasyananda states
that this pernicious legend was contrived by the Portuguese to hide their
glaring fanaticism, because they occupied Mylapore from 1522-1697. It was
in the 16th century when the decimation of the Kapaleeswara temple occurred.
The Santhome church was built and was often repaired. It also challenges the
very existence of such a saint and whether he came to India or not. Furthermore,
Catholicism and Christianity in general has always claimed full rights where
ever it has ventured, and this myth fits perfectly in that mold of claiming
land and more land for Christ.
Mother Teresa's "altruism"
It is unfortunately a sad fact that many Hindus have forgotten Seva or selfless
service to society, that is perspicuously prescribed in the Bhagavad-Gita
by ShriKrishn. But, it would also be a lie to sublime those who have only
by clever publicity stunts managed to give the misleading impression of altruism.
On October 19th 1999, a much popularized and overrated woman was beatified
as a saint by the late Pope, and this "saint" was mother Teresa.
Mother Teresa came to India to administer
to the poor and ill, however, her actions are indicatory of anything but selfless
service to the poor and ill. She was, like many of her critics have pointed
out, a friend of the wealthy; her extreme opposition to abortion does not
help her image much either. Ensuing the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal in
1984, mother Teresa rushed to the scene and said, "Forgive, forgive,
forgive." Forgive? After investigations, it was amply clear that the
corporation had pre-warnings about the disaster, so why should the victims
forgive? Another unduly foolish answer to a question of what she was planning
to do in regard to housing and jobs for the victims by a Bhopal resident,
was "First, we must learn to love one another." It is excruciatingly
painful to believe that such a willfully ignorant person was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize. It is even more astonishing that no "savant" found
it worth their time to criticize such an asinine and unwholesome decision
made by the committee. Mother Teresa did not treat poverty as a disease that
needs to be eradicated but as a blessing. She blamed Colcata's poverty on
the people's refusal to accept Christ. Again, we see that Christ comes to
those who are hopelessly suffering, sort of like a drug that only induces
a desperate person, not a healthy one. However, not everyone has been hypnotized
by an overdose of falsities, Christopher Hitchons in his book titled "The
Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, through thorough
investigation evinces a completely different and less flattering side of the
putative saint. In the book Hitchons meticulously expatiates about the total
and complete lack of proof of Mother Teresa's charity to the poor. For instance,
although Mother got the finest medical treatment for herself in the West,
there isn't any substantial proof of any hospitals or orphanages that were
indeed built by Mother Teresa (Hitchons 37). Of course, she received millions,
but what happened to them, is the question. The author also denounces her
as a right-wing Christian fundamentalist, who went out of her way to varnish
the atrocious actions of the Contras and death squads in Nicaragua, endorsed
the Duvalier in Haiti the cause of much poverty in that country, and her extreme
opposition to abortion under any circumstance.
We must realize that these myths are making
us forget the greatness of our culture, and the people who have rendered selfless
service to the nation which, incidentally do not ask nor get any attention
from any media outlet. If some of these myths and other such falsehoods can
be corrected, then there can be a greater focus on issues more concern. Actively
challenging these myths is also intellectual and it silences the "secularists"
who are only apt at hurling invectives and nothing else. One can ignorantly
argue that what's done is done, but unless we make a concerted effort to erase
these lies they will grow like bacteria, and become clogged and solidify in
the arteries of history.
References
1 Frawley. David, _Solid_ Evidence_ Debunking_
_the_ _Aryan_ _Invasion_
2 Elst. Koenraad, "Update on the Aryan
Invasion Debate"
Voice of India: New Delhi
3 Simon. C.A., _In_ Memory_ _of_ _a_ Slain_
_Saint_
Indian Express Dec. 1989
4Swami. Tapasyananda, _The_ _Legend_ _of_
_A_ _Slain_ _Saint_ _To_ _Stain- _Hinduism_
Indian Express January 1990
5 Hitchons. Christopher, "The Missionary
Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice"
Human quest: London, 1996
- ============================
- Adity Sharma was born in India, but moved
to the USA at the age of four. He is presently studying political science
and business at St John's University, Queens, New York.
