Rajiv Malhotra: In my book “The Battle For Sanskrit”, there is a whole analysis of the power structure that Sheldon Pollock is part of. You must understand that he is part of neo-orientalism – this is what I call the fifth wave of scholarship that has entered India. Before this there were waves such as Post-modernism, Subaltern studies, Post-colonial studies and Marxism etc. They have all evolved and now this huge power structure has a large presence in India in the minds, in the lives of Indian scholars who are part of this structure.
Since Indian scholars are part of this structure, this whole thing is able to function with impunity. That’s what has happened. They can just get away with it. They control the media, they control academic presses, they control journals and we have also discussed that. I have a chapter on that. Then I have a chapter also on the harm and impact it is doing to our society. Then I have a chapter on the sleeping Hindus. After I wrote the book, the biggest attacks that I got was from our own people.
Sonal Mansingh – Liberal Hindus?
Rajiv Malhotra – No. Some Orthodox Hindus are saying who are you to do it? Yeh to humara kaam hain (This is our job). I said but you people are sleeping. Tumne nahin kiya you haven’t done a darn thing so that’s why I’m doing it.
So there is a lobby of people saying that he is not the adhikari, we are the adhikari. If we don’t do it that is okay but you (Rajiv) should not do it. It is more like turf protection.
Then there are people who want to quickly get ahead, who are over-ambitious, over-enthusiastic. Therefore they want to put me aside and just get ahead. So this kind of mentality that shows up in our own people is quite disgraceful.
I started this 25 years ago and now I’m in the third stage. First stage was criticism of western Indology. Second stage was to expose the Indian Left. Now in the third stage, I am against some Hindu intellectuals, or pseudo- intellectuals. Some are opportunists, some are bombastic, over emotional. Some don’t have rigor. So therefore we started this Swadeshi Indology Movement to try and create our own young scholars. To create our own team. This was because I could not go and get people interested in Swadeshi Indology from the Sanskrit universities.
There was an instance when a Sanskrit scholar came to meet me and says that he wants to work with me and discusses the proposal of next conference. I was pleased and told some of my people that it was good that we are getting support. Next day this scholar writes an email to another Sanskrit scholar and stupidly for him copies me also. In this email he says that Sudha Murthy would give them crores while Rajiv cannot give us that much so why to join Rajiv? In other words, he blatantly put in an email that he will sell out to a higher price. So this is the pettiness of our people.
Sonal Mansingh – But tell me who finances them? Who funds Sheldon Pollock?
Rajiv Malhotra – Narayan Murthy funds them big time. Because he gets access to through Columbia University when they put him on Board and Harvard he gets access to deal making. He gets access to the elite, high class club. It is a top level club of prestigious elite kind of people.
Sonal Mansingh – It’s a sellout.
Rajiv Malhotra – It’s like you join some club where you meet the who’s who, you make business deals and you are part of the big circle and all that. It’s like that. So this is our people. This billionaire club is not really very dharmic for us. Many of them are really sold out. Many of these billionaire types are using Indian market and Indian labor to become very rich but really not putting it back into our systems.
Sonal Mansingh – Rajiv, what you said just now about why do they finance it – this whole thing should come out. This should go viral.
Rajiv Malhotra – I have written this in my book called The Battle For Sanskrit.
Sonal Mansingh – But Rajiv everybody is not reading the books.
Rajiv Malhotra – I’m saying I don’t get mainstream platforms. Even some top RSS leaders like Ram Madhav do not invite me to his conclaves.
Sonal Mansingh – What about Social media?
Rajiv Malhotra – On social media we are doing the best. We have a very large number of young people following us. I have now got about 2 million followers on Facebook and about 6000 a day adding. And I checked the demographics – 80% are under the age of 35.
Sonal Mansingh – Great.
Rajiv Malhotra – So this means the youth are following. Twitter I’m not as active. I am putting more time in Facebook and this is a good thing. It means a lot of our people are fed up with what these people are doing what being told. They are fed up of their own leaders, they are fed up of their own some religious leader, their parent, university, or even political leaders.
Rajiv has conducted original research in a variety of fields and has influenced many other thinkers in India and the West. He has disrupted the mainstream thought process among academic and non-academic intellectuals alike, by providing fresh provocative positions on Dharma and on India. Some of the focal points of his work are: Interpretation of Dharma for the current times; comparative religion, globalization, and India’s contributions to the world.
He has authored hundreds of articles, provided strategic guidance to numerous organizations and has over 300 video lectures available online. To best understand Rajiv'sthoughts and contributions, his books are a good resource. Besides Invading the Sacred, in which Rajiv is the main protagonist, he has authored the following game changing books:
Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism
Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines; and
Indra's Net: Defending Hinduism's Philosophical Unity
The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive?
Academic Hinduphobia: A Critique of Wendy Doniger's Erotic School of Indology
Currently, Rajiv Malhotra is the full-time founder-director of Infinity Foundation in Princeton, NJ. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Center for Indic Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and is adviser to various organizations.
Infinity Foundation has given more than 400 grants for research, education and community work. It has provided strategic grants to major universities in support of pioneering programs including: visiting professorships in Indic studies at Harvard University, Yoga and Hindi classes at Rutgers University, research and teaching of nondualistic philosophies at University of Hawaii, Global Renaissance Institute and a Center for Buddhist studies at Columbia University, a program in religion and science at University of California, endowment for the Center for Advanced Study of India at University of Pennsylvania, lectures at the Center for Consciousness Studies at University of Arizona.
Rajiv Malhotra inspired the idea of Swadeshi Indology Conference. The first ever Swadeshi Indology Conference was held at IIT, Chennai from July 6 to July 8, 2016. This conference hosted well-researched papers that highlighted the discrepancies and mistranslations in the studies of Indology done by Prof. Sheldon Pollock. This conference is the first of a series of conferences that have been planned to address multiple issues raised by Western Indologists requiring astute examination, analyses and rejoinders, culminating in a published volume with a selection of papers.
Another major initiative of the Infinity Foundation is the HIST series. The HIST (History of Indian Science and Technology) series is a compilation of multi-Volume History of Indian Science and Technology based only on solid academic scholarship, and not on wild extrapolations. To accomplish this, each volume was subjected to rigorous peer reviews. The following volumes have already been published and printed as part of this IF project:
1. Marvels of Indian Iron Through the Ages
2. Indian Zinc Technology in Global Perspective
3. Water Management and Hydraulic Engineering in India
4. History of Metals in Eastern India and Bangladesh
5. Harappan Architecture and Civil Engineering
6. Beginning of Agriculture and Domestication in India
7. History of Iron Technology in India
8. Indian Beads History and Technology
9. Himalayan Traditional Architecture
10. Animal Husbandry and Allied Technologies in Ancient India
11. Harappan Technology and Its Legacy
12. Reflection on The History of Indian Science and Technology
13. Chalcolithic South Asia: Aspects of Crafts and Technologies
14. Traditional Water Management
Rajiv Malhotra has an active Facebook following with about 1.5 million followers.
He also has an online discussion group. He can be followed at:
Facebook: RajivMalhotra.Official
Web: www.RajivMalhotra.com
Twitter: @RajivMessage
- Part 2: Discussion between Dr. Swamy and Rajiv Malhotra - September 10, 2017
- Dr Subramanian Swamy In Conversation with Rajiv Malhotra - July 24, 2017
- P2 – Discussing the Digestion of Yoga with a White Hindu - July 3, 2017
Rajiv Malhotra is inspiration to many….
I will co ordinate with some mutts and request others to also extend support.
Let us have some universities ,i know few,to endorse these courses .so that these degrees are recognised in the academic field.
There can be study centres thro out the world.
So when ever such stupid books from pollock or such others come out there will be legal hassles and people will compare.
Lets have an action team.
There is a course in vaishnavism which they say is limited but i will try to get the curriculum.
At present i am trying to create some awareness on harvard sangam tamil chair,as it is being pushed by some fetna heads.
Wish you all the very best…Your sincere efforts won’t go unrewarded,
In india there is not a single university that offers hinduism as a full time study!
In banares there is a hinduism course but just a branch.
Today if at all some body wants to know anything about hindu gods you will be surprised that you will have more foreign writers books available.
Let narayana murthy fund .
It is his karma that his money should flow thro this gutter.
Let lakhs of hindus enroll and study and research various aspects of hinduism.
Let us develop a course curriculum from a basic certificate to diploma ,degree ,post graduation and research.
That will be a positive note while taking people like narayana murthy.
There is also a plan to start a harvard tamil chair to declare that tamils are not really hindus.
There is already enough fools to give money for this chair.!!
They want another srilanka in tamilnadu…atleast trying to !!!
So lets plan to bring the hindu studies to mass and online.
ignore the apologist . they are like termite
Kishore u sound like an apologist and apologist dont go anywhere.
don’t get emotionally charged . i would rather be like what you say and stick to my personal conviction.
Rajiv is doing a good job bringing to our attention how the network of scholars,businessmen,media have ganged up to ensure only their version of Indian ( hindu) history is heard.To fight this mafia, Rajiv’s side too needs a battery of scholars who have extensive knowledge on our dharmic traditions,businessmen who have the money to back his organisation and media.Unless the joker party develops an organisational strength to take on this international mafia,nothing much will change.But then joker party is joker party.They can’t see beyond their noses.Narayanmurthy(NR) has every right where to spend his money.Rajiv has to understand that Narayanmurthy is sceptical of our hindu organisations who are unprofessional,unscientific and prone to shooting off without substance.I think NR can’t be blamed for this view because the people who have represented hindu cause are weak poorly communicating specimens.Only now with the entry of Drswamy and VHS, there is proper discourse of hindu traditions / way of life.Rajiv needs to understand his side is too weak to take on the mafia NR represent.He needs quality help.Unfortunately VHP/RSS are a bunch who are good to communicate to lowest common denominators not to the suited booted moneyed english speaking specimens.VHP/RSS have not learned the nuance to get into their brains and they have also been dismissive of this so called elites but then this war has to be fought on all fronts.So who will support this fantastic cause of Rajiv?
True. Unless Jhoota/joker party becomes squeaky clean in dealing with money/donations/deals/action on scams etc i.e cleans its house first its leaders except a few cannot take any position on these type of debates on whose view on our dharmic traditions/history etc is correct..becos it would eventually spill over to legal/political spheres and things can get nasty defeating the entire good intention whoever has it..
Why make so much fuss about Narayana murthy’s funding and his not willing to toe a line that this author expects to be right? i don’t understand when you have other co-founders of Infosys who have made good money if not more like Mohandas Pai, Aadhaar architect Nandan etc who in what appears to public as working closely with BJP Govt. These folks can support alternate views or fund if they like..
note: i am not against this author as i have read some articles long back in internet but simply don’t like noise about NR murthy is doin like this,that etc. he has his own “dharma” however bad or simply bcos author may not like whatever it is…;)
NR Murthy has his own Dharma,but things here is is spoiling Indian tradition and Sanskrit. In fact we have to do the things which Rajiv is doing. We should talk against to the people who are harming India.We are not doing it..Support him at least. Dont criticize
i clearly mentioned that i did not criticize him but simply did not like it personally. i am also afraid (as well as strongly suspect personally with my own reasons/conviction )that if NRN already behind the scenes taking a position that this author may not like (which by the way author may never like to admit it openly evr) or in future NR Murthy enters politics openly these arguments can get muddied and no one would get anything useful of these allegations/debates etc whatever be intentions…period FullStop.
There is no such thing as bad dharma
i know that what you say,,swadharma etc..if so why to question him then..he is exercising his own then..as long as he is not violating law of land i.e nothing illegal ofcourse 😉
Dear Kishore – Mr Murthy of Infosys (with lord narayana’s name) may not have violated man-made laws but he is obviously violating natural law or dharma.
1. One should know the depth and profound meaning of dharma. Our Sanathana dharma culture is nothing but a culture/tradition built around laws of nature, represented in the form of symbols, images, deities, mantras, darshanas, sasthras, festivals, ithihasas, puranas. If someone distorts our darshanas, ithihasas, then it is violation of dharma. Mr Narayana Murthy is encouraging adharma. We know what punishment divine avatar Krishna gives for people who violate dharma or encourage adharma or mute spectators of adharma. “Death”.
2. But dharma/adharma is also relative. Depending on the level of adharma we can decide on the course of reaction. Dharma can be re-established by different ways, In the case of distortion of our ithihasas and darshanas (in pollock’s case), we can re-establish dharma by debates (since dialogues are impossible for this level of distortion), publishing books on counter points, criticizing the root cause of the problem (which is funding by Mr Murthy) and so on. Rajiv Malhotraji is just doing that
3. Let us now dive deep into Dharma. We have to be practical and very specific about it. Dharma is to live in sync with natural law. In Baghavad Gita, divine Avatar Krishna says that we got to go beyond the opposites created by the society or man made opposites (right/wrong, Love/hate, clever/fool, beauty/ugly ,tasty/tasteless etc) and stay in satvik guna (balance/preserver) and perform what is required.. When the time to get moksha comes, we got to go beyond nature created 3 gunas (rajas/satvik/tamas) and opposites (man/woman, energy/matter birth/decay etc). This approach to life neutralizes the ichha (personal desire) part of Prarabtha karma. When self realized person does something without desire (Anichha) and for Parechha (for other’s desire within the framework of dharma) – he/she DOES NOT ACCUMULATE KARMA.
This is exactly what divine avatar Krishna is saying in Baghavad Gita. Chapter 2 verse 45
traiguṇyaviṣayā vedā nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna I nirdvandvo nityasattvastho niryogakṣema ātmavān II
O Arjuna! Be you above the three attributes that the Vedas deal in; free yourself from the pairs-of-opposites and be always in satva (satvik guna), free from all thoughts of acquisition or preservation and be established in the Self.
Point is if we live by dharma then no karma = moksha. It is the whole purpose of our existence even though the decision to get moksha is completely autonomous as far as sanathana dharma is concerned (unlike jainism and other distortions of sanathana dharma)
Thanks for your detailed reply 😉 But i do know all of it already.
N Murthy ‘Dharma’ (actually Adharma) is hurting Hindus and our civilization. Sponsoring Pollock who is a proponent of ‘Sanskrit’ is an oppressive language and responsible for all that is wrong in India (caste, womens rights, etc) is not in the interest of Hindu civilization. Pollock does not label Arabic, Latin or English as ‘opressive’ even though Hindus were genocide d by speakers of these three languages.
N Murthy has no right to give ownership of Hindu lang, tradition, culture to Pollock to interpret Hindu faith, language etc. Pollock theory is another ‘aryan invasion theory’ detrimental to India and Hindu civilization. It would have been far better if Murthy spent the money on himself rather than fund a breaking India Force.
I am glad Rajiv Malhotra, brought Pollocks insidious theories and Murthy support for him out in open for debate.
Will buy his books and read one by one…Ram Madhav should involve him