"Hindu writer who lives in New York"

[Michael Rabe]

In response to Bijoy Misra  to objected to my saying:

>> ...  While some researchers may have only the
>> purest of academic reasons for hypothesizing _out of India_ alternative
>> explanations for commonalites of language and ritual elsewhere in ancient
>> Asia and Europe,  there is a school of thought that believes attacks on
>> Muslims, and now Christians, are rationalized  by their purpetrators
>>
>> ... as _reconversion_ counterattacks against foreign ideologies.
>> This argument is harder to make if it must be conceded that the Vedic
>> peoples also migrated into the subcontinent.
>>
>
>I think this is very far fetched extrapolation to AIT theory.
>I would even use the word "absurd".  Religious rivalry in India
>is a late phenomenon and many "hindus' who might be involved
>have little to do with the vedas.

Sorry, but I'm unclear about where you feel the absurdity lies.  With Mr.
Varadarajan's contention that:
> ...[certain Hindutva factions] have constructed a Manichaean world in which
>Hindus are
>"true" Indians and all others are "outsiders." The formulation is curious
>since Islam came to India about 1,200 years ago, and Christianity arrived
>even earlier. Some historians date India's Christian roots to the first
>century A.D.

Or do you agree with him [and me, incidently and many others] that such
attempts to delegitimize non-Hindus as less than fully Indian is an absurd
project, if done on the grounds that Hinduism [not just literally the Vedic
traditions--but sanAtana Vedanta in the broadest sense] is _indigenous_ to
the subcontinent whereas Islam and Christianity [if not also
post-Enlightenment secular humanism while we're at it] are intrusive
foreign imports...even after centuries of acculturation in India.

If it is the former argument that you consider absurd, then as an attempt
change your mind, I quote from the Indology archives a letter from Dominik
that got published in Hinduism Today [without his permssion] back in
mid-1995.  His letter had been occasioned by their own publication of an
extremely fanciful, revisionist timeline in which among other things, no
hint of any Aryan migration into India remained:

>I have read an account/review of your recent article on Indian history,
>and I am shocked that you could promote such nonsense.
>I have in the past enjoyed Hinduism Today, but this article and
>the accompanying editorial are not just ridiculous,
>but also play into the hands of fundamentalist revisionists who are dangerous.
>In India today there is a strong movement amongst politically-motivated
>right-wingers to find historical reasons to justify acts of communal
>brutality and discrimination. Your article plays right into the hands of these
>people.

                >Dominik Wujastyk, Bangalore, India...

Again, I wish to reiterate my acknowledgement that the political dimensions
of academic questions are dangerous and I wouldn't mind if this particular
thread came to an end right away.  I, for one, won't be contributing
anything further on it.

With only good will,
Michael Rabe
SXU & SAIC, Chicago