Demythifying Reality

[Guest guest]

Demythifying Reality

By: Adity Sharma

August 05, 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 hi

story 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.

 

Adity Sharma

 

Send your views to author

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

http://www.indiacause.com/columns/OL_060805.htm