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Lies, Lies and More Lies: The Campaign to Defame Hindu/Indian Nationalism

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This brilliant and irrefutable text conjures up not only the grandeur of what was Hindu India but also takes aim at the machinations of post-independence Indian politicians. He points out the attempt to make the colonization of India by Islam into a 'Golden period' and also notes the very dissimilar reactions to the massacre of Hindus in Gujarat and the massacre of Muslims. Most importantly he assembles a great amount of quotes from noted historians such as John Keay to show that the ideas of Hindutva are not mere conjecture. Important asides relate to V.S Naipaul's view of India and show that attempts to compare the BJP to the Nazis are without merit, that the actions are of the Nazis are better mirrored in those who hate the BJP.

The author examines in detail the question of Hindu Temple destruction at the ahnds of the Muslim colonizers of India and refutes those academics such as Richard Eaton who have whitewashed this destruction or tried to justify it. Subsequent sections examine Kashmir, the boundary dispute and the ethnic-cleansing of Hindus from Kashmir.

Most importantly this book takes aim at the lies disseminated by India's secular intellectual class. Whether it is supporting terrorism, re-writing Indian history, blaming the Indian government for terrorist acts, or simply making up fake atrocities to blame on 'Hindu nationalism' the academics and intellectuals in India have played the most nefarious role in the country's affairs. An expert understanding of the press and frequent quotes illustrate the depth of the misinformation campaign directed against Hindutva and also the depth of self-deception that the press and others will go to in order to justify terrorism and ethnic-cleansing in India. The author reminds us that "Compared to the pessimism that pervades the writings of Indian

authors, Western writers tend to be more fair and balanced about

India." He adds important rejoinders such as "Conversion represents a

retreat in the course of man's spiritual progress." In the final analysis this book, which is a collection of discussions of various issues affecting modern India, is one of the most important books on the subject today and far surpasses most of the other books that examine the post-Independence period of Indian history.

Lies, Lies and More Lies: The Campaign To Defame Hindu/Indian Nationalism is a sharp retort to unsavory portrayals of Hindu Nationalism (Hindutva), including accusations that equate the philosophy with pogroms and ethnic cleansing. Though author Vivek admits that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should not be excused of the killings that have happened under its watch, notably in the Gujarat riots, he decries the tendency (especially among intellectuals) to unilaterally condemn the entire BJP and all of Hindu Nationalism, or even equate both with fascism. Worse, too much misinformation has spread concerning Hindu Nationalism and the BJP. Lies, Lies and More Lies spells out the reasoning behind Hindu Nationalism precepts: injustice exists under the current legal system that largely leaves temples of Christianity and Islam to themselves but taxes and restricts Hindu temples; religious conversion needs to be banned because there is no way to distinguish between voluntary and forced conversion; and more. Too little attention is being paid to the threat of Islamofascism, argues author Vivek; demographic birth and immigration trends that are gradually increasing the percentage of Muslims in India and a Muslim community that is too slow to condemn the pogroms it perpetrates fuel an immediate national crisis. Above all, India's salvation lies in preserving its new legacy of democracy and equality. "Without proper guidance, there is a real danger of Hindutva degenerating into a rampage of revenge. Hindutva is not to be equated with communal riots that kill innocent humans. Hindutva cannot be an ideology that relegates another individual to second-class status. It should be a force that makes all Indians conform to the pluralistic, secular tradition of our land that respects one and all." A passionate and thoughtful call for perspective on hot-button Indian social issues.

The fact that the author is not comfortable using his last name, and thus revealing his true identity, bears testimony to the disturbing truth contained in his work. Hindus, the one people on the face of this earth who hold in their heritage and culture the key to a harmonious and peaceful future for humanity, are today the most maligned and terrorized people in the world. They constitute what is perhaps the largest dispossessed and disenfranchised community, one that has been deprived of its homeland, divested of its rightful dignity and denied even the right of self-defense against hostile colonial ideologies such as Islamism and Christian Supremacist Evangelism that seek to destroy it and assimilate its members within their own fold. As the author demonstrates, this is nothing new. It is merely the result of a centuries old campaign of aggression on the part of falsehoods that have reduced all the world into warring camps bent upon converting, slaughtering or enslaving each other in the name of the one true God.

The solution is for Hindus to understand their own heritage, become its living representatives and also its aggressive votaries. It is their very passiveness that will lead to the eventual extinction of the Hindus, nothing else. However, their aggressiveness must be directed first at themselves and not their oppressors. Each Hindu who feels for this cause must consecrate himself to the spiritual aim and ideal of India, to recreate himself and the world anew, to realize and, ultimately, incarnate the secret Divine Truth within both, if not in this lifetime then in some future one for which this one will serve as a preparation. The sincere implementation of this ideal within himself and its aggressive propagation in the world is the answer, for the Hindu does not seek to convert others to this or that ideology so much as to liberate them from their delusions about themselves and the world. As long as Hindus don't take this fight into the enemy camp of ignorance, the battle will continue to be fought on their home turf, at increasingly greater peril to themselves, for in the absence of Truth falsehood prevails by definition, and in the absence of Light, darkness.

The great danger here is that even in this respect Hindus will do nothing more than imitate their oppressors and match fanaticism with fanaticism, ignorance with ignorance and blind hatred with blind hatred. The self-styled secularists of India, the intellectual progeny and apostles of every conceivable imperialist ideology that seeks to dominate and ultimately eradicate Hinduism, be it Islam, or Christianity, or Communism or ravenous Consumerism, are virtually guaranteeing that the reaction from Hindus will be one that is shot with desperation and fired by the urge for destruction. However, all Hindus who are even remotely in touch with the eternal fount of Truth and Force that throbs at the very core of their living tradition will assert that the only effective and noble way to destroy as well as to preserve is to create, create anew with such vigor and élan that nothing can stand in the way of this New Creation. This is a principle that can be seen at work even in the successes of Islam and Christianity. It can be very easily argued that they destroyed much that was nobler and more true than themselves, but the intent was always to create, and if not to create then at the very least to expand, in one instance the Kingdom of God upon earth, erroneously identified with the Church, and in the other an empire of faith, corrupted by its intolerant insistence on a static and blind faith in the exclusive veracity of just one final representative of God on earth. India must become the "Empire of the Soul" that She was always destined to become and this time She must aim to spread Her compassion for suffering humans, and Her spiritual knowledge and psychological discipline of Yoga that can liberate the 'human' being from its present limitations and transform it into a Diviner Being, not just within India or Asia but throughout the world. It is only such a massive Force for a new Divine Creation that can galvanize Hindus, guarantee their continued existence, and bring about peace and harmony in the world, and we are already witnessing the beginnings of this process.

It is to be hoped that this work constitutes a step in that direction. One small suggestion would be to change the title to something less shrill. The parts of the book that I have read seem to be the result of sober reflection backed by good research. It would be a pity if potential readers are discouraged from approaching the book due to any misperceptions arising from the title.

This book has some very good points going for it. Firstly, it is a concise summary of the major issues facing Hindus in India. It is a paradoxical situation that a majority population is feeling trapped in a minority complex, but this book attempts to and largely explains the major reasons why this phenomena exists.

Secondly, A lot of contemporary issues are summarized along with the Hindu perspective.

More such books are needed right now in order to give the Hindu a voice in a debate about Hinduism that seems to be largely usurped by non-Hindus. Imagine a discussion on Jewish history where only Nazis are allowed, strange but that is where the Hindu finds himself right now.

A couple of points that could be elaborated -

1. The conciseness of the book can be a drawback since some very important issues are dealt with very briefly. I feel the topic on secularism could have been more in depth (but the book would not have been 120 pages).

2. A more detailed discussion on Hindutva can be made. I suspect that is a topic for a new book altogether.

Overall, this is a good introduction and forms a wide foundation from where the interested reader can take his study of Hinduism/Hindutva/ Indology further.

As a side note, I must also commend the author for taking up this huge project. I understand that Wendys Children and the mother superior of Indology - Wendy Doniger herself are very dismissive of the "Indian Engineeers" who educate themselves on Hinduism and "dare" to write on Hinduism. It takes a lot of courage and conviction to challenge well entrenched anti-Hindu propaganda.

This book defines the caste Hindu strategy to exploit and subvert the history to serve the racial objective of Hindu Imperialism, the Caste.

The book in exploiting the past of Islamic conquest over India is completely silent about Hindu conquest of India and creation of caste as a textual tenet of Hinduism with its doctrine of enslavement over millions of Indians who are exploited as Untouchables and Shudhras(slaves).

As a doctrine of Hindu Imperialism, the book seeks the objective of a racially pure Hindu land, the Bharat to legitimize the enslavement of millions under the Hindu blood hierarchy.

The fictitious author is completely silent about the fact that India was the first country Hindus invaded in history and ignores the fact that India is a product of many invasions itself.

Rather, the book mis-constructs India in a delusional myth and objective of Hinduism that seeks to establish caste Hindus as superior mankind to rule over India. The fictitious authors's book is a devotion to doctrine of Hinduism that defines India in the image of the Hindu deity of the caste Hindus who produced the pure race of Hindus to tule India, the Bharat race.

The book also is an excellent proof how Hinduism is established as a national religion over India with the Supreme Court of India acting as a Hindu Institution that subverts secularism to legitimize the establishment of Hinduism under the guise of "secularism". The book advocates the perversion of secularism by morally appropriating Hinduism as secularism and promotes use of "secular means of Hinduism" as state policy. This is subversion in its most extremist form.

The perversion through caste-based "secularism" is deceitfully and fraudulently designed in the Indian constitution that further enforces forceful determination of Sikhs, Untouchables, Triabls, Jains and Buddhists as Hindus per law however, the book is blindly silent about the nature of Caste and the facts relating to the constitutional establishment of Hinduism over non-Hindus in seeking the imperialistic objective to sustain blood hierarchy.

These pseudo-modern Hindu Imperialists are devoted to morally appropriate racism and imperialism as "nationalism' and "secularism" to legitimize theie blood dominance over India.

Yeah, all these Harvard and univ of Chicago lefties can write a book saying Mein Kamph is an "althernate Jewish History"

Thats what they have been doing by spamming the books on Hindusim with. Pure viIe sp!te!

Modern India is extremely hostile to Hindus. The political authorities and especially the English-language newsmedia are going full steam on a vile campaign of lies to undermine anything Hindu. It is all supposed to happen, Scriptures tell us so. We are all waiting for God to come back in another incarnation and redeem the virtuous. In the meantime, life is miserable for the good Hindu. In what ways? You get a bit of an idea of that in this book. But not the whole picture. Nevertheless, the author must be commended for meticulously collecting appropriate material and presenting them as plainly as possible.

Unfortunately, the book will probably not make a major impact because it has not been planned right. It leaves out major questions. In particular, the author needed to enlighten us about why Hindus, despite reaching out and being uncritical to other religions, have so many enemies? And what makes India's newsmedia and ruling politicians anti-Hindu? Don't they have to cater to the (still) Hindu majority of India? Why do these people become "pseudo-secularist" liars? How do they justify their outlook and what do they expect to accomplish at the end? The author only cites one factor as motivation; these people are supposedly driven by the perception that they would somehow be personally enhanced if the western world approves of them. Historically, the "scholarly" of the west have hated Hindus. I think this is too simplistic.

Here is my theory. I think that a major reason is that they are ignorant of Hindu India. After all, they did not study anything Hindu in schools and colleges. Nobody in India gets to study these subjects any more. You really have to study them on your own. Since they do not know Hinduism, they cannot be inspired by it. But they did grow up watching the abhyasa-vairagya traditions (yogic dispassion) of Hinduism and think that good Hindus must meekly surrender their life, property and happiness to everybody, including their enemies. These people are stupid Hindus. And they currently dominate the society.

The author has very good writing skills, and I hope that he will think of writing another book, with more in-depth analysis, so that no one can say that he has made sweeping generalizations. I will look forward to such a book.

This book is a pathetic attempt to justify the most vile, violent, and totalitarian element in contemporary Indian politics. The crimes of the Hindutva saffron brigade (and distinct from the larger, mostly peaceful Indian population), are well documented in the pogroms in Gujarat, Assam, UP, Bihar. With attacks on Christians and Muslims rising everyday in India, this is hardly the sort of apologetics the country needs right now.