Academic Distortions of Hinduism

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Book Counters Academic Distortions of Hinduism in America

 

By Francis C. Assisi

 

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Americans have been engaged in Hindu-bashing for more than a hundred

years. (I have dwelt on this aspect previously:

http://www.modelminority.com/article1017.html). And it's not just

writers like Katherine Mayo or films like `Indiana Jones and the

Temple of Doom;' the web too has a surfeit of anti-Hindu propaganda.

 

In recent years Indian Americans have been concerned about the

stereotypes about India and Hinduism that are taught as fact in

American classrooms. They know it will negatively impact students of

Indian or South Asian origin who are struggling to work out their

identity in a multicultural, predominately Anglo-Christian

environment.

 

Moreover, some academicians too are engaged in Hindu-bashing. For

instance, scholars have disparaged the Bhagavad Gita as " a dishonest

book " ; declared Ganesha's trunk a " limp phallus " ; classified Devi as

the " mother with a penis " and Shiva as " a notorious womanizer " who

incites violence in India; pronounced Sri Ramakrishna a pedophile who

sexually molested the young Swami Vivekananda; condemned Indian

mothers as being less loving of their children than white women; and

interpreted the bindi as a drop of menstrual fluid and the " ha " in

sacred mantras as a woman's sound during orgasm.

 

This depiction of Hinduism in a manner perceived as provocatively

demeaning by the Hindus themselves is the subject of a recent

book: `Invading the Sacred- An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in

America.' It is a serious and significant response to the challenge

posed by Hinduphobia in America. And it now calls upon all fair

minded Americans and Hindus to read the book, and take steps to bring

the vilification of India and of Hinduism to an end.

 

The first person within the Indian-American community to bring

Hinduphobia, or distortions and negative portrayals of the Hindu

religion out into the open was Rajiv Malhotra. Since at least 2002,

his single minded campaigning, his scholarly criticisms, and his

courageous stance has brought the issue into focus – thanks to the

world-wide-web. In many of these articles, Malhotra argues that

misinterpretations of Indian culture, especially philosophy and

religion have created a Hinduism for American society that is very

different from the religious philosophy as practiced by its

followers.

 

The core complaint that Malhotra asserts is that the current

education system and media in the USA and India are deeply and

unconsciously Eurocentric – a system that is breeding the next

generation of Eurocentric Americans, and that many Indians have

adopted this Eurocentric trend also. Malhotra, who studied physics at

India's St. Stephens College and computer science at Syracuse

University, now works full time at the Infinity Foundation, a

nonprofit he founded in 1995 to " upgrade the quality of understanding

of Indian civilization in the American media and educational system,

as well as among the English language educated Indian elite. "

 

In September 2002, Malhotra wrote an article criticizing the

representation of Hindu religion in the North American discipline of

Religious Studies on Sulekha.com, a web portal popular among the

Indian diaspora. The article, named " Wendy's Child Syndrome, "

identified a number of American scholars in Religious Studies working

on Hinduism, arguing against their suitability to write or teach

about Hindu religion, instigating debate within the academe.

Malhotra's summaries of the concerned writings and his evaluations of

the scholars involved, caused an indignant uproar on the Internet

amongst Hindus, primarily Indian Hindus, all over the world and

particularly in North America. In follow-up columns, Malhotra

continued with his argument about the necessity of the Indian

diaspora to wake up to such misrepresentations. These portrayals, he

asserts, are responsible for the negative image of Indians and

Hindus, leading to their racist treatment in American society. His

articles garnered some of the highest number of readers and drew the

largest number of comments.

 

Malhotra condemned " the eroticisation of Hinduism by Wendy Doniger,

who is undoubtedly the most powerful person in academic Hinduism

Studies today, " and " her large cult of students, who glorify her in

exchange for her mentorship. " He noted that religious studies—a field

that teaches about a religion without preaching its beliefs—is rare

in India, making academic discussions of Hinduism a mostly Western

conversation. " Under Western control, " he argued, " Hinduism studies

has produced ridiculous caricatures that could easily be turned into

a Bollywood movie or a TV serial. "

 

Indeed, Malhotra was the first to voice his concerns regarding the

misrepresentation of Hinduism in America, when he noted:

 

• Hindu kids and even adults in America are apologetic about their

religion, generally preferring to distance themselves from it and

keep quiet about it. • Educational material used to teach about

Hinduism focuses on caste, idol worship, lack of social values among

Hindus, and other negative portrayals. • A major academic web site

examines the Bhagavad Gita in negative terms of Arjuna killing his

relatives because of his Hindu outlook. • Teaching grants to train

secondary school teachers on religious pluralism have been used to

develop material that portrays Rama as 'oppressing' women and lower

castes. • There is minimal coverage given to the positive

contributions by India's civilization to mathematics, science,

medicine, metallurgy, linguistics, logic, and other 'rational' areas;

and when pointed out, such avoidance is sometimes defended. • Most of

the educational material on Indic religions is written very

authoritatively by Americans who have advanced degrees in Sanskrit

and/or Religious Studies, who have spent years researching in India,

and would easily impress anyone with their scriptural knowledge about

India. • Very few Indians have gone for academic careers in Religion

or Philosophy, and those in such careers must be very cautious not to

step out of line in complaining about the above matters.

 

V. V. Raman, Emeritus Professor Rochester Institute of Technology

says: " Mr. Malhotra is a serious and well-grounded scholar. He did

not come to this field via the standard academic route, but his

writings reflect more erudition and a greater grasp of important

issues than many Ph.D.'s I know. …Because of his firm stand and

sometimes angry style, he has angered the Western academic

establishment on Indology, and alienated a great many, including some

Hindu scholars…But he has also shaken many to look deeper into the

assumptions and unrecognized prejudices which shape their

interpretations. And he has served as a bold and well-informed voice

for many Hindus in the West as well as in India who have often felt

hurt and insulted by some of the psychoanalytic interpretations of

their culture and divinities. Personally, I don't agree with Mr.

Malhotra's style and mode, and I don't always resonate with his

demarcation lines between the East and the West, but I have great

respect for his scholarship, much sympathy for the core of his

theses, and I applaud his long-range goal. One more thing: To my

knowledge, he is not affiliated with any Hindu `fundamentalist'

group.

 

Anant Rambachan, Professor of Religion, Saint Olaf College in

Minnesota writes: " Rajiv Malhotra is a prominent and insistent voice

questioning and inviting dialogue with the scholarly community, on

the content and methodology of studying and teaching Hinduism at

institutions of higher education in North America. This initial

collection offers a salient summary of his critique and concerns, and

is a valuable historical resource for those who want to understand

better this debate, and those who wish to become participants in the

conversation that he has passionately initiated and sustained.

Scholars should welcome a critical voice from the community that is

the focus of their study, for a mutually enriching dialogue. "

 

In his preface to the book, Arvind Sharma, Professor of Religion at

McGill University, writes: `The book singes with the sparks that flew

as the psychoanalytic approach to the study of religion became the

lightning rod of the grievances of the Hindu Americans against a

cross-section of the academic community in North America devoted to

the study of Hinduism. It goes on to document the way these

grievances were articulated and ventilated, as well as the response

from the world of the Western academia and, to a certain extent, from

the media, as the issue came to a head. Most importantly, the book is

a pointer to the fact that the Hindu community in North America has

now reached the demographic critical mass, when its reactions can no

longer be disregarded.'

The book, edited by Krishnan Ramaswamy, Aditi Banerjee, and Antonio

T. de Nicolas, probes the invisible networks behind biased approaches

to Hinduism and the questionable scholarship of the American experts

on Hinduism. Furthermore it goes on to narrate the Indian Diaspora's

recent challenges to such scholarship, and documents how those who

dared to speak up - including academic scholars critical of such

scholarship - have been branded as " dangerous " .

 

The authors of this study say that today Hinduism is under siege by

forces who have found their playing fields in a section of the

American Academy of Religion and the Departments of South Asia

Studies. Their game plan is to denigrate Hinduism by focusing

narrowly on its social ills, misinterpreting its texts and in the

process overlooking the substantial content of Hinduism, its

unequalled intellectual wealth, the fact that India has, by virtue of

Hinduism and Sanskrit, `a place in the history of the human mind' as

Max Mueller once noted.

 

Kapil Kapur, Former Chair of Department of English, Jawaharlal Nehru

University, opines: " The intellectuals featured in this book, with

their bold decision to take on this scholarship, have entered into a

serious dialogue about motives, methodology and substance and, using

their own tools, have reversed the gaze back on to the scholarly

establishment to their understandable discomfort. This book is

important because it records the background, the issues and the

arguments in this debate, and the debate is not over. This has been a

historic intervention. The record of this enterprise is a lesson for

a large number of young Hindus who must learn to combat adverse

western scholarship by using the weapons of the enemy. "

 

Bal Ram Singh, Director, Center for Indic Studies, University of

Massachusetts, Dartmouth, points out: " The Indian diaspora of over 20

million around the world faces the acute problem that much of its

civilizational portrayal has been controlled by outsiders for many

centuries. However, a sharp increase in the prominence of Indians in

the global scene has forced a showdown between the old guard's

established ideas and the young, vibrant community. " Invading the

Sacred " is a first serious, albeit provocative, effort to challenge

the parochial characterization of Hindus by western and/or

westernized scholars. The book is path-breaking and takes to task

those scholars who have been falsely stereotyping Indian culture, and

shows the importance of challenging such biases. It will hopefully

lead to more balanced and respectful discourse, debate, and

discussion on many issues facing humanity as a whole, for which Indic

civilization is an important resource. "

 

To the question as to why Indian scholars acquiesce to and even

imitate mistakes committed by Euro-American Indologists, in spite of

the fact that they could and should know better, one academic says it

is partly due to India's colonization and a widespread overestimation

of western culture and the blind belief that anything of western or

European origin cannot but be superior to the corresponding element

of Indic culture. The resulting " inferiority complex " has had a

shattering and traumatic effect upon Indic scholarship and academic

output. Unfortunately, this trend continues even in post-independent

India and among Indians living in the diaspora today, the authors of

Invading the Sacred point out.

 

The irony is that this denigration of Hinduism is happening at a time

when the widespread acceptance of many elements of Sanatana Dharma

seems to point to a " Hinduization " of the American cultural milieu.

 

Just consider this. In 2005, roughly 18 million Americans are

practicing Yoga. In multiple polls of American religious beliefs and

attitudes, up to 25% of Americans believe in reincarnation. Tens of

millions of Americans meditate. Over 20 million are vegetarian.

Almost half the population has turned to alternative health systems,

such as Ayurveda, herbal medicine and massage.

 

What may be happening, at least according to one American Hindu Frank

Morales, is that Americans are interested in Yoga asanas, but are not

as interested in become self-realized Yogis. They are interested in

meditation for its calming effects, but not necessarily as a means to

achieve samadhi. Americans are keen to incorporate Ayurvedic

medicine - but only as a complementary or alternative system - mostly

for controlling obesity or for the rejuvenative aspect of

Panchakarma. They are primarily interested in the many goodies that

Hinduism has to offer, but without taking the next logical step of

becoming Hindus, or in many cases without even acknowledging the

purely Hindu origins of the many practices that they have derived so

much benefit from.

 

Morales says that while elements of Hinduism such as Yoga, ayurveda

and meditation become more popular in America, Hinduism itself is in

danger of being assimilated into the greater cultural milieu, just

another ingredient – albeit a nicely spicy one – of the great

American melting-pot. " We face the very real possibility of authentic

Sanatana Dharma becoming co-opted into the greater American cultural

matrix as nothing more than a menagerie of disparate elements used to

market New Age spirituality " writes Morales in an essay

entitled `Does Hinduism Have a Future in America?'

 

As a practicing Hindu, Morales is concerned about the

academic/media/education/government matrix in America that fosters

anti-Hindu stereotypes. " Rather than standing up and fighting against

such anti-Hindu portrayals, the Hindu community has been so slow to

respond to these attacks in the past that many of the anti-Hindu

bigots in academia feel they have a free reign to propagate any lies

about Sanatana Dharma they wish. They also know that if the Hindu

community ever even responds at all, it is usually too little, too

late, and in a purely reactionary manner. We need to counter any and

all attacks against Sanatana Dharma immediately, forcefully and

professionally. "

 

This book is the first attempt at talking back to the academicians

and is a must read for all people of Indian origin, especially Hindu

Americans. As one perceptive observer noted: " in these jehadi times,

when Islamists run around the globe killing innocent people to prove

that their Prophet and their book are the best, now and forever, the

Hindu idea becomes even more relevant - What grander idea of faith

can there be than that everyone is entitled to their own truth? "

 

The contributors to the book, which is published by Rupa, are Aditi

Banerjee, Antonio T. de Nicolas, Alan Roland, Arvind Sharma, S.N.

Balagangadhara, Pandita Indrani Rampersad, Kalavai Venkat, Krishnan

Ramaswamy, Vishal Agarwal, Ramesh N. Rao, Sankrant Sanu, Yuvraj

Krishan, Yvette C. Rosser.

 

 

http://www.dharmacentral.com

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For background on this topic, see

http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0412/features/index-print.shtml

 

and DB's posting:

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