California History Book Controversy

[Guest guest]

Dr. Elst,This refer to your mail of March 28 on the above subject. You wroteQuoteYou established for a long time to come the impression that Hindus are

untrustworthy, wily schemers with a reactionary and obscurantist agenda.UnquotePlease

desist from ranting without citing instances. Your very mail on the

California issue shows how you demean the Hindus. In fact what you have

written in the above-quoted lines apply to you and not to me. In one of

your earlier mails you wrote that the Witzel group considers Dr.

Rajaramji and Shri Kalyanaramanji as Buffoons. What sadistic pleasure

do you get by demeaning others and that too without any facts and

figures?You wroteQuote

So I stand by my diagnosis. On all substantive points, the Hindu

position was soundly defeated, the Witzel side totally victorious.UnquoteNo

problem if you do not see the truth or want to ignore the truth. Your

attempt to depreciate the efforts of the Hindus will also be likewise

ignored by the Hindus. I just gave three examples out of seventy odd

corrections made.As regards the Hindu gods and goddesses you do

not have much knowledge of Hinduism. The poet Iqbal realised it long

ago when he said that Hindu gods are the farishtas (angels) of Islam

and in fact the Semitic religions do believe in the angels. In the

Quran Prophet Muhammad complained to Gabriel for his late-coming.

Seeking favour from the angels is not forbidden in the Quran. Further

you do not understand that when we Hindus say that the Vedas are not of

human origin we mean that these are not invented by man and these are

the Eternal Truths only seen by the Vedic seers.Further you said:QuoteI'd have to see

the new crop of textbooks to verify,-- and I note you don't quote those, only a non-committal oral statement.UnquoteNow

you admitted that you are yet to verify what is in the textbooks.

Please verify and revert to us to admit that you made a hasty comment

earlier without ascertaining the facts. You are also casting

aspersions on the President of California SBE, Mr. Glee Johnson by

expressing doubt on the reliability of his statement.Regards,Sunil K. Bhattacharjya