Some Western Indologists and Indian ‘secularists’ are resorting to desperate tactics to save their discipline from collapsing. This is compounded by the
bigger problem of the decline of humanities in the West.
N.S. Rajaram
Is Hindutva posing a threat to Harvard? It is, if we go by the hysterical tone of a recent article in Frontline (where else?) written by Harvard Indologist
Michael Witzel and an independent writer Steve Farmer. (See “Horseplay in Harappa”, Frontline, October 13, 2000.) According to them, the book The Deciphered Indus Script by N. Jha and N.S. Rajaram (Aditya Prakashan, Delhi) is not really about the decipherment at all; it is ‘Hindutva propaganda’ meant to dislodge 150 years of painstaking research by scholars like Witzel. How did we do it? By distorting a seal containing the image of a bull to make it look like a horse? But why bother with one unimportant seal when we give a complete methodology and one hundred tables of deciphered readings covering over fifteen hundred Harappan seals? To shield the likes of Witzel and other supporters of the ‘Aryan Invasion’ who have always told us that ‘non-Vedic’ Harappans
did not know the horse which was brought into India
by the invading Aryans.
So the horse on the seal must be a fake! This charge is the sum and substance of their ‘refutation’ of our
decipherment. No matter that the photo of the seal in question—actually they give two—makes it clear that our identification is probably correct (see photo). But that is beside the point, for our book is about the Indus script, not any horse. In a book of nearly 300 pages, we devote less than one footnote to the issue to which Witzel and his associate devote ten pages of small print.
And this is endorsed by Romila Thapar (who else?): “History as projected by Hindutva idealogues, which is being introduced to children through textbooks... precludes an open discussion of evidence and interpretation. Nor does it bear any trace of the new methods of historical analyses... Such history is dismissed by the Hindutva ideologues as Western, imperialist, Marxist or whatever... The article by Witzel and Farmer is a serious critique of the claims that have been made by Rajaram and Jha about the Aryan identity of the Indus civilization and the decipherment of the Harappan script.” So this is their real concern— The Aryan (Vedic) identity of the Indus civilization. The rest is diversion. The real agenda is clear: protect their discredited Aryan invasion/migration version and the non-Indian origin of the Vedic civilization by labelling opponents as
‘Hindutva propagandists’.
But there is more, for what is at stake is the survival of Western Indology itself, with its roots in European colonialism and Christian missionary propaganda. It was Indologist W.W. Hunter who said : “Scholarship is warmed with the holy flame of Christian zeal.” And Bishop Caldwell, who created the Aryan-Dravidian theory, admitted that his linguistic theories were of “vast political and moral importance”—meaning they served British colonial and Christian missionary interests. Men like Witzel are successors to these colonial-missionary scholars, while Indians like Thapar and her tribe are their camp followers. Our book exposes this. So their tactic is to discredit the book by attacking us personally. This is exactly what the ‘secularists’ did to the distinguished archaeologist B.B. Lal when he exposed their lies at Ayodhya.
The more things change, the more they remain the same. The ‘White Man's Burden’ Anyone reading the Frontline
article will naturally wonder—why a prominent Western academic like Witzel should devote so much time and effort to attack two relatively unknown persons like this writer and Natwar Jha, especially when Witzel himself dismisses me as one whose academic career in America was undistinguished and Jha as a “provincial religious teacher”. Nor are we his only targets. He had earlier denounced Shrikant Talageri's important work as of “political motivation... (and) devoid of scholarly value”. What is interesting here is that Witzel had not even seen Talageri's book much less read it. (He had earlier dismissed our decipherment also without reading our book.) So why now this long article attacking us? According to Witzel it is to save India and her scholarship : “Hindutva propagandists like Rajaram do not belong to
the realm of legitimate historical scholarship... they falsify history to bolster national pride.” What concern is it of this German-American duo? “We
fear for India and for objective scholarship.” So Witzel and Farmer have to save India and Indians from being corrupted by devilish ‘natives’ and ‘heathens’
like Rajaram, Jha and Talageri! This is pure colonial-missionary conceit that revives the White Man's Burden. No one can believe such sanctimonious nonsense.
Surely, there must be other reasons. One is probably emotional. Witzel is a German Romantic. His heroes still are nineteenth century German Indologists like
Bothlingk and especially Oldenberg. So it is natural that he should be attached to nineteenth century German ideas like the “Aryan nation” and the “Aryan
invasion”. But there is a more serious concern: fear of survival in the face of “downsizing the humanities” at American universities.
The collapse of the Aryan invasion model of history, which our work records, and which is receiving wide notice, could not have come at a worse time for the likes of Witzel. This is what we need to understand. Downsizing the humanities American universities operate much like businesses. Programmes that are unproductive are ruthlessly cut. Due to uncontrolled expansion for over three decades, most universities have too many humanities professors (like Witzel) while there is severe shortage in fields like computer science and business.
Also, many humanities programmes have reached absurd limits, consuming money that could be put to better use. To take just one example, The University of Illinois at Chicago, supports one Professor Stanley Fish to the tune of $230,000 of taxpayers' money a year for his research in “para-proletariat studies” that according to him will study “body parts, excretory functions, the sex trade,... bisexuality,... and lesbian pornography, and other things that I do not care to reproduce here. This is irresponsible to say the least. There is now an inevitable reaction leading to what is being called “downsizing the humanities”. Students no longer want to study them and administrators are looking for ways to cut such programmes.
Harvard is no exception. This has had the effect of sending humanities scholars scrambling for funds. For Indology departments, which have particularly low priority in the humanities, the last thing they can afford is any threat to the status quo coming from new knowledge.
As universities cut budgets, their hope is to find sponsors in the wealthy NRI community. Although impressed at first by their academic credentials, NRIs are beginning to see that these Indologists are only rehashing outdated colonial and even racist ideas as ‘research’. Some NRIs also feel that these ‘scholars’ are little more than parasites of India and her civilization but affecting superiority over it. As a result, some NRI sponsored faculty positions at US universities have been terminated and plans for new ones are being shelved.
So the frustration behind the rage is easy to understand. As Shri Shankaracharya said centuries ago: Udara-nimittam bahu-krita vesham (To fill the stomach, many poses are assumed). That is what is really at the bottom of this ‘horseplay’—not any concern for India
or her scholarship. That Harvard Indologist Michael Witzel and an independent writer Steve Farmer have to save India and Indians from being corrupted by devilish ‘natives’ and ‘heathens’ like N.S. Rajaram, N. Jha and Shrikant Talageri is pure colonial-missionary conceit that revives the White Man's Burden. The real agenda of Witzel is clear
: Protect the discredited Aryan invasion/migration version and the non-Indian origin of the Vedic civilization by labelling opponents as ‘Hindutva
propagandists’. But there is more, for what is at stake is the survival of Western Indology itself, with its roots in European colonialism and Christian
missionary propaganda.
SIR/MADAM, THE ATTEMPT TO PUSH BACK ARYAN HISTORY IN INDIA DESPITE THE LACK OF ANY SUCH EVIDENCE IN THE RUINS OF THE INDUS IS SADLY DRIVEN BY INTERNAL FORCES IN INDIA. WHAT IS SURPRISING SO FAR, IS THAT ALL OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL ACCOUTREMENTS AND OTHER FINDINGS BY KENOYER AND OTHERS HAS THROWN NO LIGHT ON AN ARYAN PRESENCE FROM 3200 BC. RAJARAM ET AL THEORISTS AND OTHERS WHOM THEY EMPLOY TO DO THE DIGGINGS ARE DISCOVERING THINGS, BUT NOTHING OF AN ARYAN VEDIC NATURE. THE HORSE WHICH HAS PLAYED SUCH A TREMENDOUS PART IN THE PAGES OF THE VEDAS AND ARYAN HISTORY HAS NOT YIELDED TO DIGGINGS OF THE IMPLEMENTS OF THE DIGGERS. THE PREPOSTEROUS THEORY THAT INDIGENOUS ARYANS OCCUPIED AND BUILT THE INDUS CIVILIZATION IS STRETCHING THE IMAGINATION. FOR EXAMPLE, IF THIS WAS SO WHERE ARE THE DISCOVERIES OF SUCH A VAST HORSE CULTURE WITH ALL ITS RAMIFICATIONS? WHERE ARE THE REMAINS OF SACRIFICED PITS ,CREMATED BODIES AND HORSE AND CHARIOT WHICH ARE SO INDICATIVE OF ARYAN CUSTOMS? FROM REPORTS ON THE INTERNET AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS ONE CAN SEE A LOT OF THINGS BEING DISCOVERED AND GRAPHIC PICTURES PORTRAY SEALS, BEADS, ABANDONED BUILDINGS AND REMAINS OF VAST CITIES AND JEWELRY ETC. CLAIMS ARE MADE FOR REMAINS OF HORSE FAUNAL ALONG THE BANKS OR THE INDUS AND THE SARASVATI, BUT IF THIS IS SO WHY AREN'T HORSE REMAINS FOUND IN THE CITIES OF THE INDUS? IF VEDIC ARYANS BUILT THE CITIES OF THE INDUS , THEN ALL THE IMPLEMENTS OF VEDIC ARYANS SHOULD BE DISCOVERED BY NOW, SUCH AS CHARIOTS, AXLES, WHEELS, SADDLES, STIRRUPS, BRIDLES AND BITS ETC. NOTHING OF THIS NATURE HAS BEEN FOUND IN THE CITIES OF THE INDUS. WHAT HAS BEEN FOUND ARE TOY CARTS THAT RESEMBLES THOSE OF SUMER, PULLED BY ONAGERS AND ASSES. THE TERRACOTA SUPPOSEDLY HORSE HEADS , IF GIVEN A KEENER GLANCE ARE NOTHING BUT HEADS OF ONAGERS OR ASSES. A VEDIC ARYAN INDUS WOULD HAVE BEEN BRIMMING WITH THE ABOVE DESCRIBED ABOVE AND THEIR CUSTOMS AND RITES WOULD INCLUDE THESE PHYSICAL THINGS AS THE HORSE ETC. THE HISTORICAL ARYANS, WHERE EVER THEY CAME FROM , CAME WITH ALL THESE THINGS EMBEDDED IN THEIR RELIGION, RITES , CUSTOMS AND WARRIOR SOCIETY. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE IN THE INDUS THAT RESEMBLES A RELIGION THAT PORTRAY THIS NOR NOTHING INDICATIVE IN THEIR SOCIEY THAT IS EVIDENCE THAT THE HORSE GALLOPED AROUND THE STREETS OF THIS GREAT CIVILIZATION. IF VEDIC ARYANS ARE INDIGENOUS AND BUILT UP THE INDUS CIVILIZATION, THEN, THEY POSSESSED NO HORSES OR CHARIOTS, WHICH IS INCONCEIVABLE TO THEIR NATURE AND CUSTOMS. THERE ARE NO EVIDENCE TO SHOW THAT VEDIC ARYANS WROTE THE SEALS AND SCRIPTS, NO EVIDENCE THAT ALL THE ABOVE INTERACTED IN THEIR CUSTOMS AND INTEGRATED IN THEIR SOCIETY. THERE ARE NO EVIDENCE TO SHOW THAT ARYANS BUILT THOSE MOUMENTAL CITIES. FURTHER, IF THE VEDIC ARYANS WAS INDIGENOUS TO THE INDUS, THEY WOULD HAVE CONQUERED INDIA CENTURIES AGO. IF THE PEOPLE OF THE INDUS HAD POSSESSED THE HORSE AND CHARIOT, THEY WOULD HAVE BEATEN A PATH TO SUMER AND MESOPOTAMIA IN AN EFFORT TO COUQUER THEIR CITIES. FOR POSSESSION OFTHE SWIFT HORSE AND SPOKED WHEELED CHARIOT WOULD HAVE BEEN A TEMPTING DESIRE TO OVERRUN ITS NEIGHBORS.THE THEORISTS AND PROPONENTS OF A VEDIC ARYAN INDUS IS A PIPE DREAM THAT WILL EVENTUALLY DISAPPEAR. THE INDO-ARYAN CUSTOM OF CREMATION , WHICH IS THE FOUNDATION OF VEDIC RITES AND CUSTOMS CANNOT BE ATTESTED TO BEFORE 1500BC FOR OVER AND OVER I NOTICED ONE PECUILAR THING WHEN READING ABOUT THE NEW AND SENSATIONAL DISCOVERIES EVERY DAY BY THE HISTORIANS AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS. AND THAT IS THE COMMENTS OF KENOYER AND MEADOWS WHO STRONGLY INDICATE THAT ALL THE THINGS THEY DISCOVERED DOES NOT PERTAIN TO VEDIC ARYAN HANDIWORK AND ORIGIN. SLOWLY, RAJARAM ET AL AND DR KALYANAN ARE REALIZING THAT THE DISCOVERIES OF THE INDUS ONLY SMACKS OF A PEOPLE WHO WROTE AND BUILT IN A CUSTOM QUITE DIFFERENT FROM ARYANS IN THE PAGES OF THE VEDAS. WHICH BRINGS ME AGAIN TO THE SUBJECT OF CREMATION. I AM STILL WAITING TO SEE EVIDENCE THAT THE SO CALLED VEDIC ARYANS WHO SUPPOSEDLY BUILT THE INDUS CIVILIZATION , PRACTICED CREMATION. SO FAR THERE IS NONE. WHOEVER BUILT THE INDUS CIVILIZATION PRACTICED INHUMATION IN A 100% SCALE AND THESE INHUMATION ARE STRIKINGLY SIMILAR IN NATURE TO AFRICAN BURIAL CUSTOMS FROM AFRICA. NOW, WHAT WILL THE POOR AFRICAN HISTORIANS AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS SAY WHEN RAJARAM ET AL ARE PROPOSING, DIGGING AND SEARCHING FOR A VEDIC ARYAN ORIGIN OF THE INDUS? I ASK THIS QUESTION, BECAUSE ALL THE BLACK NEWS SERVICES AND THE VARIOUS INTERNETS WEBSITES WERE AND ARE TRIUMPHANTLY CELEBRATING THAT THE INDUS WAS BUILT BY PEOPLE WHO MIGRATED TO INDIA THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO. CAN RAJARAM ET AL GIVE AN ANSWER TO THIS? DR KALYANAN AND RAJARAM ET AL WILL HAVE TO REALIZE THAT THERE IS ONE FATAL FLAW IN THIS THEORY OF A VEDIC ARYAN INDUS CIVILIZATION. AND THAT IS AS I SAID BEFORE, FOR THE VEDIC ARYANS TO HAVE BUILT THE INDUS FROM 3200 BC IS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE. THE LACK OF AN INTERACTION AND INTEGRATED SOCIETY WHICH WE KNOW HAS USED THE HORSE, THE CHARIOT, THE WHEEL, THE LACK OF AN ARYAN WARRIOR ETHIC AS IS SO VIVIDLY WRITTEN AND PORTRAYED IN THE PAGES OF THE RIGVEDA, IS NOT ATTESTED IN THE RUINS OF THE INDUS. THEN, THERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FLAW OF ALL. AND THAT IS THE WEAPONRY OF THE INDUS. IT IS NOTHING NEAR THAT OF THE INDO-ARYANS OF THE PAGES OF THE VEDAS. ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE FOUND THAT THE WEAPONS OF THE INDUS ARE OF A NEOLITHIC NATURE AND QUITE DIFFERENT IN ITS CONSTRUCTION AND MAINLY USED FOR HUNTING. THE PICTURES ON THE INTERNET VIVIDLY SHOWS THAT THESE WEAPONS ARE FLAT AND DIFFERENT IN CONSTRUCTION. WHEREAS, THE WEAPONS OF THE ARYAN WARRIORS OF THE VEDAS ARE LONG AND BUILT AND USED FOR SLASHING RATHER THAN FOR THRUSTING, THEY ARE SHAFTED AND SOCKETED AND IS EVIDENCE OF A NEW PEOPLE WHO HAVE INTRUDED IN THE INDUS AND ELSEWHERE. IN ALL ANCIENT SOCIETIES, A CHANGE IN WEAPONRY IS A DEFINING MARKER OF A NEW PEOPLE. SIMILAR IS THE CASE OF EGYPT WHEN THE HYKSOS WHO BROUGHT INDO-ARYANS WEAPONS TO THE NEOLITHIC EGYPTIANS, DESPITE THEIR MONUMENTAL GRANDEUR.DR KALYANAN , WHERE IS THE CASE FOR A VEDIC ARYAN INDUS? IT STANDS TO REASON , THAT IF A PEOPLE WHO POSSESSED THE HORSE AND ITS CONNOTATIONS, IT WOULD PLAY AN IMPORTANT PART IN THAT PEOPLE'S SOCIETY, ITS RELIGION AND CUSTOMS. FINDING HORSE REMAINS IN INDIA IS NOT EVIDENCE THAT THE INDUS PEOPLE KNEW THE HORSE OR THAT IT WAS AN ARYAN CIVILIZATION. ALL THESE ARE ASSUMPTIONS BY DR RAO AND OTHERS OF HIS PROFESSION, WHO BECAUSE THEY SUPPOSEDLY FOUND HORSE REMAINS ON THE BANKS OF THE INDUS AND SARASVATI , THAT THE INDUS PEOPLE WERE ARYANS. CLAIMS OF HORSE DISCOVERIES ARE REPORTED EVERY DAY IN PUBLISHED REPORTS BUT , LAUGHINGLY, ALL OF THESE SO CALLED ATTESTED REPORTS ARE FOUND EVERYWHERE BUT IN THE CITIES OF THE INDUS!WHOEVER STARTED UP THIS THEORY OF THE INDUS BEING OF VEDIC ARYAN ORIGIN WILL HAVE TO ONE DAY FACE UP TO SOME GREAT DISAPPOINTMENTS, AND FOR LETTING FLY HIS IMAGINATION. NONE OF THESE GENTLEMEN CAN SO FAR POINT TO A SCRIPT OR SEAL WHICH PORTRAY THE IMAGE OF THE HORSE OR THE INDUS NAME FOR IT.
THE INDUS CIVILIZATION , I COMPARE TO THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES WHICH RULED AND CONQUERED THEIR NEIGHBORS WITH NEOLITHIC WEAPONS USING STRINGS TO TIE THE HANDLES AND SWORDS TO THE BLADES. THE INDUS WAS THE OPPOSSITE. THE CHANGE OVER TO NEW WEAPONRY CAME AFTER THE HYKSOS INVASION AND THE SAME THING HAD OCCURRED IN INDIA. MARTIN BERNAL, THAT SCION OF DISTORTION AND SIMILAR TO RAJARM ET AL TRIED TO SAY THAT GREECE OWED ITS ORIGIN TO EGYPT. HE FAILED UTTERLY. THE DISCOVERIES BEING MADE EVERY DAY BRINGS TO LIGHT THE TRUE CIVILIZATION OF THE INDUS AND THERE IS NOTHING ARYAN IN NATURE IN THEM. SO FAR I HAVE NOT HEARD KENYOR AND MEADOWS CONFIRMING THAT THERE WAS AN ARYAN PRESENCE OR ORIGIN OF THE INDUS BEING ARYAN. CAN ANYONE REPLY?