A Real Historian of India Exposes the BJP's Hinduvta Bullshit; Somebody Call Tulsi Gabbard!
Romila Thapar wrote a fine history of ancient India. She's very, very good. And this op ed in the NYT is spot on -- and of course extendable to any of these far-right nationalist/fascist movements:
To establish a Hindu state, democracy has to be replaced by a state where the fact of Hindus being in a majority in itself gives them priority. The Hindutva definition of the Hindu is that both his ancestral homeland and the Hindu religion’s place of origin are within the boundaries of British India. This makes the Hindu distinctly different from those that came from elsewhere, as well as from those of other religions — Christians, Muslims and Parsis are therefore aliens.
The origin of the Hindus is traced back to Aryan culture. Aryan identifies a language and a culture, not a biological race, whose emergence historians date to the second millennium B.C. But the Hindutva version of history is frantically pushing the date back to include the Indus civilization, a sophisticated urban civilization that preceded the Aryans by a millennium, as part of the Aryan origin of the Hindus.
The word is derived from “arya,” which means “those regarded with respect.” If the Hindus are of Aryan origin, therefore, they feel they can claim superiority over all others. This reflects not just the 19th century European obsession with Aryanism, but also the imprint of German and Italian Fascism of the 1930s on the founding members of the R.S.S., easily found in their writings.
More on Thapar here and here. And in the recent video below she talks about how Gabbard's favorite, Bhagavad-Gita-receiving world leader (that and more here) is sending actual Indian history down the memory hole:
And, finally, here's a fine documentary on actual Indian history called "India Invented." The title tells you all you really need to know about all such ethnicities. (By the way, the person noted at the beginning, D. D. Kosambi, was a seminal Marxian historian -- and scientist and general polymath.)
For some reason, I can't add the last video that playlist, so here's episode 13:
And, finally, here's someone else who knows what the fuck she's talking about:
To establish a Hindu state, democracy has to be replaced by a state where the fact of Hindus being in a majority in itself gives them priority. The Hindutva definition of the Hindu is that both his ancestral homeland and the Hindu religion’s place of origin are within the boundaries of British India. This makes the Hindu distinctly different from those that came from elsewhere, as well as from those of other religions — Christians, Muslims and Parsis are therefore aliens.
The origin of the Hindus is traced back to Aryan culture. Aryan identifies a language and a culture, not a biological race, whose emergence historians date to the second millennium B.C. But the Hindutva version of history is frantically pushing the date back to include the Indus civilization, a sophisticated urban civilization that preceded the Aryans by a millennium, as part of the Aryan origin of the Hindus.
The word is derived from “arya,” which means “those regarded with respect.” If the Hindus are of Aryan origin, therefore, they feel they can claim superiority over all others. This reflects not just the 19th century European obsession with Aryanism, but also the imprint of German and Italian Fascism of the 1930s on the founding members of the R.S.S., easily found in their writings.
These fucking fascist morons; they'd be funny if they weren't so dangerous. Get this: the BJP, which considers itself the avatar of Essential and Original and Superior Hindu Indianness, literally borrowed its whole fucking philosophy from a bunch of Indian-hating European racist imperialists and fascists. They got down on their knees and imbibed the very worst of their oppressors' views...but Thapar is some kind of anti-Indian "academic terrorist." What a fucking joke.
And, finally, here's a fine documentary on actual Indian history called "India Invented." The title tells you all you really need to know about all such ethnicities. (By the way, the person noted at the beginning, D. D. Kosambi, was a seminal Marxian historian -- and scientist and general polymath.)
For some reason, I can't add the last video that playlist, so here's episode 13:
And, finally, here's someone else who knows what the fuck she's talking about: