ISBN NUMBER: (ISBN 81-85990-47-6)
NUMBER OF PAGES: 177
PRICE $8.00, including postage. (Paper back version)
AUTHOR: Koenraad Elst (born in Belgium 1959)
Graduated in Chinese, Indo-Iranian Studies and Philosophy. Took courses at the Benares Hindu University (BHU), interviewed many Indian leaders and thinkers during his stays in India between 1988 and 1996. Has published in Dutch and English on subjects relating to language policy issues, contemporary politics, history of science, Oriental philosophies and the current general religio-political situation in India and above all Ayodhya.
PUBLISHER: Voice of India, 2/18 Ansari Road, New Delhi 110 002, India.
REVIEWER(S):
In spite of Hinduism’s nominal magnitude, the chance that Hinduism gets wiped out by its enemies can no longer be discounted. More than ever, fortunes are spent on the war to destroy Hinduism in favor of Islam or some suitably adapted variety of Christianity or Marxism. The hostile activities of Islamic and Christian agitators and the attempts at Hindu demoralization and loss of Hindu self- respect by the secularists are now compounded by a fast spreading loss of Hindu memory at the mass level by consumerism and Western pulp media.
If the Hindutva politicians and activists want to spare themselves the prospect of going down in history as a bunch of buffoons, who stood by and worked on inconsequential things while their country was taken over by their mortal enemies, they will have to get their act together quickly. Instead of wasting energy on petty politicking and limited goals such as the reconversion of a few sacred sites, all eyes should be set on the major goal, which is the liberation of the fellow Indians from the predatory religions which have alienated them from their ancestral culture. The goal could in fact be set even higher, so as to include among other things the emancipation of the West-Asians and the liberation of the Kaaba (a temple to Hubal, the Arab Shiva) from islam; but it will already be good if the self-styled vanguard of Hindu society can save its own people and country.
The emancipation of fellow Indians from closed creeds ia a very humane and responsible project. It could best be summed up in the motto with which the Muslim-born humanist Ibn Warraq opens his book Why I Am Not a Muslim: “The best thing we can do for the Muslims is to free them from Islam.” More concretely, it is the only way to avoid the extremely bloody conflagrations which are sure to break out if the Muslim and Christian agitators smell victory in ever- larger sections of the country. As they smell blood, they will become more openly and more fiercely aggressive and Hindus will not go down without a fight; the subsequent loss of life should not be minimized as just one more of those inevitables in history. The ideologies which pit believer against unbeliever should be neutralized before they can add some more achievements to their ugly record.
