Thursday, November 11, 2010

Koenraad Elst rebuts Guha's assertions on Ayodhya and others

Interesting article on how Koenraad Elst rebuts Guha's assertions on Ayodhya and others.
Guha's point being:
“At the height of the Ayodhya movement, the Sangh Parivar circulated, at vast expense, the writings of an obscure Belgian ex-priest which claimed that Hindus had been victimised for thousands of years by Muslims and Christians, and that destroying a mosque, building a temple in its place, and sacrificing thousands of (mostly innocent) lives along the way was the only way that this cumulative historical injustice could be avenged. This ex-priest had little training as a historian, and even less credibility. But unlike the other similarly untrained ideologues of the Hindu Right, his citizenship was not Indian, but Belgian. The hope was that the colour of his skin would trump the shallowness of his arguments.”

And Elst's response;
As for the colour of my skin, it is his own school that has been using its white connections for decades as an implicit argument of authority. It seems that white people on average are quite silly, for most of them have lapped up the version of Indian history propagated by India’s “eminent historians” whose eminence results from their toeing the hegemonic party-line rather than from a respect for the data in the primary sources. Anyone with normal intelligence regardless of skin colour can sort out their distortions by using proper historical method.
In the meantime, my position has been endorsed by the Allahabad High Court, the one reasonably impartisan institution that has held both argumentations against the light. After availing itself of the best archaeological expertise, it has ruled in favour of the old consensus, upheld until 1989 by all sources but denied since then by Guha’s circles, viz. that Ayodhya is indeed a case of Hindu victimization by Muslims through the imposition of a mosque on a Hindu sacred site in forcible replacement of a temple.


Its a very interesting dialogue to be followed. Do check it out and follow Koenraad's blog as well.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Must read

http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/op-ed/an-empress-of-india-in-new-clothes/222331.html

John MacLithon at his best.

Last para

The tragedy of India is that it was colonised for too long. And unlike China, it always looks to the West for a solution to its problems. Sonia Gandhi, whatever her qualities, is just an incarnation of that hangover, an empress of India in new clothes.

Xinhua Ram said...

Did Chindu ever publish this rejoinder from Koenraad Elst? I haven't followed them for some time.

Oldtimer said...

I make the case that Guha will strike back:

http://auldtimer.wordpress.com

Dirt Digger said...

Anonymous,
I will review the article and post on it. Thanks for the post.

Dirt Digger said...

XR,
cHindu probably did not publish any rejoinder. I will check and let you know.

Dirt Digger said...

Old timer,
Guha is younger version of Justice Krishna Iyer, suffering from leftism.
Incredibly vitriolic and wacky.

Anonymous said...

koenraadelst@hotmail.com
This Dr Konrad Elst's email. You must post the article to him Old Timer. Dr Elst will reply but he takes time.

Anonymous said...

http://auldtimer.wordpress.com
Elst replies in the above web site
please hava a look.