Rajiv Malhotra

Rajiv Malhotra
Rajiv Malhotra
Born	(1950-09-15) 15 September 1950 New Delhi, India
Occupation	Author
Nationality	American
Alma mater	St. Stephens College Syracuse University
Genre	Religion and science, Civilizations
Notable works	Being Different (2011), Breaking India (2011), Indra's Net (2014), The Battle for Sanskrit (2016), Academic Hinduphobia (2016)
Website
rajivmalhotra.com [archive]

Rajiv Malhotra (hindi: राजीव मल्होत्रा) (born 15 September 1950) is an Indian-American author and Hindu activist who, after a career in the computer and telecom industries, took early retirement in 1995 to found The Infinity Foundation, which not only focuses on Indic studies, but also funds projects, such as Columbia University's project to translate the entire Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur. Malhotra has extensively written about the academic study of Indian history and society originating in Europe and USA, especially the study of Hinduism (Sanathana Dharma) as it is conducted by scholars and university faculty of the West, which, he maintains, denigrates the tradition and undermines the interests of India "by encouraging the paradigms that oppose its unity and integrity".

Biography

Malhotra studied physics at St. Stephen's College in Delhi and computer science at Syracuse University, and was "a senior executive, strategic consultant and an entrepreneur in the information technology and media industries" until he took early retirement in 1994 at age 44. to establish the Infinity Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey the next year. Besides directing that foundation, he also chairs the board of governors of the Center for Indic Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and advises various organisations. The U.S. Indologist Yvette Rosser describes Malhotra's stance toward Hinduism "as that of a ‘non-Hindutva Hindu’".

Infinity Foundation

Based in New Jersey, the Infinity Foundation promotes Indic studies.

The Foundation has given more than 400 grants for research, education and community work and has provided small grants to major universities in support of programs including a visiting professorship in Indic studies at Harvard University, Yoga and Hindi classes at Rutgers University, the research and teaching of non-dualistic philosophies at University of Hawaii, Global Renaissance Institute and a Center for Buddhist studies at Columbia University, a program in religion and science at University of California, an endowment for the Center for Advanced Study of India at University of Pennsylvania, and lectures at the Center for Consciousness Studies at University of Arizona. The foundation has provided funding for journals like Education about Asia and International Journal of Hindu Studies and for the establishment of the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Non-violence at James Madison University.

Swadeshi Indology Conferences

Swadeshi Indology Conference ^[archive] Series comprise one of the activities of Infinity Foundation. As per the foundation's website, this series has been envisioned to counter the 250-year-old narrative of Western Indology, the genre of Orientalism that focuses on India.

Swadeshi Indology Conference -1 ^[archive] was held in Chennai in July 2016. Swadeshi Indology Conference 2 ^[archive] was held in Delhi in February 2017.

While SI-1 dealt primarily with a purvapaksha of noted Western Indologist Prof. Sheldon Pollock, SI-2 dealt with both a purvapaksha and an uttarapaksha to Pollock’s theories.

See Swadeshi Indology

Tibetan Buddhist tengyur

The Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences, a series of books intended to encompass the entire Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur, is published by the American Institute of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, under the supervision of Robert Thurman. According to Thurman, the project was stalled for years until Malhotra provided funding:

Finally, in the year 2000, the founder of the Infinity Foundation in Princeton, New Jersey, Mr. Rajiv Malhotra, saw the relevance of the Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences to the recovery and presentation to the world of ancient India's classic Buddhist heritage, and the Foundation awarded the Institute, in affiliation with the Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies, a publication grant to start the actual printing. In 2001, the Infinity Foundation joined with Tibet House US in another grant to engage the scholarly, administrative, editorial, and design services of Dr. Thomas Yarnall, to advance and complete the project.

Ideas and writings

Malhotra's work analyzes and critiques Western culture, philosophy and political discourse from the perspective of a "Dharmic paradigm" or framework. Malhotra argues that India has been studied from a western perspective, but that Indians have not gazed at the west from a "Dharmic framework".

Dharmic traditions vs. Abrahamic religions

Malhotra argues that there are irreconcilable incompatibilities between Dharmic traditions and Abrahamic religions. The term Dharma

... is used to indicate a family of spiritual traditions originating in India which today are manifested as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. I explain that the variety of perspectives and practices of dharma display an underlying integral unity at the metaphysical level....

According to Malhotra, Abrahamic religions are history-centric in that their fundamental beliefs are sourced from history - that God revealed His message through a special prophet and that the message is secured in scriptures. This special access to God is available only to these intermediaries or prophets and not to any other human beings. History-centric Abrahamic religions claim that we can resolve the human condition only by following the lineage of prophets arising from the Middle East. All other teachings and practices are required to get reconciled with this special and peculiar history. By contrast, the dharmic traditions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism -- do not rely on history in the same absolutist and exclusive way.

According to Malhotra, Dharmic traditions claim an endless stream of enlightened living spiritual masters, each said to have realized the ultimate truth while alive on this earth, and hence, able to teach this truth to others. Unlike in the case of Dharmic traditions, the great teachers of Abrahamic traditions are not living models of embodied enlightenment. Instead, Abrahamic teachers proclaim the truth based on historical texts. The consequences of these divergent systems are enormous, and are at the heart of Dharmic-Abrahamic distinctions. Dharmic flexibility has made fundamental pluralism possible which cannot occur within the constraints of history centrism.

According to Malhotra, both Western and Dharmic civilizations have cherished unity as an ideal, but with a different emphasis. Malhotra posits a crucial distinction between

• A "synthetic unity" that gave rise to a static intellectualistic worldview in the west, positioning itself as Universal, and
• An "integral unity" that gave rise to a dynamically oriented worldview based on the notion of Dharma.

While the former is characterized by a top-down essentialism embracing everything a priori, the latter is a bottom-up approach acknowledging the dependent co-origination of alternative views of the human and the divine, the body and the mind, and the self and society.

Criticism of American academia

Wendy's Child Syndrome

In 2002, Malhotra published a blog, RISA Lila - 1: Wendy's Child Syndrome, in which he criticised the use of Freaudian psycho-analysis to analyse Indian culture. It was the starting point of what Martha Nussbaum has called a "war" by "the Hindu right" against American scholars. The blog

...has become a pivotal treatise in a recent rift between some Western Hinduism scholars—many of whom teach or have studied at Chicago—and some conservative Hindus in India, the United States, and elsewhere.

In this blog, Malhotra concluded

"Rights of individual scholars must be balanced against rights of cultures and communities they portray, especially minorities that often face intimidation. Scholars should criticize but not define another’s religion."

In early 2000s Malhotra started writing articles criticising Wendy Doniger and related scholars, claiming that she applied Freudian psycho-analysis on aspects of Indian culture. His 2002 blog titled Wendy's Child Syndrome, was considered as the starting point of a "rift between some Western Hinduism scholars [...] and some conservative Hindus in India, the United States, and elsewhere". Martha Nussbaum has called it a "war" by "the Hindu right" against American scholars.

The blog "has become a pivotal treatise in a recent rift between some Western Hinduism scholars—many of whom teach or have studied at Chicago—and some conservative Hindus in India, the United States, and elsewhere." Malhotra concluded in his blog: "Rights of individual scholars must be balanced against rights of cultures and communities they portray, especially minorities that often face intimidation. Scholars should criticize but not define another's religion."

According to Braverman, "Though Malhotra's academic targets say he has some valid discussion points, they also argue that his rhetoric taps into the rightward trend and attempts to silence unorthodox, especially Western, views."

The essay, together with a series of related essays and interviews, has been republished in Academic Hinduphobia, in the wake of the withdrawal of Doniger's The Hindus: An Alternative History from the Indian market, due to a lawsuit "alleging that it was biased and insulting to Hindus." The withdrawal lead to extensive media attention, and renewed sales in India. According to Malhotra "the drama has diverted attention away from the substantive errors in her scholarship to be really about being an issue of censorship by radical Hindus," hence the republication of his critique of Wendy Doniger and scholars related to her.

American academia

Along with other critics, Malhotra voices four criticisms of American academia:

1. "American academia is dominated by a Eurocentric perspective that views western culture as being the font of world civilisation and refuses to acknowledge the contributions of non-western societies such as India to European culture and technique".
2. The academic study of religion in the United States is based on the model of the "Abrahamic" traditions; this model is not applicable to Hinduism.
3. Western scholars focus on the "sensationalist, negative attributes of religion and present it in a demeaning way that shows a lack of respect for the sentiments of the practitioners of the religion".
4. South Asian Studies programmes in the United States create "a false identity and unity" between India and its Muslim neigbour states, and undermine India "by focusing on its internal cleavages and problems".

In his 2003-blog Does South Asian Studies Undermine India? at Rediff India Abroad. India as it happens Malhotra criticises the uncritical funding of South Asian Studies by Indian-American donors. According to Malhotra,

Many eminent Indian-American donors are being led down the garden path by Indian professors who, ironically, assemble a team of scholars to undermine Indian culture. Rather than an Indian perspective on itself and the world, these scholars promote a perspective on India using worldviews which are hostile to India's interests.

Malhotra argues that American scholarship has undermined India "by encouraging the paradigms that oppose its unity and integrity", with scholars playing critical roles, often under the garb of 'human rights' in channeling foreign intellectual and material support to exacerbate India's internal cleavages. According to Malhotra, Indian American donors were hoodwinked into thinking that they were supporting India through their monetary contributions to such programmes. Malhotra compares the defense of Indian interests with corporate brand management, distrusting the loyalties of Indian scholars:

Therefore, it is critical that we do not blindly assume that Indian scholars are always honest trustees of the Indian-American donors' sentiments. Many Indian scholars are weak in the pro-India leadership and assertiveness traits that come only from strongly identifying with an Indian Grand Narrative.

They regard the power of Grand Narrative (other than their own) as a cause of human rights problems internally, failing to see it as an asset in global competition externally. Hence, there is the huge difference between the ideology of many Indian professors and the ideology espoused by most successful Indian-American corporate leaders.

According to Malhotra, a positive stance on India has been under-represented in American academia, due to programmes being staffed by Westerners, their "Indian-American Sepoys" and Indian Americans wanting to be white — whom he disparages as "career opportunists" and "Uncle Toms" who "in their desire to become even marginal members of the Western Grand Narrative sneer at Indian culture in the same manner as colonialists once did." Malhotra has accused academia of abetting the "Talibanisation" of India, which would also lead to the radicalisation of other Asian countries.

U-turn theory

According to Malhotra, the Western appropriation of Indic ideas and knowledge systems has a long history. According to Malhotra, in what he calls "the U-Turn Theory", the appropriation occurs in several stages:

1. In the first stage, a Westerner approaches an Indian guru or tradition with extreme deference, and acquires the knowledge as a sincere disciple.
2. Once the transfer of knowledge complete, the former disciple, or/and his/her followers progressively erase all traces of the original source, repackages the ideas as their own thought, and may even proceed to denigrate the source tradition.
3. In the final stage, the ideas are exported back to India by the former disciple and/or his followers for consumption. Malhotra cites numerous examples to support this theory, dating from the erasure of Upanishadic and Vijnanavada Buddhist influences on Plotinus to the modern day reimportation of Christian yoga into India.

Another example is William James and his The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), Aldous Huxley and his The Perennial Philosophy (1945), and the works of Ken Wilber, all of which he claims to have been influenced by Vivekananda. Malhotra questions why his influence remains unacknowledged and uncredited in much Western thought.

Another example is the influence of Vivekananda's influence on western thought, for example William James and his The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). According to Malhotra, Vivekananda's ideas have continued to exist in the West in various manifestations, for example via Aldous Huxley and his The Perennial Philosophy (1945), and the works of Ken Wilber. Malhotra’s gives an overview of westerners who were influenced by Vivekananda’s ideas across the generations, examining how they shaped 20th-century Western thought, and questions why much of his influence remains unacknowledged and unaccredited.

Breaking India (2011)

Malhotra's book Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines discusses three faultlines trying to destabilise India:

1. Islamic radicalism linked with Pakistan
2. Maoists and Marxist radicals supported by China via intermediaries such as Nepal
3. Dravidian and Dalit identity separatism being fostered by the West in the name of human rights.

This book goes into greater depth on the third: the role of US and European churches, academics, think-tanks, foundations, government and human rights groups in fostering separation of the identities of Dravidian and Dalit communities from the rest of India.

According to Malhotra:

In south India, a new identity called Dravidian Christianity is being constructed. It is an opportunistic combination of two myths: the "Dravidian race" myth and another that purports that early Christianity shaped the major Hindu classics.

British linguists Francis Ellis and Alexander Campbell worked in India to theorize that the south Indian languages belong to a different family than the north Indian ones. Meanwhile, another colonial scholar, Brian Houghton Hodgson, was promoting the term "Tamulian" as a racial construct, describing the so-called aborigines of India as primitive and uncivilized compared to the "foreign Aryans".

A scholar-evangelist from the Anglican Church, Bishop Robert Caldwell (1814–91), pioneered what now flourishes as the "Dravidian" identity. In his Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Race, he argued that the south Indian mind was structurally different from the Sanskrit mind. Linguistic speculations were turned into a race theory. He characterized the Dravidians as "ignorant and dense," accusing the Brahmins – the cunning Aryan agents – for keeping them in shackles through the imposition of Sanskrit and its religion.

Being Different (2011)

Being Different is a critique of the western-centric view on India, characterised by the Abrahamic traditions. Malhotra intends to give an Indian view on India and the west, as characterised by the Indian Dharmic traditions. Malhotra argues that there are irreconcilable differences between Dharmic traditions and Abrahamic religions. The term dharma:

... is used to indicate a family of spiritual traditions originating in India which today are manifested as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. I explain that the variety of perspectives and practices of dharma display an underlying integral unity at the metaphysical level.

According to Malhotra, Abrahamic religions are history-centric in that their fundamental beliefs are sourced from history – that God revealed his message through a special prophet and that the message is secured in scriptures. This special access to God is available only to these intermediaries or prophets and not to any other human beings. History-centric Abrahamic religions claim that we can resolve the human condition only by following the lineage of prophets arising from the Middle East. All other teachings and practices are required to get reconciled with this special and peculiar history. By contrast, the dharmic traditions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism—do not rely on history in the same absolutist and exclusive way.

According to Malhotra, Dharmic traditions claim an endless stream of enlightened living spiritual masters, each said to have realised the ultimate truth while alive on this earth, and hence, able to teach this truth to others. Unlike in the case of Dharmic traditions, the great teachers of Abrahamic traditions are not living models of embodied enlightenment. Instead, Abrahamic teachers proclaim the truth based on historical texts. The consequences of these divergent systems are at the heart of Dharmic-Abrahamic distinctions. Dharmic flexibility has made fundamental pluralism possible, which cannot occur within the constraints of historicentrism.

According to Malhotra, both Western and Dharmic civilisations have cherished unity as an ideal, but with a different emphasis. Malhotra posits a distinction between a "synthetic unity" that gave rise to a static intellectual worldview in the west, positioning itself as universal, and an "integral unity" that gave rise to a dynamic worldview based on the notion of Dharma. While the former is characterised by a top-down essentialism embracing everything a priori, the latter is said to be a bottom-up approach acknowledging the dependent co-origination of alternative views of the human and the divine, the body and the mind, and the self and society.

Indra's Net (2014)

Indra's Net is an appeal against the thesis of neo-Hinduism and a defense of Vivekananda's view of Yoga and Vedanta. The book argues for a unity, coherence, and continuity of the Yogic and Vedantic traditions of Hinduism and Hindu philosophy. It makes proposals for defending Hinduism from what the author considers to be unjust attacks from scholars, misguided public intellectuals, and hostile religious polemicists.

The book's central metaphor is "Indra's Net". As a scriptural image "Indra's Net" was first mentioned in the Atharva Veda (c. 1000 BCE). In Buddhist philosophy, Indra's Net served as a metaphor in the Avatamsaka Sutra and was further developed by Huayen Buddhism to portray the interconnectedness of everything in the universe. Malhotra employs the metaphor of Indra's Net to express

the profound cosmology and outlook that permeates Hinduism. Indra's Net symbolizes the universe as a web of connections and interdependences.... The net is said to be infinite, and to spread in all directions with no beginning or end. At each node of the net is a jewel, so arranged that every jewel reflects all the other jewels.... a microcosm of the whole net.... [and] individual jewels always remain in flux.

The book uses Indra's Net as a metaphor for the understanding of the universe as a web of connections and interdependences, an understanding which Malhotra wants to revive as the foundation for Vedic cosmology, a perspective that he asserts has "always been implicit" in the outlook of the ordinary Hindu.

A revised edition was published in 2016, after charges of plagiarism. The revised edition omits most references to the work of Andrew J. Nicholson but rather refers original Sanskrit sources instead which according to Malhtora Nicholson failed to attribute his ideas to and explains that the unity of Hinduism is inherent in the tradition from the times of its Vedic origins.

The Battle for Sanskrit (2016)

The Battle for Sanskrit is a critique of the American indologist Sheldon Pollock. Malhotra pleads for traditional Indian scholars to write responses to Pollock's views, who takes a critical stance toward the role of Sanskrit in traditional views on Indian society. Malhotra is critical of Pollock's approach, and argues that western Indology scholars are deliberately intervening in Indian societies by offering analyses of Sanskrit texts which would be rejected by "the traditional Indian experts." He also finds western scholars too prescriptive, that is, being "political activists" that want to prescribe a specific way of life.

The inducement for this book was the prospect of Sringeri Peetham, the monastery founded by Adi Shankara in south India, collaborating with Columbia University to set up an "Adi Shankara Chair" for Hindu religion and philosophy, sponsored by an Indian donor. The instalment committee for the Chair was to be headed by Sheldon Pollock, whom Malhotra regards as an erudite scholar but also as one who undermines the traditional understanding. Malhotra contacted the lead donor to voice his concerns, which were not shared by the donor. Nevertheless, Malhotra fears "the issue of potential conflict when the occupant of the chair takes positions that undermine the very tradition that has backed and funded the chair." According to Malhotra,

... the Vedic traditions are under assault from a school of thought whose fundamental assumptions are dismissive of the sacred dimension. If, out of naivety, we hand over the keys to our institutions and allow outsiders to represent our legacy, then any chance of genuine dialogue will be lost. Furthermore, because of the enormous prestige and power of Western universities, a view of the Sanskrit will become accepted by the public.

The `network of trust' created by the book is said to have caused 132 academics from India to sign a petition asking for the removal of Sheldon Pollock from the editorship of the Murty Classical Library of India.

Nityanand Misra, investment banker and scholar of Sanskrit, has praised Malhotra's book The Battle for Sanskrit saying that it resonates with its target audience consisting of traditional Sanskrit scholars and English-speaking right-leaning Hindus.

Academic Hinduphobia (2016)

Academic Hinduphobia is a 2016 collection of essays written and published in the early 2000s by Rajiv Malhotra "critiquing Western Indology and discussing a wide range of challenges confronting Hinduism, India and the world," published by Voice of India. The book was inaugurated by Dr. Subramanian Swamy at an event at India International Centre at New Delhi on 10 July 2016.

The book was reviewed at Pragyata. The author wrote that "The book is a pleasant read because the described characters are variegated and the events on the ground are swiftly advancing all while the ideas are being developed", adding that "It is... persistence of the same anti-Hindu attitudes that makes this book more than a historical document: it teaches Hindus what to expect today if they challenge the Indological establishment."

Koenraad Elst lauds Malhtora's at attempting to write a book on the prevalent anti-Hindu sentiments among indologists and academics in United States. Elst argues that American academia has deep nexus with American foreign policy interests and the Christian missionary apparatus which reinforce each other. Elst summaries the undercurrent of the book and at the same time shows the hypocrisy of the critiqued American indologists by saying,

"Malhotra prepares the ground for his Breaking India thesis, where different forces unite with a common goal: to de-construct India’s majority culture and fragment the country. At the same time, he sketches the psychology of the Hindu-haters, explaining why they have such a good conscience in lambasting Hinduism and trying to destroy it. They like to see themselves as the oppressed underdogs, or in this case as champions of the oppressed, in spite of their privileged social position and their senior position vis-à-vis the born Hindus who come to earn PhDs under their guidance."

Sanskrit Non-Translatables: The Importance of Sanskritizing English (2020)

Sanskrit Non-Translatables, a book by Malhotra published in 2020 and coauthored by Satyanarayana Dasa, deals with the idea of Sanskritizing the English language and enriching it with powerful Sanskrit words. It continues the discussion on the idea of non-translatability of Sanskrit, first introduced in the book, Being Different.

The book discusses 54 non-translatables across various genres that are being commonly mis-translated. It empowers English speakers with the knowledge and arguments to introduce these Sanskrit words into their daily speech with confidence. For English readers, the book is the starting point of the movement to introduce loanwords into their English vocabulary without translation.

Reception

Scholars have widely recognized that Malhotra has been influential in sparking widespread dissatisfaction with the Western world's scholarly study of Hinduism. John Hinnells, a British scholar of comparative religions, considers Malhotra to lead a faction of Hindu criticism of methodology for the examination of Hinduism. Prema A. Kurien considers Malhotra to be at "the forefront of American Hindu effort to challenge the Eurocentricism in the academia."

Other scholars welcome his attempt to challenge the western assumptions in the study of India and South Asia but also question his approach, finding it to be neglecting the differences within the various Indian traditions. In response, Malhotra points out that he does not state that all those traditions are essentially the same, that there is no effort to homogenise different Dharmic traditions, but that they share the assertion of integral unity.

Hinnells considers Malhotra to lead the traditional Hindu criticism of methodology for the examination of Hinduism. Prema A. Kurien considers Malhotra to be at

...the forefront of American Hindu effort to challenge the Eurocentricism in the academia.

Because of Malhotra's criticism and exposure of bias in Indology, he has also been the the subject of criticism. See also the external links section for some of these controversies.

Reception at wikipedia

Wikipedia claims that "scholars of Hinduism and South Asia see [the Infinity Foundation] largely as an organization committed to the "surveillance of the Academy", however this is taken out of context from the cited source, which does not make such a general claim.

Wikipedia also reports on a very minor issue about Swami Nithyananda, and the source is a primary source (which normally are not allowed in wikipedia articles) (see [1] ^[archive]).

Publications

Books

• Rajiv Malhotra (2011), Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines (Publisher: Amaryllis; ISBN 978-8-191-06737-8)
• Rajiv Malhotra (2011), Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism (Publisher: HarperCollins India; ISBN 978-9-350-29190-0)
• Rajiv Malhotra (2014), Indra's Net: Defending Hinduism's Philosophical Unity (Publisher: HarperCollins India; ISBN 978-9-351-36244-9)
• Rajiv Malhotra (2016), Battle for Sanskrit: Dead or Alive, Oppressive or Liberating, Political or Sacred? (Publisher: Harper Collins India; ISBN 978-9351775386)
• Rajiv Malhotra (2016), Academic Hinduphobia: A Critique of Wendy Doniger's Erotic School of Indology (Publisher: Voice of India; ISBN 978-9385485015)
• Rajiv Malhotra and Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji (2020), Sanskrit Non-Translatables: The Importance of Sanskritizing English (publisher: Amaryllis, An imprint of Manjul Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.; ISBN 978-93-90085-48-4)

AI & The Future of Power

Snakes in the Ganga

The Power of Future Machines

The Battle for IITs

Ten Heads Of Ravana

Varna Jati Caste

Videos

Rajiv Malhotra regularly speaks at Indian and international fora, universities and events. Many of his videos are available on YouTube and the Infinity Foundation website.

Other publications

• Malhotra, Rajiv (2005). "India and Globalization". In Nagendra Rao (ed.). Globalization, pre modern India. Daya Books.
• Malhotra, Rajiv (2007). "The axis of neo-colonialism" ^[archive]. Indian Journals. 11 (3). ISSN 0971-8052.
• Malhotra, Rajiv (2009). "American Exceptionalism and the Myth of the Frontiers". In Rajani Kannepalli Kanth (ed.). The Challenge of Eurocentrism: Global Perspectives, Policy, and Prospects. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-61227-3.
• Malhotra, Rajiv (2013), Vivekananda's Ideas and the Two Revolutions in Western Thought. In: Vivekananda as the Turning Point. The Rise of a New Spiritual Wave. Pp. 559–583 ^[archive] (PDF), Advaita Ashrama

Key online writings

• Rajiv Malhotra (2002), RISA Lila – 1: Wendy's Child Syndrome ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra (2003), Problematizing God's Interventions in History ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra (2016), Rajiv Malhotra Explains The Challenges Of Understanding Sheldon Pollock ^[archive]

Involvement

• Antonio de Nicolas, Krishnan Ramaswamy, and Aditi Banerjee (eds.) (2007), Invading the Sacred: An Analysis Of Hinduism Studies In America (Publisher: Rupa & Co.)

Quotes

• There is a new awakening in India that is challenging the ongoing westernization of the discourse about India and the intellectual machinery that produces it.
  • The Battle for Sanskrit, p.1

• so this dharma needs a nation needs a body, so i feel that India needs a positive narrative, India needs an unified narrative because it is the keeper of the dharma and it is a very important relationship, so while my goal is in Dharma, the idea of protecting the interests of India is like a means to an end not an end in itself.
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GLaXQ6Rgcg ^[archive] (43:20)

See also

• François Gautier
• Arun Shourie
• Bengali renaissance
• Indian independence movement
• Neo-Vedanta
• Postcolonialism
• Anti-Hinduism
• Invading the Sacred
• Swadeshi Indology
• Antonio T. De Nicolás
• U-turn theory

Sources

Printed sources

• Bloch, Esther (2010), Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-54890-8
• Bryant, Edwin; Patton, Laurie (2013), The Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History, Routledge
• Campbell, James T. (2007), Race, Nation, and Empire in American History ^[archive], The University of North Carolina Press
• Doniger, Wendy (2009), The Hindus: An Alternative History, New York: Penguin
• Edelmann, Jonathan (2013), "Becoming Different: Why Education is Required for Responding to Globalism Dharmically," in", Journal of Hindu Christian Studies, Volume 26, 2013 17-27
• Halbfass, Wilhelm (1995), Philology and Confrontation: Paul Hacker on Traditional and Modern Vedānta, SUNY Press
• Hinnells, John R. (2010), The Routledge companion to the study of religion ^[archive], Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-415-47328-6, retrieved 22 January 2012
• Jones, Ken H. (2003), The New Social Face of Buddhism: A Call to Action, Wisdom Publications, ISBN 0-86171-365-6
• King, Richard (1999), "Orientalism and the modern myth of "Hinduism"", NUMEN, Vol. 46, pp.146–185
• King, Richard (2002), Orientalism and Religion: Post-Colonial Theory, India and "The Mystic East", Routledge
• Kipf, David (1979), The Brahmo Samaj and the shaping of the modern Indian mind, Atlantic Publishers & Distri
• Kurien, Prema A. (2007), A place at the multicultural table: the development of an American Hinduism ^[archive], Rutgers University Press, ISBN 978-0-8135-4056-6
• Larson, Gerald James (December 2012), "The Issue of Not Being Different Enough: Some Reflections on Rajiv Malhotra's Being Different" ^[archive] (PDF), International Journal of Hindu Studies, 16 (3): 311–322
• Malhotra, Rajiv (2011), Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism, HarperCollins India, ISBN 978-9-350-29190-0
• Malhotra, Rajiv. (December 2012), "Author's Response: The Question of Dharmic Coherence" ^[archive], International Journal of Hindu Studies, 16 (3): 369–408
• Malhotra, Rajiv (2013), Vivekananda's Ideas and the Two Revolutions in Western Thought. In: Vivekananda as the Turning Point. The Rise of a New Spiritual Wave. Pp. 559=583 ^[archive] (PDF), Advaita Ashrama
• Malhotra, Rajiv (2014), Indra's Net: Defending Hinduism's Philosophical Unity ^[archive], Noida, India: HarperCollins Publishers India, ISBN 978-9351362449, OCLC 871215576
• Misra, Nityanand (May 6 2016), Enter Dhṛṣṭadyumna, Pāṇḍava-s awaited: Boldly strong, The Battle for Sanskrit is an effective war cry ^[archive], retrieved February 17 2017 CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Mittal, Sushil (2006). Religions of South Asia: an introduction. Gene R. Thursby. Routledge.
• Nussbaum, Martha C. (2009). The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future ^[archive]. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03059-6. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
• Odin, Steve (1982), Process Metaphysics and Hua-Yen Buddhism: A Critical Study of Cumulative Penetration Vs. Interpenetration, SUNY Press, ISBN 0-87395-568-4
• Pennington, Brian K. (2013), "The Pitfalls of Trying to Be Different", Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, 26: 10–16
• Prothero, Stephen (2006), A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America, The University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 978-0-8078-5770-0
• Rambachan, Anatanand (1994), The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda's Reinterpretation of the Vedas, University of Hawaii Press
• Rambachan, Anantanand (2013), "The Traditional Roots of Difference", Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Volume 26,2013, 2-9
• Rinehart, Robin (2004), Contemporary Hinduism: ritual, culture, and practice, ABC-CLIO
• Rosser, Yvette C. (2007), "University of Chicago Magazine: Obscuring the Issues", in Krishnan, Ramaswamy; de Nicolas, Antonio; Banerjee, Aditi (eds.), Invading the Sacred: an Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America, New Delhi: Rupa & Co., pp. 378–396, ISBN 9788129111821
• Tilak, Shrinivas (2012). "Differing Worldviews (Western and Dharmic) in Rajiv Malhotra's Being Different". International Journal of Hindu Studies. Springer Netherlands. 16 (3): 287–310. doi:10.1007/s11407-012-9130-2. ISSN 1022-4556.
• Taylor, McComas (2011), "Mythology Wars: The Indian Diaspora, Wendy's Children and the Struggle for the Hindu Past" ^[archive] (PDF), Asian Studies Review, 35: 149–168
• Thurman, Robert (2004), The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature: Mahāyānasūtrālaṁkāra, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-9753734-0-4
• Peter Wilberg (April 2008). Heidegger, Phenomenology and Indian Thought ^[archive]. New Gnosis Publications. ISBN 978-1-904519-08-9. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
• Yelle, Robert A. (December 2012), "Comparative Religion as Cultural Combat: Occidentalism and Relativism in Rajiv Malhotra's Being Different", International Journal of Hindu Studies, 16 (3): 335–348

Further reading

Malhotra's criticisms

• Ramaswamy, Krishnan; Nicolas, Antonio de; Banerjee, Aditi (2007), Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America, Rupa & Co
• Kurien, Prema A. (2007), A place at the multicultural table: the development of an American Hinduism, Rutgers University Press, ISBN 978-0-8135-4056-6

Background information

• De Michelis, Elizabeth (2005), A History of Modern Yoga, Continuum
• Sweetman, Will (2004), "The Prehistory of Orientalism: Colonialism and the Textual Basis for Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg's Account of Hinduism" ^[archive] (PDF), New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 6, 2 (December, 2004): 12–38
• King, Richard (2002), Orientalism and Religion: Post-Colonial Theory, India and "The Mystic East", Routledge
• Bryant, Edwin; Patton, Laurie (2013), The Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History, Routledge

External links

Main sites

• rajivmalhotra.com ^[archive]
• list of articles ^[archive]
• At Google Plus ^[archive]
• At Twitter ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra ^[archive] on Facebook

• The Infinity Foundation ^[archive] [2] ^[archive] [3] ^[archive]
• Indian Science ^[archive]
• Swadeshi Indology ^[archive]
• https://swadeshiindology.com/procs/reclaiming-sanskrit-studies/ ^[archive] Reclaiming Sanskrit Series

• www.invadingthesacred.com - Home ^[archive] Invading the Sacred -- An Analysis of Hinduism Studies in America
• Being Different Blog ^[archive]
• Breaking India ^[archive] blog ^[archive] articles ^[archive] downloads ^[archive] FAQ ^[archive]
• Home | Indra's Net ^[archive]
• Hinduphobia ^[archive]
• Home | Being Different the Book ^[archive]
• https://intellectualkshatriya.com/ ^[archive]
• RajivMalhotraDiscussion - Yahoo Groups ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra at HuffPo ^[archive]
• Patheos ^[archive]
• NitiCentral ^[archive]
• Rediff.com articles ^[archive]
• Articles at Beliefnet, Firstpost
• Rajiv Malhotra's Followers Comments, Questions and Thoughts ^[archive]
• Outlook India ^[archive]
• Articles at Sulekha ^[archive]
• https://archive.org/search.php?query=Rajiv+Malhotra&sort=titleSorter ^[archive]
• https://cisindus.org/forums/forum/breaking-india-course-discussion-forum/ ^[archive]

Interviews

• http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0412/features/index.shtml ^[archive] Interview
• interview ^[archive] With Vishal Agarwal
• rajiv-malhotra-the-interview-the-christian-post-didnt-publish-the-chakra/ ^[archive]
• http://indiafacts.org/interview-yogi-amrit-desai/ ^[archive]
• http://globalpress.hinduismnow.org/activism/why-we-should-not-accept-western-non-practitioner-translations-of-hindu-scripture/ ^[archive]
• https://soundcloud.com/spiritual18/henry-grayson-phd-interviews-rajiv-malhotra ^[archive] Inteview with Henry Grayson
• https://swarajyamag.com/magazine/india-is-the-worlds-largest-territory-which-is-up-for-grabs-by-predatory-forces ^[archive]
• (269) Full interview: Rajiv Malhotra on his childhood, seva & decolonising India - YouTube ^[archive]

Selected Articles

• http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/lecture-on-swadeshi-indology-part-1 ^[archive]
• http://eshadoot.com/2017/04/25/dharma-not-religion ^[archive]
• https://www.pgurus.com/revival-sanskrit-roadblocks-strategy/ ^[archive]
• http://creative.sulekha.com/follow-up-on-manusmriti-to-my-article-in-outlook-india_135208_blog ^[archive]
• https://swarajyamag.com/culture/untangling-the-false-knots-in-rajiv-malhotras-indras-net ^[archive]
• How 'Gandhara' became 'Kandahar' : How 'Gandhara' became 'Kandahar', Rajiv Malhotra blogs on sulekha, Current Affairs blogs, Rajiv Malhotra blog from india ^[archive]
• The Axis of Neocolonialism by Rajiv Malhotra on Sulekha ^[archive] [4] ^[archive]
• Hitchhiker's Guide to Rajiv Malhotra's Works: Transcript: Arun Shourie's Lecture on 'Indra's Net' ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra amazing speech at Maharishi University of Management, USA - YouTube ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra on Sita Ram Goel & Ram Swarup – The Hindu perspective ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra's Indra's Net: Seven big ideas and Hinduism's integral unity - Firstpost ^[archive]
• Hitchhiker's Guide to Rajiv Malhotra's Works: ‘The Battle for Sanskrit’ – A Preview of Rajiv Malhotra’s latest book ^[archive]
• Hitchhiker's Guide to Rajiv Malhotra's Works: Hitchhiker's Guide to 'Invading The Sacred' ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra’s “Breaking India” Creates Waves in Houston | Indo American News ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra's 'Breaking India', listing conspiracies to split the country, released by Dr. Swamy ^[archive]
• Atanu Dey on India's Development » Blog Archive » Rajiv Malhotra’s book, “Breaking India” ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra: European Misappropriation of Sanskrit led to the Aryan Race Theory ^[archive]
• An Interview About Breaking India | The Rediscovery of India ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra's Challenge to the sufferers of the 'Akhand Bharat' Syndrome | Hindu Human Rights Online News Magazine ^[archive]
• The interpretation of gods ^[archive]
• https://swarajyamag.com/culture/defence-against-hinduphobia ^[archive]
• https://swarajyamag.com/culture/why-the-kumbh-mela-is-at-risk ^[archive]
• https://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=5710 ^[archive] The Battle to Thwart a New Threat: Denial of Sanskrit’s Sacred Dimension
• http://indiafacts.org/book-review-battle-sanskrit-rajiv-malhotra/ ^[archive]
• https://www.pgurus.com/p1-discussion-white-hindu/ ^[archive]
• https://rajivmalhotra.com/library/articles/cartels-theories/ ^[archive]
• http://beingdifferentforum.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-strange-case-of-re-de-re-colonized.html ^[archive]
• https://rajivmalhotra.com/library/articles/washington-post-hinduphobia/ ^[archive]
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-malhotra/how-europeans-misappropri_b_837376.html ^[archive]

Articles about Malhotra and about interactions and controversies with others

• https://swarajyamag.com/culture/untangling-the-false-knots-in-rajiv-malhotras-indras-net/ ^[archive]
• My Experience with Rajiv Malhotra ^[archive]
• Why Rajiv Malhotra matters to “White” Hindus like me | Vichar Vimarsh ^[archive]
• Jeffrey J. Kipal, The Tantric Truth of the Matter. A Forthright Response to Rajiv Malhotra ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra & William Dalrymple Abridged Twitter Interaction (with tweets) · skallup · Storify ^[archive]
• As Dalrymple changes his mind on Rajiv Malhotra, JLF attendees must take on Dinanath Batra and the threat to books in India | The Caravan - A Journal of Politics and Culture ^[archive]
• Why post-colonial lords have a colonial hangover ^[archive]
• Opinion : Fighting the Sepoys of the Leftist-evangelist Mafia ^[archive]
• Decolonising Indology: Rajiv Malhotra on why he won't follow rules set by the West - Firstpost ^[archive]
• Academic lens - Professor Bal Ram Singh, PhD Blog by Motilal Banarsidass Indological Publishers ^[archive]
• Nicholson’s Untruths | Swarajya ^[archive]
• Hindu Dialogue » Andrew Nicholson on Hinduism: Rhetoric of ‘Good Cop/Bad Cop’ ^[archive]
• Adhikara And the Academy – The Bogus Controversy over Rajiv Malhotra And ‘Plagiarism’ | Swarajya ^[archive]
• Why Sheldon Pollock is a very important Indologist to engage - By Rajiv Malhotra - Rajiv Malhotra | Infinity Foundation ^[archive]
• The Rajiv Malhotra Controversy and the Connection to Hindu Studies ^[archive]
• Dear Andrew Nicholson.. | Swarajya ^[archive]
• Rebuttal to Andrew J. Nicholson | akashravianandan ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra has a rejoinder to Andrew Nicholson ^[archive]
• Time to join the war on the error of plagiarism ^[archive]
• Read the Sanskrit texts: Why both Rajiv Malhotra and his critics are wrong about plagiarism ^[archive]
• Substance versus Technicality: The campaign to smear Rajiv Malhotra with allegations of plagiarism | Vichar Vimarsh ^[archive]
• Hindus, Free Speech and a debate on Intellectual Property ^[archive]
• Fundamentalist Cleric Throws Plagiarism Bull at American Author « Charcha 2020 ^[archive]
• Rajiv Malhotra on Hindu Intellectuals - Niti Exclusive ^[archive]
• Newslaundry – Rajiv Malhotra says those accusing him of plagiarism are really out to silence his voice. ^[archive]
• Wendy's revenge: Plagiarism charge against Rajiv Malhotra is a red herring ^[archive]
• Plagiarism charge: Why Rajiv Malhotra is on the gunsights of western Indologists - Firstpost ^[archive]
• My Journey: Businessman to Philanthropist to Scholar to Victim Blog by Rajiv Malhotra ^[archive]
• Mihir S Sharma: The publishers and the crackpots | Business Standard Column ^[archive]
• Plagiarism is not a desi problem - Rebuttal against backlash at Rajiv Malhotra - Sanskriti - Indian Culture ^[archive]
• https://www.opindia.com/2018/10/rajiv-malhotra-the-reputed-hindu-ideologue-appointed-as-a-visiting-professor-at-jnu/ ^[archive]
• https://swarajyamag.com/culture/defence-against-hinduphobia ^[archive]
• http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/author:rajiv-malhotra ^[archive]

Selected Videos

• Swadeshi Indology Youtube channel ^[archive]
• Infinity Foundation India Youtube ^[archive]
• Youtube ^[archive]
• List of videos ^[archive]
• Videos - Being Different ^[archive]
• http://www.breakingindia.com/dr-subramaniam-swamy-vid-1/ ^[archive]
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTx56HdYrM0 ^[archive] Introduction to Non-translatables of South Indian Music - Rajiv Malhotra with Vrinda Acharya - YouTube