A A group of mostly Indian Americans led by Rajeev Malhotra has recently published a book named The Ten Heads of Ravana: A Critique of Hinduphobic Scholars, The book, written in English, is criticized by ten scholars, including Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, Shashi Tharoor, Ramachandra Guha, Devdutt Patnaik, Sheldon Pollock, Wendy Doniger, Audrey Traschke, Michael Witzel and this author.
Malhotra and his team compared these scholars to the mythological character Ravana and accused them of killing Dharma, which they gleaned from ancient Sanskrit books. In the preface, Malhotra writes, “Ten contemporary scholars have been chosen in this book because their work contains aspects that many Hindus today consider irreligious, just as the historical Ravana was considered in his time.” “
Notably, the four foreign scholars targeted in the book have worked on Sanskrit and taught the language at various Western universities over a long period of time. Malhotra, on the other hand, owns a financial network called Infinity Foundation in the US and runs Garuda Publications in Delhi, which published the book.
Now the question is, why didn’t these Sanskrit loving Indian Americans write their book in Sanskrit? They write books in English and attack the language as colonial. They praise Sanskrit as a great global living language but never use it in any text. When Sheldon Pollock called Sanskrit a dead language in modern times, he was not wrong. How many homes are there in India where family members communicate in Sanskrit or use it in their daily lives?
The problem with these pseudo-intellectuals is that they mistake abuse for analysis. By writing this book he has only exposed himself and not Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, Shashi Tharoor, Ramachandra Guha, Sheldon Pollock, Wendy Doniger, Devdutt Patnaik, Audrey Traschke, Michael Witzel or this author.
Linguistic death, the death of any language, occurs when there are no living native speakers of a language. However, the language-killing of Sanskrit has been systematic by a group of people who used it to maintain hegemonic control. Historically, Sanskrit was controlled by brahminical scribes, who restricted access to it and denied ancient Shudras and Dalits the opportunity to read or write in the language. Sanskrit was regarded as the exclusive property of Brahmins and Kshatriyas, mainly Brahmins.
brahmins killed sanskrit
Now they do not use Sanskrit to write books of social or educational importance. Essentially, they are consciously responsible for the death of their own language, while continuing to blame the rest of the world for its death. In post-colonial India, not a single Brahmin has written any meaningful modern book in Sanskrit.
In contrast, other cultures such as the Jews write globally popular modern books in Hebrew, such as the influential work of Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens – A Brief History of Mankind, which was originally written in Hebrew and later translated into many languages around the world. Greeks write in Greek, and Arabs write in Arabic. But Brahmins do not write in Sanskrit. Why is it like this? Is it because they hate the language but continue to praise it for deceiving the gullible Shudra/Dalit/Adivasi masses?
Brahmin intellectuals, supported financially and institutionally by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), deliberately emphasize and glorify only the Sanskrit past, disregarding India’s agricultural and artisanal history. They claim that Sanskrit is the richest and greatest language in the world. These intellectuals propagate the notion that all the knowledge available globally in various subjects was originally stolen from the Sanskrit texts—the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Brahmanas, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Even their scientists claim that all modern science is available in ancient Sanskrit books. Yet, how many of these scholars have actually read those books in Sanskrit?
If Sanskrit has such enormous creative energy, why does the Indian Brahmin, who is now spread all over the world, leave the global philosophical and intellectual space to individuals like Harari? They could write remarkable books in Sanskrit and demonstrate its richness in comparison to Hebrew, Greek and Arabic. Instead of writing quality books in Sanskrit, why do they choose to write in English, a language they often criticize as a colonial language?
Throughout its history in India, Sanskrit was considered a “father language” rather than a “mother tongue”. This also applies to Dwij families (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Banias, Kayasthas and Khatris). It is important to remember that even within Brahmin families, Sanskrit was never allowed to become a “mother tongue”, as it was never used for daily communication or as a household language. A language can only be considered a “mother tongue” if it is regularly used in daily life within the home, including communication between a mother and her child during breastfeeding. Has any mother in India ever used Sanskrit to communicate with her child while breastfeeding?
When Sanskrit was not allowed to become the “mother tongue” even in Brahmin families, there is no question of adopting it in production areas among Shudra/Dalit/Adivasi communities throughout history. There was a severe restriction on the use of this language among the agricultural and artisan communities since the composition of the first Sanskrit book – the Rigveda. Prior to the composition of the Rigveda, the status of Sanskrit as a language was largely unknown.
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not your immortal time
Given these circumstances, one must question why this group of Indian Americans, who identify themselves as custodians of civilization, do not write their books in Sanskrit. The objective of this team is to free the Indian mindset from colonialism, consisting mainly of individuals living in the US, Europe, Canada or Australia, and to mobilize financial resources. Why don’t they send their children to Sanskrit schools and universities established in India? Why, instead, do they choose to send their children to prestigious American universities?
people who wrote Ten heads of Ravana Accuses the scholars of being ignorant of the civilization of India which comes from Sanskrit books. But what do they mean by civilization? Can books build civilization? Interestingly, in his entire discourse on civilization, there is no mention of the role of agriculture, science and technology – the foundations built by the ancient Shudras, Dalits and Adivasis. Even a cursory reading of any translation of Sanskrit books indicates the absence of social forces from the Shudra, Dalit and Adivasi communities. These books mainly focus on the two castes, the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas, on the themes of war, yagyas and kritus. However, the entire system of food production, collection and animal grazing is completely absent in these books.
All Hindutva writers accuse those who view civilization from the point of view of agriculture, artisan and animal economy as anti-national. Since I keep writing about agriculture, artisan and cattle economy while living in India, they call me “Bharat Vikhandar”., They behave as if they are living only by eating pages of Sanskrit books. It is important to acknowledge that all human beings, including these Hindutva writers, survive on food produced by the Dalit, Adivasi and Shudra agricultural masses. Even during the composition of the Vedas, the musicians depended on the food produced by the Shudras for their survival. How could they compose such books in which the grain producers themselves were absent?
These forces are internationalizing their hypocrisy and creating a literary treasury full of myths. They want the world to believe that India sustains itself by consuming it Amritam (Amrit) which came out from the churning of the ocean. He never writes about the people who tilled the land, produced meat and milk through animal grazing, or prepared the ornaments worn by the kings and queens who lived in that “Sanskrit era”. Use to live.
Ironically, these Indian American elites, especially members of the Infinity Foundation, which opposes anti-caste laws in the US, call themselves “intellectual Kshatriyas”. Is this not casteism? Dalits, Adivasis and Shudras are not interested in your Sanskrit era. They want to usher in the English age, displace these powers from all centers of knowledge production, and establish a link between food production and knowledge production.
This is not Amrit Kaal; This is actually the Shudra period. Production in this era is not pollution, as depicted in Sanskrit texts. Here, production is sacred.
Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd is a political theorist, social activist and author. his latest book is Shudra – vision for a new path Co-edited with Karthik Raja Karuppusamy. He is currently working on a book, The Shudra Rebellion – History from Regional Memories, Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)