Sunday, January 12, 2014

ORGANIZERS OF VEDIC WORKSHOP ADEQUATELY ALERTED AND CAUTIONED, READ BETWEEN THE LINES BY KNOWING THE RECENT HISTORY OF HORRIBLE ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHILDREN'S TEXTBOOKS UNDERMINING THE PRIDE AND CONFIDENCE OF HINDU CHILDREN IN CALIFORNIA STEERED BY HARVARD PROF. WITZEL THE PRIME MOVER OF VEDIC WORKSHOP OF KOZHIKODE

Friends:

Talking about Witzel is in itself "not ignoring" him. We might "table" him for a while 
until the two books by Rajaram are published. Then there may be new paradigms
than the old AIT and OIT. If there was a spring of language(s) and culture(s) that was common to all the population of Afro-Indian-European prehistoric civilizations in the early ages like 50,000 BCE and such languages and cultures left vestiges that later flourished in different geographic areas like blooming of diaspora then there could also be striking linguistic similarities. This is another alternative paradigm and one need not get boxed into "either/or" paradigm of "AIT or OIT" nor have confinement into only "AIT and OIT" paradigm. Exchanges occurred in multiple phases over the ages during the maritime intercourse and migrations over the land. If the current intercourse among multiple cultures is indicative of such exchanges same can be expected to have occurred knowing human social instincts and exploratory instincts. The paradigm that some superior race called "Aryan" arrived one fine day in throngs bringing Sanskrit, Vedas, and all good in the civilization to give a gift to primitive Indians is more of a fantasy than even a conjecture about historial reality knowing human nature and the geographic challenges for transfer of civilizational and cultural "export." This is an extrapolation of British fantasy in which the British brought their language (English) and the so called Western culture and "superior" religion to India and imagined that a similar event must have contributed to the origin of Sanskrit and Indian culture in the ancient past. The debate therefore does not have to be between AIT and OIT but needs to evolve into open minded scientific investigation into the origins of languages not limiting the exploration to the study of linguistics alone. When all the dust settles down there is no question AIT will be declared as a phantasmagorical political device peculiar to the left hemispherical elaborations of the grandiose greedy (empire building) crafty "white" race. It is nothing but that as it appears more and more but the last nail in its coffin will not be too long from coming. The dying or dead theory will not die easily and will be resurrected again and again just like the myth of immaculate conception, resurrection of the dead body, God and Devil keeping busy interfering with human affairs for ages and condemning large population to eternal torture, etc. and these myths are to be exported to control and subjugate other populations asking them to pray with closed eyes to find out when they open their eyes they have lost their lands and natural wealth to the conniving myth making Bible thumping white superior race and found in their hands a "fantasy" in the form of Bible. They are robbed. This AIT is a tool for robbery and it is a shame that after Hitler made a mockery of "superior Aryan race fantasy" and killed millions to justify just such myth there are both European and Indian scholars wishing to live with such myth and tenaciously argue there is a place for AIT. They lack basic conscience and a sense of justice when they have seen suffering imposed on massive scale on other cultures (including the Jewish) and populations by the White European race espousing such theories and the same is used by the antisocial prison inmates in the US to inflict unprovoked violence upon the African American and Native American as well as non-white Hispanic population by forming an "Aryan Brotherhood" gangs. All this is a shame and a disease of human race and a cancer just like the Jihadi Islam is as pronounced by V. S. Naipaul. AIT mentality is a disease of the mind and sooner we recognize it better off the human race will be as it feeds the base and mean nature in the racist Whites. That is enough said. Let the chips fall where they may for the scholars but let us not forget the phenomenal damage done to humanity by these AIT fanatics including Hitler. Thanks for reading and contemplating on what is said here. - Achintyachintaka

Vedic workshop of Kozhikode. I wish it was not held in Bharatam. 

Narayanan Komerath and I tried to warn the organiser of the Vedic workshop in Kozhikode (Fwds of mails appended). 

Apparently, our warnings were of no avail.

The workshop seems to have ended with a presentation on "Vedic and Asian Mythology" by Wales Prof. of Sanskrit & Director of Graduate Studies, Dept. of South Asian Studies, Harvard University, USA.  http://ivw2014.org/images/ IVW-Program-Format.pdf

What we sow, so we reap. I wonder what the workshop has achieved in promoting an understanding of Vedic heritage among, the the people of India, the sacred land of the Veda .

Namaskaram.

Kalyanaraman

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: S. Kalyanaraman <kalyan97@gmail. com>
Date: Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 6:49 AM
Subject: Re: On the Occasion of Your Workshop
To: Narayanan Komerath <narayanan.komerath@gmail.com>
Cc: vinodpolpaya@gmail.com
Dear Prof. Komerath,

Namaskaram.

I am deeply grateful to you for expressing the sentiments of many of us students of Hindu traditions.

I wrote to Dr. Vinod Bhattathiripad (see appended fwd) and I haven't received any reply from him.

It pains me that in this sacred land we should allow anti-hindu haters to sell their academic wares in the guise of promoting vedic studies.

Are we really paying a tribute, repaying the ऋणम् we our pitr-s for giving us the heritage of dharma and satyam?

Sorry, I can't write any further. The agony is too deep for tears.

Dhanyosmi, for the impassioned letter you have written to Dr. Vinod. If you permit me, I will post both your letter and my letter in a blogpost and bring them to the attention of a wider audience. If Dr. Vinod has a response, I will post that also on the blogpost.

Respectfully yours, 

Kalyanaraman

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: kalyan <kalyan97@yahoo.com>
To: "vinodpolpaya@gmail.com" <vinodpolpaya@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 4:44 PM
Subject: Please ask the organizers to find another venue outside India
Dear Dr. Dr. P. Vinod Bhattathiripad,

Namaskaram. 

Please see this blogpost which brings out clearly the anti-Hindu hatred of the foreign coordinator for the Conference. Please advise them to find another outside India if they want to denigrate the Vedic tradition with false analyses hiding under an academic burqa.

Namakaram. 
S. Kalyanaraman, Ph.D
Sarasvati Research Centre
On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 6:32 AM, Narayanan Komerath <narayanan.komerath@ gmail.com> wrote:
Namaskaram, Dr. Bhattathiripad.
I came to know of your Vedic Workshop yesterday.

http://www.ivw2014.org/ Contacts.html

I heard it from a person who is an authority both on technology and on the Vedas, having studied them since he was a little boy, from some of the best authorities. With his scientific and technical credentials, and his lifelong dedication, his understanding of the Vedas in my view surpasses that of anyone else whom I have met. He is also a teacher of mine over the past four decades, from the time when I was privileged to study under him in a truly world-leading institution. However, he has no other role in what I discuss below.
It was good to see a Workshop on our ancient sources of wisdom, being conducted in the land where the rituals of the Vedic times have been conducted without a break for many millennia.
I see that this is the Sixth Workshop of this kind - and that the last five were conducted at Harvard University. Perhaps there is a reason that Harvard chose not to host this, but that is just a wild guess on my part. Anyway, I am sure the name of Harvard University brought great pride to local organizers, and unquestioning acceptance, understandably so, based on the reputation of many of the colleges at that great University. I do not know if the Department of Sanskrit, or of Linguistics, is one of those. 

When I saw the list of organizers, memories of events from the USA came flooding back. In particular, of what became known as the California Donkey Trials. These were two court cases which ended with major settlements having to be paid by the California State Board of Education (i.e., the taxpayers of California) to Hindu/ Indian-American parents and children who suffered from the atrocities allegedly committed by the Board in gross violation of their own guidelines if not the law, under the (mis)guidance, and alleged deep malice, of  certain entities associated with major universities. As I recall, one case was filed by the Hindu American Foundation, an entity organized by professionals in the USA, in the State Court of California. The other was filed by a group of young parents who were trying to get a fair education for their children. This was in the United States Federal court, alleging gross violation of Civil Rights.

In both cases, the rich and powerful legal entities representing the State of California, after 1 year in one case and 3 years in the other of foot-dragging and desperate attempts to avoid the issues, chose to settle at the last minute, seeing the writing on the wall from what the Justices had already pronounced. In each case, the cost to the taxpayers ran into the millions of dollars, yet it did not come anywhere close to properly atoning for the gross injustice perpetrated against the children of California. Predictably, the entities responsible for misguiding the Board declared "victory", just as Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Pervez Musharraf declared victories in 1965, 1971 and 1999.

This article is quiet on the precise contents of the settlement statements, the depositions of the entities who had to come clean on their actions, or the statements of the justices which convinced the Board to settle before the cases came to trial. However I have seen some of those, and since I have no special access, so can you, I am sure, if you are so interested. 

These cases, and the extreme demonstration of arrogance which preceded and led to them, no doubt earned well-deserved "fame" for some of the entities, just as the nation led by Ayub and Yahya and Pervez has achieved today. I suspect that it would have been exceedingly difficult to find entities in the USA who would want or agree to organize a Workshop with such names on them, in 2014.

However, I note that they have succeeded in finding people who are either unaware of these events, or are aware and unaffected.
In either event, my best wishes to you for a Workshop which tries to find Truth, though I wish I could be more  optimistic about that outcome.
My own role in this controversy was quite limited. For one thing I do not live in California or Massachusetts. But I was profoundly disturbed as a decent human being, and  as a teacher and researcher by profession,  by what I saw being done in the name of a great university, under the claim of "scholarship". This compelled me to write and post the article that I have linked below. This was back in 2006 when citizen outrage was just starting.

I am writing this email now to assuage my own conscience: that I tried my best to inform the organizers of this Workshop of what they were supporting, and make them aware while there was still time, to guide it, and the resulting reputation of their own esteemed organizations, as they see fit. I am sorry that this comes at the last minute: I was made aware of the Workshop, and had a chance to browse its antecedents, only yesterday afternoon.

If the Board in California had opened their minds for a moment and put their arrogance on hold for a moment in 2006, long enough to read, listen and think, they could at least have saved themselves the utter disgrace, if not the great expense, that they imposed on the taxpayers of California. The settlements paid directly to the HAF and CAPEEM, while substantial, were small compared to the huge expenses incurred by the Board and the employers of those who allegedly (and very obviously) misguided the Board. No doubt there were internal repercussions.  The Board members who participated in these events have long-since been removed from the Board, I believe.

Perhaps you might also choose to read in time, one can only hope. In any event, here is my humble contribution, it is of course nowhere near the deep standards of scholarship that are no doubt prerequisite for the deliberations at your Workshop.

Satyam Eva Jayate.

http://narayanankomerath. wordpress.com/2013/04/05/ scholarship-of-equine- posteriors-harvardappa-style- november-2006/
Of course, my article was just a ripple compared to what became eventually a tsunami of citizen outrage. I am sure you can find deeply academic treatises on the various issues, written about these events by others who are far more qualified than I am to write on the Vedas. All it will take is a few minutes on Google Search, which is a standard part of the due diligence that precedes all research and scholarship.

They however, share, and in most cases exceed, the outrage and dismay that I felt when I saw the arrogance of these entities, and the damage that they had been doing, and continue to try to do, to our children.
That, unfortunately, may be what this Workshop too will remind all those people - more support to undermine our children's education, this time coming from deep within the land where the knowledge of the Vedas have been preserved throughout the millennia. But I have already said enough. My deep apologies for the disturbance that I may have caused. 

Respectfully submitted

narayanan
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)