09-01-2005, 03:17 AM
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianCivili...n/message/79142
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->From: "koenraad_elst" <koenraad.elst@...>
Date: Thu Aug 25, 2005Â 5:52 am
Subject: Re: Dalit Racism? koenraad_elst
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--- In IndianCivilization@yahoogroups.com, "Arun Salim"
<bodhiraksa@y...> wrote:
> I have just finished reading some copies of "Dalit Voice, The Voice
of
> the Persecuted Nationalities Denied Human Rights".
>
> Many of the articles are in praise of Hitler and vehemently anti-
> Semitic.
> Typical headlines are, "Jewish stranglehold on Germany. Wanted, a
> Hitler for India", "Zionists surpass Nazis in cruelty","Zionists
devour
> Christian West" and so on.
>
> There is a rave review of the book "Hitler Not Worst Villain of 20th
> Century as painted by Zionists" by Iqbal Ahmed Sharif, Advocate.
>
> Dalit Voice is similar in content to many neo-Nazi publications and I
> wonder if Dalits take it seriously or if it is only part of a Dalit
> lunatic fringe.<
I already wrote a critique of DV, to the same effect as your
observations here, in 1993 and again in a section of The Saffron
Swastika, 2001. I've lost sight of the fortnightly since then, but in
the 1990s its main support base was the Christian mission, and only in
second order the Dalit-wooing sections of Islam such as the Hyderabad
(ex-Razakar) Majlis-i-Ittihad-al-Muslimin. Many of editor VT Rajshekar
Shetty's booklets are but the text of his lectures given in Christian
forums. Christian mission papers in the West favourably quoted him,
keeping his more scandalous utterances out of view. I don't know if
they still do, have at any rate not noticed it anymore; in fact, I make
bold that my own exposing him and the Church's collusion with him have
made a difference.
Rajshekar, who is of course not a Dalit by birth, is a kind of Nazi in
two senses. Firstly, his explicit anti-Semitism, mentioned by you, and
also mentioned by Prof. Poliakov (with whom I was regularly in touch in
the last years before his passing) in his study of anti-Semitism 1945-
94 as the only instance of Indian anti-Semitism. Secondly, his copying
of anti-Semitic discourse in his own anti-Brahmin discourse. Thus, the
view of banker capitalism and bolshevism as two tentacles of a single
Jewish conspiracy is mirrorred in Rajshekar's view of Indian communism
and Hindutva as two co-ordinated tentacles of a neo-Brahminical
conpiracy.
When I gave a talk in Bangalore (where he is based) in 1996, I
personally invited him. At first he agreed, but on the day itself he
suddenly came up with very bizarre excuses, starting with the
inevitable RSS presence at the location as a reason to fear for his
life if he showed up, and then actually hid from me (his wife telling
me on the phone that he had to go and see his sister, then his sister
telling me on the phone that he had just left etc.). Maybe the
protagonists of Hindutva aren't such bright lights, but at least their
enemies aren't very impressive minds and characters either.
KE
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->From: "koenraad_elst" <koenraad.elst@...>
Date: Thu Aug 25, 2005Â 5:52 am
Subject: Re: Dalit Racism? koenraad_elst
Offline Offline
Send Email Send Email
--- In IndianCivilization@yahoogroups.com, "Arun Salim"
<bodhiraksa@y...> wrote:
> I have just finished reading some copies of "Dalit Voice, The Voice
of
> the Persecuted Nationalities Denied Human Rights".
>
> Many of the articles are in praise of Hitler and vehemently anti-
> Semitic.
> Typical headlines are, "Jewish stranglehold on Germany. Wanted, a
> Hitler for India", "Zionists surpass Nazis in cruelty","Zionists
devour
> Christian West" and so on.
>
> There is a rave review of the book "Hitler Not Worst Villain of 20th
> Century as painted by Zionists" by Iqbal Ahmed Sharif, Advocate.
>
> Dalit Voice is similar in content to many neo-Nazi publications and I
> wonder if Dalits take it seriously or if it is only part of a Dalit
> lunatic fringe.<
I already wrote a critique of DV, to the same effect as your
observations here, in 1993 and again in a section of The Saffron
Swastika, 2001. I've lost sight of the fortnightly since then, but in
the 1990s its main support base was the Christian mission, and only in
second order the Dalit-wooing sections of Islam such as the Hyderabad
(ex-Razakar) Majlis-i-Ittihad-al-Muslimin. Many of editor VT Rajshekar
Shetty's booklets are but the text of his lectures given in Christian
forums. Christian mission papers in the West favourably quoted him,
keeping his more scandalous utterances out of view. I don't know if
they still do, have at any rate not noticed it anymore; in fact, I make
bold that my own exposing him and the Church's collusion with him have
made a difference.
Rajshekar, who is of course not a Dalit by birth, is a kind of Nazi in
two senses. Firstly, his explicit anti-Semitism, mentioned by you, and
also mentioned by Prof. Poliakov (with whom I was regularly in touch in
the last years before his passing) in his study of anti-Semitism 1945-
94 as the only instance of Indian anti-Semitism. Secondly, his copying
of anti-Semitic discourse in his own anti-Brahmin discourse. Thus, the
view of banker capitalism and bolshevism as two tentacles of a single
Jewish conspiracy is mirrorred in Rajshekar's view of Indian communism
and Hindutva as two co-ordinated tentacles of a neo-Brahminical
conpiracy.
When I gave a talk in Bangalore (where he is based) in 1996, I
personally invited him. At first he agreed, but on the day itself he
suddenly came up with very bizarre excuses, starting with the
inevitable RSS presence at the location as a reason to fear for his
life if he showed up, and then actually hid from me (his wife telling
me on the phone that he had to go and see his sister, then his sister
telling me on the phone that he had just left etc.). Maybe the
protagonists of Hindutva aren't such bright lights, but at least their
enemies aren't very impressive minds and characters either.
KE
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->