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Dr. M. Lal Goel (University of West Florida)Hinduism Studies and Dhimmitude in the Amercan Academy (word document) review of Doniger's work.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Doniger’s 779-page tome is laced with personal editorials, folksy turn of
the phrase and funky wordplays.  She has a large repertoire of Hindu
mythological stories.  She often narrates the most damning mythical
story—Vedic, Puranic, folk, oral, vernacular—to demean, damage and disparage
Hinduism.  After building a caricature, she laments that fundamentalist
Hindus (how many and how powerful are they?) are destroying the pluralistic,
tolerant Hindu tradition. Why save such a vile, violent religion, as painted
by the eminent professor?  There is a contradiction here.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->She narrates the now discarded story
about the impaling of Jains at the hands of Hindu rulers in the Tamil
country. Then she says that “there is no evidence that any of this actually
happened, other than the story.” (p 365).  Then why narrate the story?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Doniger says that Hindus would do the same to Muslims if they had the power
to do so.  Hindus did come to power after the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in
1707, when the Mughal rule rapidly declined.  The Marathas were the
strongest power in Western and Southern India in the 18th and
19thcenturies, as the Sikhs were in North India.  There is no account
of large
scale demolition and looting of Muslim places of worship either by the
Marathas or the Sikhs.  If a copy of the Quran fell into the hands of
Maharaja Shivaji during a campaign, the same would be passed on to a Muslim
rather than being burned.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Doniger argues that Hindu ‘megalomania’ for temple building resulted from
Muslim destruction of some Hindu temples.  In other words, because the
Muslims destroyed some of the Hindu temples, the Hindus went on a building
spree.  If Doniger’s argument is accepted, Hindus should thank Islamic
marauders for looting and desecrating their shrines.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->While discussing the Hindu epic Ramayana in London in
2003, Doniger put forth her usual gloss: that Lakshman had the hots for his
brother Rama’s wife Sita, and that sexually-charged Sita reciprocated these
feelings. An irate Hindu threw an egg at her and conveniently missed it.
This incident is her cause célèbre.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Doniger’s inflammatory book on the Hindus makes sense only in the light of a larger global trend—a trend that seeks to re-package Islamic history as a
force for tolerance and progress.</b> <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

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