A controversy which reflects growing dread of the right in India.
AB Wire
NEW DELHI: The Indian Council of Historical Research, colloquially known as the ICHR, has sparked a row by inviting Padma Bhushan awardee Dr. David Frawley to speak at its foundation day celebrations on how Indian history writing needs to be revisited with emphasis on spirituality, culture and religion.
Frawley is an American Hindu teacher and author known for promoting yoga, ayurveda, and vedic astrology, but left-leaning detractors claim the move is a part of the government’s agenda to “saffronize” education, or tune it more to right-wing Hindu nationalism and cultural history.
Frawley is not considered a historian in academic circles. Some left wing liberals and academics were incited after the ICHR council was controversially reshuffled a few weeks ago and left dominated by right-wing historians.
“Let me tell you, Dr. Frawley is not considered with great seriousness among historians,†BP Sahu, professor of history at Delhi University and a former ICHR council member told The Hindustan Times
Frawley has an Indian name, ‘Pandit Vamdeva Shastri’, and runs the American Institute of Vedic studies, a web-based educational center. He is married to an Indian — Yogini Shambhavi Devi, author and Vedic educator — and has a D.Litt. in Yoga from Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana in Bengaluru.
Frawley was bestowed with the Padma Bhushan, earlier this year, and has been criticized by some liberals as adhering to the right wing ideology. He was also one of the first Americans to receive the title of “Jyotish Kovid” from the Indian Council of Astrological Sciences (ICAS) in 1993, followed by “Jyotish Vachaspati†in 1996.
One of Frawley’s more notable theories is that of coastal, almost Atlantis-like origin for Vedic civilization, according to Wikipedia.
In 2002, Frawley published in an article in The Hindu newspaper that drew on archeological discoveries at Gulf of Cambay pointing to the existence of a submerged city dating from 7500 BC in order to propose a coastal origin for Vedic life. Frawley further suggested that his notion concurs with the texts of the Rig Veda, which includes repeated occurrences of the sanskrit word “samudra,” meaning ocean.
7 Comments
Dr. Frawley has qualification in Yoga and Ayurveda, and he comes to teach us about Indus valley civilization? Is that not nonsense on the face of it?
It’s as good as my family doctor trying to pose as Historian!!
So first ask Dr Frawley to get some qualification on History from a reputed university, if he has it in him, and then speak!
And you guys better wait for that day! Knowledge is not easy!
The fact remains that the new History will be as politcally convenient and untrue as the old one. For example, “Vedic” will be used instead of Brahmin and “Hindu” will be used instead of Arya to establish that the post 1947 Anglo-“Hindu”-PANGOLIN* consensus has been the norm since the dawn of time.
*Note: PANGOLIN: An enemy of India who believes in inequality under law, exceptions to the rule of law and persecution of some for the benefit of others. At present, the sole purpose of the Indian Republic, Constitutional or otherwise, is to pamper and provide for certain constitutionally preferred sections of society who the British found useful to hold and exploit India at the cost of those who the British hated and persecuted. The Pangolin is a creature that is unique to India and feeds on ants that are known in nature to be industrious and hard working if not quite as fruitful as bees who flee to better climes. (PANGOLIN is an acronym for the Periyar-Ambedkar-Nehru-Gandhi-Other (alien) Religions-Communist Consensus that usurped the British Mantle and has worn it with elan to loot, plunder, and rape India since 1921 and re write History and laws to their exclusive benefit since 1947)
The threats of Hindutva revisionism of history
The Indus valley civilization is not Vedic. The IVC is
pre-Vedic
there are many reasons for this:
(a) The IVC went into terminal decline by 1900 BC and vanished off the face of
the earth by 1400 BC- 1300 BC. Vedic culture was continuous till Buddhist times.
(b) The epicenter of the IVC was the Indus River, the epicenter of the
Aryavarta was the Gangetic plains.
(c) Sanskrit was clearly never a widely spoken language
(d) The Harappans traded with Mesopotamia, wrote on seals , gave a great deal
of Importance to drainage systems and urban development besides metallurgy.
Hindutvavaadins have a hidden agenda- expose them before it is too late
Read my papers on researchgate.
https://www.researchgate.net/p…
I have inserted a section called ‘Hindutvavaadins, their technology, their
Line, their fraud in my paper ‘the demise of the Dravidian, the Vedic and the
Paramunda indus myths”
The crying need of the hour is for mainstream researchers to forge a consensus
On a new 21st century school of indology
We need to act before it is too late
SUJAY RAO MANDAVILLI
seen your research gate profile – same 19th century colonial bulls**t has been served in a different packing, nothing else. The journals you have published your so called peer-reviewed papers in are rubbish and have no reputation at all. Stop misleading people dude. You are nowhere near Dr. Frawley.
If a thing came up once, it might be a coincidence. But if knowledge after knowledge comes up at regular interval, from the same book. Well guys you need to have a deep look again.
You are wrong somewhere.
The Aryan Invasion Theory is a myth is a bygone conclusion, so are most of the interpretation of the ilk of Jones, Philips and Max Mueller. What remains is the ‘Truth’, which is getting unearthed.
He is a very serious sober scholar, those who attack him reveal their narrow minded bias.
First of all,Indian ‘liberals’ must be called by their original name i.e., Jehadi liberals or something milder like communists.
They have destroyed an entire generation by their lies about Indian history and the whole narrative of Indianness.
ICHR had become a den for out of work d-istorians who pass on the job to their baby crooks they nurtured for carrying on with the job of peddling lies and misrepresentation of facts.