‘The Hindus: An Alternative History’ by Prof. Wendy
Doniger
A Chapter-wise Review by Vishal Agarwal
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Summary:
“Aldous Huxley once
said that an intellectual was someone who had found something more interesting
than sex; in Indology, an intellectual need not make that choice at all.”
Wendy Doniger in ‘When the Lingam is Just a Cigar,
Psychoanalysis and Hindu Sexual Fantasies’.
Wendy Doniger's book "The Hindus, an Alternative History" (see the cover), published and
distributed by Penguin has been a phenomenal sales success. Already (in
February 2010), more than 600 libraries in
Medieval
Some examples of derogatory statement & factual
errors:
i. Page 40 – “If the motto of Watergate was ‘Follow
the money’, the motto of the history of Hinduism could well be ‘Follow the
monkey’ or, more often ‘Follow the horse’.”
Comment: Very derogatory and offensive. The motto of Hinduism
is to follow the truth and unite with God.
ii. Page 112 - The author alleges that in Rigveda
10.62, it is implied that a woman may find her own brother in her bed!
Comment: The hymn has no such suggestion. It is offensive to
suggest that the sacred text of Hindus has kinky sex in it.
iii. Page 128 - The book likens the Vedic devotee
worshipping different Vedic deities to a lying and a philandering boyfriend
cheating on his girlfriend(s).
Comment: This is offensive and ignores that fact that in the
Rigveda, the gods are said to be all united, born of one another, and from the
same source.
iv. Pages 468-469 -“…The mosque, whose serene calligraphic
and geometric contrasts with the perpetual motion of the figures depicted on
the temple, makes a stand against the chaos of India, creating enforced vacuums
that India cannot rush into with all its monkeys and peoples and colors and the
smells of the bazaar…”
Comment: It is simply unacceptable that a scholar can
flippantly, pejoratively and derogatorily essentialize the Hindus as “monkeys
and peoples, colors and smells.., and chaos” in most insulting manner with the
aspersion thrown at the entire Hindu culture and community all over the world.
Such generalization has no place in serious scholarly work.
v. Page 571- It is alleged that in a hymn from Saint
Kshetrayya’s poetry, ‘God rapes’ the women devotees.
Comment: The hymn merely presents devotion using spiritual
metaphors and the hymns of the Saint seen collectively depict it as a
passionate love affair between the God and the devotees. No rape is implied in
this hymn at all.
vi. Page 450- It is claimed that Emperor Ala-ud-Din Khalji
did not sack temples in Devagiri.
Comment: His contemporary Amir Khusro clearly mentions that
the Emperor sacked numerous temples and raised mosques instead.
vii. Page 459 - King Ala-ud-din Husain of
Comment: Saint Chaitanya never met the king, and left his
kingdom to avoid persecution, as did his disciples. The king had destroyed
Hindu temples in Orissa.
viii. Pages 537-538 - The Sikh teacher Guru Govind
Singh was assassinated in 1708, while 'attending Emperor Aurangzeb'.
Comment: Emperor
Aurangzeb died in 1707. Guru Gobind
Singh was assassinated in 1708 during the reign of Aurangzeb’s successor,
Emperor Bahadur Shah I. It is insulting to say that the Guru was ‘attending’ on
the Emperor.
In her book, Hindu Deities are presented as lustful,
Hindu Saints are falsely alleged by the author to have indulged in sexual
orgies, or to have 'taken actions against Muslims', Hindu worshippers are
compared to cheating boyfriends, ‘intoxication’ is a ‘central theme of the Vedas’
and Hindu scriptures are presented as a litany of tales of faithful women
forsaken by their ungrateful husbands. One wonders if these caricatures of
Hinduism really reflect the author’s own life rather than the culture and
traditions of Hindus. Doniger claims to 'love' Hindus or their culture in her
book, but this claim appears quite bizarre, perverse and frightening.
This chapter by chapter review below will give dozens
of examples to illustrate the defects that abound in every section of her scandalous
book. The list is of course not exhaustive and is not intended to be so. In her
‘Acknowledgments’ section, Doniger thanks some of her students for the help
that they provided to her in writing some of the chapters. It does appear that
they have failed their teacher. Or perhaps, she has failed them.
Readers may click at the chapter title below to read
my discussions on errors and distortions in that respective chapter. Permission
is granted to reproduce these files (without alteration of their content) on
other websites. If you have any comments or corrections, please write to me at vishalsagarwal@yahoo.com . If you
need MSWord versions of these documents, please write to me with the reason for
needing the same.
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Critique
& Review of the book – Chapter by Chapter |
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Chapter # |
Title |
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N/A |
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Preface |
The Man or the Rabbit in the Moon |
1 |
|
1) |
Introduction: Working with Available Light |
17 |
|
2) |
Time and Space in |
50 |
|
3) |
65 |
|
|
4) |
85 |
|
|
5) |
103 |
|
|
6) |
Sacrifice in the Brahmans: 800 to 500 bce |
135 |
|
7) |
164 |
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|
8) |
The Three (or is it Four?) Aims of
Life in the Hindu Imaginary |
199 |
|
9) |
Women and Ogresses in the Ramayana: 400 to 200 ce |
212 |
|
10) |
252 |
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|
11) |
Dharma in the Mahabharata: 300 bce to 300 ce |
277 |
|
12) |
Escape Clauses in the Shastras: 100 bce to 400 ce |
304 |
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13) |
Bhakti in |
338 |
|
14) |
Godesses and Gods in the Early Puranas: 300 to 600 ce |
370 |
|
15) |
Sects and Sex in the Tantric Puranas and the Tantras: 600
to 900 ce |
406 |
|
16) |
Fusion and Rivalry Under the Delhi Sultanate:
650 to 1500 ce |
445 |
|
17) |
Avatar and Accidental Grace in the Later Puranas: 800 to
1500 ce |
473 |
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18) |
Philosophical Feuds in South India
and Kashmir: 800 to 1300 ce |
503 |
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19) |
527 |
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20) |
551 |
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21) |
Caste, Class and Conversion Under the British Raj: 1600 to
1900 ce |
574 |
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22) |
610 |
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23) |
636 |
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24) |
The Past in the Present: 1950- |
654 |
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25) |
687 |
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