Sita Ram Goel: The
Bhishma Pitamaha of Indic Ideology.
His Early Letters to Me
Shrikant G.
Talageri
[This article mainly,
for the record, gives the content of Sita Ram Goel’s 13 letters to me 11th February
1987 to 5th August 1993. It was meant to be
included in a commemoration volume to be published in 2025, edited by Koenraad
Elst. But for various reasons, it could not be published there. So, at Koenraad’s
advice, or with his permission, I am uploading it on my blog. Needless to say,
it is a very personal article, and may or may not be interesting to others, but
I felt it should be on record. The appendix contains one of the letters on
which I felt I had to make my own comments]
I have written about my personal
relationship with Sita Ram Goel in my article "Sita Ram
Goel, memories and ideas", written for the Sita Ram Goel
Commemoration Volume, entitled "India's Only Communalist",
edited by Koenraad Elst, published by Voice Of India, New Delhi,
in 2005.
I started out on that
article as follows:
“I first became acquainted
with Sita Ram Goel, or rather with his writings, in the late nineteen-eighties.
I had gone to Savarkar Sadan, near Shivaji Park in Mumbai, to buy a copy of
Nathuram Godse’s “May It Please Your Honour” ¾ ironical since Sita Ram
Goel was a staunch admirer of Mahatma Gandhi. [The truth is, over the years, without
blinding myself to his many faults, some of which cost the nation dear, and
without losing my respect for Godse either, I have also acquired great
respect for Mahatma Gandhi, and his life and philosophy, and their great
relevance in an increasingly ruthless world. This may be difficult to
understand if we think only in terms of black and white.]
As I was browsing through the
other books available there, the late Balarao Savarkar, in charge of the books
section at that time, showed me some of the then booklets by Sita Ram Goel and Ram
Swaroop, and urged me to buy them as they were excellently researched and
written and inexpensively priced. Rather doubtfully, I glanced through the
booklets, and then took two or three of them. I had just read, and been
impressed by, H.V. Sheshadri’s “The Tragic Story of Partition”, and I saw that
one of the booklets, “Muslim Separatism, Causes and Consequences”, seemed to be
a review of that book. Another, “The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India”,
also seemed interesting.
Interesting was an understatement.
I was bowled clean over by the style and the deep systematic logic of Sita Ram
Goel, till then a name not known to me. Two days later, I raced back to
Savarkar Sadan and bought all the other Voice of India booklets available. And
I wrote to Sita Ram Goel expressing my deep appreciation, and enclosing a draft
of Rs. 101/- asking for copies of other Voice of India booklets which I had not
managed to find at Savarkar Sadan.
Sita Ram Goel wrote back (on
11/2/1987, a letter I have preserved to this day) thanking me for my interest,
and sending me 9 booklets (7 by himself and 2 by Ram Swaroop) and some valuable
personal observations on the political situation.”
When I set out to
write this article, I chose this title for it, in the sense of course
that Sita Ram Goel was the Pitamaha of Indic ideology, who
not only presented the very essence and most basic aspects of Hindutva ideology
in his writings (though perhaps he never actually used the word “Hindutva”
to describe his ideology), but established for the first time an entire
publishing house whose only purpose was to publish fundamental scholarly works
which would investigate every single aspect of history, religion, philosophy
and politics which affected Hindu society and civilization. But, for me
personally, he was indeed a Bhishma Pitamaha in another sense of
the word: Pitamaha basically means “paternal grandfather”, and
the name of my own actual paternal grandfather (who passed away before I was
born) was also Sitaram.
My father had
preserved a small accounting diary containing his father’s notes (i.e.
words written by my actual pitamaha) which we only discovered while
going through my father’s papers after he passed away in 2002. I have still
preserved it. I have also preserved some of the many letters (then on postcards
or inland letter cards) received by me from Sita Ram Goel. They
have become old and yellowed, and I was thinking of getting them laminated.
I will devote this
article to setting on record the mails I received from Sita Ram Goel
in the years before the publication of my first book in 1993.
Naturally, I do not have copies of the letters that I wrote to him,
but the gist of some of the things I wrote in them is implied in his replies:
1. The very first
mail I received from him by inland letter card on 11/2/1987:
“Dear Friend.
Your letter of the 7th
and the DD for Rs 101/-. Thanks. I have just returned from Jaipur. Nine books,
7 by myself and 2 by Ram Swarup, are being sent by Registered Post. How I
became a Hindu is being sent. It is a new reprint. One book is in Hindi. It is
yet to be translated into English. A list is also being sent.
Your appreciation of
what we write and publish is very encouraging.
Right now I am
preparing a big work on Islamic Iconoclasm in India from 653 A.D. to 1857 A.D.
It will have a chapter on Semitic Theology from Moses to Muhammad. It is the
theology which provides the primary motive. I have in mind a book on India’s
history also. That is my subject. But it needs time and a lot of preparation. Some
day I will do it. Your suggestions are most welcome. But we are only two
individuals and there is no end of subjects which secularism has perverted.
Hindu society suffers from lack of scholarship, which has been its particular
failure in the face of Islam and Christianity.
It is unfortunate
that the RSS which started with the aim of serving Hindu society has ended (or
is fast ending to be) by becoming another sect. They do frown on any other organization
coming forward. In the case of our publications, Sudershanji has been very
friendly and sells them personally wherever he goes. But what is a thousand
copies sold in a year in a country like ours? The news media is wholly in
unfriendly hands.
I know everyone in
the RSS, BJP and VHP. Have known them for years. I have so far failed to make
them understand that it is all a battle for the minds of men. Otherwise they
have been very friendly people.
The BJP miscarriage
is not an accident. It tells a lot about the limitations of RSS training. I
have no hope that they will ever learn.
Thanks again for
everything. You are a friend.
Regards.
Sincerely.
Sita Ram Goel”.
2. His second letter
to me dated 26/6/1990, almost three and a
half years after the first one above, when I wrote to him telling him that I
was preparing for a book examining the Aryan Invasion, and asking
him whether he would consider it for publication by Voice of India:
“Dear Shri
Talageri,
Many thanks for your
kind letter of the 18th.
I have been reading
about the Aryan Invasion Theory since I was a college student. I have read a
lot on the subject. I do not see any conspiracy in it, only a psychology which
came naturally to the conquerors vis-à-vis a conquered people. They could not
deny that the Hindus had had a far superior culture. So they explained it as
best as they could.
My latest reading on
the subject is that no serious scholar now believes in this theory – east or
west. It is only our “intellectuals” who continue to be fond of it. Our
text-books teach it to the children.
The other day
Dr.S.R.Rao was kind enough to visit me. We are publishing his magnum opus on
The Indus Valley culture, including the Indus script which he says is Sanskrit.He
also told me that he is holding a seminar on the Aryan invasion Theory at
Dharwad in August or September.
Personally I feel
that the matter is very complex and should be left to the scholars. They will
do justice in due course.
But if you think you
know all the arguments, for and against, and can write a scholarly study, I
will consider it for publication. I make no promise. I will decide when I have
the write-up before me. And I should make it very clear that I will not touch
anything in the P.N.Oak style. He makes me hang my head in shame at the
degradation of Hindu scholarship. Do send me the articles so that I know your
way of writing.
Regards
Sincerely
Sita Ram Goel”.
3. His third
letter dated 20/9/1990, after I sent to him
a few samples of my writing, including an unpublished (and now lost to
posterity) article on the Bombay Riots of 1992-1993:
“Dear Shri
Talageri,
Your letter of the 11th.
My plight is no better. I have yet to read what you wrote. I wish you could see
the piles of paper on my table. Research and publications get my priority.
Of the 7 books in
hand the following are ready:
1. Ramajanmabhoomi vs
Babri Masjid, K. Elst
2. Indian Muslims:
Who Are They, K.S.Lal
3. हम हिंदू क्यों, राजेन्द्रसिंह निराला
4. Role of Jizyah in
the spread of Islam, Harsh Narain
Three more are in
press including volume 2 of Hindu Temples: The Islamic evidence.
I wonder why
V.P.Singh should shock a society which has been paying tributes to Rammohan
Roy, Keshab Sen, M.N.Roy, Ramaswami Naicker, Mahatma Phule, B.R.Ambedkar and
Jawaharlal Nehru. Singh is the logical climax of a century-old exercise in
anti-Hindu (particularly anti-Brahmin) propaganda picked up by Hindu
intellectuals from the missionary apparatus. I for one have been expecting
V.P.Singh and Simranjit Singh Mann for a long time. Poison sowed yields
poisonous fruits.
I assure you that I
would read your MSS with care and sympathy. But I also warn you that this is a
very complex subject in which 200 years of western scholarship has invested its
labours. MS for publication get my top priority, though I may be slow in
picking up correspondence.
I have a mind to
reprint In Defence of Comrade Krishna Menon. It is out of print but still
relevant.
Regards
Sita Ram Goel”
4. Within a few
months, I sent him the manuscripts of my first three chapters, which were
political chapters (i.e. chapters detailing the political issues arising or
raised in India on the basis of the AIT). His fourth letter dated 26/2/1991:
“Dear Shri
Talageri
I received your
letter of the 20th and the typescript yesterday afternoon. I
finished reading it in the evening. Hats off. It is excellent.
You have a mind
which contemplates a situation (or a problem) with calmness before using your
razor-sharp logic to analyse it for whatever it is worth. This is rare.
I very much liked
your turning the tables on the Dravid movement, which shows your grasp over the
Aryan invasion theory. So also your synopsis. You are the man I was looking
for.
Go ahead and finish
the work. I will publish it.
I have been in
pretty bad heath since January.1 when I had an attack of spondylitis. But I
have been working and look forward to the rest of your pages.
Now tell me a little
more about yourself.
I wonder if you need
some financial help at this stage. I will, of course, give you a lump sum when
the work is ready. But if you need it I can make an advance.
Why not get your
script (3 copies) typed, leaving a broad margin on the left. It will make
editing easy. I hope you can get typing help. I will pay for it.
Suggestions:
1. Give the full
name of publications quoted or referred to in the footnotes together with place
and date of publication and page nos.
2. Underline the
names of books when mentioned in the text, instead of putting them in quote. We
shall italicize them.
3. Your “m” in upper
and lower looks the same. See to it when getting it typed.
Shall I return the
script for typing? I am a very bad letter writer. Moreover, I am alone and have
a heap. I only do the work essential at any time. So do not get impatient with
me.
Yours
Sita Ram Goel”
5. His fifth
letter dated 17/7/1991:
Dear Shri
Talageri,
I was pained to see
a DD for Rs 350/- coming with your letter on the 10th. Did I forget
to tell you in my letter that that the copies were complimenrary? I will find a
way to refund the amount. You are now one of the VOI family. I am sending some
more publications. Do not repeat the performance.
I am sorry to now
that the books were damaged by rain water. Shall I replace them? Let me know.
Many people have
felt the same about Koenraad. They give me the credit or discredit for doing it
under a pseudonym. It is true that he has absorbed a lot of the facts and logic
from us during discussions. But he is a real person and a Belgian. I met him
first in December 1989 (or was it November 1989) when he called me after
reading my history of Hindu-Christian encounters. He went away soon after and
sent me the MSS of Ramajanmabhoomi vs Babri Masjid after a month. I was myself
amazed, though I could understand it in terms of the western intellectual
discipline. Nest he stayed with us from October 30 1990 to February 1991. He
himself wrote the second book during that period. You would have met him if you
had come here during the Ayodhya Satyagraha. What may surprise you, the entire
evidence presented by the VHP to the government in Dec-Jan 1990-91 was prepared
by him, as also the Rejoinder.You will soon get a copy of that document
published by VOI as History vs Casuistry.
We Hindus had a
greater measure of the same intellectual discipline in the ancient past. Just
think of Panini, the systems of philosophy and other technical works. tHe
decline started with abstract thinking taking the place of substantial issues.
Starting with the Buddhist philosophers, we were on a slippery path. it became
a desert with the coming of Shankara and the other acharyas. The futile exercise
ended in navya-nyaya when problems of thought became problems of logic, and
problems of logic became problems of language.
The bhakti reaction
against this desert was right to start with. but the search for Rasa became a
riot, and lost all intellectual discipline. By the time we had our encounter
with Islam, we had lost the capacity to understand anything ideologically. We
became sloganized. That is a long story. I am sorry I have taken so much of
your time on this theme.
Take your time on
your book. You will do well. Personal problems arise, but they get sorted out
in due course. They bother you less after you get bitten by the intellectual
bug.
I have published a
very interesting book on the subject –
Karpāsa by K.D.Sethna. He is busy with another –
an enlarged edition of The Problem of Indian Origins. A very interesting book,
written surprisingly by a Marxist, is वैदिक
साहित्य और हडप्पा संस्कृती . I wonder if you
read Hindi. It is a wonderful book. I will send to you these as well as other
books you may name. Let me know.
Sincerely
Sita Ram Goel”
6. His next letter,
dated 19/8/1991:
“Dear Shri
Talageri
I have your letters
dated July 24 (two) and August 8 (three).
Your comments on the
Goa Inquisition are interesting. Tell me what is the difference between Gaud
Saraswat and Chitra Saraswat. Are they two communities? Gaud and Saraswat are
two different brahmana communities in north India –
included in Pancha Gaud. how do they combine in the South? Are the Saraswatas –
Gaud or Chitra – in the south
immigrants from the north?
It happens quite
often that communities which are oppressed very badly take to the ways of the
oppressor. The Kashmiri Brahmins, Sindhis, Panjabis and the upper castes in U.P
for instance.
Xavier was an
unmitigated scoundrel – the founder of the Inquisition
and initiator of anti-Brahmanism. Your revolt was right. I wish some Hindu had
really spat in his face or kicked him in the pants. Similar stories are current
abou Muhammad and the Sufis, though they find no support in the sources.
Scoundrels had to be invested with the Hindu virtue of kshama (क्षमा) to make them attractive to the
Hindus..
We are doing our
best to make some basic literature available. But we have problems. Voice of
India is Sita Ram Goel – single-handed as
far as production and publicity goes. Not much money. No office, no staff. the
press refuses to review, even mention, our books. The government bans them when
it pleases. The courts dismiss my appeals. Booksellers are notorious for non
payment. the RSS-BJP-VHP combine like to reap the benefits which flowto it from
our work, but does not want any notoriety through association with us. It is
entirely a movement of duffers, for duffers, led by duffers. Yet we work, and
go on finding scholars. You are the latest.
Sethna’s Problems of
Aryan Origins is ready in its second and very much enlarged edition. The
problem is a strike in the press at Pondicherry. It will be published by my son
who is commercial publication. I will send a copy to you as soon as it is
received.
I have not yet been
able to locate a dictionary of Santhali language. I believe the Jesuit library
here may have it. I have to find time and go there. Pl. wait.
Coming to your
comments after reading Karpasa, I agree with you wholeheartedly that
locating the Aryans in the Punjab, even though autochthonously, and then
spreading them east and south, is only a footnote in the invasion theory. You
have got to the bottom of it. I published this book because it at least places
the Rigveda prior to the Harappan culture, and makes the Aryans autochthonous.
You go on from there.
I have not read M.L.
Bhargava’s book. I was not aware that he makes the Aryans autochthonous to
North India. The book has been published by a missionary press. In any case,
you have got the point – the Vedas are
repositories of a heritage which was very much more vast and ancient, and
spread over a much more large area.
You will do well to
demolish S.K.Chatterjee. He was a life-long fellow-traveller.
I agree with you
that a Rgvedic-centred view of Hinduism is narrow and leaves loopholes through
which the invasion theories pour in.
Personally, I am not
at all for an Aryan race. I feel that Hindu culture at one time was the
dominant world culture, just like the western culture is today. The spread of
the so-called Aryan languages can be explained much better that way.
About Zoroastrianism
losing its ancient Aryan spirit, I admit I have made a mistake. I should have
said Iran losing its ancient Aryan spirit and passing under the spell of
Zoroastrianism. But I have used the word Aryan in the spirit in which we use
the word pagan.
Keep on.
Sincerely
Sita Ram Goel”
7. His next letter,
dated 9/10/1991, I will deal with in the appendix, because
this letter (which I had no memory of at all until I read it again after 34
years in the context of this present article) is one which seems to contain all
kinds of discussable (in my opinion) points that I would have discussed at
length with him. And inexplicably, while all his other letters are there in my
collection in full, this letter mysteriously seems to have a sheet missing, and
in fact ends at a very intriguing point (mentioning Gandhi) which leaves me
wondering what that additional sheet or sheets may have contained. As I am just
giving the contents of the letters here, I will reserve my afterthoughts on
those contents for the appendix.
8. His next letter
dated 20/1/1992:
“Dear Shri
Talageri
I had finished
reading your book (upto 6F) late last night and was thinking of writing to you
today. I brought the typescript (2 copies) with me to the office. But as soon
as I arrived two visitors dropped in and sat for three hours, talking about the
failures of the RSS movement. They belong to the movement. I could not even
read your letter of the 15th which came by the evening mail. I have
read it now and know that you have returned to Bombay.
My first comment that
you are a scholar with a razor-sharp mind has been more than confirmed. You are
the type of scholar I have been looking for.
The typist took her
own time in finishing the chapters sent by you. But she did quite a clean job.
I could not stop once I started reading. You have built up your argument step
by step, taking into account what the various theorists have said. I am
thrilled.
I will number the
pages continuously and send one set of typed sheets to you. You can make
changes and corrections. I have some suggestions which I will make in my next
letter, and very soon (the suggestions relate not to your arguments, but to the
plan of publication). But now I find it difficult to wait for the rest of your
work. I know scholarship cannot be hurried. But I do want you to get back to
this work and complete it.
Koenraad’s book has
been completed and sent to the press for printing. It should be ready in the
second week of February. He is arriving on the morning of ninth (9th)
February and will stay for a month. I mentioned your work to him on the
telephone (he rings up now and then) and he is quite keen to read it.
Did you receive two
pamphlets – on Kashmir and Sikhism – which were sent to you earlier this month?
Some of the packets are coming back though the address is correct.
I have read Malati’s
“Demons”. The other day she came by with another work of the same type and
wanted me to publish it. I said no. She pressed for it after going back to
Bombay. I said no. She is almost illiterate.
We have (Aditya
Prakashan) published S.R.Rao’s big book, Dawn and Development of the Indus
Civilization. Shall I send a copy to you? Sethna’s book is also expected next
month
The Problem of Aryan Origins. I will
send a copy. Also a summary of Bhagwan Singh’s book in Hindi – what he says on
various points. His mind works on the same lines though he is a Marxist (not a
communist).
You have mentioned
Dharmapal’s work, Indian Science and technology, in the context of Playfair. Do
you know I published this book. Also his second book on education, The
Beautiful Tree. He is a friend of long standing.
Never hesitate in
writing to me as often as you feel. I am busy but visitors waste a lot of my
time. Reading and replying to your letters is far more profitable.
All the best,
Sincerely
Sita Ram Goel
P.s. Tell me what your
surname Talageri stands for. Is it the name of a place like Bhatkal? Or
something else? How do you derive it?”
9. His next letter
dated 5/3/1992:
“Dear Shrikant,
I am dropping
formalities and will address you by your first name in future. You are much
younger to me. I am seventy years old.
I have received your
letter of 24 Feb. Meanwhile Koenraad has read your chapters and is positively
impressed by the way you proceed and build up your argument. He feels you have
quite a case. He has been studying the “Aryan problem” for some time now.
Before I proceed, let
me ask you if you received two VOI pamphlets – Kashmir and Whither Sikhism.
They were sent to your address when you were away. Koenraad’s new book, Negationism
In India: Concealing the Record of Islam has just come out. Jay Dubhashi’s The
Road to Ayodhya will be ready by the end of this week. I will send the
copies of these and of the pamphlets if you have not received them. Let me know
soon.
Now about your new chapters.
Do not hurry. It creates tension which is bad for deep reflection and cogent
reasoning. A month or two do not make a difference when the subject is so
momentous. Take your time. Meanwhile I will give your typed chapters to Ram
Swarup. He is very much interested.
I am glad to know
your working conditions are easier. Of course Sanskrit texts offer a lot of
evidence that India was the original homeland. I find time, I will send you a
summary of Bhagwan Singh’s work in this context. But that should not hold your
progress. We shall incorporate those elements later.
Yours
Sita Ram Goel”
10. His next letter
dated 14/7/1992:
Dear Shrikant,
I have your four
letters dated 28th June and 6th July.
I am sorry that I
showed some skepticism regarding your concept of hindu Nationalism. I was under
the impression that it may be something like the Hindutva of Savarkar. But I
have been overwhelmed by the vast vision you have of it. In fact, I have got the
relevant portions typed out for Ram Swarup. He, too, has been of the opinion
that Hindus will stand up only when they have a clear idea of what is at stake.
Koenraad is indeed a
prodigy like yourself. His grasp of things Indian should cause no surprise because,
as you yourself say, we and the Europeans are co-sharers in the same culture.
He has only to get rid of his Christian heritage and get back to his pagan past
in order to feel closer to the Hindu heritage. His work on the Dalit movement,
he says, will take another fortnight or so. It will be revealing.
I am not commenting
on your comments on Sethna’s latest. It is your subject and you know the best.
I am getting Bhagwan Singh’s Harappa Sabhyata Aur Vaidika Sahitya
translated into English. He has already done three chapters, and promises to
finisj by December. I wonder if you will also be able to finish your book by
that time. Tell me again, how many more chapters you have to write. ; the
chapters on the Puranas have been typed. I will sit on your work as a whole
when you say it is over. Koenraad read through whatever you had sent in the
first lot. So also Bhagwan Singh.
I was present in the
meeting (2nd) which Verma-Pathak addressed in the National museum.
It is interesting speculation but I do not think they have read the script. I
was reminded of your interest in Santhali.
After you have
finished your present book, you will be called upon to see the final proofs. I
will like you to come to Delhi for a few days. But that is a long way off
because you have yet to finish.
I suggest that you
put together whatever material you have on the Encyclopaedia. Or do your some
other project.
I am aging fast and
feel pretty weak already. My only satisfaction is that younger people have come
up to carry forward the battle.
Blessings
Sincerely
Sita Ram Goel”
11. His next letter
dated 12/8/1992:
“My dear Shrikant,
I was waiting for you
letter stating that you had finished the present exercise. Two of them dated 7th
arrived today. The four chapters had arrived earlier, are being typed. The
chapters you had sent earlier had been typed already. I am preparing the book
for the printing press.
I am more than
satisfied at the scholarship put forth by you. Tell me again how old you are.
Your range is amazing. the argument also proceeds faultlessly. So your
dissatisfaction is not relevant. You have written both for the lay historian
and the specialist. The specialists assume too much knowledge on the part of
readers. You prepare him before you come to technicalities.
I have taken note of
your guidelines regarding rearrangement of chapters, and the introduction. I
will do the needful.
But do not give up
the idea of writing on Hindu nationalism. Go ahead with that one also. The
present work only straightens out the background for the more important and
more relevant essay. Go on and complete it, using the first two chapters of the
Introduction as your starting point.
My health is not good
in the sense that I cannot work for more than 4-5 hours a day. Earlier, I put
in 10-15 hours. I do not know if it is a temporary spell, or a permanent change
for the worse. I will be 71 in October.
I will write again,
as I proceed with a re-reading of your work.
Affectionately
Sita Ram Goel”
12. His next letter
dated 31/8/1992:
“My dear Shrikant,
I received your
letter of the 27th on the 29th.
As I wrote to you, I
was in very bad health for more than two months. It is only since a week that I
have recovered my energy, almost 71 y, and am on my desk again. And my hands
are full.
The chapters you sent
last have been typed. Typing is complete. I am going through the new chapter,
putting diacritical marks and correcting mistakes which are very few. I should
be able to complete the job in the next two weeks – by the middle of September,
when I will call you to Delhi for finalisation of everything.
Your thesis will be
published by Aditya prakashan, a prestigious house now, and a paperback edition
will be handled by VOI. You will receive royalty.
Go ahead with Hindu
nationalism which I consider to be more important than even your present work.
I showed your earlier
chapters to Koenraad who was impressed. He had brought a bundle of papers on
kurgan culture, believing it to be Aryan. He took them back. I showed it to
Bhagwan Singh also. He likes your general argument but wants you to be much
more terse – with which I do not agree, we must have quite a bit for the
general reader as well. Sethna is too old and too busy. But you should value my
judgment above everyone else’s because I have studied the subject. I have a
high opinion of it, very high: your identification of Pūrus with the Vedic
people hits the bull’s eye.
Affectionately
Sita Ram Goel”
13. His next letter
dated 4/5/1993, after the publication of the paperback VOI
edition of the book titled “The Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism”
(including the first three political chapters), but before the
publication of the hardcover Aditya Prakashan edition titled “The Aryan
Invasion Theory – A Reappraisal” (without the first three political
chapters):
“My dear Shrikant,
Your letter of 29th April. There is
good news.
1) Dr. Rao has mailed
the preface on Thursday last. It should be with us in a day or two.
2) Girilal Jain has
written a review for times of india. I had to stop him from sending it to the
daily, and ask him to wait for rao’s preface. I will have him refer to the
Aditya edition.
Rao is a scholar of
repute, and he has to be careful. I do not know what he will say on the
chronology of the Veda. Let us wait.
So the academic
version should be out by the end of this month. We have in the pipeline:
1) Third reprint of
Ayodhya and After,
2) Second edition of
my Temples – II,
3) Koenraad’s
indigenous Indians,
4) Third reprint of
How I Became a Hindu, with a long postscript, Nightmare of Nehruism, in which I
have shown the Sangh Parivar for what it is.
Do not take Romila
seriously. She is the most dishonest among Marxist historians. She says one
thing when talking among scholars, and quite another when addressing the crowd,
and on the same subject. I have taken care of her in my appendix 4 to Hindu
Temples-II.
The cinema world has
been dominated by Communists and Muslims so far. Prithviraj Kapoor and Raj
Kapoor were plain simple scoundrels masquerading as progressives. So is Dilip
Kumar. So is Shabana. This is all Nehru’s brood. What could you expect?
With Love
Sita Ram Goel”.
13. His next letter
dated 5/8/1993:
“My dear Shrikant,
K.D.Sethna’s letter
is enclosed in a copy.
Swami Mukhyanandaji
of Belur math, Calcutta writes (24.7.93):
“I have been going
through Talageri’s Aryan Invasion. it is a very comprehensive, scholarly and
penetrating study which refutes the Aryan invasion theory from every point of
view. It also propounds that it is from India that the Indo-European speaking
people emigrated. Congrats to Srikant.
P.S. I have also been
working on the original habitation of the Vedic people. Talageri’s book has
been very helpful. I had just seen a review which a devotee had sent from
Bombay a fortnight ago. And by coincidence you have sent me that very book”.
Suhas Majumdar, a
scholar from Barrackpore (W. Bengal) writes:
“Much of Shrikant’s
book went over my head, although I intend to din every bit of it into the
self-same head by and by. But I must say that his interpretation of Rigveda
7/18 gave me the keenest pleasure. It is one of the vyasakoots (व्यासकूट) I have been
straining my head over for so many years. the very simplicity of his
interpretation took my breath away”.
Hope you have
received the Aditya packet by now.
With love,
sincerely,
Sita Ram Goel”.
This is the sum total
of Sita Ram Goel’s old correspondence with me that I had managed to preserve
although in a yellowed and semi-crumbling state. I presented them here for the
record, and, if there were some parts of it flattering to my ego, well: that is
a bonus for me. I will indulge in some comments in the appendix, where I will
also put up letter no.7, dated 9/10/1991.
APPENDIX: Some
Comments:
There is not much to
comment, since my own letters, to which some of the above letters are replies,
are not available with me and (not being gifted with that keen or photographic
a memory) I cannot recall them so well. But I feel the need for some special
comments on the one letter I have reserved for this appendix.
Letter no. 7, dated 9/10/1991:
“My dear Shri
Talageri,
i found your three
letters of 25 August pretty interesting. Since then, I have found some material
vis-à-vis Gaud Saraswats in Epigraphia Indica, volumes of which I am reading
these days. I find that the Saraswats (or some of them) had moved to Gaud before
they moved south. Only I did not know that Konkani is not a dialect of Marathi.
Your observation is interesting. Do develop it.
I have a dear friend
of long standing in Delhi. His name is Som Benegal. He is a journalist as well
as artist. But he knows no Indian language except some Hindustani. Quite
Anglicized.. An admirer of Stalin, too.
The trouble with the
RSS-parivara movement is that they draw their inspiration from Savarkar,
who, in turn, draws his inspiration from post-Shivaji Maratha history. He has
been the evil genius of Hindu movements. The man had no commitment to Hindu
culture or Sanatana Dharma. He borrowed the idea of territorial nationalism
from modern Europe, and tried to force Indian nationalism into that mould. The
outcome was his ridiculous definition of a Hindu – one who regards India as his
Punyabhumi etc.
I find nothing
sacrosanct about India as a geographical entity. It is just another piece of
land. Nor with Hindu society which is just another combine of human beings. I
value Hindu society because it has been the vehicle of a unique culture, the
one we call Hindu today. I prize Hindu culture because it is based upon Santana
dharma. And India is sacred to me because it is land of Sanatana Dharma and
Hindu culture. My first commitment is to Sanatana Dharma and not to any human
group or piece of land.
So I do not care
whether the RSS succeeds or fails. Both eventualities are meaningless for me.
I prefer the Shiva
Sena with all its faults. At least they do not fight shy of calling themselves
Hindus, which the RSS-parivara have been doing for a long time. They
have fallen for the term Bharatiya which has no meaning in cultural terms.
People who say that they will tell the truth and come out in true colours when
they are in power, are the worst type of tricksters. I never trust them. I will
not be surprised if they end like the Congress and get Islamicised in due
course. They are leaving no stone unturned to flatter Islam in the hope of
cheating the Muslims out of the Ayodhya mosque.
I have nothing
against Godse as a man. His motives were impersonal. But it is going too far to
make a martyr out of him. At best, he was a fool who cut his nose in order to
spite his own face. He acted quite like the decadent Hindu who always turns on
himself whenever faced with an enemy. Or as I told Koenraad, he was like the
man who got roughed up by toughs in the street, and ended up by killing his old
father after running back home. There is nothing great about him. The man was
empty-headed. Else he would have killed Savarkar who failed to tell Hindus what
was at stake. Gandhi was quite clear on that score. His….”
To my utter chagrin,
sheet 2 side 4 of his letter ends at that point, and, for some unknown reason,
the next sheet is missing. I am quite and totally unable to even guess in what
way Gandhi is supposed to have been superior to Savarkar from any point of view
in connection with Hindu-Muslim relations and conflicts. In fact, both Savarkar
and Gandhi were bitterly wrong in their views on the desirability or otherwise
of Partition, and Ambedkar was the only one who had the right perspective
and solution on that score. Sita Ram Goel was not a fan of Ambedkar
either: see his above letter dated 20/9/1990: ‘I
wonder why V.P.Singh should shock a society which has been paying tributes to
Rammohan Roy, Keshab Sen, M.N.Roy, Ramaswami Naicker, Mahatma Phule,
B.R.Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru. Singh is the logical climax of a century-old
exercise in anti-Hindu (particularly anti-Brahmin) propaganda picked up by
Hindu intellectuals from the missionary apparatus”.
At that time, I knew nothing about Ambedkar, and so did not even dream of
responding to this criticism. But later (at the time of researching for my
second book “The Rigveda – a Historical Analysis”), I came to know a lot
more about the views and writings of Ambedkar, and today consider him
among the two greatest Indian leaders of the Independence era (along
with Savarkar). After that, Sita Ram Goel changed
his sharply critical views on Ambedkar, and accepted his exceptional
intelligence and prophetic foresight. I had not long ago written an article on Ambedkar
on 14 January 2023:
https://talageri.blogspot.com/2023/01/dr-babasaheb-ambedkar-much.html
I am certain Sita
Ram Goel, after examining all the evidence, would definitely have
changed his views on Savarkar as well if the facts had been logically
placed before him.
But, reading this
particular letter, after 34 years, I find it strange and wonder what I must
have written to him in reply to it: I just cannot remember. But the suggestion
that Godse should have killed Savarkar is something which
really takes my breath away. And, while Godse’s act was certainly
foolish in many ways, and was a blow to the Hindu movement, it
was anything but comparable to “the man who got roughed up by toughs
in the street, and ended up by killing his old father after running back home”.
Unbelievable: Gandhi was the innocent and blameless “old father” who got
killed by his son “who got roughed up by toughs in the street”? But in
this case, Gandhi was among those who always defended and even glorified
the actions of these “toughs in the street”! Right or wrong in his
action, Godse was not “empty-headed” by any criterion: his
speech in court, available in the form of a book, shows great intelligence.
But now I can
understand why some other very close associates and followers of Sita Ram
Goel, who are unexceptionally correct in every other matter, seem to
have this blind spot when it comes to assessing Savarkar, which leads
them to sharply criticize his definition of Hindutva and to assert that
he was not a Hindu at all: M. Nageswara Rao, for instance,
whose assertions in this respect were the subject of my recent article dated 15
February 2025:
https://talageri.blogspot.com/2025/02/shourie-savarkar-m-nageswara-rao-and.html
This of course is not
the same as some others (equally close to Sita Ram Goel) like Arun Shourie,
who gloatingly try to insult and blacken the name of Savarkar in the context of
his legal attempts to secure his release from the Andaman Island prison after
well over a decade of isolated, tortured and fruitless existence in that
hellhole. M. Nageswara Rao very sharply rejects this
vicious criticism of Savarkar, and Sita Ram Goel himself (so
far as I know) never once dreamt of attacking Savarkar on this
score!
I replied to Shourie
in another earlier article dated 29 January 2025
https://talageri.blogspot.com/2025/01/arun-shourie-contemptible-mercenary.html
[Incidentally, Sita
Ram Goel’s words on the RSS and indirectly on the BJP in this
letter are absolutely prophetic and fully relevant even at this very moment.
The only inexplicable thing is his linking this with Savarkar, for whom
the RSS and BJP secretly harbor only disdain].
Apart from this one
point, there is nothing I can say critical of Sita Ram Goel
(unless I go personal and wish that Sita Ram Goel had not
sacrificed his valuable life by falling prey to the lethal vice of smoking
which led to his extreme ill-health and tragic death of lung cancer, depriving
Hindus of their only true ideological Pitamaha). In every respect, Sita
Ram Goel is to the world of Hindutva or Hindu Nationalist
ideology, what Savarkar and Ambedkar were to India’s
political ideology during the Independence era: the Greatest.
On going through all
the above letters once more, the one thing that stands out is the utter
humbleness and humility of this great man, so clearly discernible in
the way in which this incomparable intellectual giant (who had crossed swords
with Nehru and countless secular politicians and leftist
academics right from the nineteen forties) unfailingly addresses a
person like myself who was a totally unknown person of no significance or
standing at that time. After that I am definitely no more an unknown person
of no significance or standing, but all this is only because Sita Ram
Goel stood behind me as he stood behind so many other Hindu writers:
if not for him, no-one would have known about me, and indeed there would have
been no occasion for anyone to know anything about me, since I
would only have been a simple middle-class bank employee with not a single
printed and published word to my credit. I owe everything in my
writing career solely to Sita Ram Goel. And in this we
come to the second great thing that stands out about him: his utter,
purely selfless and complete dedication to the Hindu cause. Without
him, the mercenary secularist and “Hindutva” politicians and leftist “intellectuals”
would have been the sole arbitrators and judges today as to what constitutes Hindutva,
and no-one would have been any the wiser. Because of him, we have the grand Voice
of India school of books to tell those who care the Truth
about India, Hinduism, Indian Politics, and Indian History.
As I said in my
tribute to him in my article "Sita Ram Goel, memories and ideas",
written for the Sita Ram Goel Commemoration Volume, entitled "India's
Only Communalist", edited by Koenraad Elst, published by Voice
Of India, New Delhi, in 2005:
“India
needs true karmayogis like Sita Ram Goel in every field of Indian culture and
every socio-economic field. Karmayogis who will do for India, each in his
particular field, what Sita Ram Goel has done for Hindutva as a whole. And who
will steer clear of the world of dirty politics even as their work lights up
the future of the nation as no political formation can ever dream of doing.”
And “the best way to pay tribute to his
writings and ideas is to read Voice of India books and understand them in
detail, and to propagate the books on a war footing.”
