To Goanet -
I am delighted to note that Rajiv Malhotra has given Selma Carvalho a bout of indigestion. As it has to a lot of bigots and other bearing an animus towards Hindus speaking out for their own tradition and questioning its portrayal. Indeed, for almost a decade now, Rajiv has caused much distress to the likes of Wendy Doniger and her academic cabal (one that includes Indian Marxists settled in comfortable capitalist America). It is possible to disagree with Malhotra without calling him names or casting aspersions on his motives. But for that you need intelligence and knowledge to make your points, neither of which is evident in the likes of Selma Carvalho. Mirabile dictu, despite all attempts by the white establishment types and their brown sepoys to smear him with the usual slurs (Hindutva, RSS, BJP etc etc), Malhotra has made enormous progress. To cite but one instance - as a result of the efforts of Malhotra and his associates, Microsoft deleted the entry on Hinduism written by Doniger in their online encyclopaedia and replaced it with one written by Sankrant Sanu. Today, Rajiv's initiatives have inspired so many other Hindus to become active in their communities. Here in Silicon Valley & elsewhere, those efforts have borne fruit in the form of revised curricula in schools in matters of teaching the Hindu tradition. Malhotra and his associates were also instrumental in exposing academic poseurs like Jeffrey Kirpal (who claimed that Sri Ramakrishna was homosexual) and Paul Courtright (of the "Ganesh trunk is a phallus" fame). That caused such consternation among the entrenched white fogeys that they turned what was once a public academic list RISA into a private one. This was almost a decade ago, one of the many laughable early attempts at shutting doors on the internet. It gives me great pleasure that Selma Carvalho (of the "generation of Hindus are brought up in Goa to hate Catholics" fame, and the repairer of democracy in Goa from behind her gated - or not, if you ask Cornel - community) has taken a fancy to Malhotra. I am happy to add to her education. Live and learn! Most of what Rajiv has written is available at his own website. It is deliciously irony that Malhotra has turned the methods of the Westerner back on themselves. http://www.rajivmalhotra.com/ Many of the essays on his website were first published almost a decade ago on Sulekha and in other web outlets. Key highlights include - Wendy's Child Syndrome - http://rajivmalhotra.sulekha.com/blog/post/2002/09/risa-lila-1-wendy-s-child-syndrome.htm Washington Post and Hinduphobia - http://rajivmalhotra.sulekha.com/blog/post/2004/04/washington-post-and-hinduphobia.htm Is there an American Caste System> - http://rajivmalhotra.sulekha.com/blog/post/2001/01/is-there-an-american-caste-system.htm Geopolitics and Sanskrit Phobia - http://rajivmalhotra.sulekha.com/blog/post/2005/07/geopolitics-and-sanskrit-phobia.htm Ta-ta, r - I'll be baaaack!