GetWiki

{{short description|Right wing Hindutva activist}}{{pp|small=yes}}{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}

factoids

| birth_place = Leuven, Belgium| nationality = Belgian| education = Benaras Hindu UniversityKatholieke Universitiet Leuven| occupation = Author| organization = }}Koenraad Elst ({{IPA-nl|ˈku:nra:t 'ɛlst}}; born 7 August 1959) is a Flemish author, known primarily for his adherence to the Hindutva ideology and support of the Out of India theory, which is universally regarded as pseudo-historical by mainstream scholarship. Scholars accuse him of harboring Islamophobia.

Early life and education

Elst was born into a Flemish Catholic family.He graduated in Indology, Sinology and philosophy from the Catholic University of Leuven. During his student days, he was involved with Flemish nationalism.{{sfn|Nanda|2009|p=112}} Between 1988 and 1992, Elst was at the Banaras Hindu University. In 1999, he received a PhD in Asian Studies from Leuven on Hindu revivalism;BOOK, Geybels, Hans, Herck, Walter Van, Humour and Religion: Challenges and Ambiguities, 2011, Bloomsbury Publishing, 9781441194831, IX,weblink his doctoral dissertation was published as Decolonizing the Hindu Mind.{{sfn|Nanda|2009|p=112}} Prema Kurien notes Elst to be unique among Hindutva-leaning scholars in that he had a relevant academic degree.BOOK,weblink A Place at the Multicultural Table : the Development of an American Hinduism, Kurien, Prema A., 2007, Rutgers University Press, 9780813541617, 166, 476118265, 27 April 2019, 27 April 2019,weblink dead,

Works

Indigenous Aryan theories

File:OIT map.jpg|thumb|Map based on The Aryan Non-Invasionist Model by Koenraad Elst]]In two books, Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate (1999) and Asterisk in Bhāropīyasthān (2007), Elst argues against the academically accepted view that the Indo-European languages originated in the Kurgan culture of the Central Asian steppes and that the migrations to Indian subcontinent in the second millennium BCE brought a proto-Indo-European language with them.BOOK,weblink Advances in Forensic Haemogenetics, Walter, Bär, Angelo, Fiori, Umberto, Rossi, Springer Science & Business Media, The Gimbautas hypothesis of an origin in the kurgan region and spread during the Bronze Age (between 4,000 and 2,500 BC) [...] seems to have the greatest support from archaeological and other considerations [...]., 31 March 2019, 9783642787829, 6 December 2012, BOOK,weblink Languages of the World: An Introduction, Pereltsvaig, Asya, 2012-02-09, Cambridge University Press, 9781107002784, He instead proposes that the language originated in India and it spread to Middle East and Europe when the Aryans, (who were indigenous) migrated out.JOURNAL, Humes, Cynthia Ann, 2012, Hindutva, Mythistory, and Pseudoarchaeology, Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, 59, 2–3, 178–201, 10.1163/156852712x630770, 23244958, BOOK,weblink India: The Ancient Past: A History of the Indian Subcontinent from c. 7000 BCE to CE 1200, Avari, Burjor, 2016, Routledge, 9781317236726, 79, A Belgian revisionist, Koenraad Elst, has nevertheless claimed that the Aryan migration was not towards India but out of India. Their ancestral homeland, their Urheimat, was the land of Sapta-Sindhava (the Punjab), and from there they expanded outwards towards Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia and, ultimately, towards Europe., According to Elst, the linguistic data are a soft type of evidence and are compatible with a variety of scenarios. The dominant linguistic theories may be compatible with an out-of-India scenario for Indo-European expansion.BOOK,weblink The Indo-Aryan Controversy, Patton, Laurie L., Psychology Press, 2005, 9780700714636, Bryant, Edwin, 1–19, Introduction, It is possible that the absorption of foreign words could have taken place after the emigration of other branches of Indo-Europeans from India (p. 8)., Patton, Laurie L., One of the few authors to use paleolinguistics,BOOK, The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate, Bryant, Edwin, 2001, Oxford University Press, New York, 146, In any event, Elst's proposal that earlier tribes could have emigrated from India bearing the centum characteristics and, after the velars had evolved into palatals in the Indian Urheimat, later tribes could have followed them bearing the new satem forms (while the Indo-Aryans remained in the homeland), cannot actually be discounted as a possibility on these particular grounds., he is deemed as one of the leading proponents of the Indigenous Aryans (Out of India fringe theory). The theory has been rejected by the scholarly community and is not deemed as a serious competitor to the Kurgan hypothesis, except by some authors in India.BOOK,weblink The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate, Bryant, Edwin, March 2004, Oxford University Press, 9780195169478, 147, 697790495, He has also written against the Aryan Invasion Theory defending the Out of India fringe theory in a blog piece for Indian diaspora think tank, Bridge India.WEB, Elst, Koenraad, Let the "Aryan" debate become a debate again,weblink bridgeindia.org.uk, Bridge India, 23 August 2023,

Hindutva and Islamophobia

Elst was an editor of the New Right Flemish nationalist journal Teksten, Kommentaren en Studies from 1992 to 1995, focusing on criticism of Islam and had associations with Vlaams Blok, a Flemish nationalist far-right political party.{{sfn|Nanda|2009|pp=112–113}}WEB,weblink NIEUW RECHTS TEN ONDER, beschreven door Dr Koenraad Elst, Vierling, Alfred, 1 July 2013, 19 April 2019, BOOK, Heidenen voor het blok : radicaal-rechts en het nieuwe heidendom, De Zutter, Jan, Jan De Zutter, 2000, Houtekiet, 9052405824, Antwerpen, 17, 50809193, He has also been a regular contributor to The Brussels Journal, a controversial conservative blog. | quoted=1}}In Ram Janmabhoomi vs Babri Masjid, Elst makes the case for the birthplace of Rama, the Hindu god/king to correspond with the site of Babri Masjid and concurrently portrays Islam as a fanatic bigoted faith.JOURNAL, Sethi, Harish, 26 January 1991, Justifying Hindu Hurt.Ram Janmabhoomi vs Babri Masjid by Koenraad Elst. Review, Economic and Political Weekly, 26, 4, 167–168, 4397247, The book was published by Voice of India, a publication house that is self-describedly devoted to furthering the Hindu nationalist cause and had attracted immense criticism for publishing anti-Muslim literature in abundance.{{sfn|Nanda|2009|pp=112–113}}JOURNAL, Pirbhai, M. Reza, April 2008, Modern Intellectual History, 5, 1, 27–53, 10.1017/S1479244307001527, 1479-2451, Demons in Hindutva: Writing a Theology for Hindu Nationalism, 145620682, It was though praised by L. K. Advani, former deputy Prime Minister of India, who commanded an important role in the demolition of the said masjid.Sita Ram Goel, How I became a Hindu. ch.9 In Ayodhya and After (1991), Elst was even more explicit in the support of the demolition and termed it an exercise in national integration which provided "an invitation to the Muslim Indians to reintegrate themselves into the society and culture from which their ancestors were cut off by fanatical rulers and their thought police, the theologians".{{sfn|Anand|2011|p=138}} In another interview, Elst went on to claim that it was a justified act of revenge which enforced fears of Hindu repercussion, thus curtailing Muslim violence.BOOK,weblink The god market : how globalization is making India more Hindu, Nanda, Meera, 2011, Monthly Review Press, 9781583672501, 227, 897104896, 27 April 2019, 27 April 2019,weblink dead, He though has retrospectively rejected the use of violent force in the demolition of the temple and has urged the Muslims to contend with the construction of a peace monument.NEWS,weblink Ayodhya: 'Congress-BJP talks are important', 2010-12-21, New Indian Express (Chennai, India), 2019-04-27, English, NEWS,weblink Indologist moots 'peace monument' by Muslims, 2010-12-20, New Indian Express (Chennai, India), 2019-04-27, English, An intellectual heir of the school of thought championed by Ram Swarup and Sita Ram GoelBOOK,weblink The god market : how globalization is making India more Hindu, Nanda, Meera, 2011, Monthly Review Press, 9781583672501, 163, 897104896, 27 April 2019, 27 April 2019,weblink dead, — the founders of the Voice of India, who were themselves highly critical of both Christianity and Islam—Elst is a prominent author of the house and adopts their hard-line stance against the two religions in his book.{{sfn|Nanda|2009|pp=112–113}} Elst argues that there existed an universal spirituality among all the races and faiths, prior to the introduction of "Semitic" faiths which corrupted it. In Decolonizing the Hindu Mind, he contends that the "need for 'reviving' Hinduism spring from the fact that the said hostile ideologies (mostly Islam) have managed to eliminate Hinduism physically in certain geographical parts and social segments of India, and also (mostly the Western ideologies) to neutralize the Hindu spirit among many nominal Hindus."{{sfn|Guichard|2010|p=94}}He is a vocal proponent of Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist movement which is typically associated with the Indian far-right and supports the Bharatiya Janata Party.JOURNAL, Guha, Sudeshna, May 2005, Negotiating Evidence: History, Archaeology and the Indus Civilisation, Modern Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press, 39, 2, 399–426, 10.1017/s0026749x04001611, 3876625, 145463239, JOURNAL, Sikand, Yogesh, Spring 2002, Hinduism and Secularism After Ayodhya by Arvind Sharma: A Review, Islamic Studies, 41, 1, 166–169, 20837185, {{sfn|Guichard|2010|p=145}} Elst perceives Hindutva as a tool to decolonize the mental and cultural state of Indians and return to the past days of (supposed) Hindu glory.BOOK,weblink Prophets Facing Backward : Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism in India., Nanda, Meera, 2004, Rutgers University Press, 9780813536347, 10, 1059017715, 27 April 2019, 27 April 2019,weblink dead, He has written in support of the view that the Vedic science was highly advanced and may be only understood by a Hindu mystic.BOOK,weblink Prophets Facing Backward : Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism in India., Nanda, Meera, Rutgers University Press, 2004, 9780813536347, 1059017715, 27 April 2019, 27 April 2019,weblink dead, The Saffron Swastika is widely regarded to be his magnum opusWEB,weblink Camus, J.Y.(2007), The European extreme right and religious extremism. Středoevropské politické studie (CEPSR), (4), 263–279, 16 October 2019, 16 October 2019,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20191016121224weblink">weblink dead, , which argues against the idea that the brand of Hindutva practiced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) / Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are fascist in ideology.WEB,weblink Asianetglobal.com News - 'The Saffron Swastika – The Notion of Hindu Fascism':Konraad Elst, 20 May 2006,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20060520001544weblink">weblink 20 May 2006, Advani had high regards for the work,BOOK, My Country, My Life, Advani, L.K., Rupa, terming Elst as a 'great historian' and even carried a "heavily marked" copy of the book from which he freely quoted the passages that discussed him.WEB,weblink Outlook, 8 April 2008, Outlook Publishing, Google Books, In other essays and conferences, Elst has supported for outright attacks on the enemy ideology of Islam which, in his opinion, is supposedly inseparable with terrorism and hence, must be destructed.NEWS,weblink A Hindutva Ploy, 2015-01-05, Indian Currents, 2019-04-27, English, NEWS,weblink Indologist triggers row, 2014-12-21, Mail Today (New Delhi, India), 2019-04-27, English, He calls for an Indian-ization of Muslims and Christians by forcing them to accept the supremacy of Hindu culture and terms it as the Final Solution for the Muslim Problem.BOOK,weblink Prophets Facing Backward : Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism in India., Nanda, Meera, Rutgers University Press, 2004, 9780813536347, 14, 1059017715, 27 April 2019, 27 April 2019,weblink dead, In his 1992 book, Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam, Elst attempts to demonstrate that there exists a prohibition of criticism of Islam in India and accuses secular historians (including the likes of Romila Thapar, Bipan Chandra, Ram Sharan Sharma et al.) of suffering from Hindu Cowardice wherein they ignore Muslim crimes against Hindu communities, in order to fulfill their Marxist agenda.WEB, Taj Mahal or Tejo-Mahalaya?, The Express Tribune, 2016-07-21,weblink 2018-02-11, {{sfn|Guichard|2010|p=89}}BOOK,weblink A Place at the Multicultural Table : the Development of an American Hinduism, Kurien, Prema A, Rutgers University Press, 2007, 9780813541617, 171, 476118265, 27 April 2019, 27 April 2019,weblink dead, NEWS,weblink Of historical lies and countering negationism, 2018-03-14, The Pioneer (New Delhi, India), 2019-04-27, English,

Reception

Anthropologist Thomas Blom Hansen describes Elst as a "Belgian Catholic of a radical anti-Muslim persuasion who tries to make himself useful as a 'fellow traveller' of the Hindu nationalist movement".BOOK,weblink The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India, Hansen, Thomas Blom, 1999-03-23, Princeton University Press, 9781400823055, 262, Historian Sarvepalli Gopal deemed Elst to be "a Catholic practitioner of polemics" who was fairly oblivious of modern historiography methods.BOOK,weblink Anatomy of a Confrontation: Ayodhya and the Rise of Communal Politics in India, Gopal, Sarvepalli, 1993-10-15, Palgrave Macmillan, 9781856490504, 21, Meera Nanda deems him to be a far-right Hindu cum Flemish nationalist.{{sfn|Nanda|2009|pp=112–113}} Elst has engaged in historical revisionismBOOK,weblink Reform, Identity and Narratives of Belonging : The Heraka Movement of Northeast India, Longkumer, Arkotong, Continuum, Bloomsbury, 2010, 978-0-8264-3970-3, 210, Notes, 10.5040/9781472549211,weblink and has been described variedly as a Hindu fundamentalist, pro-Hindutva right-wing ideologue, Hindutva apologist and Hindutva propagandist.JOURNAL, DeVotta, Neil, 2002, Demography and Communalism in India, Journal of International Affairs, 56, 1, 53–70, 0022-197X, 24357883, BOOK,weblink Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear, Anand, D., 2016-04-30, Springer, 9780230339545, Meera Nanda has accused Elst of exploiting the writings of his intellectual forefathers over Voice of India, to "peddle the worst kind of Islamophobia imaginable". {{sfn|Nanda|2009|pp=112–113}}{{sfn|Nanda|2011|pp=161–163}} Sanjay Subrahmanyam similarly deems Islamophobia as the common ground between Elst and the traditional Indian far right.WEB,weblink Bad time to be Muslim, The Times of India, 2019-06-05,

Influences

Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian far-right terrorist, responsible for the 2011 Norway attacks extensively borrowed from his works, in writing his manifesto.JOURNAL, NANDA, MEERA, 2011, Ideological Convergences: Hindutva and the Norway Massacre, Economic and Political Weekly, 46, 53, 61–68, 0012-9976, 23065638, The manifesto, among other things sought to deport all Muslims from Europe and quoted Elst in asserting the existence of a massive movement that was aimed to deny the large-scale and long-term crimes against humanity committed by Islam.JOURNAL, Gardell, Mattias, 2014-01-01, Crusader Dreams: Oslo 22/7, Islamophobia, and the Quest for a Monocultural Europe, Terrorism and Political Violence, 26, 1, 129–155, 10.1080/09546553.2014.849930, 144489939, 0954-6553,

Notes

{{reflist}}

References

• JOURNAL, Hindu Triumphalism and the Clash of Civilisations, Nanda, Meera, Meera Nanda, Economic and Political Weekly, 11 July 2009, 44, 28, 106–114, 40279263,
• BOOK, Nanda, Meera, Meera Nanda, The God Market: How Globalization is Making India More Hindu, 2011, NYU Press, 9781583672501,weblink
• BOOK, Guichard, Sylvie, The Construction of History and Nationalism in India: Textbooks, Controversies and Politics, 2010, Routledge, 9781136949302,weblink
• BOOK, Anand, Dibyesh, Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear, 2011, Palgrave Macmillan US, 9781349371907,weblink

External links

• From Macaulay to Frawley, from Doniger to Elst: Why do many Indians need White saviours?

{{Sangh Parivar}}{{Authority control}}