"Science" in India

[Steve Farmer]

I would ignore Alok Kumar's attack if it weren't for personal
data about me from outside sources that he let slip out in his
message. Kumar claims that in my posts (which expanded on the
recent OUTLOOK critique of Indian science):

> ..relied heavily on an average article (not much scholarly
> at all) in a magazine and his limited exposure of India (a few acquaints of
> Indian origin and an Asian girl friend....

What is curious is that Kumar claims as one of my sources my
"Asian girlfriend" -- who has no interest in Indology and was
certainly NOT mentioned in my Indology posts. Kumar takes this
informationfrom the most violent of the nationalistic Lists,
where in the last week M. Witzel and/or I have been labeled
"racists" or "white trash," or "garbage," etc., and have been
threatened with the "fist" or the "cane" (and worse) for
debunking N. Rajaram's work and criticizing Hindutva "revisions"
of history.

Here are a few gems from the List where Kumar has gotten his
data. From the tone of the posts, you can see why Kumar's
interest in my homelife (mentioned in passing in answering the
absurd "racist" charge) is not welcome. These gems come from our
Hindutva friends on that List (in this case, one Ashok Row Kavi)
in the last five days:

> This filth [S. Farmer and M. Witzel] should be shown the
> fist. For that is the only way they understand.
...

> Farmer is right when he says "India is unique". We put up with garbage like
> him.
...

> For the first time, I am appreciating the Ayatollah type violence.

...
> Krishna kept on listening to the abuse of Sishupal only that far. After
> that it was time to take out the suadarshan chakra [i.e., a disk thrown to
> cut off someone's head].

I leave aside here the mundane accusations we've received of
being "communists" -- or details about the computer viruses that
both M. Witzel and I have received in the last week. Or this
little jewel -- the entire message -- dropped in my email box the
other day:

> bastard donot play around with sentiments of hindus

None of this, of course, has anything to do with critiques of
Rajaram or the absurdities of Hindutva "revisions" of history.

Steve Farmer