RESPONSE TO GEORGE THOMPSON

[Anand M. Sharan]

I am signing off now but, before I leave I would like to explain the what
is happening on this web site, as far as the Indians are concerned , to the
best of my knowledge.

The intellectuals,and the professionals involvement in the matters of the
country is nothing new for India. Prior to the independence, Dadbhai
Naoroji was making representations of the Indians in the British
Par;iament, and there wer many others. As a matter of fact, the Indian
Congress Party stated out in Calcutta, and which was encouraged by a
British judge  amongst the intellectuals. Formation of Pakistan was
engineered by the intellectuals first . Gandhi, Nehru etc went to England,
had their law degrees there, and saw the vision of the independence .
Before the independence, the intellectuals were going for the law degree.
There was not much in engineering in India at that time. In post
independence India there was a massive industrialization drive, and the
intellectuals went for engineering as their first choice, and some went for
medicine. This went on until the 70s. Then came the Computer Era, the best
started going into that field .

These individuals are just simply not satisfied with the salary but , many
of them also seek the truth, and their identity  which is quite human ( to
look for one's own roots ) just like the Europeans consider Egypt as their
heritage though not living in Egypt . What is the difference between the
Europeans, and the Indians ? I hope this clarifies some problems that
Witzel, Farmer, and you see that all of these people belong to the Saffron
Brigade, which is obviously not so.

Now coming to the professionalism , truth , and paper publishing .

I sent the paper about the Santhals which is on my web site, and I have
mentioned about it before on my postings . I was quite excited that I could
link these people to the Indus Valley for sure, and their identity was
undecided based on evidences discussed by people from the literature field
( precisely the same people for whom this web site is meant for ) . I
enquired about the suitability of a journal in U.S.A. I corresponded with
the editors of many journals on Ancient History , about this paper on the
Indus Valley civilization . All of them said that their journals did not
publish such papers . Then , I sent this paper to Cambridge , England
thinking that Britain has had association with India, and possibly, it
could be published there .

The paper went for review, and I got the review back. It was rejected
because, it was said that this work was based on Verma's work and that the
script used by the Santhals is not Indus script . I wanted to send a
rebuttal, but the editor was not interested in that . I wondered what kind
of journal it was which does not allow for the author's rebuttals ? I
publish papers in U.S.A., and the rebuttals are always allowed .

Then, I looked into the ancient scripts in India . There is no mention of
Santhal script . Even if it is not Indus script, did Verma not find a new
script ? I continued with my research and found that it was indeed the
Indus script .

In engineering, it was difficult in U.S.A. for Indians to get recognized
but not so now. The field of literature , I believe, has to come to grips
with the reality, that even the Indians of the present age, not
necessarilty only the so called trained indologists can make significant
contribution, if you consider the Indus Valley civilization as a part of
indology . If this civilization is not part of this group then why Witzel,
and Farmer were criticizing Rajaram for so long ?

Finally, Steve Farmer , from his writings, appears quite brilliant to me,
but he also has to understand not to group every one into one Saffron
Brigade . Regarding Witzel, I do not know.

Thanks.

Anand M. Sharan