Wendy Doniger under attack again

[Michael Slouber]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Vishal Agarwal <vishalagarwal at hotmail.com>
> Date: March 1, 2010 3:52:40 PM GMT+01:00
> To: <mjslouber at berkeley.edu>
> Subject: Your message on criticism of Wendy Doniger's book
> 
> Dear Dr.
>  
> Your message (below my email to you) was forwarded by a list member to me. I think I have a right to put the record straight especially because I am not a member of this list and therefore cannot defend myself there.
>  
> If some scholars do not even know the correct (or commonly accepted) dates of Kabir, Mirabai, Akbar's transfer of his capital to Lahore/Agra (and not Delhi!), Amir Khusro's Qasida mentioning Khalji's demlotion of temples at Devagiri, or that Gandhiji's commentary on the Gita was called Anasakti yoga (and not Asakti yoga) and so on, the shame is on them, not on me. As for references, I have created documents for different chapters where I have provided the relevant bibliographic references from standard published works. To say that pointing out these errors is an example Hindutva rhetorics reflects the bigtory and ignorance of Viktoria Lyssenko et al. I do not subscribe to Hindu Nationalism, but perhaps my critics subscribe to white supermacism. Perhaps the ignorance of these 'scholars' explains why so many errors slipped past Penguin's editors. Maybe these editors were of the same (in)competence as that of  Viktoria!
>  
> Finally, let me correct these unscholarly calumniators. I have NOT posted this news item (or sent any letter to) on the southasiamail website. I was not even aware of this website. In fact, this petition has not even been drafted by me (although I helped the author list a few errors - my own list is several 100 errors long - the book is really bad), nor was the email announcing it written by me (I just forwarded it to the lists when I received it myself). Someone has mischievously added my name at the end of this announcement and has sent it to South Asia Mail website as my letter!
>  
> All of you would be advised to do some reading of basic sources of India history (or even pick up any geographical atlas!) to verify for themselves that Nagakot is not in E Nepal, nor is Kirthar range in Waziristan. It behoves you to send this message to your list to set the record straight.
> 
> 
> Vishal Agarwal 
> 
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