Rajiv Malhotra is an Indian-American researcher, writer, speaker and public intellectual on current affairs as they relate to civilizations, cross-cultural encounters, religion and science. Rajiv Malhotra was born in 1950. He studied physics at St. Stephens College in Delhi and went for a PhD in.
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Synopsis
India is more than a nation state. It is also a unique civilization with philosophies and cosmologies that are markedly distinct from the dominant culture of our times – the West. India’s spiritual traditions spring from dharma which has no exact equivalent in western frameworks. Unfortunately, in the rush to celebrate the growing popularity of India on the world s...more
Published 2011 by Harper Collins
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I must admit, I started reading this book in a defensive posture. It's not easy to view one's culture through another's critical lens. But what good would there have been in being defensive and rigid for hundreds of pages?
Malhotra pushes back against Wester modalities of reasoning in order to create the type of tension Martin Luther King, Jr. believed fostered discussion and understanding. His writing is forceful, clear, and sympathetic to Western audiences without compromising Hindu beliefs. By...more
Being an Indian if you have not read the book, you probably don't yet know who you are..
Malhotra is crystal clear on the ways Indian spiritual practices, including yoga, have been appropriated and misused by the West.
The subtitle of 'Being Different' is 'An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism'. Malhotra, an Indian Hindu who has chosen to settle in Massachusetts, starts off 'Being Different' by asserting that his goal is to end mere 'tolerance' of religious difference, but call for a new stage of mutual respect. Early in the first 50 pages that are constantly driven by this 'mutual respect' theme, Malhotra asks a Lutheran minister, 'Is the Lutheran doctrine merely to 'tolerate' other religions or also to...more
Dec 23, 2016Sathyanarayanan D rated it it was amazing
Reflections: On “Being Different” by Rajiv Malhotra
Mr. Rajiv Malhotra is a hero for those Hindus who think that they know for sure that the truth is on their side but they don’t know what it is. Being Different of Mr. Malhotra shall surely help Hindus whose culture is denigrated in popular culture through vulgar interpretations of outsiders (the term – to understand which you shall read “The Battle for Sanskrit) whose agenda is driven by ulterior motives. I was first introduced to Mr. Malhotra t...more
Sep 04, 2013Purnacandra Sivarupa rated it it was amazing
Rajiv Malhotra provides a brilliant turning-of-the-gaze upon Western assumptions. This book is important for all Hindus, but also for anybody interested in the interplay of metaphysics, religion, and spirituality with culture-at-large.
Jan 29, 2013Kaustubh Prabhu rated it it was amazing
Eye opener! Having grown up on History written by the Victors of war, I realize only now how brain washed I was regarding our history, and culture. Very highly recommended!!
Dec 27, 2011Cold Cream 'n' Roses rated it it was amazing
This book compares/contrasts Western thought with dharmic thought. Erudite and deep.
I heard Rajivji speak at the Hindu Heritage Centre in Streetsville, Ontario, Canada in August 2014. I bought 'Being Different' afterwards and got him to autograph it on his way out.
Being from India and growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada -- a majority white-Christian city, I could not understand why white Christian people were so convinced of their superiority, supremacy, etc. and how well this culture was maintained until I read 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X' many years after leaving H...more
This is an exceptional book. As I went through each and every chapter slowly and steadily, I have understood what the exact intention of the 'West' as pointed out by Rajiv Malhotra. Having read the other book 'Breaking India' and understood about the 'atrocity literature' prepared by the west to 'Break' India, this book has went a step ahead and clearly explained the logic and analysis of 'Being Different' juxtaposed with the western counterpart. It is the lack of knowledge among the new generat...more
must read, highly recommended for all indians
Christianity and islam tolerates other religion they don't respect other religions because respecting other religion implies it is legitimate for them. For them thier religion is the only true religion. Aug 07, 2017Siddhartha rated it it was amazing
The harsh condition of the desert has shaped the Abrahamic faiths. The Christian and Islamic Ethos Is built on this sense of scarcity and fear. Nature is not supportive but profoundly threatening – an enemy to be tamed, civilized and controlled. To overcome these circumstances, the desert dweller...more
Shelves: history, not-so-light-reading, owned, anthropology
Are all religions equal ? It seems fashionable these days to so proclaim, but more or less, the folks that thus proposition, do so as a final word in an argument, i am looking at you liberals. No seriously. How many that say all religions are equal have actually studied the theology of even one religion? Let alone social and political aspects of religions ?
This book asks the question and goes on to answer it. Slowly, in a detailed manner. It goes into origins, evolution and current status of th...more
Being Different was a great book. I really enjoyed it so much. Many would think this is a book promoting a religion over another, but this book is exactly not > doing that. My mother recommended me the book, and I sat down with my sister to read this book, and it was amazing. I enjoyed reading all the current events in the book, including events that are widely known. A reader will not be in the dark if they want to read this book. Being Different explains how someone should deal with being...more
This book is a must buy for every Hindu, especially 'english educated/confused' lot. Rajiv Malhotra made a strenuous effort in coming up with this book. The cover rightly depicts the deep 'manthan' he did to present the arguments in his book. Appendices are also a compelling read to understand the integral unity of Dharmic traditions. With christian/western appropriations of Hindu concepts and spiritual methods, the importance of Sanskrit non-translateables can never be over emphasized. A major...more
Dec 06, 2018Saravana Sastha Kumar rated it it was amazing
A book that any inquisitive person from the sub-continent must read. The author advocates a 'dharmic-gaze' of the west and the fundamentals of secular traditions initiated by the west that is mostly critical of the Orient frequently crossing over to supremacist perspective. Contrary to tolerance between religious traditions, the author seeks 'mutual respect' between beliefs, the former being a superior-inferior paradigm rather than mutual respect and mutual entitlement. Brilliant. Rajiv Malhotra...more
Jun 09, 2014Vikrant Singh rated it it was amazing
Absolutely astounding work by Rajiv Malhotra sir. Must must read by every Indian, especialy Hindus or followers or believers of Sanatana Dharma. Don't miss this. It is a piece of gem and i hope soon will be part of school text book.
Jun 05, 2014Arvind rated it really liked it · review of another edition
This book is a must read for any Indian. We have always been taught about history or very own history from an Englishman's point of view. The first book which talks from an Indian perspective. Highly recommend this book. In fact I started this book after i saw an interview of Dr Subramaniam Swamy
Because of colonization, Indian culture has had an inferiority complex when presenting itself. Even now, when you read about Indian philosophy, Indian writers try to make it 'accessible' by continuously comparing it to Western ideas. This book is one of the first ones I've read that tries to de-colonize the reader's mind and present Indian thought as something to be evaluated on its own.
As an 'outsider' reading it, though, it feels like it pushes back the other way too much and tries to argue w...more
Jan 04, 2015Chittu Thogarchedu rated it it was amazing
Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism. Review Rajiv Malhotra, authour of Being Different “hopes to set the terms for a deeper and more informer engagement between dharmic and Western civilizations.” This book has nothing to do with converting others. He talks about India and the people of India. Rajiv Malhotra talks about how India isn’t just a nation; it is an ancient and diverse civilization with a distinct culture and various philosophies. By looking at the West with an I...more
May 31, 2016Syen rated it really liked it
It was a thought provoking book which clearly raised the many of the ongoing relevant issues about context of Indian and western discourses based on philosophy, religion and state.
Pros: 1. Takes up the major issues of contrast between Indian Dharma and Abrahamic religion. 2. Raises the issue of tolerance verses mutual respect aptly. Author clearly points out that for dialogues to be possible between different faiths mutual respect is required instead of tolerance. 3. Shows fundamental schism betwee...more
Jul 01, 2017Himanshu Chauhan rated it it was amazing
The book deserves a standing ovation for three factors:
1. Ability to describe intertwined ideas of a very large philosophical complex into simplified, comprehensible and structured narrative. 2. Deep research into philosophical aspect and optimum output that compliments brevity, without any under treatment of the cause with which this text has been written. 3. Usage of strong examples, logical arguments and sharp rebuttals to drive the point home. This book is one of the most important books of...more
The author is attempting to challenge the very notion 'that institutions based on Western Philosophy are the solution to world's problems'. Though some Westernized Indians know that there is a huge problem with the western solutions to the world problem, we are not sure about the exact cause of these problems.
To explain that he first needed to explain the origin of Western Universalism framework and interpret it in terms of Indic Philosophical (or Dharmic philosopical) perspective. This was don...more
This book is awesome. Rajiv Malhotra has done a great job & I suggest the every Indian should read this book. Thinks which I liked the most about this book is as follows:
1. This book puts light on that all religion are not same. Yes, one might think this will create conflict, but no this book explains how all religion are different from each other & we all should celebrate this difference. 2. This book has been written with full research & noting is said abruptly. Every chapter has be...more
Feb 25, 2013Vasudevah Survam rated it it was amazing
I liked the Idea of Integral Unity which is indigenous to every one of us, who follows the Dharmic perspective. This is the inner scienctific view where we CONSIDER everyone as ourself untill unless realized through various methods of Gyan,Bhakti,karm ,hath or Rajyoga. The Western thoughts are materialistic based which is based on outer science on which they try hard to Show off thier unity which is false. Hence each and everytime when they boastoff their Synthetic Unity at the end they reach no...more
Jul 28, 2014Aditya Shetty rated it really liked it
The book explores the religious and philosophical differences between western and Indian civilization. It points out various contradictions between the two and goes on to show that trying to merge them into a universally acceptable system will only serve the interests of the dominant one and lead to the annihilation of the other.
There is also a chapter on the non-translatable nature of Sanskrit which explains how the knowledge of ancient Sanskrit texts may be misunderstood by reading only the tr...more
This book in essence explains Dharmic concept Philosophy.I understood in great detail about our culture.Author has argued that how India and its civilization is different from those of west.
To be honest, I really did not understand whole book as some concepts of inner sciences were too abstract and difficult to comprehend,but on the whole I understood that as a Nation we should understand and respect value of our ancient culture.Definition of Hinduism and its misrepresentation in western culture...more
Feb 26, 2017Nitesh Bhasin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
This book is a scholarly and seminal work by Rajiv Malhotra. The very fact that he was able to 'reverse the gaze' on Western ideas and Christianity using the Dharmic framework, makes it an absolute stunning read.
This is a must read for any Indian to get a scholarly introduction to a number of Dharmic principles and how they are (wrongly) misinterpreted, sometimes, deliberately so, by the 'West', resulting in immeasurable damage over a few hundred years.
A must read book for every India. The dangerous designs of missionaries in India & the global lobby of universalism which intrinsically negates Dharma's Integral unity. The ability to accept divergent streams of thought. The author points out in particular how Christianity is based on history centrism in contrast to Hinduism's emphasis on self discovery.. It breaks away many myths held by a lot of Indians. Overall a must read for every Indian. Strongly recommend it.
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Rajiv Malhotra is the founder and president of Infinity Foundation. An Indian-American entrepreneur, philanthropist and community leader, he has devoted himself, for the last ten years, to clarifying the many misperceptions about Indic traditions in America and amongst Indians. Last week, historian Richard Fox Young charged Hindutva activist and author, Rajiv Malhotra with plagiarism. Young, an Associate Professor of the history of religions at the US-based Princeton Theological Seminary, listed out seven instances where Malhotra had plagiarised by quoting verbatim or picking ideas from other works without acknowledgement.He is an active writer, columnist, and speaker on a variety of topics, including the traditions and cultures of India, the...more Pointing to global academic standards, such as Princeton University’s guidelines on the use of references, Young accused Malhotra of a “lack of academic integrity” given his “repeated failure to acknowledge outside sources”. (A summary of Young’s charges can be found here). Interestingly, the New Jersey-based Rajiv Malhotra did not deny the charges per se. On Twitter, his defence rested on the fact that the standards Young was citing were too high. Shifting standards Here, for example, with considerable innovation, Malhotra defended his decision not to mark out extracts by using quotation marks since it is a Western convention and Sanskrit didn’t have them:
.@ksrikantiyer Sanskrit language has no quotation marks, yet scholars cited others for 1000s yrs. Western std not only way to acknowledge
— Rajiv Malhotra (@RajivMessage) July 12, 2015
Pollock: brahmins imposed Sanskrit grammar's rigid rules to oppress shudras & block creativity. R Western rules imposed on our writing same?
— Rajiv Malhotra (@RajivMessage) July 11, 2015 He also defended his lack of references in places by citing a “global acknowledgment” and claiming 'it suffices by all norms'.
End note saying 'This section draws heavily on Author XYZ' suffices by ALL norms. No need to restate after each para https://t.co/2z3Pm4usf3
— Rajiv Malhotra (@RajivMessage) July 9, 2015 To which, other academics pointed out that that wasn’t the case.
@RichardFoxYoung@RajivMessage Actually, all academics who cite the same source repeatedly, use the term 'Ibid.' in footnotes. Look it up!
— Mario da Penha (@mlechchha) July 11, 2015 Malhotra, of course, denied the charge of plagiarism and passed off the lack of acknowledgements and the presence of unmarked verbatim quotes as “cosmetic” errors:
.@mlechchha Fair point. In prior words, we fixed errata every 1.5 years, mostly cosmetic but some where meaning got changed inadvertently
— Rajiv Malhotra (@RajivMessage) July 11, 2015 HarperCollins, Malhotra's publisher, has taken note of the charges and is examining it legally. Chief Editor at HarperCollins, Karthika VK, added, 'We will make sure the matter is sorted out as soon as possible and are in conversation with the author about it.' The Ayn Rand of Internet Hindutva While they've never been this serious, allegations of substandard scholarship against Malhotra aren't new. In 2007, philosopher Martha Nussbaum, professor at the University of Chicago, had this to say about Malhotra in her book, The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence and India's Future: “Malhotra’s voluminous writings show a highly aggressive, threatening personality. His attacks are sarcastic and intemperate. He shows little concern about factual accuracy. Typically he makes no attempt to describe the book or books he attacks in a complete or balanced way; instead, his broadsides are lists of alleged mistakes or distortions, conveying little or no sense of what the book is about and what it argues.” Of course, the fact that Nussbaum was writing about him in the first place shows how effective Malhotra has been in at least creating a splash, the efficacy of which, really, has little to do with the quality of his scholarship. Rajiv Malhotra is, today, the philosopher-in-chief of Internet Hindutva. Roughly, he is to swarms of angry right-wing bloggers, chat-room lurkers and Twitter trolls what Ayn Rand is to American libertarians. His fevered ideas about Hinduism being under siege, with American intellectuals leading at least one front, have struck a chord with many conservative sections of the Indian diaspora and, from there, back home in India. Yankee Hindutva Born in 1950, in India, Malhotra went to school in Delhi. After earning his undergraduate degree in physics at St Stephens' College, he moved to the US to do his masters in computer science. From here, he worked in the American corporate world in the information technology and media industries, eventually turning into a successful entrepreneur. In 2001, Malhotra started his cultural studies career at an unusual place: Sulekha.com, an Indian web portal that, amongst other things, runs a classified section to help find flatmates in Indian cities. He was driven by a rather personal motive: a teacher, at the New Jersey school his children were in, declined to teach a class about the Bengal mystic, Ramakrishna. Basing his opinion on a psychoanalytical study of Ramakrishna in a book called Kali’s Child by Jeffrey Kripal (currently a religious studies professor at Rice University in Texas), the teacher, or so Malhotra claims, thought the material would be inappropriate. This led Malhotra to other US academic works on Hinduism – many using psychoanalysis as a tool – which Malhotra found had a “very vulgar kind of view” which is “completely inapplicable to the Indian way of life.' In response, Malhotra says, 'I took it upon myself to start writing articles expressing that these are not correct interpretations'. Malhotra’s “Yankee Hindutva”, to use Gita Ramaswamy’s admirable phrase, therefore, began as a response to the experience of being a diaspora Hindu in the US. In one of his Sulekhapieces, he quotes in full the experience of a Hindu American girl and her embarrassment at being in a “world religions” class in her school where Hinduism is caricatured. In another, he emphasises the importance of his anti-academic crusade by reminding his readers “that college professors write most of the school textbooks in the US” and it is these textbooks that will be used to teach 'our own kids'. The emotional churning that Malhotra’s diasporic experience caused brought about a flood of very popular writing, the most impactful of which was an online essay published in 2002 called “Wendy's Child Syndrome”. In it, he trains his guns on Wendy Doniger, an American Indologist who, according to Malhotra, is 'undoubtedly the most powerful person in academic Hinduism Studies today”. Malhotra blames Doniger and her “cult of students” (Wendy’s “children”) for the “eroticisation of Hinduism”. The Malhotra Syndrome Another possible reason for scholars studying Hinduism, says Malhotra, is that “sexually abused Western women, seeking an outlet for anger, find in the Hindu Devi either a symbol of female violence or a symbol of male oppression”. Homosexuality could also be a factor: “American Lesbian and Gay women's vasanas [desires], also suppressed by Abrahamic condemnation, seek private and public legitimacy, and [these scholars] therefore, interpret Indian texts for this autobiographical purpose.' Repressed desires also drive Wendy Doniger, Malhotra proclaims: “Western women, such as the famous professor herself, who are suppressed by the prudish and male chauvinistic myths of the Abrahamic religions, find in their study of Hinduism a way to release their innermost latent vasanas [desires], but they disguise this autobiography as a portrayal of the “other” (in this case superimposing their obsessions upon Hindu deities and saints)”. Jeffrey Kripal, whose research of Ramakirshna got Malhotra into this field in the first place, is driven by his “self-acknowledged homophobia”. Rants on the Internet are not uncommon. But this one had an explosive impact, tapping into a deep sense of resentment felt by some American Hindus, many of whom believed they were being singled out, as compared to other religio-cultural groups in the country. (A constant refrain of Malhotra’s is that only insiders should study a religion’s history, or at least have a final say in its interpretation). Malhotra’s ideas also struck a chord with another audience: conservative Hindus back in the homeland. Malhotra’s thesis was neatly ported to India, where similar anger existed against homegrown academics, many of whom had battled the distortion of history by the increasingly dominant Hindutva section of Indian society. Like in the US, Hindutva imagines a state of siege for Hindus even in India, which is 80% Hindu. The wizard’s megaphone All of this was, of course, powered by the wondrous Internet, allowing an unknown Indian-American from New Jersey to suddenly capture the attention of the global Hindutva movement. Fellow Hindutva historian and Belgian Indologist, Koenraad Elst, in fact, gushingly applauds Malhotra's online work: 'Rajiv Malhotra’s Infinity Foundation, makes expert use of the new media to reach ever more Hindus both in the diaspora and in India, and teaches them to think seriously and strategically. It develops a Hindu answer to the anti-Hindu machinations in the media and academe, both in India and in America'. Doniger, at the receiving end of Malhotra's ferocious attacks, is naturally less appreciative of this new, Internet version of Hindutva. Calling this the “blog mentality of the Hindu Right”, she says: “Unfortunately, a self-selecting, small, but vociferous group of disaffected Hindus have used this Indian ether to communicate with one another within what is perceived as a community. This accounts in large part for the proliferation of these groups and for the magnitude of the reaction to any incident, within just a few hours; it’s more fun than video games and a lot more dangerous too.” The last bit might seem like hyperbole – after all, how can, say, a Yahoo chat group, no matter how vicious be “dangerous”? After Malhotra’s screed, Jeffrey Kripal received death threats and attempts were made to pressure a prospective employer, Rice University, to desist from hiring him. After many years of battling this, Kripal simply stopped writing about India. Paul Courtright, another American academic attacked bitterly by Malhotra in 2002 for his book While the “children” were affected in the US, it was in India that Wendy Doniger’s work itself was targeted. Doniger book ban In a lawsuit filed in 2011, Dinanath Batra, an old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh apparatchik, accused Doniger’s book, The Hindus, of causing offense to, well, Hindus. Interestingly, the legal notice sent by Batra to Doniger, characterised her as a “woman hungry of sex”, obviously inspired by Malhotra’s original attack on her 13 years back, which linked Doniger’s academic work to her supposed sexual desires. In 2014, Penguin conceded defeat in this lawsuit and agreed to pull out the book from India – another casualty in the long list of art works prohibited in the country for being “blasphemous”. While Malhotra was not involved in the legal case, he seems quite proud of the fact that a book was proscribed for being blasphemous ('When Westerners make fun of our gods, they're instigating trouble'). In an interview after the verdict, he pointed out that it was he who “basically lit the fire in the beginning by highlighting that these are issues”. Malhotra even called the banning of the book a “moral victory”. This event also marked his transition from activist and author to having an association with Hindutva politics in India. Of course, the aims of the Hindutva movement in India, when it comes to historical scholarship, and Malhotra’s are strikingly similar, so this is not surprising. To use the words of Amartya Sen, both aim to “to miniaturise the broad idea of a large India ‒ proud of its heterodox past and its pluralist present ‒ and to replace it by the stamp of a small India, bundled around a drastically downsized version of Hinduism”. Postscript Sen’s views and overall liberal stance haven’t gone unnoticed and Malhotra has taken care to refute him – in his trademark style, of course:
Amaing pedigree of Emma Rothschild, wife of Amartya Sen. Yet he complains of birth based privileges (i.e. caste): https://t.co/qPvvjQf8Jy
— Rajiv Malhotra (@RajivMessage) July 11, 2015
.Sen should also write: 'How my Rothschild wife lobbied for my Nobel' https://t.co/iVFohKaocW
— Rajiv Malhotra (@RajivMessage) July 9, 2015 Support our journalism by subscribing to Scroll+ here. We welcome your comments at [email protected]. RelatedTrendingComments are closed.
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