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Koenraad Elst

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Koenraad Elst
File:KoenraadElst.JPG
Koenraad Elst
Born 1959
Nationality Belgian (Flemish)
Occupation writer

Koenraad Elst (born 7 August 1959) is a Belgian writer and orientalist (without institutional affiliation). He was an editor of the New Right Flemish nationalist journal Teksten, Kommentaren en Studies from 1992 to 1995, focusing on criticism of Islam, various other conservative and Flemish separatist publications such as Nucleus, 't Pallieterke, Secessie and The Brussels Journal. Having authored fifteen English language books on topics related to Indian politics and communalism, Elst is one of the most well-known western writers (along with François Gautier) to actively defend the Hindu nationalist Hindutva[1] movement. He frequently contributes to Hindu nationalist publications. Elst's speculation are described as "fanciful" by academic Chetan Bhatt.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Elst was born in Leuven, Belgium into a Flemish Catholic family. Some of his family members were Christian missionaries or priests.[2] He graduated in Indology, Sinology and Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven. He then obtained a Ph.D. from the same university. The main portion of his Ph.D. dissertation on Hindu revivalism and Hindu reform movements eventually became his book Decolonizing the Hindu Mind. Other parts of his Ph.D. thesis were published in Who is a Hindu and The Saffron Swastika. He also studied at the Banaras Hindu University in India. Several of his books on communalism and Indian politics are published by the Voice of India publishing house[3].

In his twenties, he participated in the New Age movement, worked in a New Age bookstore and organized New Age events[4], although he later seemed to depart from New Age groups[5]. In the 1990s he became interested in the European Neopagan movement: he co-edited the extreme New Right[6] Tekos journal [4] from 1992, together with "pagan high priest" Koenraad Logghe, whom he joined at the "World Congress of Ethnic Religions" [5].

During a stay at the Banaras Hindu University between 1988 and 1992, he interviewed many Indian leaders and writers.[7] He wrote his first book about the Ayodhya conflict. While establishing himself as a columnist for a number of Belgian and Indian papers, he frequently returned to India to study various aspects of its ethno-religio-political configuration and interview Hindu and other leaders and thinkers.

In 1989, Elst met Sita Ram Goel after reading Goel's book History of Hindu Christian Encounters. Elst later sent Goel a manuscript of his first book Ram Janmabhoomi Vs. Babri Masjid: A Case Study in Hindu Muslim Conflict. Goel was impressed with Elst's script: "I could not stop after I started reading it. I took it to Ram Swarup the same evening. He read it during the night and rang me up next morning. Koenraad Elst's book, he said, should be published immediately."[8] In August 1990, L. K. Advani released Koenraad Elst's book about the Ayodhya conflict at a public function presided over by Girilal Jain.[8][9]

His research on the ideological development of Hindu revivalism earned him his Ph.D. at Leuven in 1998. He has also written about multiculturalism, language policy issues, ancient Chinese history and philosophy, comparative religion, and the Aryan invasion debate. Elst became a well-known author on Indian politics during the 1990s in parallel with the BJP's rise to prominence on the national stage. He describes himself as an independent scholar.[10]

Elst says that his language has "softened and become more focused on viewpoints rather than groups of people such “the” Muslims or the Marxist historians." [11] He writes that he has reoriented his scholarly interests towards more fundamental philosophical studies and questions of ancient history, rather than questions in the centre of contemporary political struggles.[12]

[edit] Opinions

[edit] Religion and politics

At the end of March 2008, Koenraad Elst ridiculed Hugo Claus's decision to commit euthanasia, claiming that it was influenced by the purple agnostic lobby to embarrass the Roman Catholic Church [13].

[edit] Nouvelle Droite and Vlaams Belang

Elst actively contributes to nationalist New Right Flemish publications, and has shown sympathy to the Nouvelle Droite movement since the early 1990s. He has sometimes criticised that movement in relation to particular topics. He said that the collaborationist aspects of the careers of two Belgian writers were covered up in Nouvelle Droite articles, and that he suspected that "its critique of egalitarianism in the name of 'differentialism' could at heart simply be a plea against equality in favour of inequality, Old-Right style".[14]

However, his endorsement with the Nouvelle Droite is still active:

Wisely or unwisely, I have not taken my scepticism to be a reason for any active hostility to the Nouvelle Droite people, some of whom I count as friends... Time permitting, I accept invitations from that side, so that I spoke at their conference in Antwerp in 2000, if only as a stand-in for an announced speaker who had cancelled at the last minute for health reasons (Pim Fortuyn, no less, the Dutch liberal sociology professor who criticized Islam, subsequently went into politics, and ended up murdered by a leftist).[15]

Jan De Zutter criticized Elst for being too close with the Vlaams Belang, as in June 1992, Koenraad Elst gave a speech directed against Islam at the Vlaams Blok Colloquium where the party proposed its first version of its 70 point anti-immigration policy[16] Elst said that he spoke there because it was the only party where the "problem of Islam" was brought up, but that he also explicitly said that he did not agree with the party's solution for that problem, and disapproved of their xenophobia.[17] He stated that the VB can not be and was never his party because of its xenophobia and ethnocentrism.[18] Since this event, he has often been accused of being the party's specialist on Islam and its link with the new Pagan Movement.[citation needed] Though he himself denies any affinity to the party program,[19] he admits to "lukewarm" sympathy for the Flemish cause (of independence).[20] Lucas Catherine contrasted Elst's viewpoint with the viewpoint of Filip Dewinter, who according to him could not have been very happy with Elst's opinion that not Muslims, but Islam, is the problem.[21]

[edit] Islam

Some of his books or articles contain harsh criticisms of Islam as a whole (among others "Wahi: the Supernatural Basis of Islam", "From Ayodhya to Nazareth", an article written in the form of an open letter to the Pope and Indian church Bishop Alan de Lastic, whom Elst calls "Your Eminences", and in which he invites them to ask Muslims for repentance towards Christians, or "Ayodhya And After", a book in which he delves into the realm of establishing a purported link between Ayodhya and the conflict between Palestinians and Israel -section 2.2 Jerusalem and Ayodhya-, not an isolated attempt in some far-right European movements; similarly, section 13.2 of that book is called Islam and Nazism). More precisely, Elst argues often that "not Muslims but Islam is the problem". [22] [23]. His views on Islam are markedly in line with the neoconservative think-tank "Middle East Forum", to which he has contributed [6].

Belgian journalist and neoconservative activist Paul Belien has reported that Elst thinks that "Islam is in decline, despite its impressive demographic and military surge" – which according to Elst is merely a "last upheaval."

[edit] Hinduism and Indian politics

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Elst is one of the few western writers (along with François Gautier) to actively defend the Hindutva movement[24][25] He claims that Hindutva advocates have not developed a "wellfounded coherent vision on a range of topics which any social thinker and any political party will have to address one day", and that there is as yet very little original or comprehensive work being done in the Hindutva movement.[25] According to Elst, "Hindutva is a fairly crude ideology, borrowing heavily from European nationalisms with their emphasis on homogeneity. Under the conditions of British colonialism, it was inevitable that some such form of Hindu nationalism would arise, but I believe better alternatives have seen the light, more attuned to the genius of Hindu civilization."[26]. Sometimes, Elst is critical of Hindutva for not going far enough in its criticism of Islam[27]. He has also criticized fringe Hindutva writers for claiming that the Taj Mahal is a Hindu temple, or for claiming that the Vedas contain all the secrets of modern science.[25]. though he makes some secondary criticisms about particular points. For instance he claims, "there is no intellectual life in this Hindutva movement".

The same pattern also applies with respect to Elst and the RSS. Elst views the RSS as an interesting nationalist movement, while addressing some secondary critics, in which Elst criticizes the RSS for not going far enough in the nationalist realm. For instance, he says that RSS's intellectual output is minimal: "Most of its pamphlets and manifestoes contain a lot of puffed-up patriotism and wailing over the Partition of the Hindu motherland, but little penetrating analysis that could be the basis for imaginative policies and a realistic strategy."[27] Elst has criticized alleged Anti-Hinduism and anti-Hindu biases. Elst writes for example that "when Hindus complain of factual problems such as missionary subversion or Muslim terrorism, it is always convenient to portray this spontaneous and truthful perception as an artefact of "RSS propaganda".[28]

Elst's book Ram Janmabhoomi vs. Babri Masjid, a Case Study in Hindu-Muslim conflictAyodhya debate.[25] His opinion is that "until 1989, there was a complete consensus in all sources (Hindu, Muslim and European) which spoke out on the matter, viz. that the Babri Masjid had been built in forcible replacement of a Hindu temple."[29] He claimed that politically motivated academics have, through their grip on the media, manufactured doubts concerning this coherent and well-attested tradition.[25] Elst alleges that the anti-Temple group in the Ayodhya conflict have committed serious breaches of academic deontology and says that the "overruling of historical evidence with a high-handed use of academic and media power" in the Ayodhya controversy was the immediate reason to involve himself in the debate.[30] (1990) was the first book published by a non-Indian on the

Elst's book Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam makes the case that the Islamic history in India is being whitewashed. He claims that there is a larger effort to rewrite India's history and to whitewash Islam. He says that the goal and methods of this alleged history rewriting is similar to the denial of the Nazi holocaust, and that in India jihad negationists are in control of the academic establishment and of the press.[31]

Elst's book The Saffron Swastika proposes an examination of the rhetoric of "Hindu fascism". He argues that "objective outsiders are not struck by any traces of fascism in the Hindutva movements, let alone in the general thought current of anti-imperialist Hindu awakening. While one should always be vigilant for traces of totalitarianism in any ideology or movement, the obsession with fascism in the anti-Hindu rhetoric of the secularists is not the product of an analysis of the data, but of their own political compulsions."[25]

In an article, he writes that the current tendency to accuse Hindu movements of “fascism” is nothing but a "replay of an old colonial tactic."[32]

On the topic of the "Indigenous Aryans" polemic within Hindu nationalism, Elst writes

"One thing which keeps on astonishing me in the present debate is the complete lack of doubt in both camps. Personally, I don’t think that either theory, of Aryan invasion and of Aryan indigenousness, can claim to have been “proven” by prevalent standards of proof; even though one of the contenders is getting closer. Indeed, while I have enjoyed pointing out the flaws in the AIT statements of the politicized Indian academic establishment and its American amplifiers, I cannot rule out the possibility that the theory which they are defending may still have its merits."[33]

The Hindu nationalist N.S. Rajaram criticized Elst's book Asterisk in Bharopiyasthan because of Elst's alleged agenda of "rescuing Indo-European linguistics from oblivion".[34] Elst's views on the Aryan Invasion Theory were also criticized by, for example, Hans Hock[35], Edwin Bryant[36], George Cardona[37] and by Michael Witzel[35].

[edit] Influences

Elst has published in English and Dutch. He contributed for example to the conservative magazine Nucleus.[38][39] He is also a contributor to the conservative internet magazine The Brussels Journal, the Flemish satirical weekly 't Pallieterke and other Belgian and Dutch publications. He has also written for mainstream Indian magazines like Outlook India. He wrote a postscript to a book written by Daniel Pipes (The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West). He has also published critiques of Islamism in the West[40]. According to Sanjay Subrahmanyam, he has connections to the far-right Vlaams Blok.[41]

He has described himself as "a secular humanist with an active interest in religions, particularly Taoism and Hinduism, and keeping a close watch on the variegated Pagan revival in Europe."[42]

In his books, articles, and interviews, he describes some of his personnal motivations and interests in Indian nationalism and communalism[43][44][45].

[edit] Reviews

David Frawley wrote that Elst has a command of political and social issues in India that is unmatched by any western writer and researched in great detail.[46]

[edit] Criticism

Manini Chatterjee, in a review in the Calcutta Telegraph, called Elst's book Ramjanmabhoomi vs. Babri Masjid a "very bad book".[47] She also said that it was marred by miserably tentative terminology, like "maybe" and "possibly".[27] Paul Teunissen's review of the same book criticizes Elst for the unfavourable portrayal of Syed Shahabuddin.[47]

Thomas Blom Hansen described 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”[48] Ashis Nandy criticized the alleged dishonesty and moral vacuity of Elst.[49].

Sarvepalli Gopal in the book Anatomy of a Confrontation calls Elst "a Catholic practitioner of polemics" who "fights the Crusades all over again on Indian soil". He also says that it is difficult to take serious an author who "speaks of the centuries when there were Muslim rulers in India as a bloodsoaked catastrophe".[27]

Ayub Khan says that Koenraad Elst is the most prominent advocate of Sangh Parivar in the West. He further says: "Such is his importance in Hindutva circles that L.K. Advani quoted him at length while deposing before the Liberhans Commission investigation the demolition of Babri Masjid." In a reply to Ayub Khan, Elst says that he has been critical of the Sangh Parivar in his writings.[50]

Christian Bouchet criticized Elst's book The Saffron Swastika for having placed far too much trust in Savitri Devi's autobiography, and for claiming that Savitri Devi was bisexual.[51]

Elst has replied to most of his critics in books or in articles.[52]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Bhatt, Chetan (1997). Liberation and purity: race, new religious movements and the ethics of postmodernity. Taylor & Francis. pp. 159. ISBN 9781857284232. http://books.google.com/books?id=aap0HaCzrFwC&pg=PA159&dq=%22Koenraad+Elst%22&lr=&num=100&as_brr=3&ei=W2JQS6ijNZ72kQTp_IibDQ&cd=25#v=onepage&q=%22Koenraad%20Elst%22&f=false.
  2. ^ The Problem of Christian Missionaries
  3. ^ Michael Witzel, 'Rama's Realm: Indocentric rewriting of early South Asian archaeology and history' in: Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public Routledge (2006), ISBN 0415305934, p. 205.
  4. ^ New Age Fascism: Review of an Exercise in Marxist Defamation
  5. ^ Hinduism, Environmentalism and the Nazi Bogey
  6. ^ Country Reports - Stephen Roth Institute for The Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism
  7. ^ Elst, K. Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam
  8. ^ a b Sitam Ram Goel, How I became a Hindu. ch.9
  9. ^ Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society (1991) Footnote 64
  10. ^ "So, Mr. Ghosh may be the Director of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, but as an independent scholar I am not impressed by such titles and positions." Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society (1991)
  11. ^ Koenraad Elst. Who is a Hindu? Chapter Four
  12. ^ Ayodhya, The Finale - Science versus Secularism the Excavations DebateISBN 81-85990-77-8 (2003)
  13. ^ De Apotheose van Claus
  14. ^ http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/fascism/Nazi5Poewe1.html The religion of the Nazis
  15. ^ http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/fascism/Nazi5Poewe2.html The religion of the Nazis
  16. ^ Jan De Zutter "Heidenen voor het blok - Radicaal rechts en het moderne Heidendom" (Heathens in favour of the Blok - the radical Right and modern Heathenism), ISBN 90 5240 582 4 (Published by Uitgeverij Houtekiet, Antwerpen / Baarn; 2000), p 17
  17. ^ http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/dutch/isvb.html Het VB en de islam
  18. ^ Wat is racisme?
  19. ^ [1] Het VB en de islam - Koenraad Elst, published in Nucleus, october-november 2001
  20. ^ [2] Vlaanderen, Kasjmir, Tsjetsjenië, Kosovo... Het ene separatisme is het andere niet (Flanders, Kashmir, Chechnya, Kosovo: one separatism does not equal another) - Dr. Koenraad Elst, published in Secessie, Antwerpen, 2001
  21. ^ Lucas Catherine - Vuile Arabieren, p.81, quoted at [3] Het VB en de islam - Koenraad Elst
  22. ^ Book Review - Saffron Wave
  23. ^ Let's Combat CommunalismDecolonizing the Hindu Mind: Ideological development of Hindu Revivalism (Rupa, Delhi 2001), by Ayub Khan in Communalism Watch, 13 March 2003 "Koenraad Elst--Sangh Parivar's Apologist", a review of
  24. ^ See M. R. Pirbhai Demons in Hindutva, writing a theology for Hindu nationalism, Modern Intellectual History (2008), 5 : 27-53 Cambridge University Press doi:10.1017/S1479244307001527, and Dibyesh Anand Anxious Sexualities: Masculinity, Nationalism and Violence doi: 10.1111/j.1467-856x.2007.00282.x BJPIR: 2007 Vol 9, 257–269 p.259.
  25. ^ a b c d e f Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society (1991) Chapter Fifteen
  26. ^ Let's Combat Communalism
  27. ^ a b c d Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam (1992) ISBN 81-85990-01-8
  28. ^ Hinduism, Environmentalism and the Nazi Bogey -- A preliminary reply to Ms. Meera Nanda
  29. ^ Koenraad Elst. Who is a Hindu? Chapter Nine
  30. ^ Koenraad Elst. Who is a Hindu? Chapter Eleven
  31. ^ Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam (1992) ISBN 81-85990-01-8
  32. ^ Was Veer Savarkar a Nazi?
  33. ^ Update on the Aryan Invasion DebateISBN 81-86471-77-4 Aditya Prakashan (1999)
  34. ^ N.S. Rajaram, "This asterisk has no fine prints", Review in The Pioneer, 18 March 2007
  35. ^ a b Edwin Bryant and Laurie L. Patton (editors) (2005). Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History.
  36. ^ The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture By Edwin Bryant. Oxford University Press
  37. ^ The Indo-Aryan Languages By Dhanesh Jain, George Cardona. Routledge
  38. ^ Nucleus Nucleus on Dutch Wikipedia
  39. ^ bharatvani.org op.cit.
  40. ^ The Rushdie Rules, by Koenraad Elst, Middle East Quarterly, June 1998
  41. ^ Sanjay Subrahmanyam in the Times of India, August 22, 2006
  42. ^ bharatvani.org op. cit.
  43. ^ Elst interview
  44. ^ Voice of Dharma review
  45. ^ Let’s combat communalism
  46. ^ David Frawley:How I became a Hindu. http://www.hindubooks.org/david_frawley/how_i_became_a_hindu/journalistic_work/page9.htm
  47. ^ a b Koenraad Elst Who is a Hindu? (2001)
  48. ^ Thomas Hansen. The Saffron Wave. (p.262) http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/reviews/saffronwave.html
  49. ^ A. Nandy ("Creating a Nationality", p.5) http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/interviews/sulekha.html
  50. ^ Let's Combat Communalism “Koenraad Elst--Sangh Parivar's Apologist”, a review of Decolonizing the Hindu Mind: Ideological development of Hindu Revivalism (Rupa, Delhi 2001), by Ayub Khan in Communalism Watch, 13 March 2003.
  51. ^ The eternal return of Nazi nonsense: Savitri Devi's last writings Savitri Devi Mukherji: Le National-Socialisme et la Tradition Indienne, with contributions by Vittorio de Cecco, Claudio Mutti and Christian Bouchet, published in the series Cahiers de la Radicalité by Avatar-éditions, Paris/Dublin 2004.
  52. ^ For example, Ayodhya-The Case Against the Temple, Asterisk in Bharopiyasthan, http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/politics/PolSec03AyubKhan1.html

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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