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'''Koenraad Elst''' is a ] ] and ] (without ] affiliation). He has authored fifteen books on topics related to ], ], and ], from what he identifies as a 'Hindu Revivalist' viewpoint<ref></ref>. '''Koenraad Elst''' is a ] ] and ] (without ] affiliation). He has authored fifteen books on topics related to ], ], and ].


== Biography == == Biography ==

Revision as of 04:46, 7 June 2007

Koenraad Elst is a Belgian writer and orientalist (without institutional affiliation). He has authored fifteen books on topics related to Hinduism, Indian history, and Indian politics.

Biography

Template:Hindu politicsHe was born in Leuven, Belgium, on 7 August 1959, into a Flemish Catholic family. He graduated in Indology, Sinology and Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven. He obtained a Ph.D. at the Catholic University of Leuven. The main part 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 in The Saffron Swastika. He also studied abroad at the Banaras Hindu University in India. Several of his books have been published by Voice of India.

During a stay in India and at the Banaras Hindu University between 1988 and 1992, he interviewed many Indian leaders and writers. 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." In August 1990, L. K. Advani released Koenraad Elst's book about the Ayodhya conflict in a public function.

His research on the ideological development of Hindu revivalism earned him his Ph.D. in Leuven in 1998. He has also written about multiculturalism, language policy issues, ancient Chinese history and philosophy, comparative religion, and the Aryan invasion debate. Dr. Elst became a well-known author on Indian politics in the 1990s.

Opinions

Elst has written at length about fascism and totalitarianism in India and the West. His book The Saffron Swastika analyses the rhetoric of "Hindu fascism". He argues that "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."

Influences

Elst has published in English and Dutch.He contributed for example to the conservative magazine Nucleus . He is also a contributor to the "conservative-libertarian" internet magazine The Brussels Journal, the Flemish satirical weekly 't Pallieterke and other Belgian & Dutch publications. He has also written for mainstream Indian magazines like Outlook India. He wrote a postcript to a book written by American neoconservative and middle-east scholar Daniel Pipes ("The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West"). He has also been accused of connections to the far-right Vlaams Blok by Sanjay Subrahmanyam (a professor at University of California, Los Angeles) in an editorial article published in the Times of India. He has also published critiques of Islamism in the West..

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."

He has not adopted Hinduism: "I am neither a Hindu nor a nationalist. And I don’t need to belong to those or to any specific ideological categories in order to use my eyes and ears." And he wrote: "However, I do readily admit to being a “fellow-traveller” of Dharmic civilization in its struggle for survival against the ongoing aggression and subversion by well-organized hostile ideologies." This admission extends to his political sympathies; "Rest assured that in Hindutva circles, many people count as far more important than I." He resists any attempts at direct association with the Sangh Parivar, however, calling his ideology 'Hindu Revivalism'.

Elst had for some years a leftist phase, and had also some interest in the New Age movement, though he writes that by 1985 he had had enough of the "superficiality and flakiness" of the New Age scene. In the 1990s he became interested in the European Neopagan movement, and wrote for some Neopagan publications until 1998.

Bibliography

Notes

  1. Elst, K. Negationism in India
  2. Goel:How I became a Hindu. ch.9
  3. Goel:How I became a Hindu. ch.9
  4. Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society (1991)
  5. bharatvani.org op.cit.
  6. Sanjay Subrahmanyam in the Times of India, August 22, 2006
  7. The Rushdie Rules, by Koenraad Elst, Middle East Quarterly, June 1998
  8. bharatvani.org op. cit.
  9. Elst interview
  10. Voice of Dharma review
  12. Hinduism, Environmentalism and the Nazi Bogey
  13. Hinduism, Environmentalism and the Nazi Bogey

See also

Hindu reform movements
Reform movements
Topics
Gurus and
revivalist writers
General

External links

Reviews

Controversies

Categories: