Are we at the peak of “Bobs and Vegene” bubble?

Scorpion Eater,

I agree with you that having an ancient civilization, having ancient ancestors or Jatis is not a bragging point.

The reason this matters to many is because traditionalists consider tens of thousands (perhaps over a million) of ancient books to have historical events mixed in with narrative stories, exaggeration and editing.

For the Itihasas to make any sense there had to be an ancient civilization in greater SAARC circa 10 K years ago.

Sadguru would say that many Puranic events date from 80 K years ago based on astrological evidence. {Many events in old literature have a detailed contemporary star chart.}

Some events would have had to take place even further back than that for the star chart to have actually happened.

I never understand why being the most ancient civilization is a bragging point. It only shows Indians in bad light. I mean, Harappa and Mohenjodaro probably had better waste water drainage network than Delhi and Mumbai. Indians have gone backwards in 5000 years.

When life gives you a lemon, make a lemonade.

Too bad Indians were ruled by British, but at least we got the English language in exchange to harangue them on twitter.

the reason indian twitter is visible to americans is that much of it is in english or english-fluent.

Is there anything in Hindu nationalist thought that is forward-thinking? That can help us solve the problems of the present and the future? I don’t see it, but maybe I’m missing something. These guys really need to come to terms with modernity. Right now, their entire ideology seems like pure reaction to me.

An ur-example of this is Malhotra. As a hype man and polemicist he is solid. In the early 2000s, he managed to near-singlehandedly to change the Indian view of “Indology” from apathy/deference to antipathy, and that’s good work. But as an academic himself, he is…not up to snuff.

Part of this is natural because of modern Hindu nationalism’s roots as a broad mass-based political movement that got off the ground by circumventing institutional politics and literally taking its case to the streets. But if it’s going to go anywhere, the Hindu nationalists cannot keep acting like it’s 1990.

There is no way to date Benaras or Kashi since it is continuously inhabited. Carbon dating cannot be used.

It is believed by Hindus to be very very old. Much older than Rama for example.

This is central to the dispute between Hindus and the post modernist marxist historians.