I read Mr. Friese’s article with much interest and amusement. I agree with him that what Indian leaders are doing is not appropriate with regards to twisting the history about Gandhiji’s murder. The fault and the attitude behind such a dastardly act must be faced by Indians because a hidden fact doesn’t serve anybody. If the thinking of the RSS leaders then was what caused such an act it should be discussed as such and the leadership should be blamed and criticized. At the same time, there are many other historical misrepresentations that Indians have tolerated over the years. It is surprising to hear such a big debate about this misinformation in the Indian, and now world media, whereas many of the other factual information, though grossly misrepresented, have not caused any intellectual discussions at all. It appears that Mr. Friese has a quarrel now with NCERT because of their attempt in revising the distorted history. Let us look at the points he has made in his article one by one.

1.  Vedic civilization – the best of the historians these days have openly accepted that the civilization predates the dates that had been established to date. Aryan Invasion theory has been debunked by many experts – Eastern and Western. Actually, in schools, the curriculum is often set to represent ‘the best available information’ at that time. For example, in science we learnt that Newtonian physics could explain everything in physics. But then came quantum physics, and now we are learning about ‘string theory’. So, if based on proper research we determine that ‘Aryan Invasion Theory’ is a myth, we must present it as such. About the existence of Vedic culture – I wonder if he knows of the abundance of literature available that talks about Vedas. Not only that, scripts of actual Vedas and Upanishads available even today (unfortunately, only very small part of the entire actual Vedic literature is available). The philosophy and concepts of life mentioned in this available literature is so profound that tremendous amount of scholarly literature has been generated from them. Don’t you think, Mr. Friese that Indian children should learn about this huge depository of literature that is available? Why don’t you try to name four Vedas and say, six Upanishads? They existed, parts of them still exist, and that is a FACT. We must learn about them.

2.  Learning about S. Q. – I don’t know if Mr. Friese has heard about Emotional Quotient - E. Q. concept being heavily studied in the Western world – not just in philosophical context, but also in the business and management context. If not, he should look into it. He must have also heard about ‘mind, body healing’ research that is dominating in many Western universities. He will realize how true our ancestors were in focusing on spiritual development of an individual. I don’t know how one would go about testing someone’s S.Q., but sure it is something that we should discuss and evaluate.

3.  Talking about more recent history – Gujarat elections and the Hindu-Muslim massacre that occurred before the elections are recent events. They too should appear in Indian history books when they become history and should be discussed and taught objectively. We should all make sure that the people in charge of this curriculum not distort these historical events like they have distorted the events of the past – such as Mogul invasions. Wouldn’t you agree that Tughlak, Ghori, Aurangzeb, and many Mogul Sultans forcefully converted many Indians, demolished numerous Hindu temples, forcefully married Hindu women, and converted many temples in to mosques? Isn’t that a fact? When you are talking about the plight of the Muslims in Gujarat, why did you not mention about the plight of millions of Hindus from Kashmir? These Hindus were in minority in Kashmir and have suffered systematic ethnic cleansing. Don’t think that I am proud of what Hindus did in the aftermath of the Godhra incident. It is disgusting to even think that a Hindu can fall so low in his action so as to take another innocent human being’s life, while the culprit roams free. That is utterly shameful. But so is the cleansing in Kashmir, and you should have talked about it.

4.  Aryan culture – if Mr. Friese had studied the recent scholarly works by many Westerners (I can provide numerous references, if he is interested), he would realize how ignorant he sounds when he makes those very biased remarks about what the students in Gujarat learn about Indian culture. I rather not waste my time in giving him that lesson here. 5. Talking about Christianity in India – and elsewhere. I wonder if Mr. Friese has read ‘My Experiments with Truth’ by Mahatma Gandhi – his autobiography? If not, he should. In there he will find that when Gandhiji was growing up he had faced many Christian missionaries standing by the roadside with twisted pictures of Indian Gods and Goddesses telling the locals to give up the religion that has such merciless Gods. Conversion is the central idea for both, Christians and Muslims. Even the Honorable Pope has declared that the Church wants conquer the Asian countries in the 3rd Millennium! I don’t have any quarrel with that. They call themselves Christian Missionaries – it is their mission to do God’s work in that way. They would do what their religion beliefs espouse them to do.

But I am trying to awaken Mr. Firese and others like him to the fact that some of the things he has mentioned negatively, really has happened, and is happening. Generally, we don’t have problem with people from other faith coming and preaching other religious philosophies in India, but we frown with Indians preaching Indian philosophy to Indians! We should all remember, if Indian value of tolerance is eliminated from the Indians, you would not be able to practice what you want to in India. It is because of this tolerance you are able to practice whatever faith you are practicing and able to write whatever you are writing. If Mr. Friese doesn’t believe me, he should visit any country in the Middle-east, or even any European country (if you have a darker skin, you will taste the power of tolerance right away). This situation has been brought about by the Hindus who have quarreled amongst themselves by becoming more ritualistic rather than philosophical practitioners. If they were awake and had guided the society, who would dare to come and convert a belief system in a Hindu? It is because their lack of effort and attention to societal development that people like Mr. Friese feel that their allegiance is with the Western world as soon as they become a Christian, or to Pakistan as soon as they become a Muslim.

Swami Vivekanand has said it beautifully that a Hindu of a ‘lower caste’ will not be allowed to enter a certain temple (by other Hindus), but the same person when becomes a Christian, could go to the same temple without hesitation! Rigidity on our own people, but acceptance of the other faith. If we look around, we all will see such practices all around us - throughout India. One of my Gujarati Muslim friends had told me once that they practiced Islam religion, but they lived a Hindu life. Hinduism is a way of life; you can not remove it by merely changing your religion.

Mr. Friese’s article started out with some genuine issue, but then it stooped down in mere ‘Hindu-Bashing’. I hope this serves as a good premier for many of the readers of NY Times. We should all have an intellectual honesty to be able to accept what is really factual and historical. How can we ignore the fact that India is only its given name? Its real name is Bharat, and it shall remain as such. Stop writing these kinds of inflammatory articles, and enter into real debates that could help mold the future of the society we live in.