E.T.

“The RSS attitude of spurning the intellect and denouncing the intellectuals has worked as a self-fulfilling prophecy: since they left the intellectual field entirely to their enemies, the available intellectuals would not be “of any use to the nation”, meaning not sympathizing to the RSS programme. The political Hindu movement has paid a heavy price for this silly anti-intellectual prejudice.”
― Koenraad Elst, Decolonizing The Hindu Mind: Ideological Development Of Hindu Revivalism

“Mishra first asked me probing questions on Indo–Lanka relations. Initially, I put up a knowledgeable front and braved it out, but soon, I was begging and pleading. Mishra persisted with his enquiry, though. After a couple of more questions, he realised I knew very little on the subject. He sensed that the entire effort was meant to stoke the outrage of Tamil parties to India’s botched-up Sri Lanka policy. In the end, he politely declined to provide a sound bite.”
― Sandeep Bhushan, The Indian Newsroom

“V.D. Savarkar disagreed with those Hindus who expected much from the recognition of the common origin of Hindus and Indian Muslims: “Some well-meaning but simple-minded Hindus amuse themselves with the thought … that inasmuch as the majority of Indian Moslems also are in fact allied to us by race and language … they could easily be persuaded to acknowledge this homogeneity and even blood relation with the Hindus and merge themselves into a common National Being if but we only remind them of these affinities and appeal to them in their name. … As if the Moslems do not know it all!! The fact is that the Moslems know of these affinities all but too well: the only difference [is] that while the Hindus love these affinities which bind the Hindu to a Hindu…—the Moslems hate the very mention of them and are trying to eradicate the very memory of it all.”
― Koenraad Elst, Decolonizing The Hindu Mind: Ideological Development Of Hindu Revivalism

“Pre-Islamic India was renowned for its universities. Great centres of learning like Nalanda, Vaishali, Sarnath, Vikramashila, Takshashila and many more—they attracted students from all over Asia and the world. Following the Islamic invasion of India, all these universities were destroyed. In the centuries following, not a single university was established by any Muslim ruler. This was a Dark Age darker than the one that overtook Europe.”294”
― Koenraad Elst, Decolonizing The Hindu Mind: Ideological Development Of Hindu Revivalism