E.T.

“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

“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

“Pandit Lekh Ram’s Risâla-i-Jihâd was the object of a lawsuit, in which Muslims demanded that the book be banned. After several rounds in court, they lost definitively in 1896. But the matter did not end there, for Lekh Ram was murdered in March 1897. Some Muslims, including Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1838-1908, pretender to prophethood and founder of the Ahmadiya sect of Islam),16 openly applauded the murder: “Mirza Ghulam Ahmad published a tract in which he thanked God for the fulfillment of his prophecy that Lekh Ram would die a violent death. … Individuals reported receiving threatening letters, and mysterious notices appeared on the wall throughout the province. ‘All Hindus are warned to remember the Islamic prophets and believe in them; otherwise they will be murdered like Lekh Ram.”
― Koenraad Elst, Decolonizing The Hindu Mind: Ideological Development Of Hindu Revivalism

“It is right to look for someone’s “real” intentions after his ostensible intentions have been shown to be incompatible with the actual data of his situation and behaviour. But simply disregarding his explicit reasons so as to impose your own alternative explanation without giving him a fair hearing is not acceptable.”
― Koenraad Elst, Decolonizing The Hindu Mind: Ideological Development Of Hindu Revivalism