The Battle for Sanskrit Quotes

“The truth itself is never vulnerable. What is vulnerable is the state of knowledge or ignorance of human beings, especially our youth, who are being exposed to so many falsehoods.”
― Rajiv Malhotra, The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive?

“The Vedas are seen like kings’ (prabhu) utterances, the Puranas are like friends’ (mitra) utterances, and kavyas are like the utterances of a beloved wife (kanta).2”
― Rajiv Malhotra, The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive?

“Let me be clear that I do not desire my criticisms in this book to silence those who criticize our tradition. On the contrary, I hope my opponents will engage my views, and I encourage them to make their positions clearer. This book might perhaps even persuade them to be a little more self-critical about their work and a little more open to dimensions of Hinduism they have dismissed. I am a staunch proponent of intellectual freedom.”
― Rajiv Malhotra, The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive?

“I found Sheldon Pollock to be remarkably well informed about Sanskrit and sanskriti, as well as on modern Indian politics in which he takes strong positions. I also found him to be a worthy opponent with whom to engage, and doing so has expanded and sharpened my own thoughts. What I take exception to is his allowing himself to be positioned as a spokesperson for Sringeri Peetham, a central institution of Hinduism, his lack of self-awareness about the ways in which his own assumptions and world view prejudice his analyses of Sanskrit and sanskriti, and his failure to fully disclose the ideology and agenda that underlie his scholarship when soliciting support from the faith community.


Surprisingly, Pollock acknowledged knowing about some of the contents of the letters I had sent confidentially to the Shankaracharya of Sringeri. Earlier I had found out that the NRIs involved in setting up the chair also mentioned receiving copies of the letters I had sent to Sringeri. Clearly someone in a senior position at Sringeri was intercepting faxes and e-mails and forwarding them to these men in the US. I felt disturbed that there was a potential security leak in Sringeri Peetham itself. The loyalties of such persons ought to be completely to the peetham, and not to a third party like Columbia University.”
― Rajiv Malhotra, The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive?

“After citing his impressive list of publications and awards, he turned to me and asked: ‘How could you think I hate Hinduism when I have spent my entire life studying the Sanskrit tradition? How could someone possibly hate the tradition that he has devoted his life to studying? Only a person in love with the tradition could work so hard to understand it.’ This logic would certainly have impressed the vast majority of Indians he deals with. The mere fact that a famous westerner is working so hard to study our tradition is enough to bring awe into the minds of many Indians.


However, my response was different from what he might have anticipated. I told him he must have heard of certain American academicians who are considered Islamophobic (a well-known term referring to those who hate Islam). He replied, ‘Of course there are those scholars.’ Then I pointed out that Islamophobic scholars spend their entire lives studying Islam. By Pollock’s logic, their long-term investment in Islamic studies ought to make them lovers of Islam. Nevertheless, they hate Islam and they study it diligently for that very reason. Their careers are made by studying a tradition with the intention of demolishing it and exposing its weaknesses. Similarly, I said, there are scholars in many disciplines who study some phenomenon for the purpose of undermining it, not because they love it. People study crime in order to fight it. There are experts on corruption who want to expose it, not because they love corruption. There are public health specialists who study a disease with the intention of being able to defeat it. Therefore, I argued, it was fallacious to assume that merely studying Sanskrit made him a lover of sanskriti (the Indian civilization based on Sanskrit).”
― Rajiv Malhotra, The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive?

“At the same time, when addressing Indians who are proud of their heritage he is not forthright in articulating this agenda explicitly. Pollock presents different aspects of himself to resonate with different types”
― Rajiv Malhotra, The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive?