Voice of India

"Voice of India" is a New Delhi (India) publishing house, supportive of Hindu nationalist sentiment and political ideology. It was founded by Ram Swarup in 1983 and later joined by Sita Ram Goel, who themselves published extensively under the label. It is notable for English language books by Arun Shourie, David Frawley, Shrikant Talageri, Francois Gautier, Harsh Narain, Subhash Kak, Koenraad Elst, N. S. Rajaram, and is allegedly "heavily subsidized"Michael Witzel, 'Rama's Realm: Indocentric rewriting of early South Asian archaeology and history' in: "Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public" Routledge (2006), ISBN 0415305934, p. 205. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415305926&id=oB7pBZ3s6dIC&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&ots=XTeyscAE_8&dq=Archaeological+Fantasies&sig=6eJm_oNlUBTjbKU-lL-DkBOLY98#PPA205,M1] ] Michael Bergunder, "Contested Past", Historiographia Linguistica xxxi:1 (2004), 59–104. [http://theologie.uni-hd.de/rm/publikationen/bergunder/bergunder-selected-english-articles/]

VOI has also published the official VHP evidence bundle in the book "History versus Casuistry, Evidence of the Ramajanmabhoomi Mandir".

Together with Aditya Prakashan, founded by Goel in 1963, it is alleged to be a major outlet for the revival of "Hindu revisionism and propaganda", targeting a nostalgic audience of expatriate Indians in the USA in particular.

According to his own statements, Goel's intention in creating his publishing house was to contradict in print, 'scientifically', the Indo-Aryan migration theory.

Partial list of publications

*Agarwal, Vishal "A case study in Eminent Historiography, in India's Only Communalist", ed. by Koenraad Elst (2005).
*Goel, Sita Ram
**"History of Hindu-Christian Encounters" (1989)
**"Defence of Hindu society" (1994) ISBN 978-8185990248.
**"Hindu Temples - What Happened to Them" (1991).
**"How I Became A Hindu" (1998) ISBN 978-8185990057.
**"India's Secularism" (2000) ISBN 978-8185990590.
*Elst, Koenraad
** "" (1991).
**"" (2002) ISBN 81-85990-75-1.
** "Ayodhya, The Finale - Science versus Secularism in the Excavations Debate" (2003) ISBN 81-85990-77-8.
** "Gandhi and Godse - A review and a critique" (2001) ISBN 81-85990-71-9.
** "Hindu Resurgence" (1997) ISBN 81-85990-47-6.
** "Indigenous Indians: Agastya to Ambedkar" (1993).
** "Psychology of Prophetism - A Secular Look at the Bible" (1993) ISBN 81-85990-00-X.
** "Ram Janmabhoomi vs. Babri Masjid. A Case Study in Hindu-Muslim Conflict" (1993).
** "The Saffron Swastika - The Notion of Hindu Fascism." (2001) ISBN 81-85990-69-7.
** "Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate" ISBN 8186471774.
**"Who is a Hindu?" (2001).
**Goel, Sita Ram, Catholic Ashrams: Sannyasins or Swindlers?, Voice of India, New Delhi, 1995.
**"Awaken Bharata: A Call for India's Rebirth" (1998) ISBN 978-8185990514.
** "Hinduism: The Eternal Tradition (Sanatana Dharma)" ISBN 81-85990-29-8.
** "The Myth of the Aryan Invasion of India" (1994) ISBN 81-85990-20-4.
*Rajaram, N.S.
** "Hindu View of the World: Essays In the Intellectual Kshatriya Tradition" (1998) ISBN 978-8185990521.
** "Profiles in Deception: Ayodhya and the Dead Sea Scrolls", 2000.
** "The politics of history : Aryan Invasion Theory and the Subversion of Scholarship" (1995).

Website

The internet domains voi.org (since 1998) and voiceofdharma.org (since 2004) are held by the Illinois based "Viraat Hindu Sabha" of Satinder Trehan, who also holds [http://www.hinduholocaust.com hinduholocaust.com] , [http://www.sarvesamachar.com/ sarvesamachar.com] and [http://hindutva.org/ hindutva.org] .

Responses

Voice of India and Aditya Prakashan are at the center of allegations of a cottage industry indulging in historical revisionism, as put forward by Michael Witzel and Steve Farmer in their debunking of the "Harappan horse seal" hoax of "The Deciphered Indus Script" (by N. S. Rajaram and N. Jha, Aditya Prakashan, 2000) in 2000:Witzel, Michael and Steve Farmer. 2000. [http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1720/17200040.htm "Horseplay in Harappa"] , "Frontline", 17(20), September 30-October 13.]
Malati Shendge, a Delhi Indologist unassociated with VoI, in a letter to the editor objected to her name being listed in a context of "Hindutva ideology or scholarship". [ [http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1725/17251070.htm Thoughts on Tibet] Frontline - Dec. 9 - 22, 2000]

David Frawley defends his publisher by statingFrawley, David [http://www.hindubooks.org/david_frawley/how_i_became_a_hindu/journalistic_work/page3.htm How I became a Hindu: My discovery of Vedic Dharma] ]

Bergunder (2004) characterizes Voice of India as a successful propaganda campaign by the extremist Hindu nationalist right,

In contrast to many other of their openly offensive teachings, the Hindu nationalists did not seek to keep the question of the Aryan migration out of public discourses or to modify it; rather, efforts were made to help the theory of the indigenousness of the Hindus achieve public recognition. For this the initiative of the publisher Sita Ram Goel (b.1921) was decisive. Goel may be considered one of the most radical, but at the same time also one of the most intellectual, of the Hindu nationalist ideologues. His radical views ensure that at times even the cadres of the Sangh Parivar distance themselves from him, for his extremist anti-Muslim tirades are seen by them as an obstacle to experiencing wider social acceptance. Since 1981 Goel has run a publishing house named ‘Voice of India’ that is one of the few which publishes Hindu nationalist literature in English which at the same time makes a ‘scientific’ claim. Although no official connections exist, the books of ‘Voice of India’ — which are of outstanding typographical quality and are sold at a subsidized price — are widespread among the ranks of the leaders of the Sangh Parivar. According to his own statements, from the outset one of the declared goals of Goel was to use his publishing house to contradict in print the Aryan migration theory. It is therefore above all thanks to his efforts that since the 1990s a mass of books with high printruns have appeared, each of which has the declared goal of ‘scientifically’ refuting the Aryan migration theory. All of these books are either published directly by Voice of India, or by Aditya Prakashan, a publisher currently run by Goel's son, Pradeep Kumar Goel. This massive media staging of a ‘scientific’ revision of the Aryan migration theory was crowned with notable success. The publications found wide distribution among the more educated followers of the Sangh Parivar. Gradually also a certain public awareness beyond Hindu nationalistcircles was achieved. The increasing political influence of Hindu nationalism in the 1990s resulted in attempts to revise the Aryan migration theory also becoming known to the academic public.

Bergunder recognizes that not all authors published by VoI are on the extreme of the Hindu nationalist spectrum. He points out that most authors have no appropriate subject-specific study to show for themselves, naming Rao, who worked for the Archaeological Survey of India until 1980, as the single exception.

In the light of such criticism, Elst feels compelled to ascertain that it is "remarkable that all the writers who have published contributions to Hindu thought in the Voice of India series, are not members of any RSS front". [ Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society (1991) Footnote 311 [http://www.bharatvani.org/books/ayodhya/notes.htm] ]

References

*Hock, H.H. 1999. Through a glass darkly: modern “racial” interpretations. In J. Bronkhorst and M.M. Deshpande (eds), Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia – Evidence, Interpretation and Ideology, pp. 145–74. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Oriental Series, Opera Minora, Vol. 3, Harvard University.

External links

* [http://voiceofdharma.org voiceofdharma.org]