Washington Post and Hinduphobia

Washington Post and Hinduphobia
by Rajiv Malhotra

When Washington Post was recently approached by the public relations campaigns emanating from Emory University and other supporters of the powerful Wendy Doniger, a door was opened for the Post to play a responsible role in bringing out serious blind spots of Eurocentrism/American-centrism that reside deep in America's higher education. As shown below, the Post bungled up this opportunity by regurgitating the narratives supplied to it by the establishment of India Studies.

Washington Post's front-page article entitled, 'Wrath Over a Hindu God: U.S. Scholars' Writings Draw Threats From Faithful,' by Shankar Vedantam (April 10, 2004; Page A01) misrepresents the topic by failing to highlight the central issues being debated, namely, systemic ideological biases within academia, while caricaturing the community's dissenting intellectuals in ways that approach Hinduphobia. Its strategic timing on Easter weekend, which is charged with Christian emotions especially after the 'Passion' movie, was a serious setback to America's pluralism. It has the effect of misdirecting the casual reader towards an intellectual cul-de-sac and away from serious inquiry. The Post's article could discourage further dissenting discourse, which would stifle much needed reform and progress within academic scholarship.