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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Snakes in the Ganga, author – Rajiv Malhotra & Vijaya Vishwanathan

Reviewed by Kanishk Shekhar

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In his book ‘One Dimensional Man’, Neo Marxist Herbert Marcuse while analysing contemporary society writes that the working class has been absorbed in the ‘consumerist culture’ and therefore has lost its revolutionary potential. Antonio Gramsci, one of the most influential Marxist thinkers expanded the scope of Marxism by constructing a ‘counter hegemony’ as the anti-thesis to the West. Rather than revolting against the dominating group, the workers had consented to the beliefs & values of the ruling elites due to influence of institutions like school, family, media etc.  It is the culture & the discourse that has kept the proletariat under the control of elites. The emergence of Frankfurt school in Germany during the Second World War and the subsequent development of what is known as the ‘Critical Theory’ is a reincarnation of Marxism. This theory seeks to liberate humans from the circumstances that enslave them. Developed by T.Adorno, Max Horkheimev & Herbert Marcuse; Critical theory is a blend of Marxist political economy, Hegelian philosophy & Freudian psychology. It serves to address American racism but is now recklessly being mapped on to India. Popularly known as the Woke movement, their mission is to dismantle Indian heritage & civilizational ethos by waging an uncompromising war against the Indian State, society, culture, family system etc. This is the subject of the book ‘Snakes in the Ganga’ by Rajiv Malhotra & Vijaya Viswanathan. It explains and explores at length the imminent and the long term dangers to India from woke movement. The title is used as a metaphor to show pious Ganga being infested with snakes and people taking holy dip in it are completely unaware of the threats.

Snakes in the Ganga, author – Rajiv Malhotra & Vijaya Vishwanathan -

Rajiv Malhotra has been working on civilizational studies, world religions, and cross-cultural encounters for more than twenty years. Along with the co-author Vijaya Viswanathan, he has analysed in details the new variants of threats that have acquired more sophisticated forms compared to earlier ones. The authors explain how vulnerabilities of India are collectively provoked to oppose the State. Book points towards Harvard University nurturing well-oiled machinery that comes up with ample academic discourses targeting India. Many Indian activists, journalists, scholars and billionaires whether knowingly or unknowingly are collaborating with Harvard on the same. The Critical theory equates caste with race, the marginalised Indian communities with Blacks & the Brahmins with the Whites. After projecting caste as race, it is being blamed as the global culprit for racism, as the evil root from where all types of racism emerge. Authors have quoted the Anthropology professor at Harvard, Ajanta Subramaniam. Her book published by Harvard labels IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) as the ‘bastion of casteism’ that favours Brahmins and exploits Dalits.  The proponents of Critical theory filed a lawsuit against CISCO- alleging it follows racist policies by discriminating against Indian-American employee because they were from a lower caste. Consequently, the harsh American laws against racism were applied on CISCO which shook the Silicon Valley. Authors provide evidence on how workshops are being conducted on caste issue at top levels in Tech companies of Silicon Valley.

Malhotra, based on his long association with Harvard writes about its role in digesting Indian meditation systems, philosophies and psychology & Indian spirituality. Likes of T.S. Eliot, H.D. Thoreau, William James, R.W. Emerson, Alfred Whitehead etc. have had a deep Indian impact on their works which they have acknowledged in varying degrees. But any attempt to draw attention of Harvard towards the Indian influence on great western scholars has fallen on deaf ears.  Further, Harvard scholars played important roles in the study of India; digesting the valuable aspects within Indian traditions; diluting India’s position by lumping it together with other Asian countries; interpreting India’s history and traditions in ways that aren’t in consonance with India’s own accounts and experiences; and skilfully engineering India’s elites according to its values. The Nieman Foundation at Harvard founded in 1938 has become very active in its grants to Indian journalists after 2019. Its strategic alliance with the Pulitzer Center to jointly work on crisis reporting strengthens Harvard’s control over what gets reported. Moreover, some private universities back home are importing wokesim that could have adverse impacts on India. Authors call Ashoka University as a junior partner of Harvard. The founders of the University happen to be well-intentioned, successful IIT/IIM entrepreneurs with a desire to build a University along the same lines as top Western Universities focusing on liberal arts education. But their ignorance of the ideologies incubated, nurtured and promoted in liberal arts Universities is the reason for it behaving in a way that its loyalty to the nation can be questioned.  Book is laced with ample examples and citations to elaborate the claims of authors. In fact, the citations run in to more than a hundred pages.

Snakes in the Ganga raises several red flags and elaborates upon a world-wide network, technology platforms controlled by the techno-elites that enable them to direct the discourse by using Big data and AI to predict and change behaviour. Malhotra in his earlier work ‘Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Power’ has already explained how it works. The ability to use technology as a force multiplier has enabled the global oligarchs to influence governments. They have outsourced the dismantling of the old order to the Left, though their alliance is an alliance of convenience. Once the job of dismantling is done, woke left will be rendered useless and a new hierarchy will emerge, with billionaires at the helm. Professor Upinder Singh while commenting on Kautliya’s magnum opus Arthashastra writes “even if the author was a genius, such a sophisticated understanding of politics…. could not have emerged in a historic vacuum”. She acknowledged Kautilya’s penetrating analysis of statecraft prevalent in third century BCE, which is still relevant. Fast forward to 2023, Malhotra & Viswanathan’s Snakes in the Ganga unveils clandestine threats to nation states including India. Dismissing it as a work of fiction would be cynical. Those who have followed Malhotra’s earlier works know he is ahead of time. All the threats highlighted by him have surfaced in similar pattern as predicted. Read this book to know the spine chilling details supplemented with ample evidences and citations. Ignore or dismiss it at your own peril.

Snakes in the Ganga, author – Rajiv Malhotra & Vijaya Vishwanathan -

By

Kanishk Shekhar

He is a book reviewer, educationalist & political analyst.

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