Indigenous Aryan theories by Koenraad Elst In two books,
Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate (1999) and
Asterisk in Bhāropīyasthān (2007), Elst argues against the academically accepted view that the
Indo-European languages originated in the
Kurgan culture of the
Central Asian
steppes and that the migrations to
Indian subcontinent in the second millennium BCE brought a
proto-Indo-European language with them. He instead proposes that the language originated in India and it spread to
Middle East and Europe when the Aryans, (who were indigenous) migrated out. According to Elst, the linguistic data are a "soft" type of
evidence and are compatible with a variety of scenarios. To Elst, dominant linguistic theories may be compatible with an out-of-India scenario for Indo-European expansion. One of the few authors to use
paleolinguistics, he is deemed as one of the leading proponents of the
Indigenous Aryans ("Out of India")
fringe theory. The theory has been rejected by the scholarly community and is not deemed as a serious competitor to the
Kurgan hypothesis, He has also written against the "Aryan Invasion" theory to defend the fringe Out of India theory in a blog piece for the
Indian diaspora think tank Bridge India.
Hindutva and Islamophobia Elst was an editor of the
New Right Flemish nationalist journal
Teksten, Kommentaren en Studies from 1992 to 1995, focusing on
criticism of Islam. He had associations with
Vlaams Blok, a
far-right Flemish Movement political party. He has also been a regular contributor to
The Brussels Journal, a controversial
conservative blog. In
Ram Janmabhoomi vs Babri Masjid, Elst argues that the birthplace of the Hindu god-king
Rama corresponds with the site of
Babri Masjid, and he portrays Islam as a
fanatical and bigoted faith. The book was published by
Voice of India, a publication house that has attracted substantial criticism for publishing anti-Muslim literature, and describes its own work as furthering
Hindu nationalism. The book was though praised by
L. K. Advani, a former deputy Prime Minister of India who commanded an important role in the
demolition of the Babri Masjid. In
Ayodhya and After (1991), Elst was even more explicit in his support of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and termed the demolition an exercise in national integration which provided "an invitation to the
Muslim Indians to reintegrate themselves into the society and culture from which their ancestors were cut off by fanatical rulers and their thought police, the theologians". In another interview, Elst went on to claim that it was a justified act of revenge which enforced fears of Hindu repercussion, thus curtailing Muslim violence. Elst has since claimed to reject the use of violence in the demolition; he has urged Muslims to accept the construction of a peace monument on the site. An intellectual heir of the school of thought championed by
Ram Swarup and
Sita Ram Goel— the founders of the Voice of India, who were themselves highly critical of both
Christianity and
Islam—Elst is one of the publishing house's most prominent authors, Elst perceives Hindutva as a tool to
decolonize the mental and cultural state of Indians and return to the past days of (supposed) Hindu glory. He has written in support of the view that the "
Vedic science" was highly advanced and may be only understood by a Hindu
mystic.
The Saffron Swastika is widely regarded to be his
magnum opus, which argues against the idea that the brand of Hindutva practiced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) /
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are
fascist in ideology.
L. K. Advani had high regards for the work, terming Elst as a 'great historian' and even carried a "heavily marked" copy of the book from which he freely quoted the passages that discussed him. In other essays and conferences, Elst has supported outright attacks on the
enemy ideology of Islam which, in his opinion, is supposedly inseparable with
terrorism and hence, must be destroyed. He calls for an
Indianization of Muslims and Christians by forcing them to accept the supremacy of Hindu culture and terms it as the
Final Solution for the Muslim Problem. In his 1992 book,
Negationism in India: Concealing the Record of Islam, Elst attempts to demonstrate that there exists a prohibition of
criticism of Islam in India and accuses
secular historians (including the likes of
Romila Thapar,
Bipan Chandra,
Ram Sharan Sharma et al.) of suffering from "Hindu Cowardice" wherein they ignore Muslim crimes against Hindu communities, in order to fulfill their "
Marxist agenda". ==Reception==