That's true ratikala ji, but the problem is, it is not just arrogance.
Agreed it is something prehaps more insidious than arogance alone , ....but I say arogance because unfortunatly it is some what typical of the western mentality to approach religion academicaly , ...in this instance the arrogance lay in the beleif that the western mind can acedemicaly study a religion or philosophy without having fully surrendered to a Guru and learnt the system the way it is supposed to be taught , ....this attitude of no surrender equates to no real possibility of learning , ....therefore also no hope of practical aplication , ....
My appologies if this veiw causes offence to any one , ....but if we are to speak of defending ''Dharmic Traditions'', ...I dont think Dharma can be understood by either western or eastern minds with out Humility , ....there is a Humility in Christianity but the majority of the west whilst still conscidering them selves Christian are becoming increasingly less devout or religious and more secular , unfortunatly due to their material and scientific advancement they have had centuries of increased well being , and in such a false state of comfort they have lost sight of God thinking them selves to be the controllers , ....the only sence of service known to the majority is service to that which brings material reward in this life , ......
Aup ji, though it is true that these western indologists have 'studied' dharmik scriptures, the problem is they use western categories to deconstruct and repackage dharmik thoughts to suit their (often) ulterior motives.
In some respects I feel great pitty for such academics , .....as they miss the true worth of the subjects they proport to expound upon therefore miss the oppertunity to greatly benifit mankind , ....they are the envious that Krsna speaks of in the Gita , ......
idam te natapaskaya
nabhaktaya kadacana
na casusrusave vacyam
na ca mam yo bhyasuyati
This confidential knowledge may never be explained to those who are not austere, or devoted, or engaged in devotional service, nor to one who is envious of Me. .......ch .18 v ..67
not content to praise or offer devotion to any form of supreme being , and thinking only of their own position they are wracked with envy , thus they seek to destroy anything more glorious than them selves , they canot understand the position of the embodied soul in relation to the eternal unborn source of all being , .....thus they must bring all things down to their own level , .....
For eg., Wendy specializes in Freudian psychoanalysis of scriptures predominantly from sexual deviance, homosexuality, sexual phobias, etc perspective, to the extent that she and her ilk have even written books to portray Ramakrishna paramahansa as someone who had deviant sexual tendencies owing to troubled childhood leading to behaviors that were seen as spiritual given the dharmik presumption that spirituality generally is counter-culture. Further, these are the same people propagating aryan mythologies based solely on linguistic assumptions.
sadly all this speaks of is their fear of looking beyond the most base animalistic self , .....
These people are indeed the root of the problem, yet there is no reason to be concerned about them, for in the final analysis these self-proclaimed masquerade scholars and their various mythological hypotheses will die their natural death, only to be replaced with something else and self-righteously proclaim that we learn and keep "updating" without conceding that there was no use make silly assumptions in the first place. Nor is there a need to be concerned about wannabe hindus, especially westerners, who in their pitiable opinion hope to understand dharma from "peer-reviewed" journals and from masquerade scholars like the Wendys, Pollocks, Witzels, Wilsons, all the way back to Muellers. Having done research in social sciences from a European university myself, i can tell that, except perhaps in pure sciences, there exists not a single editorial board that is unbiased in any other field. There are also a bunch of people who hold the opinion that any improvement in India and its practices can only come from outside; bereft of hope as they already are, there is no need to be concerned about them either.
this is true , in the long run such foolish behavior will lead inturn to a great questioning , ...it is just frustrating , ...in my instance my academic education by western standards is pitifully poor , ...yet I count it a blessing as I have no interest what so ever in western academia , ....yet by great fortune I was atracted to Dharmic faiths , ...what has allways astounded me is that the western mind once its interest is aroused does not sit him self at the feet of a Guru and just listen , .....sadly he does not seek darshan of the Guru or the Deity as he does not know that he is lacking or that he must in any way clear obsticals to knowing , he is the arcitypal child who thinking he knows it all listens to no one , ...and is aware only of his own self , ....and whilst resting in this complacancy the west will be eclipsed , ....it prehaps once had the propencity for greatness but it abused its position to such a degree that its actions can only bring about its demise , ....but the rest of this earth planet should learn from the mistakes of the west and not in any way try to emulate them , ....so many civilisations have fallen in this way , ....
But there is a need to create awareness among the majority of population in India, especially the Hindus, including its young generation in the age group of 8-15, very gullible intellectually, lacking sufficient discernment to see thru' what is written in the media, or what is broadcasted on TV and radio or worse in their school text books. Most in the current generation have lost the capacity to think independently, and all that passes as scholarship in the mainstream is the rechauffe of those propagated by the scholars in the western ivory towers repackaged and authenticated by our own Romila Thapars. The problem is that (most of) these youngsters have lost their sense of identity and are more confused about life and values.
all I can pray for is that the incapasity for independant thinking will be shortlived , ...because the west for this moment holds the wealth and the power the young Hindu prehaps still feels inferior and all while the west in its attempt to retain its control through materialism it will try to cast doubt into the minds of the young born into dharmic traditions by infering that these traditions are outmoded and supersticious , but even in this respect Science will discover as it has already done that much which 100 years ago was thought to be pure supersticion and mythology has a very credibal basis , so to in the coming years there will have to be a shift in thought and I can only pray that the Bharatia born Hindu youth will again realise their blessed position and again feel pride in their birth and in their tradition .
A very obvious case in point is the family system. Go to most old age homes in cities you'll find these people have wealthy children settled abroad! Many don't want to live with their parents after marriage because it hampers their lifestyle! The fundamental problem is that all the garbage that is being fed into these gullible minds is resulting in a value system that will only worsen the identity crisis problem. Buddhi-jeevis of India will protest with loudspeakers on issues of rape and misogyny without actually taking the trouble of finding the root cause of such social ills - why is it so difficult to understand that all these problems arise because the social safety net of 'family', which has been a great and effective moderating factor, is being torn to shreds. Of those who are supposed to voice their opinion against this, some are busy addressing the symptoms, some are actually supporting its causes (at times inadvertently), some have no clue whats going on, and then there are some who say everything is one, it doesn't matter it will all be okay without us having to do anything. The irony is that the so-called Indian intellectuals themselves are the biggest threats to dharmik traditions today - they provide expert opinion on context and content which is culturally and linguistically alien to them! Perhaps its only in Indic studies (amongst living traditions) where opinions based on translations can be presented as scholarship, no matter how twisted those translations are.
again I can only hope that this generation of ''Iindian Interlectuals'' will be replaced by a new class of thinkers that do not need to emulate the facade of western interlectualism , ....I am afraid that I think that the only real answer comes not from excessive study but from learning to once again become Human to develop love for the lord in the heart of all beings , ...to develop compassion and a genuinly more sharing nature , ....one with Bhakti in the heart does not strive for these inperminent material gains he is not fooled by their false promice , ....his joy comes not from lording it above others but from being of true service , ....
Afaik, the attempt is to stall the upcoming launch of Malhotra's new book; there can't be justified objections until it is released. But the basis for the attempt to stall the launch of new book by strong-arming the publishers is the allegation that his previous bestseller contains a portion of text that was supposedly plagiarized. 
