Sita Ram Goel – A Remarkable Indic Intellectual

Shri Sita Ram Goel was a religious and political activist, writer, historian and publisher in the late twentieth century. He wrote extensively on the damage to Indian culture and heritage wrought by expansionist Islam and missionary activities of Christianity. In his later career, he emerged as a commentator on Indian politics, and adhered to Hindu nationalism. Historians like Goel published on topics which are considered absolute taboo by the mainstream media. He openly criticized Islam, Christianity and Communism. Goel criticized Indian secularism, alleging that “this concept of Secularism is a gross perversion of the concept which arose in the modem West as a revolt against Christianity and which should mean, in the Indian context, a revolt against Islam as well”.

 

He founded the publishing house Biblia Impex India (Aditya Prakashan) in 1963, which published books by authors such as Dharampal, Ram Swarup, K. D. Sethna and K.R. Malkani. Sita Ram Goel joined the non-profit publishing house Voice of India in 1982. Voice of India was founded in 1982 by Ram Swarup, Goel claimed that there was a “systematic distortion” of India’s history which the Marxist historians had undertaken. In particular, he claimed that the history of medieval India and the Islamic invasions is being rewritten. He described it as an “Experiment with Untruth”.

Goel was well-read in western and eastern literature. Various of his books were banned from time to time, and he feared arrest off and on. He was a great thinker and never compromised on truth. His work remains unparalleled in the history of independent India.