Sita Ram Goel (16 October 1921 – 3 December 2003) was an Indian historian, religious and political activist, writer, and publisher in the late twentieth century. He had Marxist leanings during the 1940s, but later became an outspoken anti-communist and also 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.

Life

Early life
Sita Ram Goel was born to a Hindu family in Punjab, in 1921; though his childhood was spent in Calcutta. The family looked upon Sri Garibdas, a nirguna saint comparable to Kabir and Nanak, as its patron saint and his verses, "Granth Saheb", were often recited at their home.

Goel graduated in history from the University of Delhi in 1944. As a student, he was a social activist and worked for a Harijan Ashram in his village. His sympathies for the Arya Samaj, the Harijans and the Indian freedom movement, along with his strong support for Mahatma Gandhi, brought him into conflict with many people in his village; Goel also learned to speak and write Sanskrit during these college days.

Works

Hindu View of Christianity and Islam (1993)
In 1993 the MP Syed Shahabuddin, who in 1988 asked for the ban on The Satanic Verses, demanded a ban on Ram Swarup's book Hindu View of Christianity and Islam. Goel and Swarup went into hiding because they feared that they could get arrested. The court accepted a bail and the authors came out of hiding. Arun Shourie and K. S. Lal protested against the ban.

Colin Maine's The Dead Hand of Islam
In 1986, Goel reprinted Colin Maine's essay The Dead Hand of Islam . Some Muslims filed a criminal case against Goel, alleging that it violated Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code and similar articles of the Indian Customs Act.

The judge discharged Goel and referred to the earlier court precedent "1983 CrLJ 1446". Speaking of the importance of that precedent, the judge in his discussion said: "If such a contention is accepted a day will come when that part of history which is unpalatable to a particular religion will have to be kept in cold storage on the pretext that the publication of such history would constitute an offence punishable under Sec. 153A of the Penal Code. The scope of S-153A cannot be enlarged to such an extent with a view to thwart history. (...) Otherwise, the position will be very precarious. A nation will have to forget its own history and in due course the nation will have no history at all. (...) If anybody intends to extinguish the history (by prohibiting its publication) of the nation on the pretext of taking action under the above sections, his act will have to be treated as malafide one."

The Calcutta Quran Petition
Goel published The Calcutta Quran Petition with Chandmal Chopra in 1986. On 31 August 1987, Chopra was arrested by the police and kept in custody until 8 September for publishing the book with Goel. Goel absconded to avoid arrest.

Hindu Temples – What Happened to Them
There were proposals in November 1990 in Uttar Pradesh to ban Goel's book Hindu Temples - What Happened to Them.

Legacy
Sita Ram Goel has been described by Koenraad Elst as an "intellectual kshatriya". David Frawley said about Goel that he was "modern India's greatest intellectual kshatriya", and "one of India's most important thinkers in the post-independence era". According to Frawley, "Sitaram followed a strong rationalistic point of view that did not compromise the truth even for politeness sake. His intellectual rigor is quite unparalleled in Hindu circles..."

Books and booklets

English
Author
 The China debate; whom shall we believe?, Calcutta: Society for Defence of Freedom in Asia, 1953, 50 p.
 Mind Murder in Mao-land, Calcutta: Society for Defence of Freedom in Asia, 1953, 53 p.
 Communist Party in China: a study in treason., Calcutta: Society for Defence of Freedom in Asia, 1953, 106 p.
 China is red with peasants' blood, Calcutta: Society for Defence of Freedom in Asia, 1953, 92 p.
 CPI conspires for civil-war: analysis of a secret document, Calcutta: Society for Defence of Freedom in Asia, 1953, 56 p.
 Red brother or yellow slave ?, Calcutta: Society for Defence of Freedom in Asia, 1953, 82 p.
 Nehru's fatal friendship, New Delhi: Society for Defence of Freedom in Asia, 1955, 29 p.
 Netaji and the CPI, Calcutta: Society for Defence of Freedom in Asia, 1955, 72 p.
 In defence of Comrade Krishna Menon : a political biography of Pandit Nehru, New Delhi: Bharati Sahitya Sadan, 1963, 272 p. A reprint with changes would appear in 1993 as the Volume I of Genesis and growth of Nehruism.
 Hindu society under siege, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1981, 48 p. A revised edition released in 1994.
 How I Became a Hindu, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1982, 67 p. A third enlarged edition would appear in 1993, 106 p.
 The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1982, 126 p. A second enlarged edition would appear in 1994, 138 p.
 Defence of Hindu Society, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1983, 96 p. A second edition would appear in 1987 and a third enlarged one in 1994, 118 p.
 Muslim separatism : causes and consequences, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1983, 123 p. A second revised edition will appear in 1995, 128 p.
 Perversion of India's political parlance, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1984, 60 p.
 History of heroic Hindu resistance to Muslim invaders, 636 AD to 1206 AD, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1984, 48 p. Another edition would be released in 1994, 58 p.
 The emerging national vision, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1984, 15 p.
 St. Francis Xavier : the man and his mission, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1985, 16 p.
 Papacy, its doctrines and history, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1986, 118 p.
 Catholic Ashrams : adopting and adapting Hindu dharma, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1988, 100 p.
 History of Hindu–Christian Encounters, AD 304 to 1996, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1989, 405 p. A second revised and enlarged edition would appear in 1996, 530 p.
 Hindus and Hinduism : Manipulation of meanings, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1993, 24 p.
 Islam vis-a-vis Hindu temples, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1993, 66 p. 
 Genesis and growth of Nehruism. vol. 1, Commitment to Communism, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1993, 231 p. Reprint with changes of the 1963 book In defence of Comrade Krishna Menon.
 Stalinist "historians" spread the big lie, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1993, 38 p.
 Jesus Christ : an artifice for aggression, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1994, 114 p.

Editor
 Hindu temples, what happened to them : Vol. I, A preliminary survey, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1990, 191 p. With Arun Shourie et al. Volume II would be released in 1993, 440 p.
 Freedom of expression : secular theocracy versus liberal democracy, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1998, 179 p. Mostly articles.
 Time for stock taking, whither Sangh Parivar?, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1997, 468 p. Criticisms of the BJP and RSS, including their responses.
 Vindicated by Time: the Niyogi Committee report on Christian missionary activities, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1998, 1006 p. A reprint, with an introduction by Goel, of the official report on the missionaries' methods of subversion and conversion, from 1956.

Prefaces, introductions or commentaries
 Introduction to Joseph Stalin's World Conquest in Instalments, Calcutta: Society for Defence of Freedom in Asia, 1952, 56 p.
 Commentary of Mao Zedong's The conquest of China, Calcutta: Society for Defence of Freedom in Asia, 1954, 276 p.
 Preface to Chandmal Chopra's The Calcutta Quran Petition, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1986, 71 p. A third revised and enlarged edition would appear in 1999, with more writing by Goel, 325 p.
 Preface to Tipu Sultan: Villain Or Hero? : an Anthology, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1993, 85 p.
 Preface to the reprint of Mathilda Joslyn Gage's Woman, Church and State (1997, ca. 1880). A feminist critique of Christianity.

Hindi
Author
 Pathabhṛshṭa, 1960.
 Saikyularijma : deśadroha kā dūsrā nāma, 1983.Yashpal Sharma would translate it into English as India's secularism, new name for national subversion, New Delhi: Voice of India, 1999, 107 p.
 Udīyamāna raṣṭra-dṛṣṭi, 1983.
 Hindū samāja : saṅkeṭoṃ ke ghere meṃ, 1988.
 Saptaśīla, 1999.

Translator
 Satyakama Socrates, three dialogues of Plato : (Apology, Crito and Phaedo))
 Victor Kravchenko's I Chose Freedom
 Thomas Gray's poem Elegy.
 Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's Ramayaner Alochona
 The God that Failed, a testimony on Communism by Arthur Koestler, André Gide and others.
 Ram Swarup's Communism and Peasantry
 George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
 Shaktiputra Shivaji, Denis Kincaid's The Grand Rebel
 Panchjanya, Taslima Nasrin's Lajja

See also
 Ram Swarup
 Koenraad Elst
 Robert Spencer
 Ibn Warraq
 Srđa Trifković
 Oriana Fallaci
 Andrew Bostom
 Swapan Dasgupta

References

Citations

Sources
 India's only communalist – A short biography of Sita Ram Goel  Koenraad Elst
 Elst, Koenraad, Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society (1991)
 Goel, S.R. Freedom of Expression (1998)

Further reading
 India's only communalist: In commemoration of Sita Ram Goel; Edited by Koenraad Elst; Voice of India, New Delhi. (2005)  (With contributions by Subhash Kak, David Frawley, Lokesh Chandra, Shrikant Talageri, Vishal Agarwal, N.S. Rajaram and others.) Contentious issues on religion and temples to be decided by court: BJP President J P Nadda
 Elst, Koenraad. India's Only Communalist: an Introduction to the Work of Sita Ram Goel. In "Hinduism and Secularism: After Ayodhya", Arvind Sharma (ed.) Palgrave 2001

External links
 India's only communalist A short biography of Sita Ram Goel  by Koenraad Elst, Leuven (Belgium), 28 May 1999. (pdf)
 Many books of Sita Ram Goel online 

1921 births
2003 deaths
Indian critics of Christianity
Indian critics of Islam
Indian anti-communists
Indian political writers
Indian publishers (people)
Converts to Hinduism from atheism or agnosticism
Indian Hindus
Islam and politics
Anti-Christian sentiment in India
Voice of India writers
Businesspeople from Punjab, India
20th-century Indian businesspeople
Journalists from Punjab, India
Indian male journalists
Hindu nationalists
Anti-Islam sentiment in India