A few things need to be said and clarified here seeing as how shocked some of you people are at the intense bullshit coming out of Hindutva sources.
First
Hindutva scholars are usually a bunch of hatemongers at their core
without any actual qualifications who generally quote dubious sources. The point is not to convince western readers (it would never work) but to dupe Indians living in the motherland and abroad. These individuals are extremely intellectually dishonest and in a place like India, they are taken quite seriously. These people play the communal card to consolidate the vote bank for the hard line and Hindu fascist BJP party. For example, some Hindutvadis have attempted to smear the name of Tipu Sultan by claiming he oppressed Hindus and Christians. After some looking up, I realized that many of these bogus claims came from a highly dubious source called the Malabar manual published in the 18th century by William Logan. The British would often circulate false reports about Muslim atrocities against Hindus to undermine Indian nationalism. However, the Hindutvadis have no qualms quoting such a document while also stating how evil the British were. Since the Hindutvadis were essentially doing the Brits dirty work, no major leader of theirs was ever prosecuted by the Brits (to my knowledge). Other genuine Indian patriots such as Bhagat Singh, Ram Prasad and Ashfaq were executed and killed in combat. Gandhi was assasinated by a member of the Hindutva RSS party, which is now the head organization of the sangh parivar in India.
Heres another amusing article about how the Muslim Qabaa was originally a Hindu temple
KAABA A HINDU TEMPLE TAKEN OVER BY MUSLIMS
Notice that the article bears the typical Hindutva touch by failing to quote any sources or using any references. Again, this is for the Indians benefit, not westerners.
""The article claims that the Om symbol appears in the Taj. I dont know if its true, but what if it is? Its a matter of historical record that many Moghul rulers tended to be as syncretist as it was possible to be while still identifying as Muslims. One of them <omitted> actually seriously explored creating his own religion."""
That was Akbar, who created a hybrid Hindu/Islam religion called deen-e-ilahi The religion wasnt very popular, but showed the Moguls commitment to pluralism and tolerance. Aurangzeb was the exception.
Now for Roberts post
couple of points:
1) "I am not sure why Hindutvas want to push the dating the Rig Vedas back so far. Can anyone help me here?"""
You partially answered your own question in the following 2 paragraphs, however, remember the Hindutva rule of thumb: Hinduism IS indigenous to India. So even if there was an Aryan migration into India, they were merely balled over by this noble religion and converted into it, rather than introducing it.
2) "The Egyptian pyramids had to have been built using ancient Indian mathematical knowledge.""
Another absurd claim, but there is a method to their madness. Hindutva initially began as a highly xenophobic and fascist ideology that has in the last decade also become extremely chauvinistic. It is not uncommon for these people to now take credit for the heritages of other peoples. Claims such as the Indians helped the Egyptians build the pyramids and that the Pre-Islamic Arabs were also Hindus (thus cementing the Hindutva view that Islam was opposed to Hinduism from the very start!) are now fairly common place in Hindutva literature.
3) "The Aryan Invasion Theory was used by Hitler to commit genocide."
This last point is a shocking example of Hindutva duplicity. Its common knowledge that the architects of the Hindutva, savarkar and Moonje were openly supportive of Nazism. In fact, Moonje even personally met up with Musolini in 1931 to get a first hand tutorial in fascism. This pro nazi policy has led some political analysts in recent decades to comment on the strange alliance between Hindutva and zionism.
Im going to post again tomorrow if I have the time. Ill post on Muslim Indian nationalism in your other thread. Indian Muslim nationalists have their share of crazies too, amusing, in a pathetic sort of way.
<omitted>
. The British were responsible for the rejuvenation of the intellect of the majority of people, especially Hindus & opened India up to the world of science & democracy(even if indirectly) & made possible significant social reforms thus allowing Indians to have a vision for the country, one that didn't live in the 13th century. What we are today, both as an united nation & our ability to use the international systems to our advantage have all been bequeathed by the British. I believe that of all the turning points (and there are many), this was the one with the most far reaching impact. 
