Snakes in the Ganga: Breaking India 2.0

by Rajiv Malhotra, Vijaya Viswanathan, R. Vaidyanathan (Foreword)

Snakes in the Ganga unveils uncomfortable truths concerning India’s vulnerabilities:
Intense warfare against India’s integrity is the work of a well-orchestrated global machinery driven by a new ideology.
Marxism has been reincarnated as Critical Race Theory in US academia and serves as the framework to address America’s racism. This has been recklessly mapped on to India: Caste is equated with Race. Marginalized communities of India are considered as Blacks and Brahmins as the Whites of India.
Popularly called the Woke movement, the mission is to dismantle Indian civilization and heritage by waging an uncompromising war against India’s government, educational institutions, culture, industry, and society.
Harvard University is Ground Zero of these social theories developed in collaboration with Indian scholars, activists, journalists and artists. This represents a clear and present danger to India’s sovereignty and national security.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, India, History

864 pages, Hardcover

Published September 22, 2022

About the author

Rajiv Malhotra is the founder and president of Infinity Foundation. An Indian-American entrepreneur, philanthropist and community leader, he has devoted himself, for the last ten years, to clarifying the many misperceptions about Indic traditions in America and amongst Indians.

He is an active writer, columnist, and speaker on a variety of topics, including the traditions and cultures of India, the Indian Diaspora, globalization, and East-West relations. Rajiv has been appointed to the Asian-American Commission for the State of New Jersey, where he serves as the Chairman for the Education Committee, which was created to start an Asian Studies program in schools. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Red Cross and has volunteered in local hospice and AIDS counseling.

Reviews

[Rakesh Anand Bakshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who invented and constructed the Divide & Rule policy to govern & suppress the Indian Civilisation and why we need to wake up to the Wokeism imported from the west and change the course of Indian Civilization before its eroded by institutions & people from outside and within.

Pathbreaking, stellar book, should be read by Indians

[Chaitanya Rajan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A primer into how the new-Marxist and Critical Race theories have been weaponized against the Indic civilization and sanatana dharma. Breaking India forces are no longer restricted to just aggressive proselyting forces and their NGO counterparts.

[Sajjeev Antony · Rating 1 out of 5]

Peddling conspiracy theories, as if Indian culture is under attack from Western academicians. Spreading such paranoia will eventually cause Western universities become afraid to touch Indian history or culture fearing backlash.
(The same thing happened to Islam after the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1989. Academicians started handling Islam with kid-gloves and even support absurdities like "scientific miracles in Quran" which caused the Muslim world blind to their own faults.)

[Nishu Thakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Breaking India book long time back. That book me lot of clarity. The clarity which was really helpful for me in coming out of small delusional world. Here is the sequel of that book. The purpose of this book is to say that there are snakes that are spreading poison. The poison is the ideology which is anti-India and anti-Hinduism. This comes eleven years after the first edition of Breaking India was published.

[Girish Balasubramanian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read. It exposes the hollowness of claims of India claiming to be the vishvaguru whereas we have outsourced the agency of vishvaguru to the likes of Harvard. It is a very clear, simple and lucid read. Readers do not be intimidated by the size of the book. The authors also need to be complimented for the very elaborate references and footnotes for each of the claims. It is also commendable that they have given a point wise rebuttal to some of the 'scholars' who otherwise do not engage in scholarly debates.

[SANJAY · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rajeev Malhotra is a US-based entrepreneur, who has made it his life’s mission to analyse how US academia thinks of India and its Hindu culture. His basic thesis is that Hindu culture and philosophical traditions have been maliciously short-charged by US scholars, and this needs to be countered.He famously got into a spat with Wendy Doniger over her interpretation of Hindu mythology. He has built up a large following of acolytes, and of detractors. Therefore, whether you agree or disagree with his views, you can not ignore them.

He has written several books on this theme, including a book called ‘Breaking India’ some ten years ago. This book which was not an easy read, primarily because of the rambling nature of the arguments, led to the coining of a somewhat unusual term ‘Breaking India Forces’: a miscellaneous grouping of Marxist intellectuals, ‘pseudo-seculars’, ‘foreign-funded NGOs’, missionaries, and generally anyone who was disparaging of Hindu culture. The book has had an enormous influence on social media activists and may have contributed to the immense legislative and social pressure that NGOs are facing in India. There is a marked improvement in the flow of Mr Malhotra’s writing in this second book as compared to the first book ‘Breaking India 1.0.’

This book ratchets up the pressure on civil society further by updating the thesis. The argument now focuses on how Critical Race Theory (CRT) of US has been applied ‘mindlessly’ to Indian situation by the Left, as Critical Caste Theory (CCT). The objective is to keep India down in the same way as the Aryan invasion theory and imported concepts of caste changed India’s politics for a hundred years. Mr Malhotra is careful to acknowledge the basic logic of CRT in the US situation, while contesting its transformation and application to India as CCT.

Mr Malhotra’s narrative goes on to argue that in order to do so, Harvard University, has deliberately marshalled the wealth and energy of well-known Indian industrialists who are unwittingly giving away their money to Left wing causes (disguised as social justice). The book mentions names of many NGOs, donor agencies as well Universities which are allegedly complicit in this project of the Leftists based in USA. These include Ashoka University, Omidyar Network, J-PAL, Godrej group, Azim Premji group, IPSMF, among several others.

Some of Mr Malhotra’s arguments make sense from the perspective of practising Hindus (and Christians, Jews, Muslims as well), who perhaps just want to be left alone, and resent the often pointless criticism unleashed by American academia as a kind of intellectual Buzkashi. This sentiment has been expressed rather forcefully in another (deeply disturbing) book titled ‘Invading the Sacred’, which was heavily influenced by Mr Malhotra’s work.

To be fair, over the years, American academia and publishing industry has developed immense soft power because of their industriousness. You will often see how Indian politicians pathetically crave for recognition by US or Western media, even when they emphatically espouse Swadeshi. So while the influence of anything Amareekan on Indian elite is undeniable, most people are unlikely to buy Rajeev Malhotra’s thesis of Harvard’s malicious intrusion, simply because it is so outlandish.

However, it is also likely that the conspiracy angle of his arguments will persuade many Indians and will drive the dialogue, at least for some time, on the social media, and possibly in legislative circles. Some of the entities mentioned in the book have already been facing regulatory scrutiny.

This book is therefore important reading for anyone who wants to understand the perspective of those on the Right, as also get some juicy gossip about the Left. The book is also rather huge, 800 pages, and could be slow reading for many.

It could also be a disturbing experience, as Mr Malhotra feels that he has has his back to the wall, and passes on that feeling to the reader as well!

[Arunima Choudhary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ill researched, obviously biased with very few facts to support those opinions. Would be lovely if the author lived in the real world...

[Raj Sinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you wonder why or how, of all people, pop singer Rihanna (106 million followers) jumped into the fray of the ‘Farmers’ Agitation’ and tweeted against the Farm Laws? Would you believe that Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and his wife Esther Duflo conducted research in India for the Saudis in highlighting the plight of women and minorities and the lack of democracy in India?

Snakes In The Ganga helps one understand how such seemingly absurd juxtapositions are getting established on a global scale. A mischief of gargantuan proportions is afoot.

‘Snakes in the Ganga’ is a metaphor for an elaborate system working within and outside India to brainwash and manipulate rural India with the end goal of destroying India’s civilisational fabric. If this sounds like an alarmist perspective then please know that this book is highly researched - names are mentioned, institutions are identified and activities are pinpointed.

Finally, the book never loses its genial tone and in essence is not accusatory.

At the very start, one must understand in the context of this book, the modern term Wokeism’ (or The Critcal Race Theory: CRT)

A vibrant movement (CRT) has developed in the United States of America calling for the destruction of White Supremacy in championing the cause of Blacks.
But of late a preposterous extrapolation has taken place : certain foreign institutions have got into the business of expanding this Critical Race Theory in identifying ‘caste’ as the universal architecture for racism throughout world history.
(And this is being done so as to take the help of Dalits and the Indian Left to align itself with this expanded definition; in other words to form a grand alliance of the oppressed.)

By no means does the book dismiss the bane of India’s caste system but takes pains to explain its opportunistic misuse by an agenda driven global movement to destroy the very fabric that has held India together through the centuries.

This is how this agenda works:

Marxism -> Critical Race Theory -> Anti-nationalism -> Caste -> Collaboration of Minorities to destroy the existing Hindu structure and break India.

With the fore mentioned object in mind the characterization of varna-jati as racism has been adopted as the flame-thrower in political movements to dismantle Hinduism.

The book goes into great detail to explain the Varna system as opposed to the evils of the caste system. It takes great pain and provides enough evidence that one of the fundamental functions of varna has been to integrate (rather than break) the various diverse social groups into one ecosystem. Varna is not to be confused with Caste (the very term ‘caste’ was planted by the British in India and was created out of the Portuguese term ‘casta’).

The Varna structure was dismantled by the British because their interests were different and required top-down colonial control. They created power points that led to nepotism and gradually the merit-based varna turned into a birth-based caste system. They did this for their time tested ‘divide and rule’ policy of extreme exploitation.
(India was the richest country in the world until almost 1800 - that is till the British started to aggressively dismantle India’s economic engine. And therefore the earlier prolonged period of great prosperity does not fit with the theory that caste, since ancient times, had made India economically regressive.)

Inadvertently or carelessly, this misplaced translation of Varna as a fixed and rigid caste system got incorporated by the Indian constitution and the concept of varna got lost. And so we have reached where we are (the devolved Hindu social structure) in the following chronological sequence:

Varna ➔ Caste ➔ Political Vote Bank ➔ Global Caste Wars

The last element in the sequence above is what this book is all about. It may look preposterous but going by the evidence provided, it is not.

This (fundamentally Marxist) ideology says that Society should be modelled in terms of a binary - oppressors and oppressed and the oppressors should be destroyed.

It then asserts that Hindus are the oppressors in India.
(But then how do you reconcile this with the fact that Hindus were colonised by the whites and ruled by the Muslims for long. Are Hindus then the oppressors in India? Can the Abrahamic religions then be the oppressed?)

The status today is that all kinds of marginalized identities are being gathered and taught that they have been victims of oppression by the Hindus for a long time and until Hinduism is destroyed completely, the oppression will continue. Yet the hapless Kashmiri pandits, Punjabi Hindu refugees from Pakistan and such like are not part of this mega-alliance. Why?
(Read ‘mega-alliance as mahagathbandhan and you will immediately understand why.)

Since separate victim groups are not likely to be strong enough to fight their battles individually, all of them must unite and defeat the established order. And this is where and how this narrative acquires global proportions.

This discourse on Indian society is being manufactured and developed on a huge scale at Harvard.

Since one of the assertions is that merit is rigged and therefore the focus should be to make the outcomes equal and not just provide equal opportunity (or equity), Harvard academics have begun targeting Indian Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) institutions for their role in upholding meritocracy which Harvard scholars view as structures of Brahminical patriarchy.
Merit is being seen as a form of privilege belonging to the elites (even labelling it as a caste). IITs are being referred to as “Iyer Iyengar Institutions”.

The real irony is in the fact that many Indian billionaires are funding and championing this work at Harvard. Most business tycoons are familiar with the importance of branding- so for them ‘Harvard the Brand’ matters and they are willing to pay for it. It gives them a bespoke suit of wisdom and a seat at the high table alongside White elites.
(Anand Mahindra, Laxmi Mittal, Azim Premji, Piramal…)

The issue here is not about the conduct or motives of these billionaire philanthropists but about the performance of the scholars who enjoy their patronage. These philanthropists have given the pedestal of ‘Vishwa Guru’ to Harvard. The exchange between them is twofold: The Indian affiliates supply data to their Western affiliates, and in the reverse direction they import Western theories and map them to the Indian context. Today, Critical Race Theory is being applied to examine subjects like caste, minority religions, women, and so forth.

The Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health is an outstanding example amongst many identified in the book.
We now have The Harvard-Chan India Research Center in Mumbai which has come out of the Piramal grant.
Ronnie Chan (a billionaire global power broker masquerading as a philanthropist) is a close collaborator and advisor to the Chinese government and CCP. He is also on the advisory board of the ISB (Indian School of Business) - this serves the object of engineering India’s emerging elite. And such methods are getting applied on a large scale within our country.)
Among other activists, this Harvard-Chan India Research Center at Mumbai has plans for establishing networks of activism (which Harvard refers to as ‘education’) in fields including human rights.

(Contrary to Indian billionaires and the Indian government, Chinese billionaires work in tandem with their government. China’s strategy is of buying influence at Harvard. Not just that, China’s inroads into Harvard are also a gateway for it to penetrate India with influence and subversion. There have been several reports about Harvard receiving large sums of Chinese money. Little wonder then that Harvard’s attitude towards China is of silent abetment - an outrageous nod at a highly stained regime with a disgraceful disregard for basic human decency.)

Indian billionaires have become junior partners much like the network of zamindars who received support from the British in exchange for helping them rule over the masses.

Harvard University has been developing scholarship to function like a master puppeteer with a well-choreographed plan. This is driven not by the quest for truth but by the quest for power.
At Harvard University teaching has become rampantly inseparable from politics; here faculty can now openly declare they are activists and that their college course comprises teaching their own ideology; dissent is banned and classrooms resemble madrassas or churches.

The book gives ‘hundreds’ of examples of such biased (with the biases proven). The disturbing fact is that despite this, these mischief theories are getting extensive coverage by (you guessed right) the BBC, NYT, Washington Post, Bloomberg etc.

Harvard is the epicentre for producing atrocity literature on India.

(Atrocity literature refers to literature produced about another culture that depicts them as savages committing atrocities against their own people. At some stage, such theories can be weaponized for political campaigns to invade, or somehow intervene, in those societies, as the savior bringing them social justice.
For instance, the result of all this is presently evident in empowering the Dalit movement by giving them an identity in conflict with the rest of India.

One example of Harvard’s academic research on India (incidentally funded by an Indian billionaire) is the massive database creation exercise dealing with information of almost one hundred million people from every corner of India, representing every community, across all strata - the ‘mapping’ of the Kumbh Mela. The information gathered is used to map the vulnerabilities and fault lines in Indian society, train algorithms, feed Hinduphobic movements that exploit the conflicts between ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups, and in general, interfere with India’s sovereignty.

To give you a sense of how these atrocity theories evolve:

Kumbh Mela -> Pollution -> Environmental Hazard -> Primitive Hindu Nuisance Practices….
And so the narrative will unfold at unprecedented speeds and in demonic dimensions.

(Now think about the recent brouhaha around the fireworks of Diwali and bend your faculties in the right direction to understand the genesis of such widespread discourse.)

What needs to be understood is that whoever ends up owning the archives on India, will own the primary sources for writing the history of that period, and indirectly, a significant portion of India’s grand narrative.
(Does the distorted history of India’s independence now start making sense?)

How does Harvard aim to gain control the media ecosystem in India?

A well funded Harvard center offers grants and fellowships to Indian students and journalists on the one hand and on the other, plants highly one-sided and therefore biased stories (‘atrocity literature’) in Indian media like The Wire, The Hindu, Livemint, Scroll.in, National Herald, Sabrang (owned by Teesta Setalvad) etc. All these news gateways are Left leaning as most of you would know.

This ‘Trojan Horse’ works at two levels. (1) Social Engineering (2) Political Financing. These heavily funded academia use the funds not only to amplify certain voices and drown out others but subsequently to also win elections and thereby play a role in imposing their ideology.

(A vast network of organisations operating on Indian soil - funded by billionaires both Indian and foreign - has emerged in recent years. In this process a multitude of foot soldiers is being produced in India with the object of undermining India’s national interest. This is already turning into an effective device for Hinduphobic forces, legitimizing their agenda to dismantle the structures of Indian society.)

The valid question is - how can the Indian government be so blind to what’s happening?
Here is the answer:
FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) laws, unlike those applicable to NGOs, do not apply to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) because this comes as business investment and not as philanthropy. The use of business entities to indulge in social-political interventions is a ploy to maintain secrecy on the goals and activities of such entities.

(Hyper ambitious billionaires are using venture capital as a means to establish a vast infrastructure that impacts the social and political fabric of India. The public is being deceived with the impression that the global elites have suddenly become big-hearted and selfless. The fact is that they are repositioning themselves for even greater concentration of wealth and power.)

The almost laughable irony is that the Left (with their lofty if oxymoronic slogan of ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’) and other carefully crafted groups (Dalits of India for example) are playing into the hands of their absolute antithesis - the Oligarchs of the brazen and emerging new world order.

And so finally in this context, enters DAVOS (The World Economic Forum: WEF).

The World Economic Forum and the Davos elite are pushing to rule over us like super-imperialists.
For them all the world’s a chess board and they are the grandmasters with industrialists and politicians as pawns.
The main strategy is to use crises (e.g. Global Unemployment) as opportunities to push the masses into behavior changes (through the use of personal data as explained).
The WEF is also pushing Wokeism’s core belief of equity over equality because equal outcomes will undermine hard work and merit and thereby create a mediocre society. This will make it easier for the grandmasters to control the game by reducing competition.
Equity is a Marxist tool that’s being used to make the masses a homogeneous group of serfs while these global elites morph into oligarchs.
(By way of just one example, proof of the WEF being agenda driven lies in the fact that India scored 5.74 on social hostilities involving religion on a scale of 0 to 7 while Pakistan scored 6.06 and China a mere 1.70. India was also given a mere 5.6 on ‘religious freedom’ on a scale of 1-10.)

Is India being inadvertently sold out by its very own elites?

The book leaves it to you to do your own arithmetic and draw your own implications.

(This review has mentioned a mere handful of names just to help it’s flow. As stated before, Snakes In The Ganga is highly researched and in every implication or conclusion drawn, specific individuals, institutions and instances have been named).

[Sanjeev Rajput · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you tired of boring book reviews that lack excitement and humor? Well, get ready for a rollercoaster ride of intellect and laughter with the world's best book review of "Snakes in the Ganga"! Brace yourself, because this book is a game-changer.

Imagine a book so powerful that it could reshape an entire civilization. "Snakes in the Ganga" is that book! It's like a superhero swooping in to save India's ancient culture from devious attacks. These attacks, masterfully orchestrated from international locations, aim to exploit the cracks in India. But fear not, for this book shines a spotlight on these inconspicuous threats and exposes them like never before.

Rajiv Malhotra, the intellectual extraordinaire, takes us on a mind-bending journey through the ecosystem of break India forces. His analysis is so expert-driven and profound that it'll make your brain cells do a happy dance. He uncovers how these negative forces infiltrate India's institutions, polluting them with toxic ideologies. It's like discovering snakes in the holy Ganga, and boy, does it leave you shocked!

But wait, there's more! This book connects the dots between Marxism, Critical Race Theory, wokeism, and more. It's like untangling a web of intellectual chaos with a touch of humor. Rajiv unravels how these narratives myopically examine caste, Muslim grievances, gender, and LGBTQ issues. It's a wake-up call to question our colonized conditioning and challenge the so-called "intellectual frameworks" being cooked up in places like Harvard University. Who knew academic discourse could be so sinister?

And let's not forget the Ivy League universities and their role in painting India as the root cause of all social and political problems in the West. It's like they're playing a twisted game of blame-India-first. But fear not, because "Snakes in the Ganga" exposes their shenanigans with wit and wisdom.

The paramount objective of this book is to promote and propagate the interests of real India, unveiling the forces conspiring against its national sovereignty and prosperity. It's a rallying cry for a grand narrative built on honest research, love for the nation, and a deep sense of our ancient civilization's ethos. This is not just a book; it's a weapon against colonial stupor!

So, my fellow knowledge seekers, prepare to have your minds blown! Dive into the pages of "Snakes in the Ganga" and let the light of knowledge and awareness penetrate your being. Get ready to laugh, learn, and take proactive measures to combat the break India forces. Because when it comes to books, this one slithers to the top of the must-read list!

Disclaimer: No snakes were harmed in the making of this review.

[William Readey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A worthy follow-up to Breaking India. The threat posed to a India by the Marxist-Left academia ecosystem is immense and Harvard is shown convincingly to be a poster child. I highly recommend people who read this also listen to the interview between Prof. Peter Boghossian (an atheist) and Rajiv Malhotra to disabuse themselves of the notion that the threats discussed are the concocted machinations of the Hindu Right.

[Harsh Agrawal]

Snakes in the Ganga: Breaking India 2.0 by Rajiv Malhotra and Vijaya Vishwanathan is a provocative and thought-provoking book that delves into the hidden dangers lurking beneath the surface of India's institutions. The authors use the metaphor of the Ganges River, a place that is traditionally seen as safe and sacred, to illustrate how unsuspecting individuals can be caught off guard by these dangers.
The book is a follow-up to Malhotra's earlier classic, Breaking India, which was written over a decade ago. It delves into the hidden dangers that are lurking beneath the surface of India's institutions. The authors use the metaphor of the Ganges River, a place that is traditionally seen as safe and sacred, to illustrate how unsuspecting individuals can be caught off guard by these dangers.The authors argue that the dangers discussed in this new book are wider in scope and have more backing than those discussed in the previous book. They argue that negative forces are infiltrating India's institutions and polluting them with toxins, challenging the legitimacy of the Indian government, and inciting social problems that are blamed on both the government and the Hindu civilization.
The book explains how new academic frameworks and discourse being developed in places like Harvard University have sinister intentions towards India. It also examines how some of India's own elites, including some well-known patriots, are knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or maybe unconsciously, actively sponsoring such negative forces. The authors argue that the nest where these snakes are being incubated and nurtured is American Ivy League universities, specifically Harvard. They argue that many bright young Indians are lured into Harvard's orbit, tutored, and brainwashed before being exported back to India to spread the dangerous thinking.
The book explains how Marxism is being reformulated and repackaged into ideological systems like Critical Race Theory. The authors are in support of movements like Black Lives Matter but wish to point out how such movements are being dovetailed to fulfil Marxist agendas.
The book is well-researched and cites over a thousand endnotes and several pages of bibliography. It could upset some people simply because they are not used to seeing these widely acclaimed ideas and institutions in this light. However, the authors present ample evidence to support their thesis, and it is not just a few individuals that are considered the dangerous snakes in this thesis, but a pretty large number. Overall, Snakes in the Ganga: Breaking India 2.0 is a wakeup call for India that challenges readers to think critically about the hidden dangers lurking beneath the surface of India's institutions.

[Sushen Tamkoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book.

If you lean left, read this book.
If you lean right, read this book.
If you're somewhere in between, read this book.

Before you get swayed by agendas, read this book.
To challenge your views and think deeper, read this book.

Read this book.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads # Hindutva, Indic

Snakes in the Ganga: Breaking India 2.0 is Rajiv Malhotra in sequel mode, and yet it is not merely a continuation but an escalation. If Breaking India (2011) sought to unmask what he and Aravindan Neelakandan saw as foreign interventions in Dravidian and Dalit politics, Snakes in the Ganga (co-authored with Vijaya Viswanathan, foreword by R. Vaidyanathan) widens the scope to a newer front: elite academic institutions, particularly Harvard, and their role in shaping global narratives about India.

The target has shifted from missionaries and NGOs on the ground to think tanks, endowments, and universities producing the knowledge economy that, in Malhotra’s telling, frames India for the world.

If the first book warned of “breaking forces” manipulating caste and identity fault lines, this one claims the snakes have entered the very heart of the establishment, influencing Indian elites themselves and setting the stage for what he terms “Breaking India 2.0.”

At its core, the argument of Snakes in the Ganga is that critical race theory, critical caste theory, and the broader ideological currents of American academia are being weaponised against India. Malhotra argues that the intellectual frameworks being developed and popularised in Ivy League institutions are creating a hostile template through which Hinduism, Indian culture, and India’s national identity are viewed.

The recurring concern is what he calls “India studies” — the institutionalised research on India funded by both Western and Indian philanthropists, which, according to him, gets digested into categories borrowed from American racial discourse. Just as African Americans are studied primarily in terms of slavery and oppression, so too are Dalits and caste positioned as the “original sin” of Indian civilisation, with Hinduism cast as irredeemably oppressive.

Harvard, in this book, becomes emblematic — both a symbol of prestige that Indians covet and a site of intellectual colonisation. Hence the metaphor: the snake is not at the borders but in the Ganga itself, the sacred river now poisoned.

The book has the texture of a dossier more than a narrative. Malhotra and Viswanathan list names, institutions, conferences, and funding streams, tracing a network of scholars and activists who, they argue, shape global perceptions of India.

The style is investigative and accusatory, with the weight of documentation designed to give readers the sense of uncovering a hidden plot. The refrain is one of infiltration: that Indians themselves, including prominent donors to Harvard, are unwittingly financing an apparatus that delegitimises their own civilisation.

The book makes particular use of examples from the social sciences where terms like “caste privilege,” “Brahminism,” and “oppression studies” are foregrounded, with Malhotra presenting them as ideological imports rather than genuine scholarship. Where Breaking India blamed missionaries and NGOs for fanning Dravidian and Dalit separatism, Snakes in the Ganga places Ivy League universities and their Indian partners in the dock, claiming they are sowing intellectual seeds that will delegitimise India on the global stage.

The reception of this book has been predictably polarised. For admirers of Malhotra, it is a courageous, much-needed exposure of elite complicity in what they see as Hinduphobic narratives. For critics, it is a conspiracy theory in book form, treating every grant, every research paper, every academic conference as evidence of a coordinated attempt to undermine India. Yet even critics admit there is a kernel of unease here: the disproportionate influence of American academia on global discourses, and the tendency for Indian elites to defer to Harvard or Oxford as arbiters of legitimacy, is a real phenomenon. Malhotra’s way of presenting it is alarmist, but the dynamic is not invented. What makes the book effective in its own circles is precisely its weaving together of scattered anxieties into a story of infiltration and betrayal. Where others see disparate events — a Harvard course on caste, an academic endowment, a Dalit studies conference — Malhotra sees the tentacles of a coordinated machine.

The book must also be read in the context of Malhotra’s larger intellectual campaign. Sanskrit Non-Translatables was about linguistic sovereignty, urging Indians not to translate dharmic concepts into Western categories. Ten Heads of Ravana was about confronting specific scholars deemed hostile to Hinduism. Breaking India was about exposing missionary and NGO manipulation.

Snakes in the Ganga is the culmination of this arc, bringing together his obsession with language, his hostility toward Western academia, and his conspiratorial framing into a grand narrative where Harvard is cast as the Vatican of twenty-first century Hinduphobia. It is not subtle, nor is it meant to be. Its polemical nature is both its strength and weakness.

Readers sympathetic to Malhotra’s project find in it a kind of intellectual counter-attack against elite cultural domination. Those opposed find it paranoid, with the combative style obscuring legitimate questions under a flood of accusation.

What makes Snakes in the Ganga more potent than its predecessors is its psychological resonance for the Indian middle class. Harvard is aspirational; it is where wealthy Indians send their children, where corporations look for validation, where donors gain cultural capital. By targeting Harvard, Malhotra touches a nerve: are Indians themselves bankrolling the intellectual delegitimisation of their civilisation?

The irony that Harvard-trained Indians wield prestige in India while Indian traditions are simultaneously framed as oppressive there is the book’s sharpest provocation. Whether or not one buys the conspiracy, the discomfort it generates is undeniable. The metaphor of the snake in the Ganga works precisely because it flips the narrative of aspiration into one of betrayal — the most sacred river polluted from within.

From a scholarly point of view, the book’s shortcomings are obvious. It flattens complex academic debates into monolithic attacks on Hinduism. It interprets research through a lens of intentional malice rather than disciplinary method. It dismisses social critiques as part of a hostile design rather than engaging with their substance. It rarely pauses to ask why caste remains such a central concern in Indian studies, or whether the critiques might contain valid moral or political insights. Instead, everything is folded into the framework of attack.

In this sense, the book is more a polemic than a piece of analysis — it convinces the already-convinced, but alienates those looking for balanced reflection.

Yet this, too, is part of its design. Malhotra does not aim to persuade neutral observers; he aims to arm a constituency. The book functions as a weapon in the culture wars, a thick shield of suspicion against Western academic discourse.

Comparisons with other intellectual projects sharpen the picture. Swapan Dasgupta’s Awakening Bharat Mata curated a lineage of right-wing Indian thought, aiming to give respectability and continuity. Manu Pillai’s Gods, Guns and Missionaries historicised the making of modern Hindu identity, offering nuance and ambivalence.

A.G. Noorani’s The RSS: A Menace to India condemned with relentless vigour, constructing the Sangh as an existential threat. Malhotra belongs to a different genre altogether: not curator, not historian, not critic, but crusader. He seeks to fight, not to explain. Snakes in the Ganga does not attempt the cool analysis of a Christophe Jaffrelot or the layered history of a Pillai; it attempts the mobilisation of sentiment.

It is more pamphlet than monograph, more war cry than textbook. But in an era where polemics circulate faster than scholarship, it has its effect. It sharpens suspicion, legitimises defensiveness, and reinforces the sense of siege that fuels much of contemporary right-wing identity politics.

The irony, of course, is that the very global circuits Malhotra condemns are the ones that amplify his own work. His books are debated in English, circulated internationally, and consumed by the same middle classes who aspire to Ivy League validation. The language of resistance is embedded within the global academic marketplace he denounces.

In that sense, Snakes in the Ganga is itself a product of the forces it critiques, performing the tension it condemns. It seeks to create a parallel intellectual sovereignty while operating within the very structures it warns against. This paradox is not unique to Malhotra but characteristic of many postcolonial intellectual movements: the call to resist Western categories is itself articulated in English, published by Western presses, debated in global circuits.

Ultimately, Snakes in the Ganga is less about Harvard than about the Indian psyche. It is a mirror held up to anxieties of status, identity, and cultural legitimacy. Its conspiratorial tone resonates because it dramatizes real tensions: the gap between India’s civilisational pride and its dependence on Western validation, the discomfort with caste critiques, the suspicion of intellectual hegemony. Malhotra names these tensions in the language of infiltration and sabotage.

Whether one finds that convincing depends on where one stands. To the sympathetic, it is a call to vigilance. To the sceptical, it is a paranoid projection. To the detached observer, it is a fascinating document of how India’s culture wars now play out not just in temples or parliaments but in classrooms and universities.

As a reflective reading experience, the book is both exhausting and revealing. Exhausting because of its relentless accusatory tone, its tendency to pile on examples without breathing space, its inability to acknowledge complexity. Revealing because, in its very excesses, it crystallises the siege mentality of a certain stream of Indian thought.

Like its predecessor Breaking India, it works best as a symptom: a map of fears, resentments, and aspirations that define a segment of contemporary India. To engage with it is not to accept its conclusions but to understand the mood it reflects — a mood of suspicion toward the global, defensiveness about the local, and a hunger for sovereignty in thought.

If Breaking India was the alarm bell of intervention, Snakes in the Ganga is the warning of infiltration. It shows how Malhotra has shifted his battlefield from the missionary to the Ivy League, from the village to the seminar room, from the church to the classroom.

The arc is consistent: defending Hindu civilisation from what he sees as forces of digestion and destruction. Whether one calls it paranoia or prophecy depends on one’s politics.

But as a cultural artefact, it tells us something essential about the times: that the struggle for India’s identity is now fought not only in politics but in the battle over who narrates India, and how.

[O.V. Jayaram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rajiv Malhotra has always proven to identify threats to the Indic civilization faster than the general public and even various experts. His ability to read the dangers posed by the woke Left in American academia shines through here. The threat is not unique to India but to the USA as well. Highly recommended read.

[Shreyansh Thakur · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read book.

[Pritish · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt the book sputters a lot of conspiracy theories, although there are some far-fetched linkages but the construction of opinions is rushed and seeks to polarize people on the anti-India forces.

The worst part about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies: The book effectively can be summed up using this quote. The driving impetus for the anti-India forces from the Orient is mostly by the Indians residing there and having obtained a platform through the Ivy-League colleges.

[Rohit Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rajiv Malhotra and team, has the unique capability among all the guys who are trying to fight for dharma.
He can accurately criticise the adharmic one and the lazy dharmic ones who only do feel good activism and pay no attention to gaining capabilities to take this fight further, which might not be fun for the new "right wing" to go through because they engage in circle jerking eachother and feel good rather than do some real work which can make a difference on the ground

This book is pretty much an encyclopedia of data points and theoretical backgrounds to support what any aware hindu knows at this point.
There is only one new thing here narrative wise which i wasn't aware of. There is an attempt going on to connect every Ill in the world with aryans and automatically with hinduism. With the famous book caste, racism as a concept itself has been made to look like it came from aryans, back then it was called caste. So racism in America is just the modern form of casteism, where whites are the high caste and blacks are the low caste. Since, casteism itself was based on color. This discrimination based on color is not a modern phenomenon, it was the Aryans who started it. So automatically the father of racism is Hinduism. It can be done to anything, patriarchy as well. Since it's already been established that Aryans were the first mega scale civilization, now you highlight a misogynistic practice from india then it will automatically mean it were the Aryans who put the world in a patriarchy and automatically they were the hindus. Yes obviously this is fucking stupid but that hasn't stopped them so far, very soon, every thing, every thing will be blamed on Hinduism. Since this is the last dharmic way of life still standing. And they are very very clear about their target.

There were some surprising facts which should not have been surprising because the same pattern has unfolded before. All the groups that are working to deepen the fault lines, most their funding comes from Saudi, same as how it was with mujahideen fighting the USSR. People who sit in their homes and act like these things are not that serious and some guys just exaggerate the situation should think about what the situation is when the same channel that helped fight a war against a super power is active against you, there is just one modification in that channel, on the place of madarsa it's harvard.

The book maintains a very balanced stance to never portray any of their activities as bad. It just asks what it means for our sovereignty. It gives the space to seculars among us to say it doesn't matter because Americans are the leaders of the free worlds and what they are doing is helping us. It's not trying to shove anything down anyone's throat which is extremely tough to do, especially with things like these, where being objective is meaningless, if you are not emotionally invested in it you won't put a second of investment in this thankless work.
It also does the unique work of putting the theoretical ideas in the right perspective. Communism in all it shades are not wrong about their explanations of the society. Atleast not as wrong as they are made to be. The fuck up comes when people try to solve things applying a communism frame work. That's when it all falls apart. Book doesn't go as far as to question the intent of people trying to solve it, but readers should. And it's easy to see that people who claim to be working to solve it, has no interest in solving it, thy just want to weaponize it to make their own power hierarchy. And thats why it's a fuck up.

There was just one thing which I didn't agree with. And i think it should be included, to make the picture complete. It asks the question are indians up for sale? Of course they are. However, this categorisation of Indian and American or British loses its meaning when we apply it in this context. Categorisation has a purpose, here this kind of categorisation just confuses us further. And it provides the white group with an excuse where they can always say see indians are complicit you get your shit together first before you say anything about us. Which they have been doing since east india company landed in India.
The only category that matters here is dharmic vs adharmic, obviously adharmics who happen to be indians will gravitate and associate towards their kind no matter where they are. We have to have clear boundaries of, in group and out group, which depends on what the ingroup is, the ingroup is not of "Indians", the sooner we realise it the better. Even the guys who are attacking us are not attacking us because we are indians, they collaborate with Indians. They are attacking us because we are infidels and pagans. Commies define their own version of this. But like any pagan or infidel, who can save himself by conversion, you can become a commie and save yourself from them too.
If we ask the same question after using this new categorisation, we see it more clearly. Are the jihadis, white supremacists and commies in india up for sale? They don't even need to buy them, they are already one of them.
And yes, lots of Indians are white supremacists since they believe western civilization is the best and are actively trying to commit cultural genocide to get that western civilization in India.

[Paul Pop · Rating 1 out of 5]

A bullsh*t propoganda piece written by an obvious Hindu nationalist, making absurd conspiracy theories.

[Neha Nagar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well researched book substantiated with evidence and proof. It conveys the intent of authors in remarkable simplicity. Hatts off to Rajiv Malhotra and Vijaya Vishwanath for taking on to the big wigs in International Arena with courage and determination. If Breaking India highlighted the nexus of NGOs to dismantle India, this time it is Foreign Universities, Corporate Houses and the Artificial Intelligence in full play to recolonize us again. The book wakes up every Indian to the deleterious effect of Wokeism in the form of Critical Caste Theory, gender fluidity, Cancel Culture and DEI prevalent today. It go deep into the nexus between the institutions at Harvard University and Indian Billionares. It exposes how the funding by big Indian Corporate Houses is being circumvented by foreign Universities to serve the interest and projects inimical to Bharat. How even the Government is caught unaware about the wokeism being introduced in India through their multi level network operating at each and every facet of the society.
The book is quite systematic and organized in its presentation. Clarity, precision and simplicity what marks the style of the authors in making it understandable to the reader. First part is theoretical discussing dialectic theory propounded by Hegel extended by Marx to Materialism and caste into new mould by Gramsci and Frankfurt School. Then comes the Post Modernism School which deconstructs all narratives giving rise to wokeism. The author explains how this concept is being imported in India and how being used to attack meritocracy of IITs social system. Caste is being labelled as root of racism to attack Hinduism.
The second Part deals with the role of Harvard University in digesting Indian thoughts into western philosophy erasing the very credit to the origin of thoughts. The authors also compares the funding of China to Harvard viz a viz India and shows how China is controlling the narrative at its own term and conditions. While anti India Narrative is being publicized everywhere by Harvard scholars, research papers but there is no anti china narrative seen. Rather, policies of China are appreciated. How even the funding by Indian Billionares is bolstering the anti India Narrative. The book open eyes to Harward becoming Vishwa Guru by exporting post modernism in the Indian society through our own funding. It highlights the role of prominent Business Houses in all this. The third Part takes us to the working of prominent Universities in India with the Harward Funding against the interest of our country. He cites various examples from this Universities to substantiate it.
One of the lesson from the book is that India has opened its humanities to the western thought and culture with no in-house research and no impetus to it. Consequently, Indian Database is being utilized by the west to project their paradigm on us. It explains the security reasons which India might face in future. Another lesson is emergence of WEF as a giant structure and how it has power to impact the society, politics and economics of a nation. The main thrust of the book is to first identify the poisonous snakes in the Ganga and then to annihalate, remove and curb them to make Ganga pristine again.

[Anshu Dubey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review - Snakes in the Ganga | Breaking India 2.0

This is another one of those few current times books that should become part of academic curriculum.

It stands out as a result of years of research and real-life observations of the authors, on the direction of global society and its influences of Indic civilization.
It is a bold book as it fearlessly uncovers ( I actually feel like using the word ‘exposes’) the invisible vicious net of Critical Race Theory, Woke theory and the extent to which educational institutions, governments, influential individuals and mass society are being affected and damaged by it. It would have already ruffled many feathers as expose of institutions and individuals is brave and astonishing. Also, somewhere it leaves a scare in reader’s heart that how quickly we seem to be running towards destruction of our societal fabric.

The authors explain the four big theories covered in the book, in easily comprehensible language and style. These four stories have been meticulously divided into sections and chapters (thus the recommendation to include as a text book in academics) where each of the four aspects have been explained in detail – the uncomfortable truth has been uncovered. Starting from Critical Race Theory to Critical Caste Theory to Harvard University Nexus and Indian Billionaires to New Indian Elites, the book breaks down the new narratives into objective chunks. This not only provides a good understanding of the current state but also serves as a tool that can be used to counter the wild-fire like fluid concepts of CRT. Something on the line of Kshatra Spirit!

The book draws a good sequel to Breaking India 1.0 and also explains how it is different from the first one. It details impartial comparisons between the new narratives and the old culprits of Marxism, Liberalism and Postmodernism. How the focus has shifted from individual identity to group identity; how equal opportunity is replaced with equal outcome and how scholarship & merit is replaced with cancel culture.
What makes this book particularly beneficial to read is its analysis of impact of all this on Bharat, its civilization and near future society and governments.

A reading tip: It is best to read ‘Snakes in the Ganga’, in conjunction with ‘India, that is Bharat’ by J Sai Deepak.


Knowing the detailed background of coloniality, Christian monolithic thought process, efforts and narratives helps to quickly understand the key points made in this book.
A must have for personal collection as well as a library.
Anshu Dubey

[Harikrishna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read the Breaking India which is written by the author decades back, it's been my first eye opener book for me in understanding the politics and history of India, then i thought how would the intelligence or the government law enforcement would be silent while the people with a vested interest trying the dismantle the structures of the country.

Even the book snakes in Ganga are more danger and well boosted than BI forces mentioned in the BI 1.0, its mind-blowing for me when i read that the country is been tried to dismantle with joint forces of the outside forces it can be the NGO's, western Universities, Chinese's link of the West Academicians, and the same western academic intellectuals are being positioned in the Indian Universities like Ashoka, Azim Premji University, FLAME University, Shiv Nadar University, Tata Institute of Social Science, as the author says in the book the intentions of the institute's is good also the people's intentions are good but the people who are inside this temples injecting venom into this institutes by inflicting the western ideologies in the students mind like the Critical Race Theory (TO know more about it one has to read chapter 1 of the book ) where it is been applied to examine the social evils of India and other problems and issues that are faced by the people of this country.

Every Person regardless of his background had to read this book to know how Harvard is the main player in all this nexus that breaking India or Dismantling the Structures of the India and its roots by promoting the ideologies of CRT (Critical Race Theory), Leftist Ideologies, Oppressed theories. THe most worrying chapter is the Chinese Communist Party connections of the Harvard, and also its affiliation with the Ashoka University and other Indian Institutes really is heartbreaking that not woories the citizens also to the National Security of the country.

A Book that every Indian had to read including the Intelligences Agency people of INDIA and Lawyers mainly the youth of the nation is the SNAKES IN THE GANGA. Let's save our ganga which is full of venomous injected with Western Ideologies that trying to dismantle the auspicious glory of the ganga and its greatness, history, spirituality from the minds of Indians by inflicting the poison called CRT.

[riti aggarwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t agree with everything this book professes, and admittedly some of the things it’s accusing the cabal of elitist leftists of are infuriatingly conspiracy-like. I agree with the left on most points. So I’ll take everything in this with a grain of salt.

The strength in this book lies in the painstaking evidence it has to support the theory of neo-colonialist penetration into academia, via the West. While these universities claim to supply intellectual rigour and academic freedom, they end up being biased. While there’s nothing wrong with having a leftist bent, the amount of power they’re accumulating through their connections with philanthropists means they control the narrative. It’s our word against theirs.

I also really appreciated the introspection in this book on Hindu culture and faith being repeatedly challenged and mocked. It’s a “throw the baby out with the bathwater” where casteism and sexism based into the DNA of Hindu theology apparently means we have to disregard the positive parts of the religion too. At the same time, reform in Islam is perhaps an unspeakable advocate…

The chaos of this book comes from its weird and overarching conclusions that edge towards paranoia. While I don’t blame the author for that, it reeks to me of some weird Illuminati BS. If books like this can be published, that means all hope isn’t lost. It also ends on a vaguely pessimistic note and offers no solutions nor alternatives to a saner, more rational middle ground for people left-of-centre who still see value in social justice (without the BS) like myself. And I’m so sure that most people take the conclusions of this book and run with it to the Hindutva RW side to justify their views, which is even worse to me.

Take this book with a grain of salt- there’s some stupid stuff in here, but there’s also some things worth considering.

[Mayur Sinha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was one of the earliest book I read this year and oh boy what a tour de force this is in contemporary socio-political literature, deserving of a full 5-star rating. The authors, Rajiv Malhotra, who I respect much, and Vijaya Viswanathan, delve deep into the intricate dynamics of India's socio-political landscape, offering a compelling and thought provoking analysis. I've read almost all books of Rajiv Malhotra ji and just like his previous works, this too was such an eye-opener. What sets this book apart is its fearless exploration of complex and often sensitive topics. The book does not shy away from controversy, but rather confronts it head-on, offering a balanced perspective that is both critical and hopeful.

"Snakes in the Ganga" is more than just a book; it's a crucial conversation starter about India's path forward in a rapidly changing world. It's a must-read for anyone interested in the forces shaping modern India and the possible paths it might take in the years to come. The authors have outdone themselves in crafting a work that is not only informative but also deeply engaging and thoughtfully presented.

[Neha Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once in many generations comes a man like Rajiv Malhotra whose work inspires, wake people up and shakes the world from their deep slumber of lies. I am so deeply affected by his book that I have learnt to question why I didn't know about my own culture earlier. How have colleges like Harvard and their allies in India like Ashoka become so poisonous for the next generation!! Why do Indian billionaires have such a low self esteem that they don't probably feel their life is worth it unless a goora says it to them!!! I just hope everyone in India gets to know all this and challenges the system in whatever way they can and support Rajiv Malhotra in his work to keep doing what he is doing. Also this book is very easy to read, read intro, one page overview for each chapter and conclusion. I like like chapter six which gave me specific information about true Indian history. Book is full of references and names of real people with example of what they have done which is against our nation. Gift it, read it as I believe this would stop the bad guys working to destroy India!!

[Shashank Goyal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book critiques the social movement of the West led by the US intellectual elite. It critiques the extension of the CRT in the Indian context. It does highlight some valuable observations. The author also tries to highlight how the top-flight uni’s in US are breeding the worst possible fears of Indian security establishment. Although at some instances, it felt like an over-stretched paranoia. I personally feel wealth and power gives control over minds (read information) and hence the paranoia surrounding wealth and the wealthy trying to change the world for good or bad (depending on which side of the thought spectrum you chose to be on) is futile. This book could have been more enjoyable if it was shorter.

[Jay Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely worth a read for a different perspective of the new contemporary breaking india forces, alongside new ideologies emanating from the west via government's and academia (e.g. HKS). To that end, the beginning of the book is a great introduction in the level of penetration of CRT in all facets of society in the west (for those not interested in the broader implications faced by india).

If not for the first book (breaking india), this book helps me better comprehend all the anti-india bias and ideologies currently/presently being propogated in academia (post graduation from university, or even by attending the Harvard india conferences).

[B. BALA CHANDER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took a lot of time to read the book and read other novels in between . Both the books should be treasured because the damages envisaged by @Rajiv Malhotra will not be faced by us .The next generation will certainly abuse US because we did not take any effort to limit the damages in spite of knowing the issues and the culprits. The amount of efforts the authors put can be seen with every reference attached..hats off to both of them 🙏🙏

[Lk Pal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very heavy book. You need a lot of patience and concentration to digest the material inside it. A lot of research has gone into its making. This is an eye opener for the people of India particularly, the Indian government functionaries. I found that many facts have been repeated.

[Siddarth Srinivas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading to awaken Hindus from their stupor. Wokeism is an existential threat to Indic civilization, as it is to America, as thoroughly shown in this book.

[HARIPRASATH.S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good