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{{Infobox book
| name = Hindu Temples – What Happened to Them
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = 
| caption =
| author = [[Sita Ram Goel]] [[Arun Shourie]] Harsh Narain [[Jay Dubashi]] [[Ram Swarup]]
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = India
| language = English
| series =
| subject = [[Hinduism]]
| genre = [[Non-fiction]]
| publisher =
| release_date = 1991
| english_release_date =
| media_type =
| pages =
| isbn = 81-85990-49-2 |isbn_note= (Volume 1) {{ISBN|81-85990-03-4}} (Volume 2)
| congress = DS422.C64 H562 1998
| oclc = 41002522
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
'''''Hindu Temples – What Happened to Them''''' is a two-volume book by [[Sita Ram Goel]], [[Arun Shourie]], Harsh Narain, [[Jay Dubashi]] and [[Ram Swarup]].<ref name="AyresOldenburg2005">{{cite book|author1=Alyssa Ayres|author2=Philip Oldenburg|title=India Briefing: Takeoff at Last?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gi7w-vTfELsC&pg=PA127|accessdate=29 December 2020|year=2005|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-1593-0|pages=127–}}</ref> The first volume was published in the Spring of 1990.

== Contents ==
The first volume includes a list of 2,000 mosques that he claims were built on Hindu temples, based primarily on the books of Muslim historians of the period or inscriptions found on mosques. The second volume excerpts from medieval histories and chronicles and from inscriptions concerning the destruction of [[Hindu]], [[Jain]] and [[Buddhist]] [[temple]]s. The authors claim that the material presented in the book as "the tip of an iceberg".{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

The book contains chapters about the [[Ayodhya debate]]. The appendix of the first volume contains a list of temple-destructions and atrocities that the authors claim took place in [[Bangladesh]] in 1989. The book also criticizes "Marxist historians", and one of the appendices of the second volume includes a questionnaire for "Marxist professors", one of whom was the notable Indian historian [[Romila Thapar]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

== Publication history ==
In August 1990, while releasing the book, [[Bharatiya Janta Party]] leader L. K. Advani chided Goel for using "strong language".<ref>Goel, Sita Ram, "How I became a Hindu", Chapter 9</ref>

==Reception==

Cynthia Talbot, writing in 1995 about religious identities in pre-modern India, claimed Goel's list of destroyed temples to be "greatly inflated" and called for a systematic and unbiased study on medieval desecration of Indian temples.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Talbot|first=Cynthia|date=1995|title=Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu-Muslim Identities in Pre-Colonial India|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/179206|journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History|volume=37|issue=4|pages=716–717|issn=0010-4175}}</ref> She however noted that since the late sixteenth century, temple desecration were indeed on the rise in [[Andhra Pradesh]], which went in accord with Goel's list.<ref name=":0" />

[[Richard M. Eaton]], writing in 2000 about the very topic of temple desecration, severely criticized the work and noted that Goel had endeavored to locate a "pattern of wholesale temple destruction by Muslims".<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Eaton|first=Richard M.|date=2000|title=TEMPLE DESECRATION AND INDO-MUSLIM STATES|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26198197|journal=Journal of Islamic Studies|volume=11|issue=3|pages=283–319|issn=0955-2340}}</ref> Goel's selective usage of epigraphs and (translated) Persian chronicles were criticized, as well.<ref>Richard Eaton: "Temple desecration and Indo-Muslim states", Essays on Islam and Indian History. Chapter Six</ref> Discussing one particular case from among Goel's list concerning a tomb-shrine in [[Malwa]], Eaton noted that Goel had accepted an inscription mentioning a temple-destruction some 400 years after the event, at face value.<ref name=":1" /> According to Vimal Yogi Tiwari, such an historical assessment as in Goel's book "Hindu Temples" has by and large been missing in India.<ref>Review by Vimal Yogi Tiwari in the Pioneer. Elst, Koenraad, Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society (1991)</ref>

Manini Chatterjee, in a review in the ''Calcutta Telegraph'', called Goel's book a "very bad book".<ref>Manini Chatterjee, review in the Calcutta Telegraph (ca. 30-1-1991). Koenraad Elst ''Who is a Hindu?'' (2001)</ref>

Goel's book also includes an exchange of comments between Romila Thapar and Goel.<ref>Appendix 4 of "Hindu Temples – What Happened to Them"</ref> Romila Thapar has criticized Goel, claiming that he does not understand how to use historical sources.<ref>Romila Thapar et al.: Communalism in the Waiting of Indian History, People's Publishing House, Delhi 1987 (1969), pp. 15–16, and repeated in her letter to Mr. Manish Tayal (UK), 7-2-1999, concerning Arun Shourie: Eminent Historians, ASA, Delhi 1998. Manish Tayal: "Romila Thapar's reply to 'Eminent Historians'", 16-2-1999. "Koenraad Elst ''Who is a Hindu?'' (2001)</ref>

==See also==
* [[Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent]]
* [[Conversion of non-Muslim places of worship into mosques]]
* ''[[The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period]]'' (Book)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* Online version:
::---[http://voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples1/ Volume 1] First Edition (There is also a second revised and enlarged edition.<ref>http://www.worldcat.org/title/hindu-temples-what-happened-to-them/oclc/732112011&referer=brief_results</ref> The online version is the first edition.)
::---[http://voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples2/ Volume 2] Second Enlarged Edition

{{Sita Ram Goel}}

[[Category:1990 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:History books about Hinduism]]
[[Category:Books by Sita Ram Goel]]
[[Category:Hinduism studies books]]
[[Category:Hindu temples]]
[[Category:Books critical of Islam]]
[[Category:Anti-Hindu sentiment]]
[[Category:Hinduism-related controversies]]
[[Category:Hinduism and Islam]]
[[Category:Collaborative non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Religious buildings and structures converted into mosques]]

Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them - Revision history

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