Michel Danino: Difference between revisions

'''Michel Danino''' (born 4 June 1956) is an [[India]]n author of [[French people|French]] origin.<ref name=rediff>{{cite web|last=Pande Daniel|first=Vaihayasi|title=The Sarasvati was more sacred than Ganga|url=http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/may/22/interview-with-michel-danino.htm|publisher=[[Rediff.com]]|access-date=8 August 2011|quote=Technically, I am not a 'foreigner': I adopted Indian citizenship some years ago.}}</ref> He is a guest professor at [[Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar|IIT Gandhinagar]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iitgn.ac.in/faculty/humanities/michel.htm|title=Michel Danino - IIT Gandhinagar|website=www.iitgn.ac.in}}</ref> and has been a member of the [[Indian Council of Historical Research]]. In 2017, Government of India conferred [[Padma Shri]], the fourth-highest civilian honor for his contribution towards Literature & Education.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://padmaawards.gov.in/PDFS/PadmaAwards-2017_25012017.pdf|title=PadmaAwards-2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129231739/http://www.padmaawards.gov.in/PDFS/PadmaAwards-2017_25012017.pdf|archive-date=2017-01-29}}</ref>

Danino had authored ''The Lost River: On The Trail of the Sarasvati'', which tentatively identified the legendary [[Sarasvati River]], mentioned in [[Rigveda]] with the current [[Ghaggar-Hakra River]].<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Times of India|title=TOI Crest: Quick review|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/TOI-Crest-Quick-review/articleshow/5988271.cms|access-date=17 February 2020|date=29 May 2010}}</ref> V Rajamani over [[Current Science]] reviewed it in favorable terms and praised Danino for his meticulous research.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rajamani|first=V.|date=2010|title=Review of The Lost River – On the Trail of the Sarasvati|journal=Current Science|volume=99|issue=12|pages=1842–1843|issn=0011-3891|jstor=24073512}}</ref>  

[[Peter Heehs]] noted one of his another works, ''Sri Aurobindo and Indian Civilization'', to lack in linguistic knowledge, and being made up by attacks on colonial orientalists and half-informed invocations of nationalist orientalists.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Heehs|first=Peter|date=2003|title=Shades of Orientalism: Paradoxes and Problems in Indian Historiography|journal=History and Theory|volume=42|issue=2|pages=169–195|issn=0018-2656|jstor=3590880|doi=10.1111/1468-2303.00238}}</ref> Heehs also criticized Danino's other works for appropriating [[Sri Aurobindo]] in his campaign against the [[Indo-Aryan migration|Indo-Aryan migrations]], and for distorting Aurobindo's speculative views as assertions.<ref name=":0" /> Danino selectively cherry-picked quotes from his draft-manuscripts and ignored his published works, which were far more nuanced.<ref name=":0" /> Others have accused Danino of pursuing a sectarian [[Hindutva]] oriented scholarship based on [[historical negationism]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Guha|first=Sudeshna|date=2005|title=Negotiating Evidence: History, Archaeology and the Indus Civilisation|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=39|issue=2|pages=399–426|issn=0026-749X|jstor=3876625|doi=10.1017/S0026749X04001611|url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/717eff3d7d0abc0b4bdbd7f69af7ca7b91074deb}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chadha|first=Ashish|date=2011-02-01|title=Conjuring a river, imagining civilisation: Saraswati, archaeology and science in India|journal=Contributions to Indian Sociology|language=en|volume=45|issue=1|pages=55–83|doi=10.1177/006996671004500103|issn=0069-9667}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bhatt|first=Chetan|date=2000-01-01|title=Dharmo rakshati rakshitah : Hindutva movements in the UK|journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies|volume=23|issue=3|pages=559–593|doi=10.1080/014198700328999|issn=0141-9870}}</ref>