American historian Peter Heehs‎ makes history in India

Heehs to leave country briefly today IBNLive.com - 14 Apr 2012 PUDUCHERRY: Controversial American historian and an inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Peter Heehs still plans to leave the country briefly on April 15, ... Peter Heehs may have to leave India‎ Times of India Heehs not to be deported‎ Times Now.tv India values diversity of views, freedom of speech: Heehs‎ Hindustan Times Deccan Chronicle - Outlook 

- People of India respect right to freedom of expression: Heehs The Hindu - 14 Apr 2012 “I am looking forward to being forgotten,” remarked American historian Peter Heehs, as he spoke about the media attention that followed the extension of his ... Govt of India values freedom of expression: Heehs‎ IBNLive.com US Historian's visa victory in Sri Aurobindo's biography row‎ India Today Govt extends Heehs's visa by one year‎ Indian Express Hindustan Times - Asia Times Online - Heehs visa hangs fire IBNLive.com – 6 Apr 2012 NEW DELHI/PUDUCHERRY: The visa extension of American historian Peter Heehs, who has been living in India for the last 41 years, hangs fire as the Central... Video: Sri Aurobindo was a spiritual leader, not an avatar: Peter Heehs  IBNLive Govt refuses to extend visa of American historian Peter Heehs‎ India Today Prepared for any exigency: Heehs‎ Deccan Chronicle Hindustan Times - MSN India        

Chidambaram to decide on Heehs' visa tomorrow Times of India - 31 Mar 2012

PUDUCHERRY: Home minister P Chidambaram will review the decision to cancel the visa of American historian Peter Heehs, who wrote the controversial biography ... Let Heehs stay, scholars urge PM‎ IBNLive.com Cancellation of US historian Peter Heehs's visa to be reviewed: P ...‎ Economic Times Is extremists' objection to his book behind US historians expulsion?‎ Hindustan Times The Hindu - Indian Express        

Yoga and philosophy of Sri Aurobindo is not a religion: Peter Heehs Economic Times - Historian Peter Heehs was born in Chicago in 1948. In 1968, he took a break from college to learn yoga- a decision that took him to the Aurobindo Ashram in ... Heehs' story‎ MSN India.       

For Heehs work, a cloud over 40-yr tryst with India Indian Express - 8 Apr 2012 Peter Heehs reached the Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry in 1971. Forty years on,Heehs is among the most acclaimed experts on Aurobindo. The intolerant Indian?‎ Times of India.       

Jairam writes to PC on visa cancellation of us historian Hindustan Times - 4 Apr 2012 The Puducherry foreign regional registration office's order to send back Peter Heehs, US historian and author of 'The Lives of Sri Aurobindo', ... Intolerance: A National Pastime?‎ NDTV       

Nilanjana S Roy: Behind the portrait Business Standard - The recent persecution of Peter Heehs, who has lived and worked in India for many years, for his biography of Sri Aurobindo, might be seen in this context.       

In Hume's footsteps Hindustan Times - 2 Apr 2012 It is in this noble tradition that Peter Heehs falls. Heehs was recently in the news, for the fact that after staying in India for nearly 40 years he finds ...

Enlightened spirituality is all but forgotten

Debashish Banerji Hindustan Times

As an Indian and a follower of Sri Aurobindo, I feel it is really deplorable if what this report says is true about the denial of visa extension to Peter Heehs. Not only is it a defeat to the freedom of expression which is one of the pillars of the Indian constitution, but it is a clear case of fraudulent action since Heehs' book has nothing of a "blasphemous" nature. It seems to be a set-up and the carrying out of unconstitutional decisions pressed into effect in a underhand manner...

Thanks for being a sane voice in an ocean of xenophobia. It seems from most of the other posts that a politicized divide is being created. "Secular historians" like Ramchandra Guha and Romila Thapar are being clubbed with sensationalist western academicians like Wendy Doniger and Jeffrey Kripal, and Peter Heehs is being thrown into this league. I guess on the other side are ardent Hindutva flag-bearers. An enlightened spirituality is all but forgotten in the middle of this. It is also clear that these violent voices have not read Heehs' book or else they have no reading skills.

31 March 2012: Don't expel US historian, govt told Addendum: The question about the relationship between Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is only one of dozens of objections raised by that handful of religious fundamentalists; it is not even mentioned in the Orissa Gazette Notification. It is, however, what appears to produce the most visceral effect in the public, for reasons we fail to understand. Heehs made it perfectly clear that there was no sexual element at all in this relationship. On the contrary, what he wrote underscores its profoundly sacred nature. Only readers with a serious Freudian hang-up can fail to see this. — Editors, IYF. Recent Additions

1 April 2012: Chidambaram to decide on Heeh's visa

31 March 2012: Don't expel US historian, govt told

10 March 2012: Those who get upset by these things are worse

24 February 2012: Sri Aurobindo, Heehs and the fragility of faith

9 August 2011: Review by Antony Copley

31 July 2011: BAN the BAN by Ramachandra Guha

SA used different terminologies and different formulations in different texts, this doesn’t necessarily mean he abandoned one for the other. debbanerji Posted March 14, 2012 Permalink

Finally, the siddhis and anandas spoken of in the Record are not addressed anywhere else but can clearly be seen in Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s own functioning. Comment on The Seven Quartets of Becoming by Debashish Banerji by debbanerji from Comments for Posthuman Destinies by debbanerji Eyes open, mind closed 

Chidambaram won't allow US historian to stay in India Hindustan Times‎ - Aloke Tikku, New Delhi, April 04, 2012 00:46 IST [Posted by General Editor at 4/04/2012 07:34:00 AM] 8:47 AM, 9:10 PM