You'd love the websites I've gone through. I've learned today that:
1. "The Hindu religion is the most environmentally friendly religion in the world." No joke, it's on one of the major Hindu American websites. Wonder what they say now that India is industrializing.
2. That "the ancient Indians have never been a warlike race, the small kingdoms only sought to conquer what was always thought of as the territory of all Hindu people." Gee... I wonder what some of those losing Hindu kingdoms thought about their fellow peaceful neighbors. Also, I can only find excerpts on the war veda, the Siva Dhanur Veda. They have a lot of the peaceful documents in full, but I can only find bits and pieces of their war document which was considered the defining document of the Gupta civilization. The Gupta Empire is considered a golden age of India, but too bad there is little to be found on the net. Oh, and no historical mention at all on these sites of the death cults of Yama and Kali...
3. (My favorite) "The Hindu religion was very respectful towards women." This was followed by an American woman describing her time in India and how she was appalled that some of the temples used their priestesses as concubines this present day. Then she went and praised the practice since she met the women and their out of wedlock children and noted how happy they seemed. Also that they only had to sleep with strange men two hours out of the day, but during the other hours they were treated to horseback rides for free and playtime and all sorts of fun. So therefore it must be ok that she gets most of her exercise on her back... I wonder if any of those women are allowed to quit that job. She never mentioned that aspect.
Larry Gonick's CARTOON HISTORY OF THE WORLD VOL II has a great summation of Indian history, including the MAHABHARATA ("the very short version") summing the entire work up in two pages of cartoons (plus an additional halfpage on the BHAGAVAD-GITA, showing Krshna humming Beatles tunes as he urges Ajuna to kill his family cheerfully because it's his duty). Cheery stuff.
"The Hindu religion was very respectful towards women."
Burning the wife on her hubands funeral pyre was very respectful. Gag.
And don't forget the lovely custom of suttee.