Dr. Koenraad Elst was born in Leuven, Belgium, on 7 August 1959, into a Flemish Catholic family. He graduated in Philosophy, Chinese Studies and Indo-Iranian Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven. His research earned him his Ph.D. in Leuven in 1998.

During a stay at the Benaras Hindu University, he discovered India’s communal problem and wrote his first book about the budding Ayodhya conflict. While establishing himself as a columnist for a number of Belgian and Indian papers, he frequently returned to India to study various aspects of its ethno-religio-political configuration and interview Hindu and other leaders and thinkers. His research on the ideological development of Hindu revivalism earned him his Ph.D. in Leuven in 1998. He has also published about multiculturalism, language policy issues, ancient Chinese history and philosophy, comparative religion, and the Aryan invasion debate. Dr. Elst became a well-known author on Indian politics in the 1990s. He also met the Hindu writer Sita Ram Goel in India, and was influenced by his writings.

He seems not to have changed his religion, for he said: "I am neither a Hindu nor a nationalist. And I don’t need to belong to those or to any specific ideological categories in order to use my eyes and ears. (...) As I said, I am phasing out my involvement with communalism studies. The subject is really very simple, the problem as well as the solution. It isn’t all that challenging and interesting, it only seemed that way because of the artificial obstacles thrown up by the secularists." [1] And he wrote: "However, I do readily admit to being a “fellow-traveller” of Dharmic civilization in its struggle for survival against the ongoing aggression and subversion by well-organized hostile ideologies." [2]

Koenraad Elst has also written several books on Aryan Invasion Debate, Ayodhya Temple Issue and Issues related to Islam, Christianity and Hinduism.

René Guénon has described the origin of some reformist movements in India in his book "Introduction Générale à l'Etude des Doctrines Hindoues" (english translation: "Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines", and notably in the chapter "Vedanta westernized"); he also established their heterodoxy w.r.t. orthodox Hinduism. The reader is referred to the "discussion" section of this Wikipedia article, in which a debate has been raised to decide if Elst's books and articles belong or not to the stream of reformist ideologies described in René Guénon's book on Hindu doctrines.

• Ayodhya, The Finale - Science versus Secularism the Excavations Debate (2003) ISBN 8185990778
• Ayodhya: The Case Against the Temple (2002) ISBN 81-85990-75-1
• Ayodhya and After: Issues Before Hindu Society (1991) [3]
• BJP vis-à-vis Hindu Resurgence (1997) ISBN 81-85990-47-6
• Decolonizing the Hindu Mind - Ideological Development of Hindu Revivalism Rupa, Delhi (2001) ISBN 8171675190
• The Demographic Siege (1997) ISBN 8185990506
• Dr. Ambedkar - A True Aryan (1993)
• Gandhi and Godse - A review and a critique ISBN 81-85990-71-9
• Negationism in India - Concealing the Record of Islam (1992) ISBN 8185990018
• Psychology of Prophetism - A Secular Look at the Bible (1993) ISBN 81-85990-00-X
• The Saffron Swastika - The Notion of Hindu Fascism. (2001) ISBN 8185990697
• Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate (1999) ISBN 81-86471-77-4
• Who is a Hindu? (2001) [4] ISBN 81-85990-74-4
• India`s Only Communalist: In Commemoration of Sita Ram Goel (edited by Koenraad Elst, 2005) ISBN 8185990786

• Sita Ram Goel
• Ram Swarup
• Francois Gautier
• Michel Danino

• Articles and Books by Dr. Elst
• Review of Koenraad Elst's Ayodhya and after
• Review of "Decolonizing the Hindu Mind
• Mail exchanges between K. Elst and Prof. R. Zydenbos about the '"Aryan Invasion Theory"
• Detailed criticism and review of Elst's positions on 'revivalism'. "Koenraad Elst--Sangh Parivar's Apologist" by A. Khan
• An Interview With Koenraad Elst