Teaching classical Indian texts in India

[Guest guest]

I would like to respond to the question asked below, but not addressed by the

questioner ( "rao3...." ) in what follows. The only point I wanted to make

previously is that, on the evidence from JNU Prof. Makarand Paranjape

(presented at a recent conference on revising literary studies in English,

held at North Gujarat University), despite opposition, there IS serious

Sanskrit study going on at JNU, contrary to what has been said here.

<<

INDOLOGY, Joperry2@a... wrote:

> << The third thing is the establishment of a Centre of Sanskrit

Studies at J.N.U. Let me remind you that it took thirty years since the

inception of this university to have such a centre. [...]

and yet he [Prof. Kapil Kapooor] worked nearly single-handedly, in the

teeth

of opposition and indifference, [...] It is not under

the aegis of any of the Schools that we have.

 

So, what does this say about Sanskrit at JNU?

 

What I find interesting is that we have been told repeatedly that

one must have extensive exposure to the academic study of Sanskrit

before using the texts for historical purposes. .... >>>

 

Even if Sanskrit studies does not have the prime place at JNU that it once

had (NB: past tense) at BHU, etc., it is now established there, even if

possibly (time will tell) in a somewhat more isolated institutional slot

than, say, Hindi lang/lit studies, or that of any other of the desi languages.

 

Granted, as would happen in ANY Indian university (where, despite its

inadequacies and distortions, the language of instruction is almost

exclusively English in all disciplines, even Sanskrit!), the [highly

politicized?] demand for "extensive exposure to the academic study of

Sanskrit [or indeed of Tamil, Gujarati, or any other language] before using

the texts for historical [or any other-- e.g., tradition-serving-preserving]

purposes" is or would be heavily and thoroughly resisted. Any instruction

that attempts to draw on India's diverse religious, ethnic, regional, would

be severely curtailed or totally lost if only that minute part of instruction

(or those instructors) thoroughly grounded in the appropriate language were

allowed. So resistance to such strong demands is not merely resistance to

those mediums and matters of knowledge (in favor only of Western or secular

or whatever). Rather that resistance can also come, quite properly, from

those wishing to propagate Indian ways of knowledge, even if in a limited,

not thoroughly grounded, yet still scholarly, form.

 

Given the global reach of the knowledge industry and its conduct largely

through English (as on this list) I do not see the particular resistance at

JNU or wherever to intensive and more generally dispersed Sanskrit studies to

be driven by a political ideology that differs from that of ANY of the major

parties in India (the Sangh Parivar not being in full control of BJP

strategies). The issue, then, is how to bring into the general Indian

intellectual arena some of the traditional knowledge created and/or carried

by/through ALL the Indian languages-- not just the marga of Sanskrit. A

daunting task, but perhaps further conferences like that at North Gujarat

will clarify the issues and provide some guidelines and institutional

organisms for that good long line of work.

 

Meanwhile, those scholars and historians who are thoroughly grounded in

the Indian languages, marga or desi, have the task of correcting the

distortions and misconceptions the rest of us have as a consequence of being

educated otherwise than they. In a review for World Literature Today I

honored Prof. Kapil Kapoor for his erudite and extremely useful LITERARY

THEORY: INDIAN CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK (1999) (with an extensive glossary

prepared by, I believe, his daughter), which surveyed and tied together all

the classical texts from earliest times through Anandavardhana, et al. (sorry

the names are still not easy for me to remember) and attempted to come up

with, as the title indicates, a conceptual framework that will work for all

India's literatures. This last aim of Kapoor's book, however, I argued is

not either politically or culturally possible, nor indeed desirable, for

about a dozen reasons.... That does not mean that, ignorant as I am of these

non-English texts, that I believe (1) they have no place in Indian

universities or in the study of literatures (using English as the study

medium) or (2) they have no place in the on-going practice of Indian

criticism, literary as well as cultural, or (3) that no especially adept

individuals can be guided by them in ways quite incomprehensible to the rest

of us--- but for that reason not likely to be of use in general discusssion

and debate intended for the diverse Indian knowledge community (which may not

be limited even by literacy).

 

PS: I note the suggestion of Arun Gupta:

<<[[see for these wrangling discussions:]]

INDOLOGYMakarandParanjpeTalk.doc

 

I suggest further discussion of this be continued on the

Indictraditions (indictraditions)

list. >>> Will try...

 

John Oliver Perry

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