SV: [Y-Indology] De-Essentializing the 'Eastern Wisdom'.

[Guest guest]

Rajiv Malhotra [sMTP:rajiv.malhotra] skrev 11. mai 2001 03:50:

> Indology is the first profession I ever came across where some scholars

> would rather keep it under-represented, for fear of losing political

> control.

 

This is simply too dumb! Have you ANY idea how difficult it is to defend

the teaching of India-related things at some Western universities? I have

myself during my period in Academia participated in defending our

Hindi-position, which was threatened when the former Hindi teacher retired.

We were successful. While in Academia, I took the initiative to create a

Nordic Institute in India for the benefit of Nordic students working on

Indian matters. Soon after I left Academia, and the struggle was carried

through by Danish and Swedish colleagues. The university of Oslo showed no

interest in the project, in fact, they were hostile because it meant

expenses. My Danish and Swedish colleagues had an uphill struggle all the

time, the operative word being "money". Now they seem to have succeeded,

after more than 5 years!

 

Western universities and autorities fund what they perceive as important

and profitable. Oil geology is important in Norway, so oil geologists

shower in money every morning. The humanities in general are not regarded

as important. India is not important. A colleague was told quite explicitly

by the dean of Oslo University that India was not a prioritized. Instead,

they preferred East Asia (China, Japan, Korea etc.) Right or wrong, working

with these cultures is considered profitable.

 

The bottom line is: in many European countries, including Norway, it is

simply regarded as a waste of money to invest in South Asian studies when

other lines of study offer better returns. This belongs to the pragmatics

of academic funding. If Indian and other intellectuals can prove to the

world that Indian philosophy is more than a horse-tonga competing with a

Cadillac (by winning a few races), then the West is likely to gobble it up

with the eagerness that we gobble up South Asian cuisine. Western

Indologists have been trying to promote IP for generations, with little

success. Don't blame us. IP has to prove its mettle. No amount of

politically correct demands for more globalisation of education can help

you make it popular in our philosophy departments. They prefer the latest

stuff.

 

The West is a market, and it eats what it finds tasty. We have accepted

modern Indian novel writers (remember Rushdie?) with glee, because they are

so good. In fact, Rushdie has been an important influence on modern Western

writing. Indian statisticians are among the foremost in the field. But then

they work within the global scientific paradigm. You cannot seriously

expect that for instance linguists, who invent a new fancy theory every

decade, in general should turn back 1500 years and spend time debating

Bhartrhari. They would rather reinvent his ideas themselves than do that.

The long-winded process of learning Skt. and getting into the arcane world

of Bhartrhari's philosophy would simply not pay for most of them.

Bhartrhari is a specialist's study.

 

I'll leave it the specialists to pleade the case for IP, I am not competent

to hold an opinion on its merits. But if you want it to be taken seriously,

you have to make it interface with Western philosophy in such a manner that

Western philosophers come to see it as more than an intellectual

antiquarian's interest. Such works have already been published, as you have

shown yourself. Publish more of them, and stop complaining about

Eurocentrism. Complaining won't help you, proving IP's mettle will.

 

Best regards,

 

Lars Martin Fosse

 

 

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse

Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,

0674 Oslo

Norway

Phone: +47 22 32 12 19

Mobile phone: +47 90 91 91 45

Fax 1: +47 22 32 12 19

Fax 2: +47 85 02 12 50 (InFax)

Email: lmfosse