Re Prof. Courtright

[Guest guest]

The web site referred to by Thomas Gugler is at hinduunity.org (not

hinuunity.org) and the contents are indeed quite scary, including a

photograph of Courtright, his address, and crude and explicit calls

for violence against him very much in the mould of the anti-"Satanic

Verses" agitation. There is also a calm and sensible response from

Courtright himself, and a call from an American academic for Motilal

Banarsidass to be boycotted by scholars for withdrawing the book.

Since I have a book in press with Motilal Banarsidass myself at the

moment, that gave me some pause for reflection.

 

Perhaps it is worth making two points:

 

(1) Courtright's book as a whole is a respectful and well-informed

account of aspects of the cult of Ganesha. I disagree about the

specifics of his psychoanalytical interpretation of Ganesha, and as

it happened I said so in some public lectures last year. However,

this was more for the somewhat simplistic nature of his

interpretation (Ganesha, after all, is not always portrayed as

celibate, and the analysis needs more social and historical

perspective) than because I see psychoanalysis as necessarily

inappropriate to such material. In any case, there is much more to

Courtright's analysis than the couple of inflammatory, out of context

quotes which set off the present dispute. The book is undoubtedly a

serious and reputable contribution within the canons of Western

academic work, and is in no way out to denigrate or attack

contemporary Hindus.

 

(2) Motilal Banarsidass are based in India, not the USA, and they

have to live with the Hindu right on their own doorstep. I can

entirely understand that they may feel that they are better off

sacrificing one book than (for example) having their entire stock of

books burnt by a mob inflamed by the sorts of dangerous rhetoric we

find on the hinduunity.org site. It is certainly regrettable that

they have felt compelled to withdraw the book, but I think we could

use a little more understanding of their situation before being too

condemnatory.

 

Geoffrey Samuel

 

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Geoffrey Samuel, School of Social Sciences, University

of Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia (CRICOS provider number 00109J).

Permanent e-mail: Geoffrey.Samuel

Web site at http://users.hunterlink.net.au/~mbbgbs

From August 2003 to May 2004 I will be at the Dept of Study of Religions,

School of Oriental & African Studies, Thornhaugh Street,

Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG United Kingdom