Victorians and Indian culture (was -- Devi and Indian culture)

[Guest guest]

This is only semi-related to your question, and slightly

tangential to our group, but the Victorians weren't necessarily

as we tend to imagine them. See Hugh Urban's observations:

 

" [....] [T]he men and women of the Victorian era

were really not the repressed, puritanical prudes

that we commonly imagine them to be today; on

the contrary, the late nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries witnessed an unprecedented

new interest and proliferation of discourse about

sexuality, which was not categorized, classified

and described in endless detail. "

 

From --

The Omnipotent Oom:

Tantra and Its Impact on Modern Western Esotericism

Hugh B. Urban

Full (and interesting!) article available online.

http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeIII/HTML/Oom.html

 

I'm curious -- did the laws against public displays of

affection cover everybody, or just Indians? I'm

speculating on just what and who might be the subject of

control.

 

Note that Hugh Urban is a historian of thought. When

he speaks of 'Tantra', he's talking about what his

subject *think* (or rather, thought) about Tantra.

The map isn't identical to the territory.

 

, " salharmonica "

<salharmonica wrote:

 

> On a semi-related note, I've been

> curious about the Victorian

> attitudes about sex in India,

> the laws against public affection, etc.

>

> Salma

>