Project A: Initiative for Purva-Paksha and Uttara-Paksha of non-Indian Indology
From Rajiv Malhotra
From Rajiv Malhotra
As a result of my recent India tour, several scholars expressed interest in doing purva-paksha and Uttara-paksha of Pollock and other Western Indologists.
Some donors in India have put up the seed funding to launch a series of workshops for traditional Indian scholars to embark upon this project.
The desired outcome is to publish a series of books with articles by multiple scholars, each on some aspect of Pollock’s writings. Once the articles are ready, Pollock will be invited to debate the home team, in the true spirit of our tradition. The idea will be to reach a higher truth. Later on, this will be expanded to cover other Indologists as well.
Focus: To start with, the following four topics are being selected. A volunteer brought to my attention the various links where some of the relevant articles are available for researchers. Those interested in being involved as a scholar to do this analysis one specific item listed below may please contact Prof Kannan at: ks.kannan.2000@gmail.com.
Example: To get Kannan’s interest, you must first take serious time to study any one of these Pollock topics and write a short comment/perspective – like the ones we saw on this egroup already. For example, see: these short comments by Divya J and by Navita V posted at this link:
Hitchhiker's Guide to Rajiv Malhotra's Works: A purva-paksha of Sheldon Pollock's thesis on Shastras
Two kinds of experts are needed:
(a) Those knowledgeable in English scholarship and also sensitivity to the Hindu drishti are the ones who can dig into Pollock’s writings in the way the above coments illustrate. Such persons can tutor the traditional scholars who lack the English reading/understanding skills.
(b) Those who are traditional Sanskrit scholars that can supply deeper purva-paksha and Uttara-paksha. Both categories must work together.
The topics we are focusing on initially are given below.
Topic 1 - Pollock's views on shastra:
Topic 2 - Pollock's thesis that Sanskrit texts influenced the Nazi holocaust:
- Pollock: https://indologyarchives.
files.wordpress.com/2016/03/ deep-orientalism-chapter- pollock.pdf - Rejoinder by German Indologist: https://indologyarchives.
files.wordpress.com/2016/03/ grunendahl-criticism-of- pollocks-deep-orientalism.pdf
Topic 3 – Pollock’s death of Sanskrit thesis
- Pollock on death of sanskrit: https://indologyarchives.
files.wordpress.com/2016/03/ pollock-sheldon-death-of- sanskrit.pdf - Rejoinder to Pollock by Indologist: https://indologyarchives.
files.wordpress.com/2016/03/ hanneder-response-to-death-of- sanskrit.pdf
Topic 4 – Pollock on Ramayana. Three papers by him:
Great&Timely steps.If I donot have expertise&depth to support intellectualy,is there any other way,I&Likeminded friends can support in anyother way?Pl inform. My mail---unmaiya51@gmail.com.
ReplyDeleteGreat&Timely steps.If I donot have expertise&depth to support intellectualy,is there any other way,I&Likeminded friends can support in anyother way?Pl inform. My mail---unmaiya51@gmail.com.
ReplyDelete