Review of INDOLOGY (III of III)

[Dr. Dominik Wujastyk]

Part III (of III)
=================

continued ...


So what can be done in order to keep INDOLOGY a useful and enjoyable
forum for the people for whom it was created?

Now some strong words: I started INDOLOGY (with extremely able and
generous support from the guys at Liverpool--let's hear it for Chris
and Alan).  So I am entitled to say what I think it is about.  If you
disagree, go start your own group.

I have outlined the salient points of the mission statement above.
INDOLOGY is for classical Indic studies, and the people who pursue them.
It is not the right forum for *discussions* of contemporary political
issues, even if occasional references to or announcements of major or
minor events do have a place, as do jokes, job advertisements and
similar one-off information postings.  But it is not the right forum for
fully-fledged discussions of such matters.

Even more than this, it is *emphatically not* the place for any
unpleasantness in discourse.  One of the nicest things about indology is
the people in it.  You have to be special (or mad or both) to decide to
shrug off your parents' ambitions for you as a stockbroker or physicist,
and go for Sanskrit, or Pali, or whatever.  In my years in the field I
have made many good friends amongst my professional colleagues, and I
have rarely met anyone who hasn't absorbed something valuable from the
unique material they were studying.  Some of the messages passing
through INDOLOGY last year were from another milieu altogether.  They
were downright rude, and there is no excuse for this.  (I realize that
some people who do not know me thought that I myself was an offender in
this regard, during the August debate. But those in this group who
either know me personally or are familiar with the general tone of
indological discourse at seminars, conferences, etc., were not offended,
knowing the spirit in which my remarks were intended.  Still, with the
rising numbers on this list, and the inevitable depersonalization that
this brings, I must be more careful to write without assumptions about
how my words will be received.)

I personally believe that it *is* encumbent on indologists to know
something about what is happening in India Today, even if it is just
through a subscription to the magazine with that title, or by reading
india-d etc.  And that is the point: the place to discuss such
information is not INDOLOGY. As others have said, there are many network
groups started specifically for historical and political debate on
contemporary India.  We don't have to live out our whole lives through
INDOLOGY, as Marcus put it.  It would be inappropriate to launch a
crusade about textual variants of the Virashaiva vacanas in one of those
groups.  So it is inappropriate to engage in public debate on the VHP,
or how nasty or bigoted you think someone is, in INDOLOGY.  Stick to the
subject, and join several lists.

So what is my siddhanta?  It's this: If you want to argue loudly about
politics, to praise this or that party or group, to sympathize with
Muslims in Ayodhya, or with Hindus in Lahore, or vice versa, or to say
how much you dislike establishment academics, or how NRIs are deracine',
or whatever it may be, Bully for You, but go do it elsewhere!  Take
people with you from INDOLOGY, if you like.  It is *easy* to have a
round-table discussion with five or ten people, using the features of
modern email software.  Just post a one-liner to INDOLOGY saying "I've
got strong objections to that last posting which mentioned the Babri
Masjid: write to me if you want to discuss this further".  You may be
pleasantly surprised by the amount of interest you attract, and the
consequent higher tone of the discussion.

INDOLOGY is for indological studies.  It can tolerate a certain level of
"noise", but as numbers rise, like the guests at a successful cocktail
party, it gets harder and harder to hear a serious conversation.  And
remember, in email loud = long.  So please cherish the forum.  Keep your
postings short.  Break up your longer messages into single topics.  If
you find yourself well into writing your third screen of text non-stop,
and your cup of tea has gone cold, pause and count to ten.  (Take the
present long triple posting as an example of what not to do!)

Everyone is welcome to join the group, but when posting, treat INDOLOGY
as a special place for professional indology.


Dominik Wujastyk