Holi Discussion Appreciation

[Gene Thursby]

	Again thanks to Mr. Rajagopalan for expressing his deep concern
about the wrongs of the past, about the possibility that contemporary
Indologists remain innocent of any knowledge of them, and about
unfortunate consequences that follow from their innocence.
	However, on evidence from the exchange of opinions to date, it
would seem that the members of this list (at any rate, those who have
chanced to respond to the initial query of Mr. White and the concern noted
several times by Mr. Rajagopalan) do not claim innocence.
	I am quite prepared to admit that it is a plausible and important 
claim that colonial and Christian missionary interests did coincide 
and did work to the detriment of the colonized in significant instances 
in several parts of the world through, say, the middle of the 20th 
century.  Moreover, there are people who remain pained by that history.
Therefore, it may continue to be a contextual factor in contemporary 
study -- especially if undertaken by people who can be identified with 
the (former) colonizers of the land, its people, and their minds and 
spirits.
	That admitted (from this station), there are several other kinds 
of issues in play in this thread of discussion.
	As Gananath Obeyesekere observed at length and very effectively 
in his book The Work of Culture, most interpretive terms and concepts 
employed in the humanities and social sciences are contended (not 
settled) terms.  Although Mr. Rajagopalan is continuing to contend that 
the term 'chaos' is not an appropriate one for interpreting any aspect of 
the festival of Holi -because it is prima facie a demeaning term and 
keeps alive in him the pain and sense of injustice that stems from a 
history of oppression of Hindus by outsiders-, it could be (and I beleive 
has been) contended on quite different grounds.
	That admitted (from this station), may I observe that (if we shift 
the context to a more recent time-frame) it is unfortunate that 
oppression seems not to have dimished since the bad old days of 
colonialism, nor does any one human category seem any longer to 
monopolize it.  Having spent considerable time among both Arya Samajists 
and Sikhs in India, it would appear that contention, criticism, and 
conflict are doing all too well these days -- and quite apart from the 
colonial legacy.
	Perhaps, at this point, the discussion might be directed to a
question something like the following:  given that someone wants to study
Holi, how should they go about it, and what sort of interpretive
framework(s) might prove fruitful for advancing knowledge?  Otherwise, as 
has been pointed out by other contributors to this thread, it might be 
timely to rest or to shift to another kind of list.
	Humbly submitted for your consideration,
	Gene Thursby, U. of Florida
	  
	On Wed, 7 Feb 1996 RAJAGOPALANM at HARPO.TNSTATE.EDU wrote:
> dear friend
> Thanks for letting us know that you have visited india for many many years.
> I amsure you would have seen how friendly and reasonable the hindus are .
> Unfortunately their culture and character is tainted by many indologists by
> usage of bad words like chaos etc . while such words  do give a wrong impression
> of the character of the hindu society such words when repeated very often even by innocence
>  that that is the true character of the hindu society . it is like making 
> a lie appear true by repeating it enough times . i hope that true scientific indologista
> will avoid using such wrong and unhealthy words  being used against any society ,
> not alone hindus , unless it is proved that that society as bad as the 
> word chaotic means . that word was used by missionaries to slant 
> hindus in a time of their aggressive attacks on non-white cultures and we
> as scientists should not lend support to such unfortunate usages even
> by innocence .   M.Rajagopalanzz