Holi Discussion Appreciation

[John Gardner]

re. portion of message below

for all concerned-- suggest reading W. Halbfass' "India and Europe: and 
Essay in understanding."

further, to discuss "paradigms of studty" in the first place is a term 
already-weighted with european values.  those of us who fight within the 
western academic culture to awaken the minds of those scholars before us 
to their arrogance seek all reasonable means of expression at our 
disposal.  we often feel like the jelly in a peanutbutter and jelly 
sandwich: the teeth of our traditions squeeze down from one side, the 
teeth of individuals in other traditions who don't liek our efforts to 
find new terms squeeze from the other and we just get squirted out the 
sides and dribbled down the shirt of of the lumbering behemoth of 
institutionalized cultural insensitivity.  

i truly hope that peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches were not also a part 
of some missionary's zealous persecution of another culture.  i would 
hate to perpetuate the image.  

those of us who are trying to find new paradigms could benefit from 
gentle and responsible criticism from all interested parties-- not the 
all-too-easy knee-jerk (and, ironically, a western one) of 
tar-and-feathering with slanderous terminology like racism.

frankly, much of the terminology regarding western scholars is equally 
racist in its generalizations and its about time everybody got a grip on 
the fundamental fact that racism lies in USAGE of a word far more than it 
does in the semantic isolation of the term itself.  those angered by the 
word chaotic have granted that the word can have unweighted meaning in 
other areas, but they take it upon themselves to dominate the language 
field of discussion by demanding that, in their relam of expression, its 
unacceptable.  

frankly, accusations of racism are unacceptable in mine.  unless there is 
a double-standard at work here, i think its about time both terms be laid 
to rest if the judgemental myopia cannot be.

jrg


On Thu, 8 Feb 1996 ACHARB at MSUVX1.MEMPHIS.EDU wrote:

> 
> >
> >    The suggestion by Narahari Rao to do a study of Indology itself is worth
> following.  May be a discussion of the history of Indology, its beginning,
> development and evolution may bring out clearly some of the prejudices of
> colonial times and whether they still persist.
> sincerely, -B. N. Narahari Achar 
>