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[Muneo TOKUNAGA]

>From Muneo Tokunaga, Kyoto

Dear Members,

On Nov.22--23, the Indo-Japanese Symposium was held in Tokyo
in celebration of the fiftieth Anniversary of India's
Independence.  Several scholars were invited from India
(mainly Japanologists) and from Japan (mainly those
specialized in Indian Culture, both ancient and modern). I
made a report on the Indological studies in Japan in the
last 50 years. What impressed me (or even shocked me) in the
Symposium was the lack or even intentional neglect of their
own traditional culture among Indian intellectuals.

I want to remind Indian intellectuals that India is
considered one of giant countries of the world mainly not
because of today's India but because of her rich cultural
heritage of the past. If their lack of interest in their own
traditional culture continues, Indians will have to go
abroad to study their our culture in the 21 century. I don't
want India to be simply a field for collecting manuscripts
for us Indologists. Nor do I want traditional India to
become `India's Past,' as entitled in one of Macdonell's
books.

I am also afraid that the decreasing interest in their own
culture among Indian people will affect Indian studies all
over the word in some way or other.

                                       
                               Tokunaga