SV: Sanskrit translations in Nazi hands

[Alf Hiltebeitel]

I agree that Sheldon Pollock's article, cited below, is indispensible
reading to anyone who wants to think seriously about the issues raised,
but it is quite a stretch to say that he "claims that the academic
standards of these scholars were impeccable." Having just reread the
pertinent pages, I see what might be quoted in that direction: "They are
for the most part unimpeachable with respect to scholarly 'standards'"
(p. 94). But those quotation marks around "standards" are not making it
into the paraphrase. To interpret them, one may turn two pages:
"Whatever other enduring lessons this may teach us, it offers a superb
illustration of the empirical fact that disinterested scholarship in the
human sciences, like any other socal act, takes place within the realm of
interests" (96). For a "closer reading" of some pertinent NS period
German Indological texts, see Carlo Ginzburg, "Germanic Mythology and
Nazism: Thoughts on an Old Book by Georges Dumezil," in _Clues, Myths and
Historical Method_ (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uniersity Press, 1989), pp.
126-45.

Perhaps it is a question of whether anything can rise to the level of
unimeachability.

Alf Hiltebeitel
Director, Human Sciences Program
Columbian School Professor of Religion and Human Sciences
The George Washington University
Phillips Hall 412
Washington, D.C., 20052
202/ 994-4297
Fax: 202/ 994-7034

Department of Religion
2106 G St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20052
202/ 994-6325 or 202/ 994-1674
Fax: 202/ 994-9379



On Thu, 7 Jan 1999, Lars Martin Fosse wrote:

> Walker Trimble wrote:
>
> > This might be the time to ask other Indologists and those interested in the
> > history of Indology why so many thinkers who have attempted to find the
> > hidden and missing links between cultures have also had fascist leanings.
> > This seems to be the case from Max-Mueller (though his is rather weak)
>
> How on earth could Max-Mueller have fascist leanings? He died before fascism
> was invented?
>
> > through Eliade, Dumezil, Jung, even the popular Joseph Campbell and on.
> > Also, consider how many Modernest writers and poets who also espoused a
> > kind of "Universal Consciousness" were fascists: T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, of
> > course many of the Surrealists. . . Why?
>
> Why did so many intellectuals espouse totalitarian ideologies at all, not
> simply fascism, but also marxism-leninism, not to mention stalinism and maoism?
> The question is interesting in itself, but it does not belong on Indology.
>
> > Since so many of the great Indolgists in the last two centuries are and
> > have been Westerners, studies in the attempts to coalesce the thought of
> > East and West would have some hermeneutical value for the discipline.
> > I am now reading a book which explores Dumezil's possible fascism, some may
> > find it interesting:
> >
> > Eribon, Didier.  Faut-il Br^uler Dum'ezil?__Paris:      Flammarion, 1992.
> >
> > At 06:26 AM 12/24/98 PST, you wrote:
> > ><<<
> > > There was never a process of
> > >cleaning in the Indology in after Nazis times and therefore it is one
> > >reason for the unscholarity methode which is still dominating the
> > >after-Nazi German Indology.
>
> This is nonsense - excuse me. Are you implying that ALL German indologists
> were/are Nazis????? Or that there is a marked difference in method between
> German indologists and the rest of the caste? Whatever problems of method and
> modernization are besetting Indology, the reason given above is hardly it.
>
> > >  Hope some scholars take up the task of the study of how
> > >  Sanskrit played in the Nazi hands. Was surprised to find
> > >  that the grand historian of religion, Mircea Eliade had some
> > >  Nazi connections.
>
> You might probably like to read Sheldon Pollock's article on the subject of
> German Indologists and Nazism. See:
>
> Deep Orientalism? Notes on Sanskrit and Power Beyond the Raj. In: Orientalism
> and the Postcolonial Predicament. Edited by Carol A. Breckenridge and Peter van
> der Veer.
> University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1993.
>
> BTW, as you will see, he claims that the academic methods of these scholars
> were impeccable, if I remember correctly.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Lars Martin Fosse
>
> Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
> Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,
> 0674 Oslo
> Norway
> Phone/Fax: +47 22 32 12 19
> Email: lmfosse at online.no
>