Sanskrit translations in Nazi hands

[Walker Trimble]

At 12:32 AM 1/13/99 +0500, you wrote:
>And for everybody's information: I am not a (neo-)Nazi and am not German /
>Swiss / Austrian / Rumanian / Ukrainian / Finnish / Italian / Spanish etc.
>So none of that kind of innuendo will stick.
>
>Dr. Robert J. Zydenbos
>Mysore (India)
>e-mail zydenbos at bigfoot.com
>

As I was one of the members who initiated this string I feel some
responsibility for the tone to which it has descended.  I asked why so many
thinkers who have proposed ideas of a kind of Universal Consciousness have
been associated with fascism (or its origins).  My interest was solely
based on these thinkers' ideas and not on some sort of indictment.  Max
Mueller could not have been a Nazi, yet some of his ideas and those of
other indologists were used by fascists.  What is it about such ideas that
makes them __available__ to fascist ideology?  That was my question.
I also stated my reason for posting that question on this list.  A good
deal of the discussion on the Indology listserv deals with all the aspects
of the IE hypothesis.  As Comparative Philology and then Comparative
Mythology, Religion, &c. have their base in this field in the C.IXX, a
historiographical examination into the climate surrounding these
disciplines would help to provide a hermeneutical base for all contemporary
attempts at comparing the cultures of the East and West.  I never intended
to foster any atmosphere of accusation or insinuation.

Regards,

Walker Trimble