The Rajaram Syndrome

[Jogesh Panda]

Learnt from Steve Farmer's mail about Rajaram's reactions to the exposure [by
Michael Witzel and Steve Farmer] of his creative research methodology, a
reaction not quite unexpected of a man of his kind of ideological commitment
and conviction [as evident in the sword-of-truth files, which unfortunately is
the limit of my Rajaram-reading]. Some day, some one is going to write on the
semiotics of South Asian Cultural History, and the future researcher would
certainly be thankful that a body of writing exists on the topic of
Authenticity-from-Ethnicity.  So for now, Navaratna S. Rajaram is but one more
addition to the curiosity-corner of colourful indology [the small 'i'
intended]. 

But the Rajaram-syndrome seems to persist and thrive with arguments from other
areas, other angles, some related to the argument from ethnicity, others
directed at the mistakes of 'those other guys'. No argument from political
reality [questions like "Do you have any idea what is happening now in
India?"] validates data doctoring. Someone else's mistake in some other area
does not make your wrong right. 
 
On the other hand, as Bijoy Misra said, many Indians are critical of India, so
the rash generalization of border-line Indologists [how do I define
'border-line Indologists'?- some other day, some other immediate context]
about Indians at home and in diaspora is immature and irresponsible. 
  
bhadraM te.

Jogesh Panda






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