Indology's Future?

[Prasad Velusamy]

<<<
3. Maybe it is time ask Western scholars to curtail, indeed
extinguish, their interest in non-Western cultures and
histories, and let each group write its own history the way
it thinks is appropriate or truthful. Maybe Western
scholars should be asked to get out of our arena and be
concerned with only their own histories. Indeed this is
already happening.
4. My own feeling is that when the present generation of
Western scholars of Indology and of other non-Westernology
pass away, there may not be too many of this species left.
Unless (as it is sometimes alleged) their ultimate goal is
to trivialize non-Western cultures and turn them all
Christian (an explicit 19th century goal, in many instances),
one sees no reason why universities in the West should be
expending vast amounts of money to <train> scholars in
non-Western studies.
>>>

Is this endo- or exo- mode of Indology?

The death of Indology as prophesized by Mr. Raman
mirrors with Prof. N. S. Rajaram's polemical stuff
and resonates.

N. S. Rajaram writes;
http://www.pragna.org/Art21001.html

‘Downsizing the humanities’

American universities operate much like businesses.
Programs that are unproductive are ruthlessly cut. Due
to uncontrolled expansion for over three decades, most
universities have too many humanities professors (like
Witzel) while there is severe shortage in fields like
computer science and business. Also, many humanities
programs have reached absurd limits, consuming money
that could be put to better use. To take just one
example, The University of Illinois at Chicago, supports
one Professor Stanley Fish to the tune of $230,000 of
taxpayer’s money a year for his research in
‘para-proletariat studies’ that according to him will
study body parts, excretory functions, the sex
trade, bisexuality, and lesbian pornography, and other
things that I do not care to reproduce here. This is
irresponsible to say the least.

There is now an inevitable reaction leading to what
educational experts are calling ‘downsizing the
humanities’. Students no longer want to study them
and administrators are looking for ways to cut such
programs. Harvard is no exception. This has had the
effect of sending humanities scholars (like Witzel)
scrambling for funds. For Indology departments,
which have particularly low priority in the humanities,
the last thing they can afford is any threat to the
status quo coming from new knowledge. As universities
cut budgets, their hope is to find sponsors in the
wealthy NRI community. Though impressed at first by
their academic credentials, NRIs are beginning to see
that these Indologists are only rehashing outdated
colonial and even racist ideas as ‘research’. Some
NRIs also feel that these ‘scholars’ are little more
than parasites of India and her civilization but
affecting superiority over it. For example, Witzel
and his associates have contributed nothing that
enhances our understanding of Vedic India. (Hardly
anyone had heard of him until he began his
‘Harappan horse’ campaign, patronized by Frontline.)
As a result, some NRI sponsored faculty positions
at US universities have been terminated and plans
for new ones are being shelved.

So the frustration behind the rage is easy to
understand. Days of a comfortable academic life with
little or no accountability are coming to an end.
Neither Indians nor Americans are interested in their
work. As a result, what is really at stake in all
this is neither learning nor concern for India nor
objective scholarship, but only continued survival.
As the brilliant American writer Tom Wolfe put it
in the context of such humanities scholars: It’s a
simple business at the bottom. All the intellectual
[Sic: Indologist] wants, in his heart of hearts, is
to hold on to what was given to him in a magical
moment a century ago. He asks for nothing more than
to remain aloof, removed from the mob...

Sri Shankaracharya said the same thing centuries ago:
udara-nimittam bahu-krita vesham (To fill the stomach,
many poses are assumed). That is what is really at the
bottom of this ‘horseplay’  not any concern for India
or her scholarship.

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