SV: Caucasian genes in Dravidian wombs

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Subrahmanya S. [SMTP:subrahmanyas at HOTMAIL.COM] skrev 30. november 2000
04:07:
> The word Caucasian is merely a PC substitute for Aryan.
> It seems to have been coined at a time of growing nationalistic
> fervor in Europe.

This is contradicted by your own quotation. Caucasian is not a PC for
Aryan. It is an old-fashioned term for "white", coined about two-hundred
years ago. It would also include typical non-Aryans like Finns and Basques.

> Also remember some time ago there were some on this list
> who were criticizing the weak Humanities in India. It must be
> pointed out that Stanley Wolpert is a senior Historian
> and his work is published by OUP. So much for the boasts of
> peer review and academic quality.

The strength of the Humanities in the West cannot be measured by the less
fortunate statements by some Western academics, as it has already been
pointed out. The strength of a given academic subject can be measured by
the amount of resources allocated to that subject in terms of library
resources, number of positions, and the innovative force and influence of
the people that hold the positions. India has little money and spends most
of its academic expenditure on the "hard" sciences. In relative terms, it
is the same here, but then the Humanities are typically low-cost subjects,
unlike e.g. nuclear physics or astronomy. Nevertheless, the West still
spends a lot of money on books and journals etc. in the Humanities. In
India, however, it is clear that scholars often are unable to get hold of
the relevant literature - Western books and journals are expensive - and
this has a damaging effect upon the exchange of ideas. The point is not
that all Western ideas are wonderful, but rather that if you want to "be
with it" and discuss or criticize the ideas circulating in your profession,
you have to know them thoroughly in the first place, otherwise you will not
be taken seriously. Unfortunately, when reading some Indian publications,
it is clear that some writers are seriously underinformed, and their
bibliographies show that large sections of the literature relevant to their
subject are unknown to them. This is what makes the Humanities "weak" in
India.

Lars Martin Fosse


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