"Science" in India

[George Thompson]

Very little in this discussion has surprised  me, not even the bizarre and
surely *racist* [indeed!!!} vituperation of one Namrata Bose. But one thing
does surprise and distress me: that is the increasingly bitter posts of
Vidyasankar Sundaresan.

I have not had direct discussions with VS, because we work in different areas
of Indology.  But I have never questioned his right to be a member of this
list.  Furthermore, I frequently talk about this list and its activities with
other members, privately and off-list, and in my experience references to VS
have always been respectful and admiring.  Admittedly, I do not always agree
with VS, but I do recognize his competence, as do, I trust, most if not all
members of this list.

Let me assure VS and other native Indians on the list that the issue is about
competence, and not about ethnicity.  Engineers, like all others, of course
are welcome -- as long as they are able to discuss scholarly matters in a
scholarly manner. Why is this insistence on scholarly competence, on an
explicitly scholarly list, after all, so offensive to so many?  I don't get
it.

In any case, no one questions that VS is a scholar.

Nevertheless, I am glad to see the departure of Namrata Bose and others like
him.  Perhaps we can get back to discussion of matters of genuine
scholarship, instead of all the off-topic nonsense of the past few days.

The thing about fools, BTW, is that you don't have to go out and point to
them. They tend to point to themselves.

George Thompson