attack on Professor S. Bahulkar

[gruenendahl]

Lars Martin Fosse wrote:

> There is a limit to how courageous we should ask people to be when we're
> sitting safe in Europe.

Leaving aside the implications Lars Martin Fosse's considerate view
may -or may not - have for the interpretation of other historic
events, an article in the Times Higher Education Supplement
(THES, 21.11.2003) shows that Europe (including the British Isles,
home of democracy and tolerance) is not exempted from these
deplorable developments.

The article by Alison Goddard entitled "Email threats and egg-
throwing sparks fears of Hindu extremism" (p. 52) reports that
"Wendy Doniger, professor of the history of religions at the
University of Chicago, was attacked while giving a lecture on Hindu
texts at the School of Oriental and African Studies last Wednesday
evening. She also said this week that an American colleague had
received threatening emails. Professor Doniger, whose publications
include a new translation of the Kama Sutra, was believed to have
been targeted for linking Hindu sacred texts and sex. During a bad-
tempered question-and-answer session after the talk, she was asked
whether, as a westerner, she was qualified to speak about the
subject. A message posted on a mailing-list website from a member
of the 200-strong audience states: "I was struck by the sexual thrust
of her paper on one our most sacred epics [Ramayana] ... What
would these clever 'learned' western people be doing for a living if
they did not have our shastras and traditions to nitpick and distort?
They would most probably be still locked in the missionary poisition,
sexually repressed, cantakerous, frigid and scratching for a living."
...Rachel Dwyer, senior lecturer in Indian studies at SOAS, also had
her question-and-answer session interrupted at a recent lecture."


It goes without saying that the real issue is not the views of James
W. Laine, S. Bahulkar, Wendy Doniger, Rachel Dwyer or anyone
else, which one may endorse or otherwise. What is at issue here is
the freedom to express and discuss them, which provides the basis
of academic exchange - indeed, the fabric of a democratic society.


Reinhold Grünendahl


P.S. There is a related entry to the THES diary on p. 15 of the same
isssue, entitled "Academia's full monty":
"Academia seems to have gone sex mad ... Last week, Wendy
Doniger ... had an egg thrown at her for linking Hinduism and sex.
Earlier this week, Olivia Judson of Imperial College London
delivered her lecture on the evolution of female promiscuity. And
next week Manchester University will launch a Centre for the Study
of Sexuality and Culture. It promises 'stimulating intellectual
exchange' including an opening address on the '20th-century
orgasm'."

********************************************************************

Dr. Reinhold Gruenendahl
Niedersaechsische Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek
Fachreferat sued- und suedostasiatische Philologien
(Dept. of Indology)

37070 Göttingen, Germany
Tel (+49) (0)5 51 / 39 52 83
Fax (+49) (0)5 51 / 39 23 61
gruenen at mail.sub.uni-goettingen.de

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In English:
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