SV: politics on Indology

[Lars Martin Fosse]

John C. Huntingdon wrote:

> In these "interesting times" with the wholesale destruction
> of Buddhist art in Afghanistan (including the Bamiyan
> Buddhas), the burning of the Sanskrit college in Nepal with
> its estimated 12,000 uncataloged manuscripts, the looting and
> destruction in Iraq, and now attacks on members of the
> Indology community directly it is clear that we are in a
> situation that requires information and for better or worse,
> opinions about it. ...

I agree with this: we cannot avoid politics for the simple reasont that
politics is heading straight for us.

It seems to me that the Indological community under all circumstances
should strive to preserve cultural material. This can be very difficult.
E.g.: The University of Oslo a couple of years ago tried to talk the
Tibetan University into transferring many hours worth of old tapes with
bards singing the Gesar epic to modern electronic media. Together with a
sound technician I tried to set up a project with this in mind. The
whole thing collapsed because of a departemental war at the University
of Tibet. Not everybody wants to be helped.

Nevertheless, it is certainly worth trying. It is frightening that
thousands of manuscripts and cultural objects simply are destroyed for
the most hairbrained of reasons. Making copies or taking photographs and
spreading them around is the only way to preserve such material against
willed and wanton destruction. In the case of India, it would not even
be necessary to move such copy material out of the country, only to have
it stashed in several different places.

But it is also clear that extremist organizations of various kinds want
to influence the way certain subjects are taught in schools and at
universities. The scholarly world has to make a concerted stand against
all such intrusions, whether it is "creationism", Muslim fundamentalism
or Hindutva. This is an area where we cannot go it alone. We need broad
cooperation with other specialists in various other fields.

Lars Martin Fosse

From:
Dr.art. Lars Martin Fosse
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