Indology and "the disastrous ideology of the 'pure Aryan race'"

[Jan E.M. Houben]

Dear Reinhold,
Since you have by now two times "asserted" (sic)
your questions to the list and since no reaction
came so far, since moreover my own position is
sufficiently clearly stated and
accessible(although you do have to take the
effort to search and read the articles published
in well-known places, but for anyone close to a
library a period of two years should suffice), I
think it is appropriate to stop the discussion on
this list in the present form in order not to
bore to death our fellow indology lovers. They
should at least remain sufficiently inspired to
write letters to the Berlin authorities. 
I wait for your book and write the review.
Promise. Good night. 
Jan 

--- "Jan E.M. Houben" <j_e_m_houben at YAHOO.COM>
wrote:

> Dear Reinhold,
> I still insist you first have a look at the
> articles, to which I drew your kind attention
> not
> only yesterday but also in our extended email
> exchange more than two years ago. I am very
> happy
> with my 1995 conference report -- that is why I
> pasted it again in a previous message -- but it
> is a conference report and not a research
> paper.
> By the way, did you notice that it has become
> quite silent on the list since you tried to
> open
> the discussion on the "Indology and the
> disastrous ideology of pure Aryan race" topic
> (on
> which see also Halbfass 1988: 139-140)? Let
> others read your well-documented and cleverly
> argued article liberating each and every German
> indologist of the 1900-1945 period from any
> possible association with the German government
> and its disastrous ideology of the pure Aryan
> race, not only the heroic Heinrich Lüders but
> also Wüst, Schubring, Sieg, Frauwallner (but he
> was Austrian? but didn't he study and publish
> in
> Germany?);  I for my part I am now more and
> more
> looking forward to seeing the announced book. 
> Cheers,
> Jan
>  
>  
> 
> 
> --- gruenendahl
> <gruenen at MAIL.SUB.UNI-GOETTINGEN.DE> wrote:
> 
> > Dear Jan,
> > I have no idea which fate had a hand in this
> > failed delivery, but anyway, I've
> > been able to open your mail dated  Thu, 4 Jan
> > 2007 04:31:24 -
> > 0800 from home, and I came back to send you
> at
> > least these comments:
> > 
> > 
> > In whatever mind I read your report before,
> and
> > I have read it quite a few
> > times, I assure you, I now learn that it
> cannot
> > have been a "detached
> > scholarly" one. If this remark is already
> part
> > of your argument, I really don't
> > know what to reply.
> > 
> > Now, a "detached scholarly mind" (like yours,
> I
> > suppose) would have seen
> > that you
> > "refer to 'selected articles and notices of
> the
> > volumes 92-98 (1938-44) and
> > 99 (1945-49) of the Zeitschrift für die
> > Deutsche Morgenländische
> > Gesellschaft' NOT to support the claims made
> in
> > any article (...), but to
> > illustrate the promising continuity with a
> > discontinuous past which was one
> > of the topics of that memorable meeting in
> > Leipzig".
> > 
> > This almost sounds as if you referred to the
> > ZDMG for no particular purpose
> > at all. Now, the paragraph from which you
> take
> > this quote is headed
> > "Vergangenheit Bewaltigung" and deals
> > specifically and exclusively with
> > "some of the more problematic aspects of the
> > history" of "German
> > indology", not with general aspects of
> > continuity and discontinuity, as you
> > now try to assert. And it is in this context,
> > particularly with regard to "the
> > disastrous ideology of the 'pure Aryan race'"
> > that you refer to Pollock and
> > "selected articles and notices" of the ZDMG.
> > Doesn't it come as a natural
> > conclusion to the reader that those ominous
> > articles of the  ZDMG (of
> > course, you don't name one) support that
> > ideology in one way or another?
> > But let's say you didn't refer to these
> > articles as evidence for "positive
> > relations which some indologists at least
> > maintained with the German
> > government and its disastrous ideology of the
> > 'pure Aryan race'", what other
> > evidence can you name in support of these
> > "positive relations", if not the
> > ZDMG - which say nothing of the kind, I may
> > remind you with reference to
> > my article?
> > 
> > I have no intention to discuss any
> particulars
> > of Pollock's article before we
> > are through with your report, but  the stance
> > that it has "proven its healthy
> > provocative character ever since" is just the
> > all-purpose post-orientalist
> > 'argument' along the lines of "Said's
> > 'Orientalism' (or you name it ...) may be
> > bogus, but it did so much good just the
> same!"
> > I beg to differ on that!
> > 
> > As for the various writings you adduce post
> > festum, is this to be taken as an
> > indication that your report cannot stand on
> its
> > own feet in this regard? And
> > now you want to see my book first, and a
> thesis
> > from Aix-Marseille ...
> > anything else I can help out with, perhaps? I
> > feel like I'm taken on a Cook's
> > tour, if you don't mind me saying this.
> > 
> > One last thing I have time for today: I
> didn't
> > know that your publications
> > have a kind of sell-by date attached to them.
> > So please enlighten my: is
> > your 1995 report now obsolete, although it is
> > still riding the waves on the
> > web, or has it become some kind of classic
> that
> > is beyond the nit-picking of
> > ordinary mortals?
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > In view of the evidence so far (your articles
> > haven't arive yet)I should like to
> > reassert my questions:
> > 
> > Does Professor Houben or any other member of
> > this list maintain any of the
> > following positions
> > (all quoted from his paper:
> >
>
http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/iiasn7/south/houben.html):
> > 
> > 1) That there was a "positive relations which
> > some indologists at least maintained
> > with the German government
> >  and its disastrous ideology of the 'pure
> Aryan
> > race' before and during the period of
> > the Second World War period",
> >  and if so, where do these relations surface
> in
> > indological writings of that period?
> > 
> > 2) that "selected articles and notices of the
> > volumes 92-98 (1938-44) and 99 (1945-
> > 49) of
> >  the Zeitschrift [der] Deutsche[n]
> > Morgenländische[n] Gesellschaft" would yield
> > any
> > evidence
> >  in support of position #1, and if so, which;
> > 
> > 3) that "S. Pollock's provocative "Deep
> > Orientalism: Notes on Sanskrit and Power
> > Beyond the Raj"
> >  (in Van der Veer and Beckenridge, The
> > Postcolonial Predicament, Philadelphia,
> > 1993)", make
> >  "essential reading for a well-informed
> > discussion" in so far as [my addition:] it
> > contains an intellectually
> >  sound argument in support of his claims or
> > position #1, and if so, which.
> > 
> > 
> > That's all I have time for due to reduced
> > opening hours.
> > 
> > Greetings
> > Reinhold
> > 
> > 
> >
> 
=== message truncated ===


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