Language barriers --- financial barriers

[rajam]

I absolutely agree with what George H. has stated here about the  
importance of the study of Indian languages, especially for obtaining  
a reasonable understanding of the complex Indian culture. Regards,  
V.S. Rajam

On Mar 5, 2009, at 6:15 PM, George Hart wrote:

> I would like to suggest, as gently as possible, that it is not a  
> good idea to speak of an "indisputable hierarchy of languages" for  
> Indologists, all of which happen to be Western.  I can testify that  
> there is an enormous scholarly literature in Tamil that is  
> important for Indological studies -- and that it is in no way  
> inferior in quality or learning to what is in German or English.   
> The same is true of Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu -- and I suspect  
> of the major North Indian languages.  If a student came to me and  
> asked whether she should learn French, German, Tamil or Telugu, I  
> would answer Tamil or Telugu without a second thought.  The fact  
> that western scholars are ignorant of what is written in these  
> languages does not mean they are less important or illuminating  
> than what we write. George Hart