Fwd: Rajiv Malhotra and the Infinity Foundation

[Herman Tull]

George:
Reminiscient of F. max Mueller, writing some 150 years ago (Intro to the Upanishads, vol. I of the SBE); as you know, it was one piece of a larger problematic:

“We cannot separate ourselves from those who believed in these sacred books. There is no specific difference between ourselves and the Brahmans, the Buddhists, the Zoroastrians, or the Taosze...”

Herman Tull
Princeton, NJ

From: George Thompson 
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 5:14 PM
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk 
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Fwd: Rajiv Malhotra and the Infinity Foundation

Dear McComas,

This is an interesting paper.  Thank you.  Yes, this is obviously an issue that we all, as Indologists, need to confront.  But, since I am not much interested in these mythology wars between Wendy's children and Rajiv's children, and since I am no one's child, maybe I can present a different point of view here, an orphan's view, as it were.

I am a Vedicist.  When I teach Vedic, I don't teach it as an outsider, i.e., as about them.  I teach it as an insider, i.e., about us.   As a Vedicist, I do not think of myself as studying somebody else's culture.  I think of myself as studying our collective culture, just as when I study Greek or Chinese culture, or Mayan or Sumerian culture, etc., I always think of myself as studying our collective culture.

In other words, I think that we are all both insiders and outsiders.  I am a human being.  All things human are a part of my culture.

And when, in particular, it comes to a Vedic culture that existed some 3000 years ago, but which in fact survives no longer, nobody has better access to it than those of us who have spent our lives studying it.

Isn't this obvious?  When it comes to the Rigveda, is Rajiv really an insider?

Best,

George Thompson


On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 3:01 AM, McComas Taylor <McComas.Taylor at anu.edu.au> wrote:

  Colleagues might be interested to read a draft of my paper on Malhotra in 'Mythology Wars'  at:

  http://asianstudies.anu.edu.au/wiki/images/d/d0/Mythology_wars.pdf

  It will appear in the June 2011 edition of the Asian Studies Review

  McC 


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at GMAIL.COM>
  Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 9:18 pm
  Subject: [INDOLOGY] Fwd: Rajiv Malhotra and the Infinity Foundation
  To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk

  > Just in case there's anyone here who has managed thus far without being aware of the views of Rajiv Malhotra, founder of the Infinity Foundation, here is a recent statement:

  > 
  > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-malhotra/how-europeans-misappropri_b_837376.html
  > 
  > 

  > 



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