AW: [INDOLOGY] "German Indology"

[Eli Franco]

Embarrassing as it may seem, I have to correct this for a second time. The
fact that our respected colleague and friend Sheldon Pollock once  
asked me to find somebody's address does not make me "a (former)  
assistant"
in a project. It does not even make me "involved" in his project in  
any real sense of the term.

Regardless of this ridiculous distortion, I consider it self-evident that
anybody within the scholarly community is free to associate with their
colleagues and provide help in connection with their individual research
projects, without having to justify themselves. It is one matter if
Reinhold Grünendahl disagrees with some of Pollock's published findings
and conclusions in a certain project. It is another matter altogether if
he (repeatedly) attempts to attack and vituperate all those whom he
somehow associates with Pollock's "project" (starting from the translator
of Pollock's contested article into German [in Grünendahl's paper in the
Roth Felicitation Volume], up to the persons of the Heidelberg South Asia
Institute who invited him for the keynote speech at the recent 50-year
celebration of the Institute [see the past disgraceful discussion in the
"Indologie" list).

Nothing more remains to be said on this strange behaviour in an
international forum, which definitely does not reflect on current "German
Indology" as a whole.
With best wishes,
Eli Franco

>
> As for Franco's contested involvement in Pollock's project, here is  
> the pertinent quote in context (Franco, The Spitzer Manuscript,  
> 2004, vol. 1, p. vii):
> "During one of my visits to Israel I fortuitously met a bibliophile  
> who mentioned Spitzer's name. I immediately expressed my desire to  
> meet Spitzer, whose whereabouts I had once unsuccessfully tried to  
> determine in connection with Professor Sheldon Pollock's project on  
> Indology during the time of National Socialism in Germany."
>
>
>
> Regards,
> Reinhold Grünendahl
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> Von: Indology [INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk]" im Auftrag von  
> "Eli Franco [franco at UNI-LEIPZIG.DE]
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 8. August 2012 11:11
> An: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> Betreff: Re: [INDOLOGY] "German Indology"
>
> Dear friends and colleagues,
>
> For those of you who took the trouble to read this bizarre piece and
> may wonder about the connection between Frauwallner and Hermann
> Oldenberg's rac(ial)ist ruminations that Karin Preisendanz and I quoted
> in our introduction to the new edition of Frauwallner's
> Philosophie des Buddhismus, see the very explicit statement in
> Frauwallner, "Der arische Anteil ...", p. 286.
>
> Grünendahl has obviously not bothered to carefully read the relevant
> articles by F. before he produced another of his diatribes directed
> against critical scholars who touch upon the (political) history of
> Indology in Germany and Austria during the NS period (and before).
>
> The sloppiness of his polemical scholarship is also seen in his
> fictitious assertion that Franco was "a (former) assistant on
> 'Professor Sheldon Pollock's project on Indology during the time of
> National Socialism in Germany.'"
>
> Further comments are not required here.
>
> With best wishes,
> Eli Franco
>
>
>
> Quoting "Gruenendahl, Reinhold" <gruenen at SUB.UNI-GOETTINGEN.DE>:
>
>> In view of earlier discussions on this list it may not be out of
>> place to announce the publication of the following article:
>>
>> Reinhold Grünendahl: "History in the Making: On Sheldon Pollock's
>> ‘NS Indology' and Vishwa Adluri's ‘Pride and Prejudice'".
>> International Journal of Hindu Studies, Vol. 16,2, 2012, pp. 189-257.
>>
>>
>> The article can be downloaded from here:
>> http://www.springerlink.com/content/nth836542h983800/
>>
>> Regards,
>> R. G.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Prof. Dr. Eli Franco
> Institut für Indologie und Zentralasienwissenschaften
> Schillerstr. 6
> 04109 Leipzig
>
> Ph. +49 341 9737 121, 9737 120 (dept. office)
> Fax +49 341 9737 148
>



-- 
Prof. Dr. Eli Franco
Institut für Indologie und Zentralasienwissenschaften
Schillerstr. 6
04109 Leipzig

Ph. +49 341 9737 121, 9737 120 (dept. office)
Fax +49 341 9737 148


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