[INDOLOGY] pirated essay

[Rosane Rocher]

Dear colleagues,

With thanks to Herman Tull, I just found out that an essay of mine was 
reprinted without my knowledge or mention of the source from which it 
was taken, and, worst of all, with misrepresenting changes.

My original essay "Sanskrit and Related Studies in the United States: 
1960--1985" was written for, and published in the proceedings of, 
/Indological Studies & South Asia Bibliography - a Conference/, convened 
in Calcutta at the National Library of India by its then director, the 
late great historian Ashin Dasgupta, in which I participated in 1986 
(pp. 61--92).  A pirated reprint has since appeared in the volume 
/Sanskrit Studies outside India (On the occasion of 10th World Sanskrit 
Conference, Bangalore, Jan 3--9, 1997 /[which I did not attend]/), /New 
Delhi: Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, 1997, edited by the Sansthan's then 
director, Dr. K.K. Mishra, under the truncated title "Sanskrit Studies 
in United States" (pp. 97--152).  I do mind the deletion of "and Related 
Studies," since it was the very point of my essay to assess the state of 
Sanskrit studies contextually, particularly in connection with area 
studies, religious studies, and Indo-European linguistics.  Yet worse is 
the deletion of the period "1960--1985" and passing off the essay as if 
it was still current 11 years later.  I notice that essays about 
Sanskrit Studies in other parts of the world included in the Sansthan's 
volume were current, mentioning dates up to 1996.

Since then, an online version of the Sansthan's volume has appeared, 
which omits the two appendices in my essay (pp. 128--152, equivalent to 
pp. 77--91 of my original essay).  As a consolation, perhaps, the online 
version mercifully also omits the list of contributors to the Sansthan's 
volume (pp. 153--154), in which the 5 half-line entry that concerns me 
manages to feature 4 mistakes: misspelling my name "Roscher," misnaming 
my department "South Asian languages," mauling the name of my university 
as "University of Peninsula," and then again the State in which I reside 
as "Peninsula."  This performance brings back to my mind the French 
phrase with which one of my high school teachers greeted anything stupid 
one of us students had done: "Dépêchons-nous d'en rire, de peur d'en 
pleurer" ("Let's hasten to laugh at this, lest it bring us to tears").

I earnestly request scholars who might be interested in this topic to 
bear in mind the purpose and date of my essay and, if any might wish to 
quote it, to do so with its full, original title, including the period 
covered.

With thanks and best wishes,

Rosane Rocher
Professor Emerita of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
USA ///

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