[INDOLOGY] pirated essay

[Dipak Bhattacharya]

<misdemeanour by Indian colleagues> What is this language? What I reported were apparently misdeeds by publishers. I have not yet got any evidence some colleague was involved. Some self-styled scholars are involved indeed. But accusing Indian colleagues in general is unfair.
DB         





On Wednesday, 11 December 2013 10:14 PM, BROCKINGTON John <J.L.Brockington at ed.ac.uk> wrote:
 
Dear Rosane and other colleagues,

This seems to have been a particularly annoying and frustrating example of what is not so uncommon a misdemeanour by Indian colleagues who should know better.  I have had it happen to me a couple of times (with of course a sizable crop of misprints introduced):

“Sanskrit Epic Tradition III.  Fashions in Formulae”, Proceedings of the Fifth World Sanskrit Conference, Varanasi (New Delhi: Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, 1985): 77-90; unauthorised reprint under a shortened, so inaccurate title in Facets of Indian Culture, ed. by P. C. Muraleemadhavan (Delhi: New Bharatiya Book Corporation, 2000): 475-492.

“The name Rāmacandra”, in Lex et Litterae: Studies in honour of Professor Oscar Botto, ed. Siegfried Lienhard and Irma Piovano, (Alessandria: Edizioni dell’ Orso, 1997): 83-93; unauthorised reprint (omitting the first paragraph) in Rasika-Bhāratī (Prof. R. C. Parikh Commemoration Volume), ed. Bharati Shelat, Sanskrit Sahitya Academy, Gandhinagar, 2005, pp. 183-193]

Yours

John Brockington


Professor J. L. Brockington
Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit, University of Edinburgh
Vice President, International Association of Sanskrit Studies
________________________________________

From: INDOLOGY [indology-bounces at list.indology.info] On Behalf Of Rosane Rocher [rrocher at sas.upenn.edu]
Sent: 11 December 2013 14:50
To: indology at list.indology.info
Subject: [INDOLOGY] pirated essay

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


The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.


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