[INDOLOGY] R: Fwd: [RISA-L LIST] Pulping Intellectual Freedom:Academics will not bow down to vigilantism

Thu Feb 13 00:34:01 UTC 2014

Il libro è stato messo all'indice... Se vuoi io ce l'ho!! Hahahhaa!!!

  _____  

Da: INDOLOGY [mailto:indology-bounces at list.indology.info] Per conto di
Patrick Olivelle
Inviato: giovedì 13 febbraio 2014 00:17
A: Indology List
Oggetto: [INDOLOGY] Fwd: [RISA-L LIST] Pulping Intellectual
Freedom:Academics will not bow down to vigilantism

In case this was not posed on Indology. This is very encouraging.

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Cort <cort at denison.edu>

Subject: [RISA-L LIST] Pulping Intellectual Freedom: Academics will not bow
down to vigilantism

Date: February 12, 2014 10:49:31 AM CST

To: RISA Academic Discussion List <risa-l at lists.sandiego.edu>

Reply-To: +++RISA ACADEMIC DISCUSSION LIST+++ <risa-l at lists.sandiego.edu>

The following comes from colleagues  in India.

John Cort

Pulping Intellectual Freedom: Academics will not bow down to vigilantism

It is an abject shame that Penguin will pulp Prof. Wendy Doniger’s The
Hindus: An Alternative History. That this decision was reached in a deal
with the petitioners, with no consultation with the author compounds the
folly.  Coming in the wake of Oxford University Press’ similar meek
surrender by suspending publication of Paula Richman’s Many Ramayanas –
though forced to revert its decision in the aftermath of a spirited protest
by senior academics from across the world – and the Delhi University’s
purging of A.K. Ramanujam’s essay, “Three Hundred Ramayanas”, this episode
shows that mighty publishing houses and premier universities will crumble
under the slightest attack on academic freedom.  

Wendy Doniger writes on subjects long considered taboo by mainstream
Indologists: animals, sex, violence – but her style of writing, full of wit
and humor and storytelling, was beloved of many outside of academia. This
has also turned her into an object of scorn and hatred among Hindutva
groups, especially among the diaspora. The low level of attacks – from the
egg thrown at her in London to distasteful speculation of her personal
sexuality by a US-based Indian businessman, patron and poseur of Right wing
Hindu Studies – has only exposed the shallowness of her critics. 

In 2003, Paul Courtright’s Ganesha: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings
was similarly attacked for its psychoanalytic approach. A petition by Hindu
Students Council in the US demanded from the author an “unequivocal apology
to the Hindus”, leading the publisher Motilal Banarsidas to swiftly withdraw
the book with the promise that such a “lapse” would never occur again. The
petition also insisted that Coutright re-write the passages which the
petitioners found offensive and issue a revised version with clarifications.

This demand that academic study of religion be directed by, and tailored for
a community of believers, with an unlimited potential for ‘hurt’ is simply
preposterous and thoroughly unacceptable.  Many of us – Historians,
sociologists, Indologists – are engaged in scholarship on religion. Some of
us are believers, some are not. Some of us study our own communities, many
train their lenses on others. 

We believe that all scholarship is open to criticism – especially by those
who claim to speak on behalf of the community, as insiders. Indeed, it would
add to the richness of debate. However, threats, personal attacks, calls for
censorship and recourse to perennially offended sentiments cannot be
permitted to hold academic enquiry to ransom. 

As academics, we will robustly defend our right to work on themes of our
choice with theoretical frameworks of our choosing. 

A.Ram Babu, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai 

Abhijit Kundu, Dept. of Sociology, Sri Venketeswara College, University of
Delhi

Adil Mehdi, Dept. of English, JMI, Delhi

Adnan Farooqui, Dept. of Political Science, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi

Ahmed Sohaib, Centre for the Study of Comparative Religions, JMI, Delhi

Ambarien Alqadr, MCRC, JMI, Delhi

Amit Sengupta, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi

Brinda Bose, Department of English, University of Delhi

Dhrub Kumar Singh, Dept of History, Benaras Hindu University, Benaras

Faiz Ullah, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

Ghazala Jamil, Independent Researcher, Delhi 

Ghazi Shahnawaz, Dept. of Psychology, JMI, Delhi

Harsh Dobhal, Sharada University, NOIDA

Jairus Banaji, SOAS, UK

Manisha Sethi, Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi

Manoj Jena, Dept. of Sociology, JMI, Delhi

M.S. Bhatt, Dept. of Economics, JMI, Delhi

Mohan Rao, Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU, Delhi

Mona Das, Satywati College, University of Delhi

Nabanipa Bhattacharya, Dept. of Sociology, Sri Venketeswara College,
University of Delhi 

Rahul Govind, Dept. of History, University of Delhi

Rochelle Pinto, Dept. of English, University of Delhi

Sanghamitra Misra, Dept. of History, University of Delhi

Shohini Ghosh, MCRC, JMI, Delhi 

Sucharita Sengupta, Dept. of Political Science, JMI, Delhi

Tabir Kalam, Dept of History, Benaras Hindu University, Benaras

Tanweer Fazal, Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, JMI

Released by Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association on 12th February 2014. 

www.teacherssolidarity.org <http://www.teacherssolidarity.org/> 

-- 
John E. Cort
Department of Religion
Denison University
Granville, OH  43023
740-587-6254 (o)
cort at denison.edu

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