[INDOLOGY] corrected version: Indology and plagiarism: specify stance in order to fortify "brand name" (and conclude lengthy threads)

[Jan E.M. Houben]

Dear Professor Bhattacharya,

Just for the sake of keeping up the standard of the discipline
(śāstraśuddhyartham),
would it not be useful to give more details on the publication in which
your chapters were plagiarized and on the publisher where it appeared ? I
do not want to force since from experience we know that revealing cases of
plagiarism is not without the risk of receiving severe and angry criticism.

I hope your valuable work on Mythological and ritual symbolism will see an
updated second edition.

Jan Houben



*Jan E.M. HOUBEN*

Directeur d’Études

Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite

*École Pratique des Hautes Études*

*Sciences historiques et philologiques *

54, rue Saint-Jacques

CS 20525 – 75005 Paris

johannes.houben at ephe.sorbonne.fr

https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben

www.ephe.fr


On 31 July 2015 at 17:41, Dipak Bhattacharya <dipak.d2004 at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> Dear Colleagues,
> I may relate a similar experience with a much more low profile book by me -*-Mythological
> and rirtual symbolism* 1984 Calcutta. The fourth and fifth chapters (194
> - 208) were verbatim copied without any acknowledgement or reference to my
> work in a book published by a reputed publisher of Delhi. I wrote to them,
> they did not reply. My solicitor advised purchasing a copy for production
> if I wanted to start legal proceedings. I wanted to purchase. Again, the
> publishers were silent. In the mean time my book went out of print.
> It requires so much energy and resources to carry on legal proceedings
> that one engaged in work often gives up.
> With best wishes for all and collegial sympathy for co-sufferers.
>
> DB
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 1:50 AM, Jan E.M. Houben <jemhouben at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Indology and plagiarism
>>
>> Apart from borderline cases there are also cases of undeniable massive
>> plagiarism.
>> One case was discussed long ago by Roy Andrew Miller (JAOS 115.2 [1995]:
>> 343-344), and
>> a new episode in the same case history was discussed eight years later,
>> now twelve years
>> ago, by me (AS/EA 57.1 [2003] p 163, author's copy academia.edu/7196478/
>> p 55).
>> From a quick online search I infer that the publication based on massive
>> plagiarizing is apparently still for sale and present in university
>> libraries.
>> Some similarities with the current case under discussion, except, I hope,
>> quantitatively:
>> R Diekstra, till 1997 prof of psychology at Univ of Leiden: those who
>> discovered textual
>> borrowings which were not or very incompletely acknowledged were
>> aggressively attacked by a
>> dherents of their favourite public intellectual Diekstra, his sources
>> were (page after page)
>> from sources relatively unknown to his target public (dutch readers on
>> psychotherapy), he
>> claimed to be working in haste for a higher aim (helping those needing
>> psychotherapy).
>> http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9704/fn9704.html
>>
>> This could be a suitable occasion for the Indology List, the ONLY ONLINE
>> FORUM IN THE WORLD
>> since 2001 specializing in academic exchange for bona fide scholars,
>> "east"
>> and "west", in Indology and classical South Asia studies, to give a
>> stronger profile
>> to Indology's "brand name".
>>
>> Would there be any harm if the current dvārapālas of the Indology List
>> specify
>> "Indology"'s position on plagiarism in the Guidelines, for instance that
>> the
>> hypothetic case of plagiarizing (at least if it is massive?) leads to
>> cancellation
>> of full membership (should have been self-evident but perhaps it is not),
>> and that
>> emphatic encouragement and condoning of plagiarism leads to first a
>> warning next to
>> suspension of full membership? Pro-plagiarists and those in favour of
>> plagiarism
>> leniency may feel irritated through such explicit stance but 95% others
>> would either
>> welcome it or consider it self-evident.
>>
>> This move could liberate bandwidth of the List for more useful and
>> interesting topics and
>> issues.
>>
>> Jan Houben
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *Jan E.M. HOUBEN*
>>
>> Directeur d’Études
>>
>> Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite
>>
>> *École Pratique des Hautes Études*
>>
>> *Sciences historiques et philologiques *
>>
>> 54, rue Saint-Jacques
>>
>> CS 20525 – 75005 Paris
>>
>> johannes.houben at ephe.sorbonne.fr
>>
>> https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben
>>
>> www.ephe.fr
>>
>>
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>
>


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