[INDOLOGY] More uninformed discussion of ancient India

[dermot at grevatt.force9.co.uk]

Dear Jonathan,

Thanks for reminding me of the title. I did read the whole book, thinking that his ideas stood 
up despite the pseudo-indology.

With best wishes,

Dermot



On 13 Jul 2015 at 13:28, Jonathan Silk wrote:

The book is "The Idea of Justice" and it is indeed filled with ignorance about India, or at least 
Classical India, let us say. I have to confess I could not even finish the book, so fed up was I. 
It is perhaps a bit like the phenomenon one encounters, e.g., with Richard Dawkins. Were I 
to start talking about biology, I expect he would dismiss me in a few words, and rightly so, 
just as Sen should do were I to spout off about economics. Why is the reverse humility rarely 
in evidence, I wonder. 

Jonathan

On Mon, Jul 13, 2015 at 12:10 PM, <dermot at grevatt.force9.co.uk> wrote:
    Dear Jonathan,

    Yes, Amartya Sen does seem to project modern ideas of what a university is on to what 
    must have been a very different sort of institution, and it spoils the case he is 
    defending.

    It's not the first time that he has claimed a specious continuity with ancient Indian 
    culture. In a book whose title I forget, he makes great play with the terms nyaya and 
    niti, as if they were etymologically related, but without indicating how they are used in 
    Sanskrit literature, or anchoring his use of them in any earlier use. I was impressed by 
    his arguments on economics and ethics, but thought they were let down by his 
    apparent assumption that because he is Indian his ideas ought to have Indian roots, or 
    be made to look as if they have. I was reminded of the remark of another 
    argumentative Bengali, the historian Romesh Chandra Majumdar: "In a democratic 
    age, everyone seems to assume that a knowledge of Indian history is a birthright of 
    every Indian, and requires no patient study or research" (in Historians of India, Pakistan 
    and Ceylon, ed. C. H. Philips, p. 426).

    Dermot Killingley

    On 12 Jul 2015 at 17:00, Jonathan Silk wrote:

    Dear Friends,

    In a somewhat different vein than the ongoing discussion of a certain Hindutva 
    partisan, you might want to take a look at Amartya Sen's piece: 
    http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/aug/13/india-stormy-revival-nalanda-university/

    In my opinion, while his political position seems to be something close to 180 degrees 
    the opposite, he is in some ways remarkably similar in his almost studied ignorance of 
    classical India. His portrayal of Nalanda is nothing short of fantasy, and I confess that I 
    am disappointed and depressed to see such fictions repeated by someone who, until 
    recently, was actually significantly influential in this 'neo' Nalanda project. That it might 
    be advantageous to say certain rosy things in a political context is one thing, but the 
    result is, to my mind, an utter misrepresentation of the historical truth. A final point is 
    that by portraying Nalanda as an international university, using in his description 
    explicitly secular categories, the anti-Hindutva Sen succeeds in virtually entirely 
    subverting the Buddhist nature of Nalanda.

    I am curious if I am alone in my impressions of this piece.

    Jonathan


    --
    J. Silk
    Leiden University
    Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
    Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b
    2311 BZ Leiden
    The Netherlands

    copies of my publications may be found at
    http://www.buddhismandsocialjustice.com/silk_publications.html

    --
    Dermot Killingley
    9, Rectory Drive,
    Gosforth,
    Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 1XT
    Phone (0191) 285 8053


--
J. Silk
Leiden University
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b
2311 BZ Leiden
The Netherlands

copies of my publications may be found at
http://www.buddhismandsocialjustice.com/silk_publications.html

-- 
Dermot Killingley
9, Rectory Drive,
Gosforth,
Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 1XT
Phone (0191) 285 8053