[INDOLOGY] Malhotra and plagiarism

[Veeranarayana Pandurangi]

Dear all
Today's Hindu has first of its kind opinion, asking for restraint.
m.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/rajiv-malhotra-plagiarism-issue-and-hindutva/article7448583.ece
On Jul 22, 2015 9:13 PM, "Audrey Truschke" <audrey.truschke at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Godwin's Law: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/godwins-law
>
> Audrey Truschke
> Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
> Department of Religious Studies
> Stanford University
> e- <audrey.truschke at gmail.com>mail <audrey.truschke at gmail.com> | website
> <http://www.stanford.edu/~truschke/>
>
> On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 8:08 AM, <koenraad.elst at telenet.be> wrote:
>
>>
>> Dear listfolk,
>>
>>
>> After having provided the link to what Malhotra has to say to Andrew
>> Nicholson's attack on him (linked even earlier), here is the link to what
>> he is doing about  it:
>> http://swarajyamag.com/culture/nicholsons-untruths/  Briefly, in
>> agreement with the publisher, he is throwing Nicholson entirely out of his
>> book, replacing him by Indian authors writing on the same unifying-Hinduism
>> efforts. After all, he had only quoted a Westerner because that is more
>> prestigious and unsuspect, but there is a lot of better knowledge about
>> Hindu tradition among Hindus themselves. In the spirit of decolonization,
>> he is taking this opportunity to highlight Indian scholars in the
>> "decolonized" second version of Indra's Net. The broader context of which
>> the present controversy forms part, is given here:
>> http://www.firstpost.com/living/decolonising-indology-rajiv-malhotra-wont-follow-rules-set-west-2356234.html
>>
>>  Established Western scholars who only talk to one another, might not
>> realize it, but as I notice in non-mainstream media, Malhotra is turning
>> the tables on his attackers, and is coming out of this affair with
>> increased prestige.
>>
>> While some of you have provided links to the attacks on him, it has
>> fallen to me to provide links to his responses. Given your apparent
>> interest in the affair, this must have been a useful service. Amid the holy
>> indignation about plagiarism by a man who has amply referred to Nicholson
>> and quoted him many times, thus annulling the very rationale a plagiarist
>> would have, I find it more anomalous that so many academics consider it
>> perfectly normal to hear (and act on) only one half of the story. As Hegel
>> said, "das Wahre ist das Ganze" (truth is the whole). But no, the fact that
>> I have made his voice audible has served as proof among several scholars
>> that I must be in agreement with him, or even in his pay. The latter
>> allegation, and conspiracy theory, sure to be a hit among fishwives,
>> betrays an interesting mentality: the assumption that defending someone's
>> right to be heard implies agreeing with him. By that principle, even Hitler
>> and Stalin were champions of free speech -- at least the free speech of
>> those who agreed with them. It ought to be obvious to scholars that hearing
>> a position and agreeing with that position are two different things. Well
>> yeah, while the affair loses its steam, it becomes time for me to formulate
>> my own thoughts about it, tomorrow or so.
>>
>> Fortunately, we can conclude on a positive note. We should take heart
>> from the complaint uttered here that, while so many people signed a
>> petition opposing the pulping of Wendy Doniger's book, so few have now
>> signed the petition demanding the pulping of Malhotra's book. At that time,
>> I wrote that there may be many things wrong with Doniger's book (indeed, a
>> great many), but that banning it is not the answer. It seems that today, a
>> healthy majority here thinks that to the few things wrong with Malhotra's
>> book, banning is still not the right answer.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>>
>> Koenraad Elst
>>
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