[INDOLOGY] A Concerned Citizen (of ancient India)

[Gruenendahl, Reinhold]

As a confused senior citizen (no hierarchy intended!) I sometimes turn to John M. Ellis for guidance through an academic world that I find ever more difficult to make sense of. Although Ellis made his observations on German Studies in the U.S., they can be applied to other fields as well:

"Adverse criticism, however unwelcome, is indispensable to the health of any intellectual enterprise; without it, weaknesses endure instead of being exposed and discarded. It is a necessary discipline."
(John M. Ellis: Literature Lost - Social Agendas and the Corruption of the Humanities", New Haven & London : Yale UP 1997, p. 143.)

But then, this may entail unpleasant question, they may even have to be asked repeatedly, scandals may come out from under the carpet, charlatans may be called charlatans, and their careers may be at stake. Do we really want that when it's so much more pleasant to sit in the sun, have a Bavarian beer together and call each other by our first names?

So let the musak play!

Cheers
Reinhold


________________________________________
Von: INDOLOGY [indology-bounces at list.indology.info]" im Auftrag von "Jarrod Whitaker [whitakjl at wfu.edu]
Gesendet: Freitag, 12. Juni 2015 22:31
An: indology at list.indology.info
Betreff: [INDOLOGY] A Concerned Citizen (of ancient India)

Dear Colleagues:
I make here the first (public) appeal for a time-out on issues to do
with Arya-identity, migration/invasion, IVC, and the dovetailed topic of
Indology and its history.  I am not downplaying the importance of these
topics and the role they play (and need to play) in professional
discussions. However, some of the responses are becoming interestingly
acrimonious, ad hominem, and unprofessional.

We are talking about real people, real lives and careers (of those who
lived in the IVC, of those who spoke Indo-Arya languages several
millennia ago, and of dead or alive Indologists or scholars of ancient
India). While this is an appeal to emotion, I am sure we can all agree
that we should exercise some (or complete) restraint when invoking
(inter)personal histories and how these may or may not impact scholarly
conclusions.

In addition, when a scholar makes a simple charitable statement to the
effect that we should read a book in full before drawing any
conclusions, I would hope that posting information about sources that
directly engage in the issues would be enough for listserve members.

Put glibly, no one is going to win an argument in this forum....As we
all know (but sometimes forget) this takes more space than a listserve
and requires time and a process of consensus building via conferences,
papers, books, and a self-reflexive willingness to change one's views in
the face of logical argumentation and critical interpretation of
evidence among a peer community.

With warmest regards
Jarrod

Jarrod Whitaker, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Asian Religions
Graduate Program Director

Wake Forest University
Department for the Study of Religions
P.O. Box 7212
Winston-Salem, NC  27109
whitakjl at wfu.edu
p 336.758.4162



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