[INDOLOGY] World Sanskrit Conference 2018

[Ananya Vajpeyi]

Thanks for your messages Ram and Professor Kapstein. You are right that
whether it is the Indology list, the World Sanskrit Conference, the
International Association of Sanskrit Studies or indeed even other related
bodies like the AAS, the AAR, the AHA or the AAA, these are all
professional and disciplinary bodies, organizations, forums or occasions.
These are meant to showcase and share scholarly research, and address
issues connected with academia, such as research, publication, pedagogy and
so on.

Increasingly these spaces are becoming hijacked for nationalist propaganda,
expressions of patriotism (and its opposite, xenophobia), and assertions of
religious identity and piety. It is for us scholars and academic
professionals to protect our institutions and associations from individuals
and groups seeking to impose nationalist agendas on our disciplines and our
work.

We can either stay in and keep our organizations running according to
professional standards or, like the German group mentioned earlier, opt
out. But allowing political propagandists and ideologues of neo-nationalist
and religious fundamentalist persuasions to infiltrate, vitiate and disrupt
our proceedings is not an option.

The WSC and IASS must respond in a timely and responsible fashion to what
happened to us at the public forum on caste and gender in Sanskrit Studies
on July 10, 2018 at UBC, Vancouver.

Ananya Vajpeyi.



-- 
Sent on the fly, please excuse typos.


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