[INDOLOGY] Concerning the International Association of Sanskrit Studies

[Andrew Ollett]

Dear list members,

Since the letter that many of you signed was presented and publicized on
this list, I thought I would be remiss not to give its members an update on
further developments. The IASS leadership has responded point-by-point, and
their response has been passed onto the signatories. It has clarified some
existing IASS policies, reaffirmed its commitment to scholarship and
neutrality, and noted some changes in the organization. There have
evidently been changes in the leadership (now reflected in their website
<http://www.sanskritassociation.org/>), and the IASS is forming a committee
to address the question of elections for office bearers, which was one of
the main points of the letter. I can only speak for myself here, but I was
reassured by the response, and I took it as an invitation to scholars of
Sanskrit to get involved and shape the future of the organization.

Andrew

On Thu, Oct 25, 2018 at 10:21 AM Andrew Ollett <andrew.ollett at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear list-members and colleagues,
>
> This is just a note that the letter which so many of you have signed has
> now been finalized and delivered to the board of the IASS, its regional
> directors, and its consultative committee. The complete text and list of
> signatories is pasted below. A pdf version is also available here
> <https://www.dropbox.com/s/p4p0fnycbfrqgse/IASSLetter.pdf?dl=0>. I
> sincerely hope that I have not omitted or misspelled anyone's name. We all
> await their response.
>
> Andrew
>
> ========================
>
> Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018
>
>
> To the International Association of Sanskrit Studies:
>
> The extremely well-organized World Sanskrit Conference that recently took
> place at the University of British Columbia has given scholars of Sanskrit
> all over the world an opportunity to reflect on the state of our field—an
> opportunity that was, unfortunately, missed after the controversial events
> of the preceding World Sanskrit Conference in Bangkok. According to its
> Statute <http://www.sanskritassociation.org/about-us.php>, the purpose of
> the International Association of Sanskrit Studies (IASS) is to “to promote,
> diversify, intensify and coordinate Sanskrit Studies in all the countries
> of the world; to maintain contacts with the organising committee of the
> International Congresses of Asian and North African Studies; to organise
> international conferences of Sanskrit studies; to promote scholarly
> publication of Sanskrit-based studies; to establish and foster relations
> with national associations of Sanskrit studies.”
>
> We, the undersigned, believe that the IASS could do much more to “promote,
> diversify, intensify and coordinate Sanskrit Studies in all the countries
> of the world.” Taking this mission statement seriously would involve
> expanding the range of activities of the IASS. More importantly, it would
> require the IASS to strenuously avoid any actions or remarks, on the part
> of its members and leadership, which can do serious harm to the goal of
> fostering Sanskrit Studies globally, and to distance itself, as a
> professional organization, from such actions or remarks as already have
> been made. The Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, a former
> institutional member of the IASS, has withdrawn
> <https://www.dmg-web.de/indologie/iass.html> its membership on precisely
> these grounds (see ZDMG 168.1 [2018], p. 253), and it is possible that
> other individual and institutional members will follow suit unless the IASS
> develops appropriate responses to the challenges currently facing its
> future.
>
> Specifically, we would like to see the IASS do the following:
>
>    -
>
>    Make all offices of the Board subject to regular election. Currently
>    the offices of General Secretary, Treasurer, and President are not subject
>    to a regular election. It is crucial that the members of the association
>    are able to elect the leadership of the association on a regular basis.
>    -
>
>    Call an election of the Board before the end of 2018. The members of
>    the IASS must have the opportunity to decide who will represent them as
>    office holders, and above all, as President of the Association.
>    -
>
>    Make it absolutely clear that the IASS is a scholarly organization,
>    and that membership in the organization, and participation in the World
>    Sanskrit Conference, requires a scholarly engagement with Sanskrit.
>    -
>
>    Sever any ties, official or unofficial, between the IASS and any
>    national governments.
>    -
>
>    Create connections between Sanskrit studies and other disciplines. The
>    study of Sanskrit has always had the potential for close connections to the
>    disciplines of history, philosophy, linguistics, philology, sociology,
>    anthropology, literary studies, religious studies, gender studies, and many
>    more. The IASS should forge connections between its members and the
>    professional organizations that represent those disciplines.
>    -
>
>    Form committees devoted to professional issues, publication, research,
>    diversity, and programming, which will produce reports on a regular basis
>    .
>    -
>
>    Originate guidelines for the conduct of future WSC meetings and other
>    IASS-sponsored activities that emphasise professionalism, neutrality, and
>    independence.
>
> It may be the case that these changes cannot be implemented without
> rewriting the Statute of the IASS. In that case, we request that the IASS
> will involve a diverse selection of scholars, drawn from outside the
> current Board and Consultative Committee, to assist in making the required
> changes, and that this process be as transparent as possible. We also
> sincerely request the IASS Board to respond to these suggestions in a
> timely manner and apprise the undersigned scholars what steps it will take
> and when. We consider these issues to be of utmost importance. We are
> concerned that if the IASS does not take appropriate steps as a matter of
> urgency, even more scholars will abandon the Association and its
> conferences, to the detriment of international Sanskrit studies.
>
> Signed [in alphabetical order],
>
>
> Andrea Acri
>
> Michael Allen
>
> Talia Ariav
>
> Christèle Barois
>
> Stefan Baums
>
> Ana Bajzelj
>
> Gil Ben-Herut
>
> Jason Birch
>
> Peter Bisschop
>
> Adam Bowles
>
> Jo Brill
>
> Yigal Bronner
>
> Whitney Cox
>
> Daniele Cuneo
>
> Victor D’Avella
>
> Paul Dundas
>
> Vincent Eltschinger
>
> Christoph Emmrich
>
> Iris Iran Farkhondeh
>
> Marco Ferrante
>
> Marco Franceschini
>
> Emmanuel Francis
>
> Elisa Freschi
>
> Jonardon Ganeri
>
> Rupert Gethin
>
> Robert P. Goldman
>
> Arlo Griffiths
>
> Jürgen Hanneder
>
> James Hartzell
>
> Zoë Woodbury High
>
> Alfred Hiltebeitel
>
> Jan Houben
>
> Jamal A. Jones
>
> Mrinal Kaul
>
> Agathe Keller
>
> Birgit Kellner
>
> Dermot Killingley
>
> Rafal Kleczek
>
> Jesse Knutson
>
> Frank Köhler
>
> Steven E. Lindquist
>
> Jeffery D. Long
>
> Timothy Lubin
>
> Philipp Maas
>
> Nabanjan Maitra
>
> Jim Mallinson
>
> Mark McClish
>
> Lawrence J. McCrea
>
> Christopher Minkowski
>
> Jason Neelis
>
> John Nemec
>
> Andrew J. Nicholson
>
> Monika Nowakowska
>
> Heike Oberlin
>
> Patrick Olivelle
>
> Andrew Ollett
>
> Lubomír Ondračka
>
> Karin Preisendanz
>
> Asko Parpola
>
> Parimal Patil
>
> Pranav Prakash
>
> Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad
>
> Srilata Raman
>
> Ajay Rao
>
> Srilata Raman
>
> Isabelle Ratie
>
> Madhusudan Rimal
>
> Antonia Ruppel
>
> Alexis Sanderson
>
> Bihani Sarkar
>
> Patricia Sauthoff
>
> Martha Ann Selby
>
> Sven Sellmer
>
> David Shulman
>
> Shalini Sinha
>
> Michael Slouber
>
> Caley Charles Smith
>
> Frederick M. Smith
>
> Barbora Sojkova
>
> Hamsa Stainton
>
> Sally Sutherland Goldman
>
> McComas Taylor
>
> Raffaele Torella
>
> Davey K. Tomlinson
>
> Audrey Truschke
>
> Gary Tubb
>
> Roy Tzohar
>
> Alexander Uskokov
>
> Christian Wedemeyer
>
> Lidia Wojtczak
>
> Dominik Wujastyk
>
> Ananya Vajpeyi
>
> Christophe Vielle
>
> Robert Zydenbos
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 21, 2018 at 8:36 AM Andrew Ollett <andrew.ollett at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> Just a note that we will be accepting signatures until Wednesday, Oct.
>> 24. Please also feel free to share the letter with colleagues.
>>
>> sānunayam,
>>
>> Andrew
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 14, 2018 at 4:57 AM Andrew Ollett <andrew.ollett at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Colleagues,
>>>
>>> A number of Sanskrit scholars plan to present the following letter to
>>> the International Association of Sanskrit Studies. We think it's important
>>> that everyone in the field of Sanskrit studies who is concerned about its
>>> future should have the opportunity to read it and add his or her voice. If
>>> you would like to add your name, send a message to iassletter at gmail.com (not
>>> to me, please). After a week or two, the list will be finalized and
>>> presented to the IASS.
>>>
>>> Andrew
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Current as of: October 11, 2018
>>>
>>> (to sign, send a message to *iassletter at gmail.com
>>> <iassletter at gmail.com>*)
>>>
>>>
>>> To the International Association of Sanskrit Studies:
>>>
>>>
>>> The extremely well-organized World Sanskrit Conference that recently
>>> took place at the University of British Columbia has given scholars of
>>> Sanskrit all over the world an opportunity to reflect on the state of our
>>> field—an opportunity that was, unfortunately, missed after the
>>> controversial events of the preceding World Sanskrit Conference in Bangkok.
>>> According to its Statute
>>> <http://www.sanskritassociation.org/about-us.php>, the purpose of the
>>> International Association of Sanskrit Studies (IASS) is to “to promote,
>>> diversify, intensify and coordinate Sanskrit Studies in all the countries
>>> of the world; to maintain contacts with the organising committee of the
>>> International Congresses of Asian and North African Studies; to organise
>>> international conferences of Sanskrit studies; to promote scholarly
>>> publication of Sanskrit-based studies; to establish and foster relations
>>> with national associations of Sanskrit studies.”
>>>
>>> We, the undersigned, believe that the IASS could do much more to
>>> “promote, diversify, intensify and coordinate Sanskrit Studies in all the
>>> countries of the world.” Taking this mission statement seriously would
>>> involve expanding the range of activities of the IASS. More importantly, it
>>> would require the IASS to strenuously avoid any actions or remarks, on the
>>> part of its members and leadership, which can do serious harm to the goal
>>> of fostering Sanskrit Studies globally, and to distance itself, as a
>>> professional organization, from such actions or remarks as already have
>>> been made. The Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, a former
>>> institutional member of the IASS, has withdrawn
>>> <https://www.dmg-web.de/indologie/iass.html> its membership on
>>> precisely these grounds (see ZDMG 168.1 [2018], p. 253), and it is possible
>>> that other individual and institutional members will follow suit unless the
>>> IASS develops appropriate responses to the challenges currently facing its
>>> future.
>>>
>>> Specifically, we would like to see the IASS do the following:
>>>
>>>    -
>>>
>>>    Make all offices of the Board subject to regular election. Currently
>>>    the offices of General Secretary, Treasurer, and President are not subject
>>>    to a regular election. It is crucial that the members of the association
>>>    are able to elect the leadership of the association on a regular basis.
>>>    -
>>>
>>>    Call an election of the Board before the end of 2018. The members of
>>>    the IASS must have the opportunity to decide who will represent them as
>>>    office holders, and above all, as President of the Association.
>>>    -
>>>
>>>    Make it absolutely clear that the IASS is a scholarly organization,
>>>    and that membership in the organization, and participation in the World
>>>    Sanskrit Conference, requires a scholarly engagement with Sanskrit.
>>>    -
>>>
>>>    Sever any ties, official or unofficial, between the IASS and any
>>>    national governments.
>>>    -
>>>
>>>    Create connections between Sanskrit studies and other disciplines.
>>>    The study of Sanskrit has always had the potential for close connections to
>>>    the disciplines of history, philosophy, linguistics, philology, sociology,
>>>    anthropology, literary studies, religious studies, gender studies, and many
>>>    more. The IASS should forge connections between its members and the
>>>    professional organizations that represent those disciplines.
>>>    -
>>>
>>>    Form committees devoted to professional issues, publication,
>>>    research, diversity, and programming, which will produce reports on a
>>>    regular basis.
>>>    -
>>>
>>>    Originate guidelines for the conduct of future WSC meetings and
>>>    other IASS-sponsored activities that emphasise professionalism, neutrality,
>>>    and independence.
>>>
>>> It may be the case that these changes cannot be implemented without
>>> rewriting the Statute of the IASS. In that case, we request that the IASS
>>> will involve a diverse selection of scholars, drawn from outside the
>>> current Board and Consultative Committee, to assist in making the required
>>> changes, and that this process be as transparent as possible. We also
>>> sincerely request the IASS Board to respond to these suggestions in a
>>> timely manner and apprise the undersigned scholars what steps it will take
>>> and when. We consider these issues to be of utmost importance. We are
>>> concerned that if the IASS does not take appropriate steps as a matter of
>>> urgency, even more scholars will abandon the Association and its
>>> conferences, to the detriment of international Sanskrit studies.
>>>
>>> Signed [in alphabetical order],
>>>
>>>
>>> Yigal Bronner
>>>
>>> Jonardon Ganeri
>>>
>>> Mrinal Kaul
>>>
>>> Jim Mallinson
>>>
>>> Andrew Ollett
>>>
>>> Karin Preisendanz
>>>
>>> Ajay Rao
>>>
>>> Isabelle Ratie
>>>
>>> Martha Ann Selby
>>>
>>> David Shulman
>>>
>>> Gary Tubb
>>>
>>> Dominik Wujastyk
>>>
>>


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