[INDOLOGY] Concerning the International Association of Sanskrit Studies

Thu Oct 25 14:21:13 UTC 2018

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institutional member of the IASS, has withdrawn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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