[INDOLOGY] Sanskrit can tackle climate change

Tue Sep 11 16:23:11 UTC 2018

Prof. Antonia Ruppel -ji was very clear in saying that texts in Sanskrit
can help human kind to tackle climate change. In that sense, Sanskrit can
tackle climate change.

can not ' was not used by her alongside Sanskrit.

On Tue, Sep 11, 2018, 9:45 PM Camillo Formigatti via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
>
>
> Many thanks, you have provided an answer to my question. Basically,
> Sanskrit cannot tackle climate change, only humankind can. Or have I
> misunderstood something?
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
>
> Camillo
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
> Dr Camillo A. Formigatti
>
> John Clay Sanskrit Librarian
>
>
>
> Bodleian Libraries
>
> The Weston Library
>
> Broad Street, Oxford
>
> OX1 3BG
>
>
>
> Email: camillo.formigatti at bodleian.ox.ac.uk
>
> Tel. (office): 01865 (2)77208
> www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
>
>
>
> *GROW YOUR MIND*
>
> in Oxford University’s
>
> Gardens, Libraries and Museums
>
> www.mindgrowing.org
>
>
>
> *From:* Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* 10 September 2018 19:09
> *To:* Antonia Ruppel <rhododaktylos at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* Camillo Formigatti <camillo.formigatti at bodleian.ox.ac.uk>; Jonathan
> Silk <kauzeya at gmail.com>; Indology <INDOLOGY at list.indology.info>
> *Subject:* Re: [INDOLOGY] Sanskrit can tackle climate change
>
>
>
> Thanks, Prof. Antonia Ruppel.
>
>
>
> We have an expression in Hindi, आप मेरी मुह की बात छीन ली । You snatched
> words words from my mouth. meaning you said what I wanted to say.
>
>
>
> You articulated it better than I would have.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 10, 2018 at 9:59 PM, Antonia Ruppel <rhododaktylos at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Dear Camillo, dear all,
>
>
>
> What I find most striking in these debates is the lack of
> definition/understanding of what people mean when they say 'Sanskrit'. The
> author of the article at the basis of this thread does not seem to have had
> a good idea of what they or the speakers they talk about were thinking of;
> as Nagaraj pointed out further down in this thread, Sanskrit *literature*
> contains numerous passages that might be relevant in the climate change
> debate.
>
>
>
> What is needed to tackle climate change is for people to live moderately
> and treat their environment (human and non-human) with respect, and for
> companies to do that even more so. What also is needed is research that
> leads to understanding of what the factors are that are the most damaging
> to the environment.
>
>
>
> Sanskrit - the language - cannot help us with that. Sanskrit literature,
> and many other literatures and literary cultures all over the world,
> present us with us with centuries and sometimes even millennia of careful
> thoughts on how to live happily without greed and with respect for others.
> There are many texts that furthermore encourage careful inquiry, i.e. the
> kind that is the necessary basis of climatological research. As such,
> knowledge of (some of) the thoughts presented to us by Sanskrit literature
> can indeed help us with climate change, as it can with many other aspects
> of our modern lives.
>
>
>
> So, understood in this very specific way, yes, Sanskrit can help us tackle
> climate change.
>
>
>
> But to phrase it in this stand-alone way is misleading: knowledge of the
> thoughts people have thought in the past, of the ways in which people in
> the past have dealt with very human problems, and of the ways in which
> those problems actually remain very relevant today: this is what helps us
> deal with climate change (among other things).
>
>
>
> So up with Sanskrit scholarship, up with ALL the humanities! We just need
> to make this point more clearly and probably more repeatedly; maybe then
> they'll stop cutting our funding.
>
>
>
> All the best,
>
>       Antonia
>
>
>
> On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 at 17:12, Camillo Formigatti via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
> Dear Nagaraj and colleagues,
>
>
>
> I followed with great interest this discussion, but I still can’t decide
> whether Sanskrit can tackle climate change for real or not.
>
>
>
> What do you all think? Because if this is true, we should all plead for
> the use of Sanskrit to stop one of the greatest challenges for humankind
> and many other living beings.
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
>
> Cammillo
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
> Dr Camillo A. Formigatti
>
> John Clay Sanskrit Librarian
>
>
>
> Bodleian Libraries
>
> The Weston Library
>
> Broad Street, Oxford
>
> OX1 3BG
>
>
>
> Email: camillo.formigatti at bodleian.ox.ac.uk
>
> Tel. (office): 01865 (2)77208
> www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk
>
>
>
> *GROW YOUR MIND*
>
> in Oxford University’s
>
> Gardens, Libraries and Museums
>
> www.mindgrowing.org
>
>
>
> *From:* Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* 10 September 2018 12:04
> *To:* Jonathan Silk <kauzeya at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* George Thompson <gthomgt at gmail.com>; Indology <
> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info>
> *Subject:* Re: [INDOLOGY] Sanskrit can tackle climate change
>
>
>
> >  I don't defend "German Indology" because I am German. I defend it
> because German Indology has been good Indology.
>
>
>
> -- If you defend German Indology because you are German, there is no
> anauchitya in it. You might be saying this to say that your statement
> German Indology is a good Indology is not a subjective or biased statement
> but an objective and unbiased one. that intention is well taken. But at the
> same time, reacting or responding to statements about our respective
> countries/nations as members of those nations has no anouchitya.
>
>
>
> Trying to appear as though we have overcame our love for our own
> individual prestige, prestige of our family, prestige of our educational
> institute of our affiliation, nation of our origin, nation of our current
> belonging etc. is unnecessary.
>
>
>
> Expressions such as का ते कांता?  कस्ते पुत्रः ? suit a संन्यासी, a
> renounced ascetic , not a संसारी  , a family person. Within the reference
> frame of  संसारी ,  expressions such as का ते कांता?  कस्ते पुत्रः ? are
> not only anauchitya but even infidelity and treachery to that system. In
> Telugu there is an idiom meaning "dry Vedanta" used in reference to such
> usages of extreme level ascetic Vedanta used by family people with mundane
> interests.
>
>
>
> -----------------------------
>
>
>
> Coming to the word German Indology, I must confess that my understanding
> of -logy of -logy in the case of Indology is not adavanced enough to
> distinctly identify German Indology from other strands of Indology. Prof.s
> Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee even talk of German Indology of 18th and
> 19th centuries as their focus. That is too much of a minute nuance to my
> level of understanding. Some time ago, some people asked me to respond to
> their posts and responses to their posts. I responded to them saying that
> the issues such as antisemitism in German Indology (of 18th and 19th
> centuries) etc. raised by them are not studied by me so well.
>
>
>
> Later, a few months ago, I got the opportunity to meet the two professors
> in India. That was their talk on Mahabharata. They were doing a
> poorvapaksha of the view that Mahabharata is full of self-contradictions
> etc.
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
>
>
>
> Antisemitism might look to be straw man used by the critiques of early or
> old German Indology to malign it using the Hitler, Nazis, genocide etc.
>
>
>
> But 'Hinduism' and Indian nationalism have been greater victims of this
> straw man based on Hitler, Nazis and genocide because the symbol of
> swastika associated with 'Hinduism' and the word nationalism in Indian
> nationalism are repeatedly invoked to stereotype 'Hinduism', Indian
> nationalism etc. as fascist, Nazi-like, genocidal in tendency etc. The word
> German Indology is not popular beyond the readers of the publications of
> Profs Adluri and Bagchee. But the  repeated invoking of stereotypes of
> 'Hinduism', Indian nationalism etc. as fascist, Nazi-like, genocidal in
> tendency etc  is found almost everywhere including popular political
> discourse. Connection of German Indology with antisemitism may at least
> give an impression of being reasonable. But why Hinduism should be bad
> because Hitler used its sacred symbol or why Indian nationalism should be
> bad because Hitler and Nazis were 'nationalists' or because they used the
> unscientific racist term 'Aryan', is beyond the comprehension of any
> reasonable understanding.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
>
> Those knowledgeable in German Indology of 18th and 19th centuries and its
> connection or lack of it with antisemitism might discuss with Prof.s Adluri
> and Bagchee.
>
>
>
> -------------------------------
>
>
>
> I for one, am not in a reference frame of  का ते कांता?  कस्ते पुत्रः ? or
> what your nation? , what my nation ? not to respond when I see that
> misrepresentation of Sanskrit, India and Indian culture is being done
> particularly by those who are viewed in India as those who chose  Sanskrit,
> India and Indian culture  as their subject matter out of love and respect
> for that subject matter.
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 10, 2018 at 12:52 PM, Jonathan Silk <kauzeya at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I am sorry if I was unclear: mine was not a plea to allow a certain
> viewpoint (please do not assume that because I use that term I think "there
> are always two sides to any issue" or make any other assumptions about my
> position or motivation)--mine was not a plea to allow a certain viewpoint;
> it was a plea NOT to introduce Trump into the Indology list, and to
> introduce Modi only insofar as his policies directly relate to Indology
> (Skt, Tamil, etc).
>
> I may well be astonishingly naive, that obviously is something of which I
> would be the least qualified judge. And astonishment is naturally an
> entirely subjective experience, so you are welcome to it. But please please
> let us keep politics off this list. [Again, simply to make overly clear:
> this does NOT mean that I think discussion of the theories concerning the
> MBh propounded by whomever are not fair game. Certainly they are, but just
> because, for instance, the authors of those theories engage in ad hominem
> attacks does not mean that the proper response is to respond in kind.
> "Racist" anything stands or falls on its own merits. [this is a different,
> although not entirely different, perhaps, issue than whether we should
> acknowledge and take into account the work of persons whose history is
> absolutely clear -- eg the studies of Wust, or I would venture to say,
> although foreign to most of the readers of the Indology list, the research
> of Miyamoto Shoson, who was an incredible Japanese imperialist--one of his
> prefaces celebrates the day the Imperial Japanese army entered India, the
> land of the Buddha's birth. This, to be as polite as possible, turns my
> stomach, but that does not solve the question whether I should, therefore,
> stop reading his book at the preface. [you might, all of you, take solace
> in the fact that this proves that at least one person reads prefaces!]]]
> (sorry, lost count of my embedded brackets!)
>
> Anyway, back to the point (there was one): I am far from the first person
> to notice that it hardly makes any sense at all to speak of "German"
> Indology in the first place, but whatever attacks are made against one
> approach or another, whether the nature of those attacks makes any sense is
> not to be determined by the motivation of the attacker. Let's sift the
> wheat from the chaff, and perhaps, after all, some ideas, even if published
> as scholarship, are not really worthwhile rebutting at all.
>
>
>
> Hoping earnestly that I have clarified my ideas, as poor and unhelpful as
> they may be,
>
>
>
> Jonathan
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 10, 2018 at 12:40 AM, George Thompson <gthomgt at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> re JOYDEEP
>
>
>
> As long as you all allow this hindutva racist to post to this list, mr
> joydeep, who has regularly attacked "German Indology" over the years, then
> I will fight with you.  I don't defend "German Indology" because I am
> German. I defend it because German Indology has been good Indology.
> Joydeep's Indology is a racist Indology.  I think that Jonathan and Nagaraj
> are astonishingly naïve when it comes to Joydeep's ideology.  Have they
> read Joydeep's papers?
>
>
>
> Shame on you both!  Please read some of  Joydeep's papers, and then get
> back in touch with the rest of us.
>
>
>
> best wishes,
>
>
>
> George Thompson
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> J. Silk
> Leiden University
>
> Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
>
> Matthias de Vrieshof 3
> <https://maps.google.com/?q=Matthias+de+Vrieshof+3&entry=gmail&source=g>,
> Room 0.05b
>
> 2311 BZ Leiden
>
> The Netherlands
>
>
>
> copies of my publications may be found at
>
> https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Nagaraj Paturi
>
>
>
> Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.
>
>
>
>
>
> BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra
>
>
>
> BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala
>
>
>
> Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies
>
>
>
> FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,
>
>
>
> (Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Dr Antonia Ruppel
> www.cambridge-sanskrit.org
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Nagaraj Paturi
>
>
>
> Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.
>
>
>
>
>
> BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra
>
>
>
> BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala
>
>
>
> Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies
>
>
>
> FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,
>
>
>
> (Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
> indology-owner at list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing
> committee)
> http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or
> unsubscribe)
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