Thank you for this helpful article. Kindly note:

1. As Geoffrey noted in the other article, here too Bharadwaj does not appear to make any clearly racist remark.

2. Ironically, it seems he wants to remove race from the historical analysis, unless I misunderstood the following:
“...the professor also says that the Dravidian identity was also conjured up as a counter to the Aryan construct.
That the Aryan-Dravidian conflict is a myth has been validated by recent genetic studies as well.

3. I certainly do not endorse Bharadwaj’s views, but respected scholars like Edwin Bryant (In Quest of the Origins of Vedic Culture) show that the issue is, at the very least, a bit more complex than one might presume from some accounts.

4. That the non-specialist authors of both articles seem to bash Bharadwaj in itself reveals an interesting slice of contemporary cultural history.

Thanks again,
Howard


On Jun 8, 2015, at 5:55 PM, Andrey Klebanov <andra.kleb@gmail.com> wrote:

The main vivādāspadam seems to be not the use of the word “aryan” but the legitimacy of the so-called “AMT”. See here, for example:

best,
Andrey

On 08.06.2015, at 16:49, Howard Resnick <hr@ivs.edu> wrote:

Thank you for this clarification:

Still, neither A1 nor B1 below give explicitly racial definitions. 

B1 may logically refer to a multi-racial group speaking the same language. In America, for example, people of many races speak English. Further, ‘racism’ requires a belief in the superiority or inferiority of a particular race, rather than the association of a certain race with a particular body of literature. 

I understand the ugly history linked to the term ‘Aryan’, but Bharadwaj deserves a fair day in court.

I’m still not sure why Bharadwaj’s remarks, at least as given in the article, are ‘racist.’ Has he espoused explicitly racist views?

Best,
Howard



On Jun 8, 2015, at 5:32 PM, Simon Brodbeck <BrodbeckSP@cardiff.ac.uk> wrote:

Dear Howard,
 
I think that regardless of any etymological link, we need to apply a semantic distinction between the Sanskrit word arya and the English word Aryan. When the former is translated, it tends to come out as “noble” or something like that (e.g. in truths 1 to 4 of that ilk), rather than as “Aryan”. Under the latter, the OED reads as follows (“arya” has no entry):
 
A. adj.
 1.
a.       Applied by some to the great division or family of languages, which includes Sanskrit, Zend, Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic, with their modern representatives; also called Indo-European, Indo-Germanic, and sometimes Japhetic; by others restricted to the Asiatic portion of these. absol., the original Aryan or Arian language.
b.      spec. Of or pertaining to the ancient Aryan people.
2. Under the Nazi régime (1933–45) applied to the inhabitants of Germany of non-Jewish extraction.
 
B. n.
1. A member of the Aryan family; one belonging to, or descended from, the ancient people who spoke the parent Aryan language.
2. spec. under the Nazi régime (cf. sense A. 2).
 
I think Chakrabarti is probably thinking in terms of meanings A1b and B1. But I can’t speak for him.
 
All the best,
Simon Brodbeck
Cardiff University
 
 
 
From: INDOLOGY [mailto:indology-bounces@list.indology.info] On Behalf Of Howard Resnick
Sent: 08 June 2015 15:10
To: Geoffrey Samuel
Cc: Dominik Wujastyk; Indology List
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Article about the politics surrounding indology at the IHRC
 
As we know, Arya is a Vedic term. In the Telegraph article, Bharadwaj states that he wants to research the notion of Aryan migration. Bharadwaj does not state that he takes ‘Aryan’ as a racial, rather than a cultural, term. So please help me here. Where is the racism?
 
Thanks,
Howard
 
 
On Jun 8, 2015, at 5:04 PM, Geoffrey Samuel <SamuelG@cardiff.ac.uk> wrote:
 
If you read Dilip Chakrabarti's comment as quoted in the Telegraph article, what he was actually saying was that the concept of Aryans was 'racist and historically puerile' and that research on it was therefore a waste of resources in comparison with other possible uses - he specifically referred to training more palaeographers and epigraphists, 'who will soon be an extinct class of scholars in the country'.
 
That seems a reasonable and defensible position.
 
Geoffrey

From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces@list.indology.info> on behalf of Howard Resnick <hr@ivs.edu>
Sent: 08 June 2015 09:12
To: Dominik Wujastyk
Cc: Indology List
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Article about the politics surrounding indology at the IHRC
 
"Dilip K. Chakrabarti, emeritus professor of South Asian archaeology with Cambridge University and a member of the council and its research project committee, said the proposal was "racist and historically puerile”.
 
How racist?
 
h.r.
 
 
On Jun 8, 2015, at 11:00 AM, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk@gmail.com> wrote:
 
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