Al Collins is right to see Rajeev Malhotra as a post-colonial agent and perhaps also as a public intellectual.  Post-colonialism is essentially a diaspora phenomenon, prosecuted mainly by Bengali intellectuals living outside of India. Whilst Malhotra may not be of Bengali extract he certainly fits the bill of living outside of India, a factor that supports the kind of romanticist view of Sanskrit as a civilizational paradigm so often found in his argument and dharma as a civilizational ethic. Bear in mind that there is possibly a sense of guilt in some diaspora Indians who have done well financially in a country that many of them see as dominated by an ethos of avaricious materialism. From this perspective the Indian renunciatory tradition (s) are very attractive to them and will provide a foundation for the kind of hybrid view of Hinduism given by Malhotra, and by the ideologists of the BJP in particular.

In a practical sense how will it affect us outside of India who continue to engage in our philological work, also having an ideological base, but one whose underlying assumptions are usually clearly defined? Only if elements in the BJP government prevent us from going to India or from accessing manuscript materials in Indi or undertaking archaeological work, will it affect us directly.

I attended Malhotra’s speech at the recent conference in Bangkok. He spoke in the opening plenary session and, as far as I am aware, did not attend any of the more technical panels. His speech was pure ideology–Sanskrit as a sacred language, the language of liberation, and so on–accompanied by a savage attack on those who seek to find (Foucauldian) power structures reflected in Sanskrit knowledge. It had nothing to do with Sanskrit scholarship and I remain in doubt as to why he was provided with a podium to speak.

Having said that many diaspora Indians and ‘intellectual’ supporters of the Sangh Parvivar will hang on to his every word.  At some stage one or more Sanskritists are going to have to demonstrate conclusively that post-colonial theory is an ‘emperor with no clothes,’ even though the post-colonial experience is certainly one worthy of study.

Greg Bailey