Dear Friends and Colleagues,

This article, by Professor Vajpeyi, is a must-read. For many on this list, it will not be news that Indology has entrenched problems with sexism and elitism; many in our discipline are also soft on Hindutva. For others, some or all of these things may be surprising.

I encourage everyone to read with an open mind, rather than with a posture of umbrage and denial that has become all-too-common these days. As Professor Vajpeyi describes, the reception of the public forum at the 17th World Sanskrit Conference in Vancouver was an appalling display of unprofessionalism, misogyny, and class privilege, a "regressive face of Indology." My friends - We need to ask ourselves some tough questions about what sorts of prejudices and behaviours we are tolerating and harboring in our corner of the scholarly world. We tend to be quite good at exercising a critical gaze when it comes to mimamsa, kavya, and so forth. I hope we can do the same with ourselves.

All the Best,

Audrey

Audrey Truschke

Assistant Professor

Department of History
Rutgers University-Newark

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