Dear colleagues,

In deference to Matthew Kapstein’s wise suggestion in regard to logorrhea, I will keep this brief. I would simply like to thank Patricia Sauthoff, Antonia Ruppel, Jeffrey Long, and others on the list who have both contributed in a constructive manner and who have asked to maintain the civility that characterizes the Indology list. 

In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Sauthoff for taking the time and energy to share her personal experience with the matter under discussion; it demonstrates just how dangerous uninformed and unchecked propaganda can be to our ability to pursue our work.

Lest it get lost in the discussion: Dr. Sauthoff shared Jeff Stein’s succinct but insightful essay on the dynamics of debate at the present moment, both inside and outside of academia. The essay makes clear that what is at stake in forums such as Indology is not free speech— we all have plenty of opportunities and forums in which to express our ideas and opinions— but rather the maintenance of intellectual spaces and norms of discourse that in turn rest upon rigorous and shared notions of epistemological integrity and intellectual honesty. And which, we may add, are spaces in which scholars can share views without being subjected to belittling harassment. It was my concern with the slow erosion of these norms by disingenuous projects that compelled me to speak up in the first place.

Respectfully,

Tyler Williams