Western Indologists

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Fwd. k

PS: For those not familiar with the name, let me introduce. Francis
Xavier Clooney, S.J. (Society of Jesuits) is a preacher-cum-
professor (who was teaching in Boston College and has since July
2005 moved to Divinity School, Harvard College). He claims to be
dealing with 'Comparative Theology' an undefined discipline. He was
confronted in Chennai with a statement that in the name of 'inter-
faith dialogue' initiated under Vatican's Dominus Jesus, and as US
media rep. of this grand initiative, he was promoting
proselytization. His expertise in s'rivais.n.avam is hollow and
knowledge of Tamil, zero, even though an article appeared in Kumudam
appeared showing a photo of his Tamil handwriting). k<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Friends,
We are celebrating Vedanta Desika at Harvard tomorrow.

Please see below.  If any of you has any historical material
on him you may please post.  Please oin if you are in the
area.

Best regards,
Bijoy Misra

                                    <b>Harvard University
                    Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies
                                     Outreach Lecture</b>

                                           Winter 2006
             "Vedanta Desika - Loving God in Medieval South India"

                           Professor Francis X. Clooney, S.J.
                                   Harvard Divinity School

                         Saturday, February 11, 2006, 3:00 PM
                      Hall A, Harvard University Science Center
                               1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Abstract: Srivashnavism is one of the principal traditions in Indian
religious life. Vedanta Desika (1268-1369) was a prominent
Srivaisnava scholar in the tradition of the Alvar poet saints of
South India and the Vedanta tradition of Ramanuja. An important late
work in his long and prolific career is the Srimad
Rahasyatrayasaram, wherein he expounds the meaning of the three
sacred mantras of the tradition, the nature of taking refuge with
Lord Narayana and Sri Laksmi, the way of life of true devotees, and
the correct manner of teaching and learning as a Srivaisnava. The
lecture will introduce the text and highlight its fundamental
insight into love of God - in the Srivaisnava tradition, and more
broadly for Hindus and in an interreligious context.

                  Contact telephones: 617-864-5121, 617-495-3295
             URL: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sanskrit/outreach.html<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Virtual assaults

NANDAGOPAL R. MENON


[V. GANESAN's photo of Francis X. Clooney.]

IN July 2005, when Jesuit Fr. Francis X. Clooney was preparing to
travel to India, someone forwarded him a mail circulating on the
Internet. It was about "stopping the evangelist Clooney" when he
comes to India the next time, probably his tenth trip to the country
since the early 1970s. <b>The world-renowned expert</b>  <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->  on Purva Mimamsa,
Vedanta, Sri Vaishnavism and comparative theology had just been
appointed Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative
Theology at Harvard University. The source of the mail was not
clear, but the message was.

In Chennai in August 2005, Clooney met with a group of six people
who wanted to "express our concerns about his mission in India". The
August 4 meeting at the Jesuit residence on the Loyola College
campus was held at the American scholar's insistence. He told
Frontline: "We talked for nearly two hours. It was both heated and
cordial. They were smiling and courteous when leaving, whatever the
reason."

On August 10, a message appeared in the online forum of the South
Asia Analysis Group (SAAG). Titled "The futility of inter-faith
dialogue - A meeting with Francis X. Clooney", it was meant to be a
summary of the six-member group's meeting with him. It alleged that
he, the representative of an "alien" faith, was studying
Hinduism "with a view to destroying and destablising our societies,
to rewriting our history through distortion and falsification". The
Harvard Professor is compared to "foreign Christian missionaries
like [Roberto] de Nobili and Christian zealots like Max Müller" who
studied "Hindu religion with destructive intent". De Nobili was a
16th century Italian Jesuit missionary to India and his life and
work - adopting the lifestyle of a Hindu sanyasi, sticking to a
vegetarian diet, learning and writing in Sanskrit and Tamil,
engaging Hindu scholars in philosophical and religious dialogues -
is of considerable interest in contemporary debates in the Catholic
Church about "inculturation" (roughly, indigenising Christianity)
and inter-religious dialogue. The 19th century German scholar Max
Müller, one of the pioneers of Indic studies, is the author of the
multi-volume Sacred Books of the East.

It was alleged that Clooney had claimed that "five important
Vaishnava temples in Tamil Nadu were formerly churches" and demanded
that "they be returned to the Christians". The posting
warned: "Christians cannot lay claim to any territory in this
country. Such demands will ultimately boomerang upon the Christian
community and disturb the peace." Clooney denied the allegation.
Terming the Internet reports as "biased", he said that he was not
aware of any "Catholic effort" to "reclaim" temples in Tamil Nadu,
and personally would have nothing to do with any such plan.

The posting said that after the meeting, the group went with a local
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader to meet some "mathathipathis" and
Vaishnava scholars to apprise them of the "dangers of sharing our
knowledge with foreigners whose motives for learning may not be
wholly benign". It ended with the decision to start "awareness
campaigns" about the "duplicitous nature of activities of Ratzinger
[Pope Benedict XVI]... [and] Clooney which was intended to promote
religious conversion" and, of course, "Catholic Sonia Gandhi".

On November 14, 2005, a paper, "From De Nobili to Clooney: The
Christian Methods of Inculturation", was posted on
www.christianaggression.org. Written by one K.V. Ramakrishna Rao, it
was "presented during the 12th session of Tamilnadu History
Congress, Mayiladuthurai, Tamilnadu". The web site claims to
hold "the Christian faith in high regard and is in no way anti-
Christian. Rather this web site is opposed to the aggression
practised under in [sic] the name of Christianity". The titles of a
few articles found in the site are quite instructive: "Pope blesses
YSR to turn AP into Christa Pradesh", "Churches Mushrooms [sic] in
Tirumala", "Politico-evangelical onslaught on Hindus", "Challenge of
religious conversion and Hindu response", and so on.

The paper defines "inculturation" as "the plan of Christians being
within the folds of culture, tradition and heritage of any people,
posing as faithful devotees and declare the `hidden Christ' at right
moment, so that they [dubbed as heathens, infidels, unbelievers]
become `Christians'". <b>Clooney is identified by the author as one who
has been "carrying out his activities among the Srivaishnavas for
around 30 years".</b>

Jesuits such as "[the late] Ignatitius [sic] Hrudhayam, Francis X.
Clooney, Amaladas and others" have adopted De Nobili as their "role
model" and "the mushrooming Catholic ashrams and increasing ochre
rob-clad Christian priests and preachers amply prove their game-
plan". "Gullible Hindus," the paper adds, have helped "Christians
involved in such `inculturation' activities". But Clooney's book
Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary
(Oxford University Press, 2005), has "awakened" them to Clooney
the "Karna" and a "storm is brewing among the involved faithful
believers". Clooney said about the book: "My book... compares the
goddesses with the Virgin Mary in the Catholic tradition. It does
not say that Mary is the goddess or the goddesses are Mary, but
rather that there are interesting ways in which Mary has a place of
reverence just like one of the goddesses" (Frontline, September 23,
2005).


Jeffrey J. Kripal.

The paper says that the book "reveals his real intention to elevate
Mary and degrade Hindu goddesses". "Vaishnavites [have] condemn[ed]
his prejudiced convictions, professional bias and unethical
professional handling of `Comparative Theology' coupled with
religious superiority, theological arrogance, holy imperialism, all
definitely leading to fundamentalism and terrorism". Clooney is
described as a "mischievous religious fundamentalist and
communalist" and his work a "theological fraud, religious deceit and
(un)faithful sham inflicted on Hindus under the guise of inter-
religious dialogue... ".

The attacks on Clooney and the Indian Jesuits have come at a
juncture when certain sections within the Catholic Church itself
have raised "concerns" about their work. Ironically, these sections
hold the Jesuits guilty of not doing what their Hindutva-inspired
critics accuse them of doing. For instance, George Weigel, the
author of a famous hagiography, Witness to Hope: The Biography of
Pope John Paul II, and a conservative Catholic commentator,
observes: "Of far more concern... is the condition of the Society in
India, now one of the largest communities of Jesuits in the world -
many of whom, according to knowledgeable observers, are unpersuaded
of, or are unprepared to defend, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as
saviour of the world, and who are thus committed to downplaying the
Church's missionary mandate" (God's Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and
the Future of the Catholic Church; Harper Collins, 2005; page 69;
emphasis added). In the footnote to the quoted passage, Weigel
observes that according to 2004 figures, "4,003 ( 20.2 per cent) of
the world's 19,850 Jesuits live in... India" and laments
the "impending influence of the Indian Jesuits" (ibid., 276).

THE attack on Clooney is only the latest in a series of attacks
directed at Western scholars studying Indian religions. Broadly
coinciding with the rise of the Hindu Right in Indian politics, the
majority of the attacks have their provenance on the Internet. Since
the late 1990s, the targets have included some of the most respected
names in religious studies in the U.S. academy - Wendy Doniger, who
holds multiple appointments in the University of Chicago; Paul B.
Courtright, Professor, Department of Religion, Emory University;
Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Religious Studies,
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, Rice University; Sarah
Caldwell, formerly Assistant Professor of Religious Studies,
California State University, Chico, and Visiting Professor at
Harvard Divinity School; and David Gordon White, who teaches at the
Religious Studies Department of the University of California, Santa
Barbara.

Their work was held responsible for "the negative stereotyping of
Indic traditions" abroad. The after-effects of such assaults were
felt by the scholars in the form of death threats and web petitions
demanding a ban on their books. Although most of them tried to
engage their attackers in debates about their work, it only led to
more outrageous ad hominem attacks. For Sarah Caldwell the
experience was so traumatic that she left the academy.

Wendy Doniger told Frontline: "The unfairness of the attacks has
inspired me to write a book about the history of Hinduism, which I
would never otherwise have done, stating clearly things that I had
assumed were too obviously true to merit being stated in print, but
which have been grotesquely distorted by the Hindutva faction and by
the non-academic attacks on American academics who study Hinduism."

Kripal, probably the most meticulous and systematic in responding to
his "critics", said: "[T]he whole experience has taught me how
precious, rare and beautiful intellectual freedom is, particularly
with respect to the intellectual study of religion. Personally
speaking, I can think of no more important task ahead of us now...
than a robust critique of religion in our lives and cultures."

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20...009600.htm

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