10-14-2006, 08:04 AM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/article...788,curpg-1.cms
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->End of orientalism
It is curtains for Sanskrit and Hindi at Cambridge University, 150 years after the languages were introduced as courses for graduate studies. University authorities have taken the decision because there are few takers to study the two languages even as interest in India has grown manifold.
Sanskrit and Hindi represent an India that is on the wane whereas the India currently in vogue is one of trade and commerce. The wheel has come full circle. The imperial project took to learning Sanskrit as a means to understand and access a country and civilisation.
In course of time, the project moved beyond its utilitarian intentions to acquire the attributes of enlightened learning and scholarship. Universities in those times, in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, encouraged such inquiries for knowledge.
The character of the university has now changed. John Smith, who taught Sanskrit at Cambridge for over two decades, accuses universities of increasingly becoming businesses that employ MBA-speak. It is true that the bottomline has become as important as academic excellence for universities in the West.
Knowledge has to be justified in its utility. The New India the world seeks to engage with is not the old Orient. It isn't Panini or Kalidasa, but Ambanis and Azim Premji who currently interest the West. This change is nothing to moan about, even if it could have a bearing on Oriental studies.
We should see an opportunity in the decline of Oriental studies in the West. There is no reason why Indian universities can't emerge as centres of excellence in Indic studies including the learning of Sanskrit. The best scholars and researchers should be encouraged to make India their base.
Let the scholar tourist become the resident scholar. It is better to learn Sanskrit or access manuscripts in Varanasi and Thanjavur than in Heidelberg or Oxford. This is possible if our universities evolve to engage with traditional forms and modes of learning.
The present incompatibility that exists between a university department and a traditional gurukul has to be addressed. This is possible if universities cease to be government departments and become true centres of learning.
It is impossible for a great musician or a scholar to be part of a university if she does not possess the stipulated degrees. Such red tape kills learning. The idea is not to museumise or exoticise traditional disciplines but to transform them into living scholarship.
Our heritage is too precious to be left in the hands of the state or of groups that selectively highlight parts of that past. Universities are best equipped to be links between the past and the present. They would be served well if the private sector pitches in with funds
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->End of orientalism
It is curtains for Sanskrit and Hindi at Cambridge University, 150 years after the languages were introduced as courses for graduate studies. University authorities have taken the decision because there are few takers to study the two languages even as interest in India has grown manifold.
Sanskrit and Hindi represent an India that is on the wane whereas the India currently in vogue is one of trade and commerce. The wheel has come full circle. The imperial project took to learning Sanskrit as a means to understand and access a country and civilisation.
In course of time, the project moved beyond its utilitarian intentions to acquire the attributes of enlightened learning and scholarship. Universities in those times, in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, encouraged such inquiries for knowledge.
The character of the university has now changed. John Smith, who taught Sanskrit at Cambridge for over two decades, accuses universities of increasingly becoming businesses that employ MBA-speak. It is true that the bottomline has become as important as academic excellence for universities in the West.
Knowledge has to be justified in its utility. The New India the world seeks to engage with is not the old Orient. It isn't Panini or Kalidasa, but Ambanis and Azim Premji who currently interest the West. This change is nothing to moan about, even if it could have a bearing on Oriental studies.
We should see an opportunity in the decline of Oriental studies in the West. There is no reason why Indian universities can't emerge as centres of excellence in Indic studies including the learning of Sanskrit. The best scholars and researchers should be encouraged to make India their base.
Let the scholar tourist become the resident scholar. It is better to learn Sanskrit or access manuscripts in Varanasi and Thanjavur than in Heidelberg or Oxford. This is possible if our universities evolve to engage with traditional forms and modes of learning.
The present incompatibility that exists between a university department and a traditional gurukul has to be addressed. This is possible if universities cease to be government departments and become true centres of learning.
It is impossible for a great musician or a scholar to be part of a university if she does not possess the stipulated degrees. Such red tape kills learning. The idea is not to museumise or exoticise traditional disciplines but to transform them into living scholarship.
Our heritage is too precious to be left in the hands of the state or of groups that selectively highlight parts of that past. Universities are best equipped to be links between the past and the present. They would be served well if the private sector pitches in with funds
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->