Hindu studies
Encyclopedia
Hindu studies is the study of the traditions and practices of the Indian subcontinent
, especially Hinduism
. Beginning with British philology
in the colonial period, Hindu studies has been practiced largely by Westerners, due in part to the lack of a distinct department for religion in Indian academia. Since the 1990s this has caused some dissent from Hindus, raising questions in academia about the role of Hindu studies in creating postcolonial images of India.
The early study of Hinduism chiefly constituted translations of and commentaries on Sanskrit
texts, rather than observation of present-day Hindu life. This historical emphasis on philology has had a strong influence on present day Hindu studies, which often emphasizes medieval and classical period Hinduism.
became involved with Hindu studies, the nature of Hinduism as a single category was already in question, having been discussed in Wilfred Cantwell Smith
's The Meaning and End of Religion (1962). In a general-audience response, she claimed in the Wilson Quarterly
(1991) that Hinduism could be imagined as a "Venn diagram
" which together constituted a whole, or akin to light being both a wave and a particle
.
, Jeffrey Kripal's psychoanalytic biography of Ramakrishna
. In 1995, the book won the American Academy of Religion
award. The book became controversial and Kripal himself became deeply involved in discussing the book with Hindu critics and western scholars. Another controversial psychoanalytical is by Paul B. Courtright's Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings. Courtright responded that he did not see anything coming out of the Hindu criticism that was worth responding to; Wendy Doniger, for her part, quickly stopped responding to Hindu complaints, and after being egged at a lecture in Britain canceled a talk in Bengal.At the same Britain conference, Wendy Doniger was questioned about her qualifications to speak on Hinduism. According to witnesses, she avoided giving an answer when asked whether she had herself been psychoanalyzed.
In 2002, Rajiv Malhotra
founder of Infinity foundation rekindled the debate with a blog
post called "RISA Lila - 1: Wendy's Child Syndrome". In the article, Malhotra questioned the application of Freudian psychoanalytical approach in the study of Hinduism and argued that this has been discredited among Western Psychologists and the scholars were not trained psychoanalysts and the approach was not applicable to non-Western subjects. Published on Sulekha.com, the article was widely read.
In 2007 Invading the Sacred
, a book written by a multitude of professors including Antonio De Nicholas of Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York
, psychoanalyst Alan Roland
, S.N. Balagangadhara, Pandita Indrani Rampersad and others which aimed to counter-analyze and refute the dominant narrative of Hindu studies. Anantanand Rambachan
wrote that "there can be little doubt about the importance and legitimacy of many of the concerns raised by the authors of Invading the Sacred about the academic study of Hinduism in the United States."
by and large claim that the outsider, etic, perspective has historically shielded scholars from feeling affected by their judgments. However, Shrinivas Tilak writes that insider, emic, scholars must take care to avoid bias as well.
Russell T. McCutcheon
, the author of Critics Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion, has used the controversy as a means to present his own perspective on the insider/outsider problem. In his article "It's a Lie. There's No Truth in It! It's a Sin!", McCutcheon focuses on the attitude of the scholars, who he thinks are going too far in trying to unify the concerns of the Hindus with their own interests. McCutcheon himself believes that rejecting the worldviews of the insiders is essential if religious scholars aim to be something other than "dedicated disciples to one set of voices." He believes that Hindu scholars should make it clear that they are presenting a view that is critical of Hinduism, because presenting a non-critical view means "the end of the human sciences as we know them."McCutcheon 2006, 736
Addressing specific Hindu scholars, McCutcheon sides with Courtright et al by holding the view that "as scholars we have an intellectual and institution imperative to, at times, study people precisely in ways unwelcome by them." However, the authors of Invading the Sacred
assert that they critique etic Western evaluations of Hinduism "not because it is offensive or politically incorrect, but because it is baseless and untruthful."
McCutcheon places himself in opposition to Wilfred Cantwell Smith
, one of the leading figures of 20th century religious studies, who wrote that religious traditions must always be taught in a way acceptable to insiders.WC Smith. "Comparative religion: whither--and why?" In Eliade and Kitagawa, The History of Religions. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1959. S.N. Balagangadhara also points out that "some of these 'dialogues' exacerbate violence; they do not reduce it".
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
, especially Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
. Beginning with British philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
in the colonial period, Hindu studies has been practiced largely by Westerners, due in part to the lack of a distinct department for religion in Indian academia. Since the 1990s this has caused some dissent from Hindus, raising questions in academia about the role of Hindu studies in creating postcolonial images of India.
Philological era
Between the period 1789 and 1832, British perceptions of Indian culture were completely reversed. Before that time, the British viewed Indians as disorganized and lacking a coherent philosophy. After the mid-19th century, however, the term "Hinduism" became acceptable in English use to refer to an overarching religious structure that spanned India. This was not a one-sided fabrication, since self-identified Hindus met the British challenge with a reappropriation of "Hinduism" and defense of their own culture.The early study of Hinduism chiefly constituted translations of and commentaries on Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
texts, rather than observation of present-day Hindu life. This historical emphasis on philology has had a strong influence on present day Hindu studies, which often emphasizes medieval and classical period Hinduism.
Later researchers
By the time Wendy DonigerWendy Doniger
Wendy Doniger is an American Indologist and Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School, the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Committee on Social Thought...
became involved with Hindu studies, the nature of Hinduism as a single category was already in question, having been discussed in Wilfred Cantwell Smith
Wilfred Cantwell Smith
Wilfred Cantwell Smith was a Canadian professor of comparative religion who from 1964-1973 was director of Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. The Harvard Gazette characterized him as one of the field's most influential figures of the past century...
's The Meaning and End of Religion (1962). In a general-audience response, she claimed in the Wilson Quarterly
Wilson Quarterly
The Wilson Quarterly is a magazine published by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. The magazine was founded in 1976 by Peter Braestrup and James H. Billington. The Quarterly is noted for its nonpartisan, nonideological approach to current issues, with articles...
(1991) that Hinduism could be imagined as a "Venn diagram
Venn diagram
Venn diagrams or set diagrams are diagrams that show all possible logical relations between a finite collection of sets . Venn diagrams were conceived around 1880 by John Venn...
" which together constituted a whole, or akin to light being both a wave and a particle
Wave–particle duality
Wave–particle duality postulates that all particles exhibit both wave and particle properties. A central concept of quantum mechanics, this duality addresses the inability of classical concepts like "particle" and "wave" to fully describe the behavior of quantum-scale objects...
.
Doctoral programs in Hinduism studies
Since the mid nineteen nineties, some universities have started to offer doctoral programs in Hindu Theology. One of the universities is Hindu University of America. Much more needs to be done within India for encouraging formal Hindu theological studies by serious scholars.Criticism
Beginning in the 1990s, North American Hindu groups began protesting the academic portrayal of their culture. This began in 1995 with the publication of Kali's ChildKali's Child
Kali's Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna is a book on the Indian mystic Ramakrishna by Hindu studies scholar Jeffrey J. Kripal, published in 1995 by the University of Chicago press...
, Jeffrey Kripal's psychoanalytic biography of Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna , born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay , was a famous mystic of 19th-century India. His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda – both were influential figures in the Bengali Renaissance as well as the Hindu...
. In 1995, the book won the American Academy of Religion
American Academy of Religion
The American Academy of Religion is the world's largest association of scholars in the field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association,...
award. The book became controversial and Kripal himself became deeply involved in discussing the book with Hindu critics and western scholars. Another controversial psychoanalytical is by Paul B. Courtright's Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings. Courtright responded that he did not see anything coming out of the Hindu criticism that was worth responding to; Wendy Doniger, for her part, quickly stopped responding to Hindu complaints, and after being egged at a lecture in Britain canceled a talk in Bengal.At the same Britain conference, Wendy Doniger was questioned about her qualifications to speak on Hinduism. According to witnesses, she avoided giving an answer when asked whether she had herself been psychoanalyzed.
In 2002, Rajiv Malhotra
Rajiv Malhotra
Rajiv Malhotra is an author and the founder of Infinity Foundation. He is also a former telecommunication entrepreneur. After a career in the software, computer, and telecom industries Malhotra took an early retirement to pursue philanthropic and educational activities...
founder of Infinity foundation rekindled the debate with a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
post called "RISA Lila - 1: Wendy's Child Syndrome". In the article, Malhotra questioned the application of Freudian psychoanalytical approach in the study of Hinduism and argued that this has been discredited among Western Psychologists and the scholars were not trained psychoanalysts and the approach was not applicable to non-Western subjects. Published on Sulekha.com, the article was widely read.
In 2007 Invading the Sacred
Invading the Sacred
Invading The Sacred: An Analysis Of Hinduism Studies In America is a critical work published in 2007 by Rupa & Co. which discusses the perceived biased portrayal of Hinduism in the Western academy based religious studies and Hindu studies. The editors of the book are Antonio de Nicolas, Krishnan...
, a book written by a multitude of professors including Antonio De Nicholas of Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York
State University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
, psychoanalyst Alan Roland
Alan Roland
Alan Roland is a psychoanalyst who has written several books and articles on the interface between traditional psychoanalysis and Asian cultures/persons of Asian descent....
, S.N. Balagangadhara, Pandita Indrani Rampersad and others which aimed to counter-analyze and refute the dominant narrative of Hindu studies. Anantanand Rambachan
Anantanand Rambachan
Anantanand Rambachan is a Trinidadian Hindu-American scholar with a specific focus on interreligous dialogue. He is the Chair and Professor of Religion, Philosophy and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College, Minnesota, USA. He has been teaching at St. Olaf since 1985. Rambachan is a Hindu and is the...
wrote that "there can be little doubt about the importance and legitimacy of many of the concerns raised by the authors of Invading the Sacred about the academic study of Hinduism in the United States."
Insider/outsider problem
The Hindu criticism of Western Hindu studies relies on the terms etic and emic to explain what is missing from Western interpretations. The authors of Invading the SacredInvading the Sacred
Invading The Sacred: An Analysis Of Hinduism Studies In America is a critical work published in 2007 by Rupa & Co. which discusses the perceived biased portrayal of Hinduism in the Western academy based religious studies and Hindu studies. The editors of the book are Antonio de Nicolas, Krishnan...
by and large claim that the outsider, etic, perspective has historically shielded scholars from feeling affected by their judgments. However, Shrinivas Tilak writes that insider, emic, scholars must take care to avoid bias as well.
Russell T. McCutcheon
Russell T. McCutcheon
Russell T. McCutcheon is a Canadian scholar with a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Toronto in 1995. He is a professor and was department chair from 2001-2009 at the University of Alabama. He was one of the editors of the quarterly periodical Method & Theory in the Study of...
, the author of Critics Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion, has used the controversy as a means to present his own perspective on the insider/outsider problem. In his article "It's a Lie. There's No Truth in It! It's a Sin!", McCutcheon focuses on the attitude of the scholars, who he thinks are going too far in trying to unify the concerns of the Hindus with their own interests. McCutcheon himself believes that rejecting the worldviews of the insiders is essential if religious scholars aim to be something other than "dedicated disciples to one set of voices." He believes that Hindu scholars should make it clear that they are presenting a view that is critical of Hinduism, because presenting a non-critical view means "the end of the human sciences as we know them."McCutcheon 2006, 736
Addressing specific Hindu scholars, McCutcheon sides with Courtright et al by holding the view that "as scholars we have an intellectual and institution imperative to, at times, study people precisely in ways unwelcome by them." However, the authors of Invading the Sacred
Invading the Sacred
Invading The Sacred: An Analysis Of Hinduism Studies In America is a critical work published in 2007 by Rupa & Co. which discusses the perceived biased portrayal of Hinduism in the Western academy based religious studies and Hindu studies. The editors of the book are Antonio de Nicolas, Krishnan...
assert that they critique etic Western evaluations of Hinduism "not because it is offensive or politically incorrect, but because it is baseless and untruthful."
McCutcheon places himself in opposition to Wilfred Cantwell Smith
Wilfred Cantwell Smith
Wilfred Cantwell Smith was a Canadian professor of comparative religion who from 1964-1973 was director of Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. The Harvard Gazette characterized him as one of the field's most influential figures of the past century...
, one of the leading figures of 20th century religious studies, who wrote that religious traditions must always be taught in a way acceptable to insiders.WC Smith. "Comparative religion: whither--and why?" In Eliade and Kitagawa, The History of Religions. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1959. S.N. Balagangadhara also points out that "some of these 'dialogues' exacerbate violence; they do not reduce it".
Defining Hinduism
Malhotra's conclusion, however, was that Wendy Doniger was using her authority as a scholar to overrule the culture's self-identity: "Rights of individual scholars must be balanced against rights of cultures and communities they portray, especially minorities that often face intimidation. Scholars should criticize but not define another's religion." Doniger denies that she is defining Hinduism.External links
- DEFAMATION/ANTI/DEFAMATION: Hindus in Dialogue with the Western Academy: A panel discussion held at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Denver on November 17, 2001