The context: Last year the Delhi university banned an essay on Ramayana by Prof Ramanujan that interpreted Ramayana in what some Hindus claim negative light. I have not read the essay but I tend to agree with the argument forwarded in this article.
This sentense stuck out to me as exemplifying the root of the Ivory Tower disconnect fom the real world, which of course is nothing new:
"We have mistaken the strawman we have made from our critiques of religious politics of a specific time and place, for the entirety of the religion itself."
A very common academic error, and a valid comment.
But I'm not sure that abandoning critical distance or one's attempts at objectivity is the solution, or even a good idea. Being insensitive and intellectually arrogant is not the same thing as being objective.
This sentense stuck out to me as exemplifying the root of the Ivory Tower disconnect fom the real world, which of course is nothing new:
ReplyDelete"We have mistaken the strawman we have made from our critiques of religious politics of a specific time and place, for the entirety of the religion itself."
A very common academic error, and a valid comment.
But I'm not sure that abandoning critical distance or one's attempts at objectivity is the solution, or even a good idea. Being insensitive and intellectually arrogant is not the same thing as being objective.