Sunday, March 25, 2012

A must read..

...300 Ramayanas, One Ram

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.

1 comment:

  1. 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.

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