Balagangadhara

If you insist that without situating Gita in the massive text that Mahabharata is, we cannot understand or interpret Gita, then you provide such a gigantic con-text to the 18 chapters that the Gita is, and because a move like this can only give interpretations of a small text by situating in such a huge con-text, any and almost every interpretation can become valid or acceptable or permissible. …

You ask: “(a) Do you mean Islamic colonial rule affected our attitude towards knowledge (how we learn)? And (b) How do we fix the colonial era bureaucracy?” Because of their relevance, my answer is posted on the forum. To begin answering these huge questions, we must look at the world in terms of “tendencies” (both social and cultural) at a high level of abstraction. An example of what it looks …

You raise the question whether using earlier theories, which are superseded by newer theories, one can (or even could ever) access knowledge? (I am not a physicist, but I do not think that physicists have junked Newtonian theories. I think that Newtonian physics retains its validity in the macroworld we live in and is not considered false. As far as I remember, I have not come across writings that …

A three-part series by SN Balagangadhara What happened in Ayodhya: a pran prathistha, a consecration, or something else? What happened in Ayodhya: Mehta’s heroics, Varshney’s warning, and Palshikar’s guilt What happened in Ayodhya: what our intellectuals saw and yet did not know what they saw Combined version From Academia.edu: The Ayodhya Event: A Response to Some Newspaper Columns From …

I You say: “‘person + Indriya + Manas is the Bhokta’ renders the sentence meaningless to me.” While that could be true, that sentence makes (and made) perfect sense to millions (over the last two millennia) on earth. Would it help if it read instead: “soul + Indriya + Manas is the Bhokta; ” or “my inner self + Indriya + Manas is the Bhokta” or “ the pudgala + Indriya + Manas is the Bhokta” or any …

He says: “Doniger translates “dharma” as “religion”. Apparently, Indians should not criticize that because we know neither what the English word “religion” means nor do we know what “dharma” means because neither English nor Sanskrit is our mother tongue.” First of all I do not say or imply that Indians should not criticize the translation. I merely point out that (a) there is indeterminacy in …

One could justifiably see spirituality (the Jewish, Christian and Islamic) as ‘Adhyatma’ if one focusses on the psychological transformations that a human being undergoes in the process of moving from the mundane life to a ‘spiritual’ one. You would be closer to the notion of ‘Adhyatma’ if you can also additionally guide such a process. Such guidance requires, of course, that there is some deep …

The Ancient Romans spoke of ‘Peoples’ and ‘Nations’. They saw traditions making a group into a people and distinguishing people (and, sometimes, ‘nations’) from each other. Different peoples (distinguished from each other on the basis of ancestral traditions) could live together in a nation and a nation itself could host multiple peoples and traditions. Consequently, they did not see Christians as …

I I am not sure what the discussions are about. Here are some of the problems that have surfaced. Do (did) people in India believe that Ramayana is (was) a narration of ‘what really happened’? Even without specifying the ‘when’ and the ‘where’, the answer is obvious: some (did) do; some (did) do not; some are agnostic. The question, however, is: What is the question about? What problem is it meant …

Part I, Part II , Part III , Part IV (Appeared on 04/13/2022 through 04/15/2022) S.N. Balagangadhara, emeritus professor at Ghent University, Belgium, has spent more than 40 years studying the science of cultures, especially Western culture, which was deeply influenced by Christianity, and how this framework was used to understand Indian culture, where it was a colonising power. In the process, …

[ Published on swarjyamag Aug 26, 2022] Let me recollect the question we agreed upon: how does the combined phrase (colonial mindset and servitude) make sense within the framework of my research programme? My hypothesis on religion includes characterizing the dynamics of its expansion. As I see it, such a dynamic includes (a) conversion and (b) secularization. The first side of the dynamic, …

Of course, you can use Kant (or anyone other philosopher of your liking) to talk about what experience is. But if you use these thinkers (of the last 1000 years or so) to think about experience, you will be trapped in a set of problems: (a) you will have to talk about sensory input (no matter what technical term you use here), which cognition works on; (b) the world as something that provides …

Let us take the word ‘duty’ for the moment. Conflict in duties does not give you a moral dilemma. For a moral dilemma to occur two necessary conditions must exist: the prescribed set of duties must be logically consistent by virtue of which one is obliged to perform them all. A dilemma pertains to a situation where one has an obligation to do A and an obligation to do B; but can in fact do only …

It is broadly accepted that one of the most important functions of language is to describe the world outside it. Could it be the case that when it comes to the Indian systems, they all (whether it is Advaita vedanta, Yoga vasistha, visista advaita) are teaching one to act, to live in a particular way? In other words, they are not saying what there is in the world but are manuals in a manner of …

I want to respond to three of your points Claus. First you are not talking only about the Greeks and the Romans because all the problems arising with respect to the phenomena of non-Western societies and culture are/were equally the problems in the frameworks of different varieties of culture. You not only talk about the Greeks and the Romans, you gave examples about the French and the English as …

The question requires deeper handling so you will forgive me for the brevity of my response but you will get some idea of where I stand. Regarding the first question as to whether we reject social science itself, I am aware that many people have made this suggestion. I am not so much hung up on the word ‘social science’ but I do believe that we need to systematically reflect on our experiences in …

I am going to ask for a clarification on a question which I find very troubling. Let me first read how you have formulated the problem from the text: Sanskrit scholars need modem social scientists. What disturbs me in anthropological fieldwork is that Sanskrit literature is made to play the role of native informer to social scientists, with the anthropologists asking themselves as they might with …

In the examples you refer to, you touch on an approach to situations and problems that are Indian (in the sense of culture) contrasted to which stands another culture’s way of dealing with situations. The simplest way to explicate this difference in a general way, using your examples as a reference point, would be this: when we speak of problems and solutions, there are two ways of looking at …

I I face some difficulties in giving a ‘yes’ or ’no’ answer to your question because I am not sure how to understand ‘Samsara’, ‘Jnana’ and its Sanskrit negation ‘Ajnana’, and ‘moksha’. It is equally unclear whether there are differences of import between being ’the root’ and being ’the cause’, as far as the relation between ‘Ajnana’ and ‘Samsara’ are concerned. ‘Maaya’ is another notion used in …

I I think that the multiple routes that exist in the Indian culture and those that individuals follow are on par with each other. From within any one of these, the other routes appear as moments. However, this does not privilege any one route above the other. If one were to suggest, say, that the Puranic stories are simplifications of the Upanishadic insights then one has to endorse a claim of the …