Balagangadhara

Assuming that our theories in Physics are not false, would there be gravitational force in the Cosmos (or on our planet) whether or not there was a theory about it? This is the question about the ’truth’ and ‘objectivity’ of our theories. If we say ‘yes’, I do not see how one can say the opposite, then the truth or falsity of, say, Aristotelian theory is not dependent on the ‘consumer’ of that …

Is there a ‘wannabe Indianism’ in our attempts to understand our tradition? I am not sure: maybe there is, maybe there is not. Of course, the question is why is this relevant? Whatever the motives or the contexts of any individual writer why should that be an argument for either accepting or rejecting or even putting his opinions on hold? The way I see it, the nature of the phenomenon is of …

The question appears to be: need one accept certain premises of Christianity (whether Protestant or Catholic varieties) in order that the dominant understanding of, say, the secular state and the caste to make sense? That those to whom such accounts make sense do not explicitly subscribe to the premises of a specific religious appears to throw doubt on our claims. Consider the very distinction …

Summary of Lorenzen’s article: “Lorenzen doesn’t only cite Jesuits and Muslims, but also ‘Hindus’ themselves. His main argument is that Hinduism isn’t an invention by anyone in particular. It grew out of a need to establish an identity vis-à-vis foreigners (mlecchas). In other words, an identity by contrast with the ‘others.’” There is a world of difference between what one wants to argue and what …

Let us call the descriptions of what you see ‘facts’. Are your ‘facts’ a contribution to human knowledge? In one sense they are; the way any description of anything by anybody is a ‘fact’ and thus knowledge. One needs, and one has, a way of not wanting to call every piece of ‘fact’ as knowledge. Hence, we can reformulate the issue: does it contribute towards building a scientific theory of …

About who the ‘authentic Hind’ or ’the authentic Indian’ is. The greatest strength of our culture lies in the fact that this is a non-question as far as our traditions are concerned. Even though I have now spent nearly as many years outside India as I have spent inside, I do not feel an ‘outsider’. Nor am I considered as one by the members my family, for instance, most of whom have never left …

Let me lay this fear to rest: I am not speaking for the community. To the question, ‘Who speaks for the Indian traditions?’ my reply is simple: anyone, everyone, whoever feels like. (Of course, I do not consider the question very sensible, but that is a side-issue for the moment.) Having said this much, let me also say that my discussion with Jeffrey Kripal is not about the moral right to speak in …

You ask us not to ‘judge’. It is not clear what the force of judgment is to which you object. When I listen to someone (today) insisting that the earth is flat or that the Sun revolves round the earth, I judge that this person (in all probability) does not have much of an idea about the physical theories. Because I am not sure, I try to find out what his arguments are. If they do not cognitively …

In a way, and in some sense, I do agree with you that one’s acquaintance with a culture is useful in writing about that culture. It is not sufficient, of course (think of the nonsense written by most anthropologists during the last 100 years on other cultures); nor are there any compelling reasons to believe that it is a sine qua non to understanding cultures. However, I am not challenging the …

Is the model of games useful in understanding evolution of some aspect of society? If you use ‘games’ in a very, very general sense (viz. there are players, strategies, end-results, and such like), then it might. There is a flourishing branch of mathematics called ‘Game theory’ that has been used to study many things in nature and society: from the evolution of rules and norms to seeing evolution …

I do not see why I have to study the history of the last 4000 years to understand modern India. To the extent past becomes relevant (my research into some particular question will tell me whether the past is relevant, if so which part of the past is relevant, and how far I need to go in understanding the issue I want to understand), only to that extent do I need to study the past. The general …

About the possibility that I was already ‘westernized’ by the time I became a teenager. Even this question is wrongly posed. I am not claiming that there is some ‘authentic’ Indian culture, which lives somewhere or lived some when in India. Such a culture, even if it exists or existed, does not concern me. I am interested in the Indian culture as it exists today: including the aftermath of the …

X says: if “pujya” means “worthy of worship”, wouldn’t “puja” mean worship? ‘Pujya’ means “deserving of ‘puja’”. If ‘puja’ translated as ‘worship’, quite obviously one translates ‘pujya’ as you do. You see, what is at stake is not a mere ’translation’ problem. It has to do with how the Indian culture (and not merely this one culture, I might add) has been, and continues to be, represented not just …

It is true that the modern Jewish thought, which is more influenced by the Rabbinic than by apocalyptic or Qumranic literature, places less emphasis on the Devil. Rabbinic Judaism was less interested in building a demonology than others. It is one thing to say this, but quite another to say that the Judaic tradition knows of the Devil only in terms of the psychological ‘inclinations’ in man. (It …

Let me begin by Mujeeb’s objection to calling the Islamic people ‘Mohammedans’. Mujib’s objection was that the Muslims do not worship Mohammed, and Naseem spoke of it as an insulting appellation. They are right, of course, but they did not appear to get the authentic problem posed by a Raghavan and a Seshadri: surely ‘Mohammedans’ are those who follow the doctrines (or teachings) of Mohammed. …

About the multiple meanings for the Puja of Ganesha. Of course, there is no one ‘meaning’ to this act either now, or before, or in the future, as far as Indians (and the Westerners) are concerned. But that is not being disputed. The dispute arises when some meaning is alleged to portray the ’experience’ of a culture, when all it does is distort and deny the experience it is said to portray. …

“Every one of us believes our own viewpoint to be the best one: such is human nature.” This is not quite how I would put it. Let me, therefore say what I think with respect to this issue. Whenever I formulate a theory, I believe that my description is ’true’. If I thought that it was ‘false’, I would not write what I write. This is a belief about the status of my description and its relationship …

A question: Is it desirable to have a model that can simulate social and cultural changes? I cannot see what good reason there is not to find it desirable. It would be eminently desirable. It will take some time though before we get there, but we will surely get there. Thanks to computers, we have a possibility of talking realistically about simulation. However, we have to still go a very long way …

It appears that Sir Isaac Newton was frequently complimented for being the greatest genius the world had ever known. One of his replies is alleged to have been the following: “Even a pygmy sees further than the giants if he stands upon their shoulders. And I, Sir, stand upon the shoulders of giants.” The extraordinary humility apart, there is something very important to what Newton is saying: his …

Let us begin in a very intuitive way and ask ourselves this question: where do we encounter ‘cultural differences’? In human contacts, of course. What kind of human contacts? In inter-individual contacts. That is, we see (or sense, or intuit or whatever) cultural differences in our contacts with individual human beings. You do not meet ’the western culture’ but individual Americans, Germans, …