{"id":6261,"date":"2014-02-20T18:16:48","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T01:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6261"},"modified":"2014-02-20T18:17:25","modified_gmt":"2014-02-21T01:17:25","slug":"more-reflections-on-doningers-hinduism-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6261","title":{"rendered":"More Reflections on Doninger’s Hinduism Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Like a lot of people, I was dismayed (to put it mildy) that Penguin India has pulled Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus: An Alternative History <\/em> f<\/a>rom sale in that country.<\/p>\n

Indologist Koenraad Elst, no stranger to such controversies<\/a>, explains some of the background on Indian law about religions here. <\/a><\/p>\n

Art. 295A was never the doing of Hindu society. It was imposed by the British on the Hindus in order to shield Islam from criticism. The reason for its enactment was the murder of Pandit Lekhram in 1897 by a Muslim because\u00a0Lekhram had written a book criticizing Islam. While the British authorities sentenced the murderer, they also sided with him by retroactively and\u00a0posthumously punishing Lekhram.<\/p>\n

Though originally and for a long time serving to shield Islam, Hindus gradually discovered that they too could use\u00a0the religiously neutral language of this Article to their seeming advantage. Christians\u00a0as well have invoked it, e.g. to ban\u00a0Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code<\/em>.\u00a0This creates a sickening atmosphere of a pervasive touch-me-not-ism, with every community outdoing the other in being more susceptible to having its sentiments hurt.<\/p>\n

American academics have a moral right to deplore this law, on condition that they have spoken out against it on the occasion of earlier conspicuous incidents of book-banning. Where was Wendy when Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses<\/em> was banned? Not knowing her entire record, I leave it to her to provide the answer.\u00a0At any rate, many Indian secularists, who mostly enjoy the support of those American academics, supported the ban, which was decreed by a self-declared secular Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi)\u00a0and ruling party (Congress).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some . . . interesting . . . comments on Elst’s post, too.<\/p>\n

At the Bulletin for the Study of Religion<\/em> blog, Steven Ramey uses this incident to discuss some larger issues in religious studies and the old scholar-practitioner tensions: <\/a><\/p>\n

One point of contention between Doniger (and many contemporary scholars) and some of her detractors is the difference between a generally post-modern conception of interpretation as subjective and a more modern, objectivist epistemology. While Doniger\u2019s detractors identify specific assertions and dates that they have labeled as inaccurate, the central issue, the cause for taking offence, seems to be Doniger\u2019s emphasis on less prominent anecdotes, images and interpretations that do not conform to the image of Hinduism that her detractors want to maintain. Doniger\u2019s self-reflexive acknowledgement of her own selectivity within the \u201cembarrassment of riches\u201d that she identifies as Hinduism (and sometimes Hinduisms) becomes a further point of complaint. These opponents assume that questions have definitive answers. They acknowledge \u201cthe historical consensus,\u201d whereas Doniger describes her book as \u201ca history.\u201d They consider the meaning of a text to be fixed, as expressed in the legal complaint<\/a>, \u201cWhen text remains the same it is obvious that its meaning & message have remained the same.\u201d Doniger, on the other hand, acknowledges that multiple meanings are possible throughout the diversity of Hinduism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are some obvious parallels with the academic study of Paganism(s), which I will leave (for now) to my readers to ponder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like a lot of people, I was dismayed (to put it mildy) that Penguin India has pulled Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus: An Alternative History from sale in that country. Indologist Koenraad Elst, no stranger to such controversies, explains some of the background on Indian law about religions here. Art. 295A was never the doing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[128,143,7,4],"class_list":["post-6261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hinduism","tag-india","tag-publishing","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1CZ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7697,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7697","url_meta":{"origin":6261,"position":0},"title":"Traditional Polytheism Helps the Economy","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Or why Amazon is selling cow-dung cakes in India: I learned that cow dung cakes can now be ordered on the Indian Amazon website. Out of curiosity, I ordered 6 pieces. It cost me 236 rupees, about $4. I called the local office of Amazon and spoke to Jaideep, who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Hinduism\"","block_context":{"text":"Hinduism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=hinduism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10181,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10181","url_meta":{"origin":6261,"position":1},"title":"Pentagram Pizza with Milky Devotion and Unlikely Polytheism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Is this a case of misplaced devotional offerings? The Tamil Nadu Milk Dealers Association says yes. \u2022 The Live Science news site is not the place where you expect tor read about Norse (or any other) polytheism, but this article strikes a reasonable note. \u2022 Icelandic elves again, this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"elves\"","block_context":{"text":"elves","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=elves"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/pentagrampizza.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11444,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11444","url_meta":{"origin":6261,"position":2},"title":"Catholics in Trouble over ‘Idols’ Again","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe you missed it, but there was a minor scandal at the Vatican last year over the liturgical use of an image of Pachamana, one name given to the indigenous Mother Goddess of the Andean region of South America. Some traditional Catholics were deeply offended: The statues, which were identical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Catholicism\"","block_context":{"text":"Catholicism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=catholicism"},"img":{"alt_text":"Idols on the Catholic altar","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.churchmilitant.com\/images\/social_images\/2020-05-14-Hornchurch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.churchmilitant.com\/images\/social_images\/2020-05-14-Hornchurch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.churchmilitant.com\/images\/social_images\/2020-05-14-Hornchurch.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.churchmilitant.com\/images\/social_images\/2020-05-14-Hornchurch.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13209,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13209","url_meta":{"origin":6261,"position":3},"title":"Lakshmi or Yakshi? The Story of a Hindu Idol in Ancient Pompeii","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 17, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The 1938 excavation of a house in Pompeii produced a statuette that first was believed to be Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of prosperity and fertility. Newer reseach says no, but she still is Hindu. Where did she come from? A podcast interview with art historian Laura Weinstein examines the statuette's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Trade routes from Roman Empire to India","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/India-trade-routes-300x164.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2748,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2748","url_meta":{"origin":6261,"position":4},"title":"Army Appoints Hindu Chaplain (Sort of)","author":"Chas S. 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