interesting questions.
incidentally should we be concerned about the use of the term 'pagan' which has derogatory meanings? i suggest that if the term 'pagan' is used in relation to hinduism, the term 'meso-semitic' be used in regards to christism.
for, there is a plethora of semitic ideologies:
paleo-semitic: judaism, zoroastrianism
meso-semitic: christism, mohammedanism
neo-semitic: marxism, 'dravidianism', ambedkarism
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: swamijyoti
The Author of this article, Jakob De Roover, a post-doctoral scholar in the United States for a year, is based in Belgium. He will be traveling to various cities in the US this year to give lectures and workshops and meet with NRI's. One of his interests is how the NRI community will respond to the challenge of American pluralism. Please take the time to read this article. I hope friends and Hindu community leaders in the US can get in touch with Dr. De Roover and coordinate with him to arrange a visit to your area. He will be available for workshops as well as presentations. Interacting with Dr. De Roover may give us a somewhat different perspective that will help us individually and as a community. His thoughts may suggest actions that we may take in the educational area as well as other areas. Please consider getting in touch with Jakob De Roover soon so that NRIs in North Carolina will not miss this opportunity before he returns to Belgium. Please note that much of Dr. De Roover's expenses will be met by a research grant and the expenses to the local communities will be quite minimal. Please feel free to forward this message to others who would be interested in attending and organizing Dr. De Roover's presentations and workshops.
-- Beth Kulkarni
bethkulkarni@sbcglobal.net
==============================
The structure of American pluralism and the nature of the Hindu traditions give rise to two options. These options present themselves as routes that can be traveled by the NRI community in the coming years. On the one hand, the pagan traditions of India could renounce their true nature and transform themselves into variants of biblical religion. Then they will soon fit in as well in the American model of pluralism as the Jews and Muslims. On the other hand, these pagan traditions can remain true to their nature and explicitly represent themselves as completely different from the religions of the book. Then they will turn into a major challenge to American pluralism: the very structure of this model will require rethinking in order to accommodate the Hindu traditions. Currently, the NRI community is succumbing to the first option. It has accepted the American model of pluralism as the structure to which it should adapt itself.
During the last four centuries, the dominant way of describing the pagan traditions of India has conformed to the Christian framework of the West. The missionaries and travelers transmitted the facts about these pagan traditions to the European common sense. But these facts were already framed within Christian theology: there had to be religion in India; these religions would worship many (false) gods rather than the one true God; these religions would be founded in a set of beliefs about these gods and their relation to humanity; the practices of worship would embody these doctrines; etc. The scholars and human sciences of Europe took these Christian theological descriptions as the basic material of their theorizing. Later, Americans reproduced the same assumptions and images. The result is Hinduism the religion of the Hindus. Tragically, colonialism had the Indian pagans adopt this description of their own traditions. Today their intellectuals and educated layers also believe this Hinduism exists.
If the American NRI community desires to remain true to the nature of its cultural traditions and travel the second route, the first thing it will have to realize is that this is a flagrant misunderstanding of its predicament. Its real quandary is this: how to break out of the straitjacket in which American pluralism and its theological structure have imprisoned the pagan traditions of India? This straitjacket has a long history. It is the framework through which the western culture has always looked at other cultures. It is the paradigm that still sustains the dominant human sciences of today and their understanding of nonwestern cultures. It effectively transforms the Hindu traditions into pallid variants of biblical religion. In case the NRI community decides to opt for the second route, it will require an alternative framework to approach its own cultural traditions. Such an alternative framework will study the pagan traditions of India in a different way. Some of the properties of these traditions reviewed (in the article), are instructions for action rather than doctrines; they offer a variety of routes to the human aim of happiness; the diversity of stories, practices, traditions, teachers and deities is intrinsic to their nature; etc. If the NRI community wants to avoid transforming its traditions into variants of biblical religion, it needs to promote and support such alternative approaches to the study of its cultural traditions.
Now is the time for the NRI community to choose its leadership carefully. It needs people who are aware of the depth of the problems. Otherwise, it will succumb to the demands of American pluralism. It will waste its energy on irrelevant concerns borrowed from Christianity: Who speaks for Hinduism?; Who has the authority to represent our religion?; Should only insiders be allowed to do so?; What are the true teachings of Hinduism? The other route promises to allow the NRI community to play its role: become a rich and vibrant challenge to American pluralism. Not so that pluralism and tolerance might disappear from the American society but so that a pluralism, worthy of its name and liberated from the biblical straitjacket, might come into existence. Perhaps it is time we explore this route.
-- Jakob De Roover
(Research Centre, Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap, Ghent University, Belgium)
How the NRI community will respond
to the challenge of American pluralism: Jakob De Roover
http://vivekajyoti.blogspot.com/2007/03/how-nri-community-will-respond-to.html
--
Please reply to:
swamijyoti@vivekanandagospel.org
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