Sunday, December 16, 2007

brits give semi-apology: tour at the British Museum

dec 16th, 2007

of course, the museum woman washes her hands of the matter and says it's somebody else's problem, but at least peristent efforts by RR have got them to acknowledge the problem. nice work, RR.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: R R
Subject: Re: tour at the British Museum
To: Jan Stuart < JStuart@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk>
Cc: Richard Blurton <RBLURTON@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk>, David Bone <DBone@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk >,


Dear Ms Stuart.

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to address my feedback Some kind of vetting process, when it materializes would certainly be an important first step in stopping the flow of disinformation and denigration of our faith. The vetting is a crucial element because regardless of the fact that this person was not on your staff, the ability of leading the tour group and speaking on Museum grounds would appear to give them credibility, as well as a forum to air their incorrect and sacrilegeous views.

As a whole, knowledge about our faith in Academia is woefully lacking  and in  some cases totally wrong.
A response has been made by Academics via this publication :    Invading the Sacred  
by professors by Krishnan Ramaswamy (Editor), Antonio de Nicolas (Editor), Aditi Banerjee (Editor)
http://www.amazon.com/invading-sacred-Krishnan-Ramaswamy/dp/8129111829/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197769931&sr=8-1

Another publication,  the only publication in English that I,and other Hindu 'parishoners', have found to be very well written is :
Complete Idiots Guide to Hinduism by Linda Johnson
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Hinduism/dp/0028642279/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197770212&sr=1-1
(I have purchased this for my children, nieces, and nephews, as an alternate to native language texts)

I hope that you will excuse my indulgence in forwarding these links but I truly believe they address two fundamental issues.

1. Lack of basic knowledge about Hinduism
2. Disinformation and outright untruths by Academics in the study of Hinduism.

Thank you once again for your response and positive email.

I am humbled by the attention my feedback has received both from the Museum and especially from the support received from members of the Hindu community in the UK.
 
Sincerely yours

RR

----- Original Message ----
From: Jan Stuart <JStuart@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk>
To: R_R
Cc: Richard Blurton <RBLURTON@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk>; David Bone <DBone@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk >
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2007 6:47:07 AM
Subject: tour at the British Museum

Dear Mr. R
Thank you for answering my assistant, David Bone's, email to you trying to learn more details about the tour you overheard on November 21st in which you felt the subject of the Goddess Kali was treated in a grossly inappropriate manner.  We appreciate your taking the time to answer.  Even with this new information, we still have not been able to identify anyone on our staff or on our volunteer roster named Margaret who might have given the tour. 
 
It seems this was a non-museum tour group and we do have many outside groups. We are unable to monitor the content of what is said by outside visitors. We do, however, take your concerns very seriously and I have informed our head of volunteer services of the problem and also I have informed our curatorial staff. If any of us are ever able to identify the individual, we certainly will speak to her and follow up on this matter.    
 
We are very pleased that you visited the gallery and I certainly hope that you found the displays and labels prepared by our staff to be interesting and informative. I, and the staff of the British Museum, hope you visit the museum again.
 
Sincerely,
Jan Stuart
Jan Stuart
Keeper of Asia
The British Museum
Great Russell St
London WC1B 3DG
direct telephone +44 (0) 207323 8359
department fax   +44 (0) 207323 8561
department assistant (0) 207323 8457
e-mail                jstuart@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
 

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