[Advaita-l] Fwd: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} Lecture by Prof SN balagangadhara 20.5.18 at 11 AM aksharam, Bengaluru

[Murali k]

These Marxists and their zany ideas are the true enemies of Sanatana
Dharma. Their philosophies are widely supported by churches
and universities who have a vested interest in this issue.

On 20 May 2018 at 14:51, Raghav Kumar Dwivedula via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> An excerpt from a Marxist critic of SN Balagangadhara,
> (Excerpted from Rajan Gurukkal (rgurukkal at gmail.com) an article by  a
> historian of ancient India and a member of the
> Indian Council for Historical Research.) link given late on in this post.
>
> " S N Balagangadhara, a professor of philosophy at Ghent University,
> Belgium, has argued
> over the last two decades, as part of the
> project of “decolonisation”, that social
> sciences and history written in Europe
> as well as elsewhere in the world mis-
> represent the cultural context of human
> affairs in south Asia, especially India.
> At this Congress he took an explicitly
> communal repositioning of his positions.
> He had put on the internet, some time
> earlier, an essay suggesting that the past
> as recorded in the Rāmayan. a and
> Mahābhārata is what Indians need rather
> than the history that historians and
> social scientists do.1
>  His decolonising
> project, though hackneyed, is now being
> restated with a communal overtone in
> the World Hindu Congress and, given
> the contemporary political context, it
> necessitates a critical reappraisal of his
> entire views published in the two books:
> Heathen in His Blindness (1994) and
> Reconceptualising India Studies (2012).
> Doing a doctoral study (1991) entitled
> “Comparative Science of Cultures and
> the Universality of Religion: An Essay on
> Worlds without Views and Views with-
> out the World”, S N Balagangadhara put
> up the thesis that religion is an intelligible
> explanation of the cosmos and the term
> applies only to the Jewish, Christian
> and Islamic traditions. The term religion
> could never have anything to do with
> Indian traditions, which are pluralistic
> and thus preclude all efforts to privilege
> any one account definitive."
>
> Another excerpt from
>
> https://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2015/09/sn-
> balagangadhara-and-rajiv-malhotra-on-reversing-the-gaze.html
>
> "Balagangadhara and Malhotra find common ground in the claim that our
> understanding of Hinduism is constructed through the Orientalist lens. In
> his previous book *The Heathen in his Blindness *
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heathen_in_his_Blindness...>(1996),
> Balagangadhara advanced this argument as part of a broader thesis that
> religion is not a universal phenomenon but rather a Western—specifically,
> Christian—construct foisted upon colonial subjects, one resulting in a
> prejudiced evaluation of Indian culture, mores and morals.
> Colonial/Orientalist scholars took Christianity to be the archetypal
> religion—a system of beliefs equipped with theistic doctrines, deities and
> practices; religion was presumed a cultural universal; and the complex and
> varied practices observed in the Indian subcontinent were then shoehorned
> into this mould. Hinduism appeared as but a depraved Christianity mired in
> idolatrous practices, its followers were indicted of systematic adherence
> to false beliefs, and a romantic vision emerged of a stagnant, childlike
> India, caught in the caste system's inexorable vice, a land crying out to
> be rescued by the West cast as saviour, bringing succour to the heathen.
>
> And naturally the Marxists etc., attack SN Balagangadhara - for example -
>
> http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/ragh/ccs/CCSPublications/GR/
> Gurukkal%20Dec%202014-EPW.pdf
>
>
> Om
>
>
>
> On Sun 20 May, 2018, 7:40 AM V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l, <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: Veeranarayana Pandurangi <veerankp at gmail.com>
> > Date: Sat, May 19, 2018 at 11:52 PM
> > Subject: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} Lecture by Prof SN balagangadhara 20.5.18
> at
> > 11 AM aksharam, Bengaluru
> > To: bvparishat <bvparishat at googlegroups.com>
> >
> >
> > ಈ ಭಾನುವಾರ May 20th 2018 ರಂದು ಬೆಳಗ್ಗೆ 11 ಗಂಟೆಗೆ,  "ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತೊಂದನೇ ಶತಮಾನದ
> > ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ ಪಂಡಿತರ ಮುಂದಿರುವ ಎರಡು ಸವಾಲುಗಳು" ಎಂಬ ವಿಷಯದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಪ್ರೋ॥ ಬಾಲಗಂಗಾಧರರ
> > ಉಪನ್ಯಾಸವು
> > ನಡೆಯಲಿದೆ.
> >
> > ಈ ಉಪನ್ಯಾಸವು ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ ಭಾರತಿ ಮತ್ತು ಕರ್ಣಾಟಕ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯದ ವತಿಯಿಂದ
> > ಎರ್ಪಡಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ.
> >
> > Prof. SN Balagangadhara will address students, scholars and enthusiasts
> of
> > Samskrit on Sunday, the 20th May 2018 at 11 AM.
> > Title of the talk: "Two challenges confronted by Samskrit scholars in the
> > 21st century".
> > This lecture will be in Kannada. This lecture is jointly organised by
> > Samskrita Bharati and Karnataka Samskrit University
> > Venue:
> > Aksharam, 8th Cross, 2nd Phase, Giri Nagar, Bengaluru - 560085,
> > Google maps link https://goo.gl/maps/aPgAn2AL9tz
> > Call for assistance: 9880634594
> >
> > About the speaker:
> > S. N. Balagangadhara (Balu) is a professor at the Ghent University in
> > Belgium, and director of the India Platform and the Research Centre
> > Vergelijkende Cutuurwetenschap (Comparative Science of Cultures).
> > Balagangadhara was a student of National College, Bangalore and moved to
> > Belgium in 1977 to study philosophy at Ghent University, where he
> obtained
> > his doctorate under the supervision of Etienne Vermeersch.
> > Balagangadhara has been researching the nature of religion. His central
> > area of inquiry has been the study of Western culture against the
> > background of Indian culture. His research programme is called in Dutch
> > "Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap," which translates into "Comparative
> > Science of Cultures". He has held the co-chair of the Hinduism Unit at
> the
> > American Academy of Religion (AAR). He also gives lectures to the general
> > public in Europe and India on issues such as the current
> (mis)understanding
> > of Indian culture and the search for happiness.
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्" group.
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> > email to bvparishat+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
> > To post to this group, send email to bvparishat at googlegroups.com.
> > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> > http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
> >
> > To unsubscribe or change your options:
> > https://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
> >
> > For assistance, contact:
> > listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> https://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>