Murty classical library: A plea to Indian corporate donors to foreign institutions
This note is authored by Dr. S. Kalyanaraman, head of the Sarasvati Research Center, Chennai.
At the outset, best wishes to Sheldon Pollock and Rohan Murty, Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murty for publishing the first five volumes of a Library named after Murty using the Murty’s $5.2 million grant for Harvard’s Indian classics series announced in 2010. May this initiative be a resounding success.
Having delivered the customary greetings and good wishes, we as the reading public have questions to ask which Murty, Murthy and their institutions should answer either directly or through Sheldon Pollock and Girish Karnad when they visit Jaipur before Obama’s visit on 26 January 2015. Who knows Obama may also show up at Jaipur.
The questions:
- Why couldn’t Murty, Murthy and Sheldon Pollock find a publisher, editors, translators from India in India?
- Why was it necessary to have the Harvard University imprint for the publications on Indian themes by Indian writers, more so for texts, some which are of great antiquity?
- Even if Murty, Murthy look upon the grant as a business decision with social responsibility, (given the Hindu tradition and legacy of s’renidharma श्रेणिधर्मof a corporate) given their corporate presence as an IT corporation in the USA (also traded on Nasdaq), was it not their responsibility to nurture the literary talents in India, given their larger presence in India? Have they heard the recent, impassioned plea by Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling upon every Bharatiya to promote his Make in India vision?
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And now, for two additional comments with implicit questions:
- I take strong exception to the insulting references made in the promotional material put out through the media articles etc. by Sheldon Pollock’s team insinuating the present Narendra Modi regime with name-calling, using loaded phrases with insulting political overtones such as: “…the project also comes as a timely if implicit rebuke to the Hindu nationalists of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, with its promotion of a unitary Indian identity based on selected Sanskrit religious classics.”
- It is unfortunate that Murty and Murthy have become unwitting partners in such political Hinduphobia. And equal blame should be apportioned to Harvard for nurturing such bigotry. Next time Harvard university folks happen to be in Bharata, I would strongly suggest that they should listen to a public lecture by Narendra Modi as he converses with his audience living in a hope that Bharatam will get back to the due share of the world GDP which the nation had in 1 CE (see: Angus Maddison). I would request prospective Indian corporate donors of grants to foreign institutions to pause and just glance at this bar-chart and use their corporate wisdom to help the nation’s cause. We have to get there again because Bharatiyas are over 1.25 billion people in over 625000 villages.
In the meantime, I sincerely wish good luck to Murty and Murthy and of course, Sheldon Pollock who is a product of the academe governed by the dictum: ‘Publish or perish’. Live on Sheldon, you have miles to go to understand the depths of Hindu tradition, far removed your imagined biases against select Samskritam classics in a myriad subjects including yoga and aadhyaatmika knowledge systems. I hope you have heard the phrase, ‘ज्ञानम्’ in Hindu tradition, Sheldon. It happens to be a Samskritam word, also with cognates in almost all languages in which your Murty Library is set to excel.
Isn’t Narayana Murthy the guy who opposed the playing of the national anthem since it might offend his foreign guests?
[…] Murty classical library: A plea to Indian corporate donors to foreign institutions […]
These are valid arguments but let us not ignore another stark reality. Is it worth donating anything to Indian universities to found similar institutions as one founds in American universities? If one makes an endowment to a US institution law protects the terms of contract. Indian legal system offers no such protection. It is very easy for Indian politicians and demagogues to subvert the system. Therefore, India should first embrace meritocracy-based educational system and a legal framework that protects intellectual and commercial investments if India were to attract such investments.
Why not create an autonomous institution in India with Indians as well as Western scholars? If existing institutions are terrible, then this would suffice. Also, the money could go much farther in India with labor prices being much lower.
I am by no means rich but let us take a hypothetical scenario where I am a billionaire. I endow an autonomous Indian institution with a billion dollars to pursue basic research in science and to bring out the achievements of ancient Hindu society in science and technology in the most reasonable manner. I list four conditions:
1.) The institution has to accept students and faculty only based on merit and cannot have any reservation policy. I would deem as fit what the criteria for merit are. No outside (meaning government/NGO/societal) interference.
2.) There has to be complete free speech for everyone in the academy on any subject because it is only in an environment of free speech can innovations flourish. This includes the right for students and faulty to blaspheme any religious or public figure by resorting to facts or fiction.
3.) Innovations should be copyrighted because the reward of wealth is one of the catalysts that attracts investment.
4.) No taboo-based or prudish restrictions on lifestyle unless there is solid scientific evidence to restrict.
Now tell me which of these conditions can be perpetually enforced in India. I would argue, none. A bunch of politicians can enact a law that mandates me to reserve seats for students and faculty based on caste, religion, or economic background. India has archaic laws which will get one arrested for blasphemy. So, a brilliant mathematics student would risk getting arrested if she cracked a joke on FB or college magazine about the sexual prowess (or lack thereof) of the Virgin Mary or the Prophet Muhammad (or Ambedkar or Mahatma Gandhi). If someone steals the copyright, Indian courts would take nearly three million years to adjudicate. A group of students who smoke marijuana, experiment on LSD while composing a complex chord progression, or play volleyball naked in the institution’s beach would be harassed and arrested.
So, the problem is deeper. Until Indians realize that autonomy won’t solve anything and that the real problem is with India’s poor constitution and judicial system, it is irresponsible to invest money in India’s institutions – especially when one cares to generate long-term innovations and research. The brightest Indian minds thrive better in the West and they should invest in Western institutions. They should be more judicious in laying down their terms and conditions as the Jews have been.
There is a very good reason that FB, iPhone, and complex investment algorithms all originate in the West today. It correlates with the freedom I summarized in the bullet points above. Ironically, India had such an environment in ancient times. Sadly, it is a caricature today.
Understood, but this is far too pessimistic. If large business projects can be carried out with ‘jugaad’ and a few not-so-illegal-but-indirect-bribes then what’s stopping people from using clever language and loopholes to create such institutions? Why are you envisioning a full-fledged University? It could be a ‘think-tank’ like institution, or have any number of innovative forms combining existing structures. It could get important people on its board to stop regulatory harassment. In short, yes the problems are deep and emanate from the legal structure that branches out from the Constitution itself, but this is far too pessimistic.
Pessimistic or not, my assessment is factual and reasonable. Indian businesses are merely riding the surf and taking advantage of peripheral, low-end global trends such as IT outsourcing. They could operate by exploiting loopholes because they create little long-term value. More than half of Indians live BPL and unless India becomes an innovative economy, it can never be a wealthy state.
So, a mere think-tank or two won’t suffice. It would be a waste of money invested. Just last month, the eminent scholar Koenraad Elst was packed off from India for speaking the truth about Islam. That is the sad plight of India. Such an environment would repulse bright kids. The brightest Indian minds migrate abroad in thousands every year. Unless we think of an overhaul, India is destined to not succeed for a long time.
Take the example of Rice University: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rice-3604 – it has an endowment of nearly US $ 5 billion. How did it (and other universities) attract it? By thinking strategic and creating a setting where free thought thrives.
Regarding Innovation,it pays to read this recent elegant article of R.A.Mashelkar in current science–
http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/108/01/0007.pdf
Your argument, eventually reflects an ideology but not intellect.
Thank You.
I think the issue here is to create/promote alternative Indian institutions for native literature. Your points about the poor state of Indian institutions are correct. But I think you are going overboard with ‘freedom-of-speech’, ‘rule-of-law’, ‘free-market’ rhetoric.
The impression of West you have is from phony MSM propaganda. The US can print as much money as it wants and the rest of the world has to work to earn dollars to get their oil. Now that is a great innovative business strategy going on between oil dictators and the US. Very few people in the West innovate, the rest don’t and are too expensive to be hired to make anything. So the innovation of West needs Indian cyber coolies and Chinese factory workers to be feasible.
The western media is not for free-speech but free propaganda.
How many educational institutions build expensive sport facilities and spend millions on football coaches for their “innovations” over STEM ?
Trillion dollar student debt, social security payment crisis, drug menace while US is burning multi trillions over illegal wars. How come the innovative West did not foresee or at least solve some these problems. Buying cheap and selling dear is not really innovation.
The West may have a lot to offer us in terms of ideas and policies, but let us not put them on a pedestal and start to copy uncritically every other policy of theirs in the name of progress and development.
The West in general, and the USA in particular, have numerous problems that I have criticized many times in the past. Christians or conservatives pose a serious threat to civilization and they are the ones that oppose investment into STEM. I have not put the West on the pedestal. However, their model of creating a free environment to attract talent and nurture innovation directly helps generate wealth. I would like to see India go back to the glorious past when it was the richest nation on earth. It can only be done when India creates a free environment where talent is celebrated and innovation is valued. My recommendations are keeping in with that prescription. If that is created and one invests in Indian institutions, it would be money well spent. Otherwise, in today’s scenario, it would be such a waste of donation.
On sports, we can ridicule the overpaid coaches and there may be some merit in such a criticism. But the sad reality is that due to the lack of sports programs in schools India sucks in every sport. In my opinion, sports augment your scholastic abilities too apart from increasing fitness and serving as an avenue to channel passion.
poor argument and simple excuse. Have you ever invested in Indian institutions ? ask who do ? I have and returns are much bigger. Giving lectures to India shows the mentality of colonised mindset(your ideas smell of -every thing western is great).
Rohan Murthy was doing his Phd in Computer Science at Harvard when he came under the influence of Prof. Parimal Patil. This young man’s interest in his ancestral heritage is praiseworthy.
Pollock’s writing on the Ramayana is egregious. He says ‘Rama is ‘heteronomous’- i.e. not a thinking feeling human being but a sort of robot. Pollock says that ‘we don’t know and can’t know if Rama genuinely loves his wife!’ But Pollock is not alone in this sort of silliness. Matilal has made similar comments.
Ordinary people know Rama loved his father, honoured even his step-mother, and was wholly devoted to Lady Sita.
Yes, he was a ‘maryada purush’. He explicitly said that husband is not owner of wife. She is free to take another mate or go off wherever she pleases. He even says that he will arrange her marriage to his own brother or his client, the new King of Lanka, if that is her desire.
We immediately understand how much separation from Sita has hurt this tender hearted man. When we truly love someone, we don’t want to own them. We desire their happiness at no matter what cost to ourselves.
Pollock, poor fellow, was mislead into thinking the BJP was a Nazi party. He is not Indian. Why blame him for the misdeeds and false propaganda or Politically partisan Indian ‘academics’ who gain a fat living by just such means?
Indians have translated our Classics into English and other languages. K.M Munshi’s Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan made cheap paperbacks available at low cost to ordinary people.
America is a rich country and they can afford expensive hard-back books. No one grudges them the right to publish their own translations of Indian texts since the authors of those texts wanted to serve all sentient beings, not Indians only, and that too without any thought of reward.
Pollock and Doniger and so on make foolish statements. So what? A Scholar can be a fool when it comes to understanding ordinary human emotions. If they, and people like Martha Nussbaum, have been misled about Indian politics- so what? They are foreigners. India is a vibrant democracy. Our people may not have PhDs but they can vote out of office corrupt or incompetent politicians.
I hope the learned author of this piece will continue his scholarly work and that Indian philanthropists will subsidize translation of worthwhile books from all languages into Vernacular and Link languages.
Such support for rabid Hindu and India baiters! Why?
Wendy calls Gita a dishonest book. Read
http://creative.sulekha.com/risa-lila-1-wendy-s-child-syndrome_103338_blog
Pollack wanks Classical status for Sanskrit, i,e calls it a dead language to keep it in a museum. Just like Mafia thinks dead people don’t talk, Pollack does not want Hindus to have agency over Sanskrit. Instead, he wants himself to be puppet master and Sanskrit his puppet.
Frankly,this support for such unethical people is unbecoming of all decent people.
Doniger is a bad joke. I’ve written about her here- http://socioproctology.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/deconstructing-doniger-on-gita.html.
Pollock, and his acolyte Vishwa Adluri, are more dangerous because Pollock, unlike Wendy, is taken seriously by ambitious young academics seeking to gain tenure. Vide- http://socioproctology.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/vishva-adluri-sheldon-pollock-deep.html
As details of Sheldon’s previous work and his position on India and Sanskrit are coming out, it is not only uncomfortable, but frightening to imagine what the outcome is going to be.
His commitment to discarded Aryan Invasion Theory,
His conviction that Sanskrit was not only a non-spoken, but a Dalit-suppressing elitist language,
His proximity with those who made career out of bashing-India, mocking-India and breaking-India.
It almost feels like, what we say, भेड़ों की रखवाली भेड़िये से (wolf guarding sheep).
I think Murthy/Murty family has to make the decision, if they want to see themselves standing by the side of Jaichand or Prithviraj Chauhan (harsh words, but that is my sentiment).
Well written , India facts never disappoint always come with facts. I read the article in NYT, he pollock is clearly trying to provoke BJP ,why he is raising political point when he is writing some book . These infosys guys are not at all patriotic they want only business. They will sell country for their business interests. pollock is very much part of breaking India forces They are just trying to prove that India is multicultural country and each state has its own history and we Indians do not share common ancestry. I am a Telugu , telugu took so much from sanskrit , inlcuding grammar ,alphabets,huge vocabulary
Absolutely true.
Telugu is very much modeled after Sanskrit. It is mischievous and insidious to claim that Dravidian languages are not Sanskrit based. Telugu certainly is.
What a load of nonsense. If Telugu is “Sanskrit-based” than Urdu is “Persian-based”. Vocabulary influence does not define a language’s phylogenetic status. Telugu’s grammar, syntax, structure, phonetics, etc is all Dravidian. Just as Urdu’s grammar, syntax, etc is Indo-Aryan/Sanskritic, in spite of heavy Persian and Arabic influence on vocabulary. The denial of basic linguistics on the part of many Indians today is disturbing.
You are likely to be a brainwashed western academic who is interested in European linguistics purely for its proximity to power and pelf.
Telugu has no relation to Tamil in terms of number of letters in its alphabet or the manner in which its alphabet is organized. Telugu alphabet is organized in the same manner as Sanskrit’s Grantha lipi or script. Sanskrit has two scripts, Grantha and Devanagari. Malayalam alphabet and grammar is very closely aligned to Sanskrit’s in that the verb is not inflected to agree with the gender of the subject. But such is the case in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu. These crucial differences are conveniently glossed over by European linguists because they do not fit their presumptions.