Vandalism and preservation: Michael Witzel

[Guest guest]

Here is an Op-ed in The Hindu by Michael Witzel (Prof. Harvard

University).

 

Kalyanaraman

 

 

 

Vandalism and preservation

 

By Michael Witzel

 

Indologists' motives are increasingly misunderstood, if not

intentionally maligned for political purposes.

 

 

 

THE RECENT attack on a member of the Bhandakar Oriental Research

Institute at Pune by an ill-informed mob of one section of

nationalists (Shiv Sena), and the subsequent rampage and destruction

of the BORI offices and library by another (Sambhaji Brigade), have

rightfully drawn strong local, national, and international

criticism. This is also the second time that an Indian publisher

has — publicly — caved in and has withdrawn a book that has recently

irked certain small sections of the public (Motilal Banarssidass,

Oxford University Press, India). These acts of timidity, albeit

understandable, pave the way for more threats and actions, some

already announced publicly. Beware of the beginnings!

 

Since a few quotes in scholarly books are all that is needed now to

enrage a section of the Indian public, we Indologists may as well

refrain from printing in India or turn our activities to activities

like writing computer programmes for word and sentence recognition.

However, this will not help much in understanding Indian culture and

its impact on other parts of the world. Such a public climate simply

runs counter to the growing worldwide exchange of ideas. Vigorous

exploration of each other's views, and keen, even contentious debate

is the need of the hour, not book burning.

 

The barbaric acts at Pune can only be compared to the systematic

destruction of Croatian and Bosnian cultural assets by the Serbs,

the looting of the Baghdad Museum, or the recent burning down of the

Sanskrit University at Dang, Nepal by the Maoists. In stunning

contrast, the Sanskrit manuscripts in the Panjab University Library

at Lahore are well preserved and can be used by scholars. This is

not always the case in certain Indian libraries. Markedly different

from the collaboration I got at some other libraries, I made three

visits to the Benares Sanskrit University Library in 1973-74 to ask

for films of a few Vedic manuscripts, paid all fees, even supplied

the film and the chemicals — but I am still waiting. Luckily, BORI

was more open-minded then (though much less so recently). I could

then microfilm a few manuscripts, among which a unique manuscript of

the Rgveda on brittle birch bark, brought from Kashmir by Georg

Buehler in 1875.

 

These recent acts of vandalism underline the necessity of filming or

scanning such documents of the cultural past. A small beginning was

made in India by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organisation some 35 years ago, and more recently by the

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts at New Delhi, with a

nationwide project initiated by its ousted energetic director,

Kapila Vatsyayan.

 

All of this is quite late in the day. The German Oriental Society

had offered a similar project to India way back in the 1960s but was

rebuffed. Instead, we have done so in Nepal for 32 years, 1970-2002.

(Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project: http://www.uni-

hamburg.de/ngmpp/). Incidentally, this has created a whole

generation of Indologists, including me, who now are cultural

ambassadors of Nepal. We have filmed all public and private

manuscripts available, running to well over a lakh and including

some 2,500 of the oldest in the subcontinent (c. 1000-1500 CE), and

often not found elsewhere. In the summer of 1973, the central

government building was burnt down, allegedly by the Nepal Congress

Party, destroying 40,000 photos of the Department of Archaeology but

luckily not the 24,000 old manuscripts stored half a mile away. Need

one recall the sabre rattling, just two years ago, advocating the

dropping of atomic bombs here and there?

 

The films of the NGMPP are stored in two locations, and thus are

virtually immune from accidental or intended destruction. Nothing

short of a simultaneous strike on Kathmandu and on Berlin can now

destroy that country's written heritage. The same should be done

with the laudable IGNCA initiative: storage of copies not just in

Delhi but in the four corners of India and, better, also in some

UNESCO centres abroad.

 

The NGMPP films in Berlin may be freely used, as a late concession

of Nepal, by German-speaking scholars. This requires an openness to

international scholarly research that is hardly felt at present in

the midst of misunderstood patriotism. However, it was foreigners,

mostly Germans, who first published the Vedas in Nagari characters

and who first compiled a comprehensive and so far unrivalled

Sanskrit dictionary, way back in the 19th century. Yet, Indologists'

motives then and now — the comprehensive study of India based on its

texts, etc.— are increasingly misunderstood, if not intentionally

maligned for political purposes. We also are subject to increasing

Government restrictions. India is making progress — in losing its

cultural ambassadors abroad. This rising tide needs to be stemmed.

http://www.hindu.com/2004/01/12/stories/2004011201581000.htm

[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, "S.Kalyanaraman" <kalyan97>

wrote:

>

 

VA: There has been a suggestion by Indologists that Indian libraries

should allow digitization of manuscripts. Yes, it preserves them

from total destruction. But there is a credible reason for sometimes

not

allowing that. I refer you to the following example, again, one in

which Dr Bahulkar helped the researcher, and one which deals with

oral recitations rather than manuscripts -

 

http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?

A2=ind0311&L=indology&D=1&O=D&F=P&S=&P=4298

 

Even though I can afford to buy the collection for USD 3200, I

CANNOT because of restrictions imposed by the seller! Is this fair?

How is knowledge and research being advanced

by these medieval restrictions? How is this attitude different from

the one exhibited by Brahmins who would die rather than teach the

Vedas to a Sudra? The restrictions effectively prevents Indian

libraries and educational institutions from purchasing them. I even

wonder if BORI was gifted a copy, despite the services rendered by Dr

Bahulkar. If the Brahmin recitors had known that their recitations

would be sold in such a(n effectively) discriminatory manner, they

would not have recited the texts for the Danish researcher. What the

Copenhagen institute has done is, in my opinion, completely

unethical. Is it not a kind of theft of cultural heritage of India?

[At least,

Gunthard Mueller had the courtesy of donating a set of CDs on

Kashmirian Paippalada Samhita manuscript to the GOI.]

 

 

Perhaps therefore, I wonder if it is ethical for Shrikant Bahulkar

and Saroja Bhate to cooperate with and serve Euro-American visiting

scholars if this is what we are going to get in return.

Indologists have their own ways of preventing others from reading

their own texts. Many texts in TITUS archives are password protected.

Dr Witzel is on record for saying that he will not share his copy of

Orissan recension of Atharvana Charanavyuha with me (though I got my

own copy from Indian subsequently). One should practice what he

preaches.

 

Sincerely,

 

Vishal