He thinks that the compulsions of modern India's competitive surge in economic well being may have removed the priority of genuine studies of old language texts from Indian academia for nearly two generations.
He states that a well known US University which has been looking for an outstanding Telugu scholar to replace a Professor about to retire has had no luck in finding one from India's Telugu academics.
During his stay in Karnataka learning classical Kannada from Vidwan Venkatachala Sastry of Mysore, Professor Pollock says that he did not encounter a single young scholar who had chosen to steep himself in the study of the classical works of Pampa, Ranna or Ponna Mahakavis.
He says that in the two great Universities in New Delhi, no one is studying classical persona of Hindi literature, such as Keshavdas.
He contrasts the situation with another capital city, Paris, where they would never dream of shelving/giving up studies on Corneille, Racine or Moliere.
He rues the fact that a large mass of Indo-Persian manuscripts, notably of the Mughal era remains untouched in India's archives.
During a conference at Udaipur, Rajasthan, he seems to have asked several classical language professor delegates, whether they were training their students to read and follow ancient texts in the languages. Three answered in the affirmative. All three were Sanskrit teachers.
He thinks that when the great Apabhramsa scholar H C Bhayani passed away in India, Apabhramsa studies in this country may have ground to a halt.
Professor Pollock wants India to commit itself to developing high caliber Indian institutes in humanities, Indian culture and Indian languages and give consideration to the thought that ancient literature too should be revived and not just ancient performing arts, though the latter could generate greater mass appeal and economic profits.
The loneliness that some Medhavis may feel among the total population of intellectuals of Indian origin, whether Ri or NRI, when raising issues like the misrepresentation of our old epics before impressionable young audiences abroad, is substantially due to lack of awareness among large sections of educated Indians of the enjoyment that study of our old texts can provide. We must inspire them to get back to these texts, before they are totally forgotten and sent into oblivion.
Exactly how right is the Professor in each one of the above findings? Perhaps we should find out.
Prof Pollock quotes Bhartrhari yet again and I will not quote. The sense he wants to convey is that it is easier to destroy an edifice than to build it again. We may have begun destroying our precious legacies through neglect. Time we woke up.
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written by narensomu, 2008-11-29 04:13:43
Thank you for the article.
We are literally sitting on priceless treasure but right from primary school days ,most of us have been effectively weaned from our heritage.
The Mc Caulay curse is still strong and unless we do take individual efforts to learn more about our native tongue to begin with, we can't reverse the trend.
The power mongers will talk about classical language status issues but will not do anything about preserving the literary treasures.
We feel happy as long as they keep their distorted opinions away from ancient literature.
The internet is a boon and we can use it more effcetively to create an awareness.
Let alone advanced studies, a parent I know proudly said they speak only English at home-[They live on TN-Kerala border] and not lowly Tamil or Malayalam!
I responded saying that her child was growing up learning just one language and therefore was being denied an oppurtunity to learn those languages that she had every right to learn.
There are many educated people like them .
Regards
ns
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written by P. Desikan, 2008-11-28 23:17:49
You are right, The Universities and their patrons, including the Government must make compensations comparable.
Compensations are of course one important motivation. The other is obvious to me. If you are the type that loves languages and you have the curiosity to look at the past, you may actually get greater satisfaction out of a career in ancient texts than otherwise. Study in India and work anywhere on Indian languages, or study anywhere and work in India, digging.
Regards.Partha
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written by advocatusD, 2008-11-28 22:57:33
What incentive do the young or not so young Indians have in studying and dedicating their lives to subjects that will not get them material returns?
Perhaps if the Indian Government makes up its mind whether these are National treasures or not, they might be able to create compensation packages which would be lucrative enough to attract the bring young minds of India.
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Thanks for the choice of subject. Something we Madhavis need to be concerned about intellectually.
I agree with advocatus on the lack of a monetarily endowed system in India to study our classics...
Pollock says all the right things, but in many ways, as the epitome of the Western scholar, he also is part of the system. They pick & chose what to promote, what to decry, etc, etc...he has his favorites, & his attitudes. Though by & large good, his emphases sometimes veer towards constructing opposition (real & imaginary) between the Sanskritic & vernacular linguistic systems...the 'Elitist' languages & 'Common man's" languages, etc...running ambiguous Conferences on "is Sanskrit a dead language"
Yes, as long as either (a) uncommited outsiders control Indic language studies, or (b) Indic peoples are apathetic..the future is bleak...