Eurocentric prisms
Nirbhai Singh

Invading the Sacred: An Analysis of Hinduism
Studies in America
Eds. Krishnan Ramaswamy, Antonio de Nicolas and Aditi Banerjee.
 Rupa & Co. Pages 545. Price not stated.

We have been aping the Westerners for a very long time. It is unfortunate that we have not come out of their domination, though they have trivialised our culture and claim that they are competent to interpret it. The Eurocentric methodology and hermeneutical contribution of the Jews to the sacred scriptures is significant. The Indian study has been formulated within the American and European cultural framework. Being ‘outsiders,’ the Westerners could not do justice to our cultural heritage. Culture is a lived experience and we have been experiencing it since times immemorial. Western interpretations of our texts are overshadowed with their cultural biases. It is very difficult to interpret culture of ‘others’ because they are alien to it. This book focuses on this vital issue.

The prevailing knowledge of the English-knowing Indian elite is of the colonised bias. Indian thinkers make use of the Western methodology and impose on our culture without recognising that they should develop their own method for understanding. There is no harm in using the Eurocentric methodology but it should be modified, so that it is fit in with the indigenous culture of the land.

The book suggests that our scholars should shed the Western depiction of Indian culture. And the precondition of it is sound grasp of Indian culture, critical, and creative mind. Liberal quoting from the texts does not show creativity. The essays and critiques of the Western scholarship in India’s religions contained in the books must be seen as the early signs of awakening to the changed conditions. This is welcome in the Indian academia, if this shift sets a new trend of critical and analytical understanding of religion and culture. It will strengthen our faith, which is anchored on sandy grounds that is liable to collapse at any moment. It will make us prone to fanaticism, bigotry and communalism.

The anthology in hand is not a benchmarking treatise that objectively projects Indian worldview that is being practiced in India. In North America, the Hindu diaspora might have digressed from Indian practices because of Western influences. They are alienated from the native culture and inhaling in day and night Western ideas and practices. They are rope dancers between Indian and Western cultures. They are unconsciously interpreting Indian culture from the Western perspective. The lenses of Eurocentric methodology shadow the interpretation of Hinduism. In short, the Indian diaspora failed to produce veridical understanding of Indian worldview.

The study of Hindu religion and culture by the ‘insiders’ and the ‘outsiders’ is represented by the Hindu diaspora and the North American elite community, respectively. Though the diaspora made abortive attempts to give new direction to the ongoing post-colonial debate with the Westerners, Eurocentric methods dominate the academia.

The god Ganesha in Hindu mythology is very significant. His trunk is misinterpreted. Someone says that the Hindus worship the Devil. Tantrism has been "interpreted as a hypothetical philosophical spiritual mask hiding its true character as pornography and a system of exploiting the lower castes." The Indic worldview, thus, inked in the volume is caricatured and distorted.

This book highlights the key issues, which are debated in North America. The media, Internet, universities have obscured the issues. The book is primarily concerned with psychoanalytic approach that does not fit into Hinduism. It treats Indian society as a patient. The latter half of the book chronicles whether the academic establishments in America have responded rightly to the challenges. The controversy recorded in the book is new information for the experts and lay readers. It is welcome for serious researchers of religion and culture if they set aside their prejudices towards ‘other’ religions and cultures.

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