Indology, what is it good for?

IndiaFacts, 2018

While received Indology has opened many paths for scholars studying India, it can hardly stand still in a rapidly evolving scenario. It needs to go beyond language, philosophy, ancient history etc. and, instead of considering the text-critical approach as the be-all and end-all of its quest, it urgently requires employing interdisciplinary tools. A multi-pronged approach alone will do justice to the vast data at the disposal of Indologists. Fortunately, the electronic revolution has made it much easier to collect data, edit texts with precision and prepare indexes, etc. We must recognize that it requires the tools of interpretation of classical philology, anthropology, political science, jurisprudence and sociology to make sense of seminal texts. This would often necessitate groups of scholars of different disciplines working together within a framework of frequent academic exchanges.

Epistemological Criticism to Contemporary Indology

In the last hundred years, the different branches of science, in almost all their expressions, have make every effort to perfect its methods, techniques and instrumentation, with the ideal of obtaining authentic, objective and real knowledge. However, various discoveries have led to heated debates about the differences between what is objective, scientific, proto-scientific, pseudoscientific and anti-scientific knowledge. In fact, there are specific disciplines that seek to explore these fields of knowledge, such as gnoselogy, etc. To the degree, that the ontological questions have now been formulated, such as the degree of imperfection of the experimental method, the formal logic, the real or symbolic value of the numbers, the defects and illusions of sensory perception? Even if there is an objective reality that can be studied by science, or if it is an illusion from senses? These and other aspects have become of interest to specialists in the philosophy of science. Among these branches are epistemology, (from the Greek πιστήμη-episteme, "knowledge", and λόγος (logos), "theory") stands out. It is a branch of philosophy whose object of study is limits and defects of scientific knowledge. Now it is revealing to be aware that among the scholars of these disciplines there is a whole discourse and debate with diverse opinions on the definition of what the sciences are. But in an operational way, the more general definition will be adopted as systematic and articulated type of knowledge that aims to formulate, through appropriate and rigorous languages, the laws that govern the phenomena related to a certain sector of reality. (Océano 1995) Set of objective facts and accessible to several observers, in addition to being based on a criterion of truth, universality and a permanent correction, which leads to the generation of more objective knowledge in the form of concrete, quantitative observable facts and verifiable predictions referred to past, present and future. Although other classifications exist, Rudolf Carnap categorized them as formal sciences, natural sciences and social sciences. The Social sciences, also called sciences of culture or spirit, are all the disciplines that deal with aspects of the human being-culture, art, spirituality and society, etc. The method depends on each particular discipline, even though all try to share objectivism and empiricism as a basis for verification. For example: anthropology-political science-demography-economics-law-history-psychology-sociology-human geography-social work, etc. This paper we will be limited to presenting an epistemological analysis on a variation of these branches, the Indology. It is relevant to mention that as a field of knowledge, the Indology is not unified. In the present moment, there is a strong confrontation between the experts, which has generated a series of divergent positions.

Historiographia linguistica, 2003

IndiaFacts.org, 2018

This article addresses the experiences and fates of Jewish scholars in Indology. It asks whether these scholars were sufficiently aware of Indology's anti-Semitic bias or were also playing the institutional game of othering and denigrating the Indians in a quest for acceptance in a pervasively anti-Semitic discipline. The article demonstrates that whereas Jewish scholars entered Indology in a misguided attempt at social advancement, they were never accepted as equals by their colleagues. Indology remains a fundamentally Protestant discipline, which requires a deracination or de-Judification as the price for entry. In view of the fact that contemporary Jewish Indologists failed to recognize or acknowledge these issues, a degree of skepticism toward their claims of moral and epistemic authority is warranted.