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| | Hindu Diaspora: Global Perspectives | | Author | : International Conference on the Hindu Diaspora (1997 Concordia univer, T. S. Rukmani | | Price | : $ 38.00 $ 32.30 | | Published Date | : 01 December, 2001 |
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| Amazon.com User Review :
This book is a must-read for those interested in Indian philosophies. Like ancient/medieval Western philosophies, Indian philosophy is hard to grasp unless one has a clear sense as to what sorts of problems the philosophers are trying to answer. In this work Potter does a very good job at this-- he lays out the fundamental problem that all (speculative) Indian philosophies attempt to solve: How is complete freedom possible? As explained very clearly by Potter, complete freedom is understood by classical Indian philosophers as BOTH freedom-to (i.e. we can effect changes in the world so that we can be free from bondage by karma) and freedom-from (i.e. the world leaves us with sufficient room that we don't HAVE to stay bounded or become free). Put under this fundamental understanding, Potter was able to provide a clear survey of a myriad of ~20 most significant philosphers' views-- their logics, ontologies and epistemologies-- under a very handy framework of classification. Potter's classification is philosophically-oriented and is infinitely more useful than the standard scheme (Materialists, Buddhism, Jainism and the 6 Hindu 'Orthodox' schools). This classification is both very insightful and original. As someone who is fairly well-acquainted with the different strands of classical Chinese philosophy (which asks a slightly different question: 'how is becoming a <sage> possible?' where the interpretation of the sage as end-goal is more diversely understood than in the Indian tradition), I feel that Potter's framework gives me a powerful tool to help me acquire a much deeper philosophical understanding of the Chinese traditions.
As a clear thinker, Potter writes with sharp clarity and is able to express difficult ideas in fairly accessible terms. In fact, it's a real accomplishment to complete such an ambitious survey of major Indian philosophies in a manuscript of less than 300 pages. I only wish that Potter had revised this work after his editing of the encyclopedia of Indian philosophies! (This work was originally published in 1963, and does show his lack of a good first-hand understanding of Buddhist philosophies. If Potter had revised this after his editing of the Encyclopedia, I'm sure this book will be longer and with more thorough analysis on the Abhidharma philosophies.) | | | | | Review This Book | You need to Login or Register in order to submit Comments.
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| | | Swaveda User Reviews | | Username : pankajjain | Rating : | May 11, 2004[12:58 PM] | | | Comment : This book is a unique collection of diasporic perspectives from many diverse countries Australia, Malaysia, Canada, USA, Caribbean countries, European countries etc.
The first essay about Australia highlighted once again how severely difficult it was for Indian immigrants to settle there much like in the early parts of 20th century in Canada, USA and Europe. Compared to those times, I am happy not to have faced any such racism when we came here with thousands of other software professionals in the late 90s. Does the credit go to easier immigration laws, tougher anti-hate laws, globalization by media/economy or simply the high-tech boom? On page 19, it is interesting to note that income levels of Hindus in Australia remain higher than other groups. This pattern matches with Indians in USA in some ways.[1] On the same page, Purushottama Bilimoria is right to observe that although there are innumerable sects/cults/groups in Hinduism, all of them agree that they are also Hindus; of course one needs to study more thoroughly about more psychological and philosophical commonalities among them. In the end appear the Usual Suspects: BJP/RSS/VHP, but at least the essays don’t start with them unlike elsewhere. It is refreshing to note that Hinduism is rightly portrayed much beyond Hindutva in the essays of this book. I am against the political exploitation of any religion in any part of the world. From the ancient times, India has never been a theocratic state. Brahmins (religious leaders) and Kshatriyas (political leaders) always had separate job descriptions and duties.
In the next chapter, Harold Coward makes an interesting point on page 38; the third generation of Indians is usually more assertive about their Hindu identities. Does this match with the stage 3 of second generation Hindus mentioned on page 254 by Moag. On page 38, Coward misses a point like many other scholars in this book and elsewhere. Hindu religious practice is portrayed to be individualistic and home-based rather than communal. There can be cited many examples from many festivals and other religious ceremonies to challenge this notion. The Yajna (Havan or sacrifice) concept was also community based. However, on page 40, Coward (in a rare observation) correctly points out that rituals for deaths and marriages were meant to be performed in the temples.
One of the most enlightening essays of the book was about Malaysian Hindus. It was interesting how Ramanathan distinguished between “Agamic” and “Non-Agamic” temples, plantation-based temples, labor-lines temples and various other kinds of temples. I was amazed to note that there are 17,000 temples in that country. On page 86 is another interesting and rare observation about caste mobility, how a lower-caste person becomes a priest and rises in the social hierarchy. On the same page, it was depressing to see how Malaysian government policy favors Malays (mostly Muslims) against Hindus. On page 89, another interesting mention of Hindu presence there as early as 1400 – 1511 CE, is cited. The most depressing section, however, was on page 98 about the peril of Islamic resurgence. One wonders how such issues go mostly unnoticed by scholars of Hinduism (while they vehemently criticize Hindutva, why such asymmetry?) I was in Malaysia in the year 1995 and had observed that Malays are called as Bhumi-Putras (Sons of soil) and get much more privileges than Tamil Hindus there. Government has openly embraced Islam as official religion also. Compare that to India - BJP came to power mostly exploiting Hindduism, still cannot succeed in doing a similar thing. All Indian government will always accommodate all the sections of society. The strong equal and affirmative action policies of India and USA remain unmatched by many other countries.[2] Page 107 mentions another interesting observation; Hindu temples never pose any security threats. This correlates in some ways to the usual criticism of VHP. VHP should not be portrayed like Mafia doing all sorts of anti-national crimes. In contrast, Sikhs (in operation Blue star days) and Muslims (in Kashmir and also elsewhere in Asia) have used their religious places for violence.
Another interesting essay is by Radhika Sekar. On the first page one finds one of the most repeated declarations such as: “Hinduism term itself is an invention by Britishers etc.” Again, on page 308, Hindu unity is wrongly compared with Hindutva. Page 312 has similar tone. On page 313, Samskaras are defined in extremely disturbing way. Samskaras are not merely to please some spirits and divinities but are meant to highlight major turning points in one life, such as birth, naming, education-beginning and graduation, marriage, death etc. It was very shallow interpretation of these important occasions of one’s life. Similar tone continues on page 314 to describe the temple visit. How I wish one reads the “Darshan” book by Diana Eck to understand the whole process of visiting a temple. Another usual suspect appears on page 319; Shiva and Vishnu are not found in same complex. How easily this can be challenged by the concept of Panchaayatan Puja! On page 322, another oft-repeated observation about non-congregational Hindu temples which I rebutted elsewhere. Finally on page 323, she acknowledged the tranquility, organization and harmony of Ottawa temple.
Next was the essay by Mary Linda. On page 387, she observes the preference for mountains for Hindu temples. The prime reason for the temples on mountains is to facilitate more mixing of devotees with the nature: rivers, mountains etc. Religion is not just confined to temples. To mix more with nature is to experience divinity indirectly. That’s why rivers, trees, mountains etc have important role to play in Hinduism.
Overall, these essays provide good narratives of how Hindus assert their identities by building temples. How they make flexible changes to architecture and many other features of temple while trying to maintain the authenticity of them as best as they can. How the emphasis is more on scholastic side of Hinduism in addition to the ritualistic side and how immigrant life forces them to think about their own culture.
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[1] According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Indian American median family income is $60,093 as against the national median family income of $38, 885.
[2] Page 85, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life by Ashutosh Varshneya [Yale University Press, 2002] | |
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