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BHU students stage protest against appointment of Muslim professor In Sanskrit faculty


Gollum

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The students of the Banaras Hindu University staged a protest against the appointment of Muslim professor in the literature department of the Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vijnan. The protest began on November 7 against the appointment of 29-year old Feroz Khan in Sanskrit Department of the university. However, the Banaras Hindu University on Friday backed the appointment of professor in the Sanskrit faculty, and clarified that it is committed to provide equal opportunities to everyone irrespective of religion, caste, community or gender.

The clarification comes after the RSS students' wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) opposed the appointment of Firoz Khan as an assistant professor in the Sanskrit literature department.

The BHU administration issued a statement in which it said that the selection committee recommended the selection of the said candidate on the basis of prescribed guidelines of the University Grants Commission and the central government.

Some students have been staging a sit-in outside the vice chancellor’s office against the selection of Khan in the Sahitya department of the Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vijnan (SVDV). Rajasthan-born Khan studied at the Jaipur campus of the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, which is a deemed university under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, reports The Indian Express.

Moreover, the vice chancellor assured the students that the administration is committed to achieve the objectives of the university in providing equal educational and teaching opportunities to everyone irrespective of religion, caste, community or gender. On the other hand, expressing their apprehensions, students said that a non-Hindu should not teach them religion.

(With PTI inputs)

 

He was the best candidate to take that job, VC backed him, deep roots in dharmic culture, check his family history...his dad was a Sanskrit graduate who used to compose/sing bhajans and raise money to maintain gaushalas. Heck they are probably more Hindu than me because I don't know Sanskrit, don't care about cows and stopped reciting shlokas before 7th standard. 

 

Pathetic by the students, *ing extremists. No wonder Sanskrit is a dead language. When Muslims want to learn and spread knowledge about their Indic roots why humiliate them? APJ, Bismillah Khan, KK Mohammad, Yesudas know more about our dharma than majority of dharmics. Don't like this Talibanized version of Hinduism one bit. They even had some purification ritual inside the campus..WTF !!!! 

 

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Those who say this is about religion and not language, how long before the Hindutva extremists start going after Kabir and Shirdi Sai Baba, 2 great icons of our dharma? This news makes me sick, APJ used to play veena every morning and take inspiration from Bhagavad Gita, just saying. Is it a crime for non-Hindus to participate in certain aspects/rituals of Hinduism? 

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I find this religious drama/tussle in every religion i.e. Fundamentalist vs Reformists. 

 

Fundamentalists are perhaps correct according to the sacred Hindu Texts ... Mr. Khan  may come under the category of "non-pure". 

 

And then there are Reformists, who accept half things in the sacred texts, while remaining half they want to abandon for the sake of reforms. 

 

At least I am happy to see that reformists have showed great success in Christianity/Judaism. I wish all the best to the Hindu Reformists too in their battle against the fundamentalists. 

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14 minutes ago, sandeep said:

Morons acting like Jihadis.

 

Credit to those who publicly spoke out against such nonsense.

@sandeep

Next time there is a marriage in your family circles,  why don't you invite a muslim who has indepth knowledge of all the mantras and vidhis as the marriage priest ? Will you ? So what if he is a Muslim, he will perform the vidhi and rituals just like a hindu priest, because he knows it.

 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Gollum said:

Those who say this is about religion and not language, how long before the Hindutva extremists start going after Kabir and Shirdi Sai Baba, 2 great icons of our dharma? This news makes me sick, APJ used to play veena every morning and take inspiration from Bhagavad Gita, just saying. Is it a crime for non-Hindus to participate in certain aspects/rituals of Hinduism? 

@Gollum

 

Sanskrit has deep roots in vedic sanatan dharma. You want someone whose religion considers such a religion as pagan to teach sanskrit just because he has mastery over the language ?

 

This is just like allowing a devout muslim to be a caretaker of a hindu temple, including cleaning the murthis.

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39 minutes ago, rangeelaraja said:

@Gollum

 

Sanskrit has deep roots in vedic sanatan dharma. You want someone whose religion considers such a religion as pagan to teach sanskrit just because he has mastery over the language ?

 

This is just like allowing a devout muslim to be a caretaker of a hindu temple, including cleaning the murthis.

What’s wrong with that? Lot of artisans etc who make hindu sculptures or other artwork with hindu deities are muslims. As long as they are not being offensive and earning a hard living how does that matter?

 

Can you speak Sanskrit that you take so much pride in? This man did a PHD in a language if he doesn’t deserve to be the dean than who does?

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21 minutes ago, maniac said:

What’s wrong with that? Lot of artisans etc who make hindu sculptures or other artwork with hindu deities are muslims. As long as they are not being offensive and earning a hard living how does that matter?

 

Can you speak Sanskrit that you take so much pride in? This man did a PHD in a language if he doesn’t deserve to be the dean than who does?

 

Heard of the word Inculturation ? Do you want someone to use the abrahamic  monotheistic lens to view the only

non-monotheistic religion in the world ?

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A more nuanced argument about protecting IPR. If you don't own it, then it will be misappropriated like a Sidney Pollock and Wendy Doniger. They are interpreting Hindu texts according to their prrverted notions. Pollock calls Ramayana is the reason for two world wars, Wendy Doniger thinks gopikas are lesbians. Can you prevent such perverted interpretations that we find sacred? There is no restrictions on seekers, but true interpretations should be from someone who comes from within the tradion. The solution is to produce more Sanskrit scholars who revere the concepts and not just academically interpret. There should be no problem if nin-hindus teach Sanskrit aesthetic litreture like Bhasa's works or Kalidasa's dramas.

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The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in-between. Yes, it is bigoted to keep someone out of a professorship just because of his faith, when his qualifications do not warrant such discrimination. On the other hand, it is not unreasonable to suggest that one should be cautious when one does not know the motivations that bring a Muslim into teaching Sanskrit, a language that holds the key to dharmic thought.

Scholars and academics cannot be separated from the motivations that drive their scholarship. But, equally, one cannot ask them to lay off just because their motivations are less than bona fide.

For every David Frawley or a Koenraad Elst who has dived deep into Hindu tradition and vedic knowledge with the best of intentions, there are the Sheldon Pollocks, Wendy Donigers and a whole busload of Western Indologists in US academe who seek to undermine Hinduism from within through a control of scriptural interpretations and narrative. Even evangelical Christians, from Roberto de Nobili to present day conversion mafias, seek to learn Indic traditions – a strategy called inculturation – in order to make it easy from Hindus to convert to Christianity.

Thus, Hindu cultural properties, from the dhwaja sthambams to saffron robes, mangalsutras and yoga, have been misappropriated by evangelists to further their own conversion agendas. Even rogue Muslim preachers like Zakir Naik have delved deep into Hindu mythology in order to use this knowledge to ridicule Hinduism and gain converts.

But, the other side of the coin is this: you cannot protect your property if you do not seek to own it and zealously protect its intellectual property rights (IPR). A yogic property unprotected by widespread practice and certification controls on who is authorised to teach it will essentially be stolen. Ditto for Sanskrit scholarship. If enough people schooled in the Indian tradition do not learn Sanskrit, the language will be appropriated by outsiders to these traditions, often for their own narrow purposes.

No one can stop anyone from embracing knowledge and traditions other than his own, even given a mala fide intention to eviscerate or “digest” them. This cultural misappropriation can only be fought by a larger investment in people who are schooled in your own tradition, and not by arbitrarily erecting barriers to their entry in BHU. If there are not enough good quality Indic scholars who can publish English translations of Indic literature, a Rohan Murty will seek out a Sheldon Pollock to do the job.

Then there is also the other truth: you can’t defend something if you do not also have offensive capability. What a Pollock can do to Sanskrit studies or a Wendy Doniger to the interpretation of Hinduism, an Indian should be able to do to Christian and Islamic studies, provided she has devoted decades of effort to doing a purva paksha on these Abrahamic tradition and civilisations.

The argument between Pawariya and Bhattacharjee is akin to the one between free trade advocates and protectionists. You can’t embrace free trade unless you are competitive, and that may need some protection. But protection can’t be an end in itself, for then you will never be competitive.

You can protect a BHU from hiring its next Muslim Sanskrit professor, but ultimately the only answer is to develop enough high-quality Sanskrit scholars schooled in the dharmic tradition so that they top the qualifications chart. If there are enough scholars with the right dharmic input in them, the entry of the odd Muslim scholar will not worry anybody.

The challenge is to produce more and more scholars steeped in Indic traditions, and also scholars who become experts in Abrahamic theology and civilisational knowledge, so that the playing field is level over the next generation. Or we will continue to remain mentally colonised, afraid of taking on the world confidently.

 

https://swarajyamag.com/politics/the-real-pros-and-cons-of-bhus-sanskrit-department-recruiting-a-muslim

 

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2 hours ago, rangeelaraja said:

@sandeep

Next time there is a marriage in your family circles,  why don't you invite a muslim who has indepth knowledge of all the mantras and vidhis as the marriage priest ? Will you ? So what if he is a Muslim, he will perform the vidhi and rituals just like a hindu priest, because he knows it.

 

 

 

 

As if academic study of a language, is the same thing as religious practice and ceremonies of the faithful.  

 

All you are doing is making a good demonstration of your bigotry.  

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26 minutes ago, coffee_rules said:

A more nuanced argument about protecting IPR. If you don't own it, then it will be misappropriated like a Sidney Pollock and Wendy Doniger. They are interpreting Hindu texts according to their prrverted notions. Pollock calls Ramayana is the reason for two world wars, Wendy Doniger thinks gopikas are lesbians. Can you prevent such perverted interpretations that we find sacred? There is no restrictions on seekers, but true interpretations should be from someone who comes from within the tradion. The solution is to produce more Sanskrit scholars who revere the concepts and not just academically interpret. There should be no problem if nin-hindus teach Sanskrit aesthetic litreture like Bhasa's works or Kalidasa's dramas.

There is a world of difference between a Wendy doing dumb-ass psycho-analysis, and a qualified professor teaching the langauge in a university.  Please don't cite one to justify straight-up bigotry against the other.  

 

This is Pakistani-style fundamentalist exclusionist thinking.  You are mirroring the behavior of those you detest, and claim to be unlike.

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17 minutes ago, sandeep said:

There is a world of difference between a Wendy doing dumb-ass psycho-analysis, and a qualified professor teaching the langauge in a university.  Please don't cite one to justify straight-up bigotry against the other.  

 

This is Pakistani-style fundamentalist exclusionist thinking.  You are mirroring the behavior of those you detest, and claim to be unlike.

O binary man, RTFA (article). Do you want somebody who doesn't believe in murthi pooja and is taught to call it as idolatory and a sin, to come out and teach its true meaning? No other religious theologies allow that. The day we have such an open architecture, we can call this protest, bigotry. You want Hindus to be open and get slaughtered in this real world? Vasidaiva kutumbakam was uttered when there were no slaughtering religions. Now, we have.  If you don't want Hindus to be fundamentalists, go tell othets to not call us kaffirs and tell them to not pray 5 times a day to a supreme power for a victory over non believers and sinners.

 

I have no qualms if he leaves out sacred texts and teach samskrutha as a aesthetic language and describe the nuances of its literature. But classic samskrutha is woven into religious theology, outsiders don't get it. If you call varnashrama in its original intentions as a mere caste system, you are out.

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6 minutes ago, coffee_rules said:

Do you want somebody who doesn't believe in murthi pooja and is taught to call it as idolatory and a sin, to come out and teach its true meaning

Is he teaching theology or language?  Stop moving goalposts to justify bigotry.

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23 minutes ago, coffee_rules said:

Who knows, ? Gave an example of murthi pooja. It is not idolatory, but he has grown up calling it a sin. No?

Murthi pooja is not relevant to study of language.  He teaches the language.  If you don't know, then don't make blanket claims or justifications.  

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1 hour ago, coffee_rules said:

Who knows, ? Gave an example of murthi pooja. It is not idolatory, but he has grown up calling it a sin. No?

I don’t think he has to chant mantras and worship deities as a language professor of Sanskrit .

 

I don’t see anything wrong with this. 
 

if Some of the patron of the art type Hindus  can adore Urdu why can’t a Muslim take up and learn Sanskrit. It’s a step in the right direction.

 

 

 

 

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