Brainfade Posted August 18, 2012 Posted August 18, 2012 Documentaries like this does set you thinking of so many myriad of ways, does it not? One question it always brings in my mind is - With such a history, better than any civilization really, why do we suck so bad at Historical exvacation/projects etc? Almost all the best work on Indian civilization comes from British stable. In many ways but for them such knowledge would be lost to the world, and alarmingly even to Indians. When my kid sister was studying in England, 3 of her British colleagues visited our hometown as they were doing a research on Pali, Brahmi and Prakrit script. And one of the better places for them is the Magadh University library/mueseum. Call me a cynic but I am yet to meet an Indian who has worked on those scripts in recent time. Recently I read some works on these dead, or dying languages, and they were ALL by Brits. We've been through this before on other similar issues, Lurker. And I contend again as I did before - you are being unfair. History, archaeology and the non-performing arts are luxuries in a nation where people are just starting to work their way out of a financial rut. At this point, our nation (can I still say that?) is focused on the practical aspects of life - food, acquiring property, saving for children's education etc. As a student of Indian history, you know better than I do that the arts and other creative/exploratory fields have garnered support only in very prosperous times. The Brits enjoyed tremendous prosperity (ill-gotten as it was) over 4 centuries, and their elite had the means and leisure to explore or sponsor those who wanted to explore. Heck, Charles Darwin was born in a well-to-do family and his father paid his way to go on the voyage where he made his discoveries. He was a leisurely, well-to-do "gentleman," who could afford to be a naturalist. Give it a few decades ... India will get there, too.
Lurker Posted August 18, 2012 Posted August 18, 2012 As a student of Indian history, you know better than I do that the arts and other creative/exploratory fields have garnered support only in very prosperous times. The Brits enjoyed tremendous prosperity (ill-gotten as it was) over 4 centuries, and their elite had the means and leisure to explore or sponsor those who wanted to explore. Heck, Charles Darwin was born in a well-to-do family and his father paid his way to go on the voyage where he made his discoveries. He was a leisurely, well-to-do "gentleman," who could afford to be a naturalist. Give it a few decades ... India will get there, too. Ha CA you can accusme a liberal of anything, but not being optimistic is not one of them. We liberals tend to be romantic optimist always looking for good in people and eternally hopeful, to a fault in the eyes of your fellow Conservatives even. :winky: My assertion though is more around are we just piling all these issues for the next generation to resolve? Somehow every tricky National question ends up with a version of same answer - We are nation building, once we are rich and prosperous, these issues would be handled on their own! But would they? To use an analogy, think of a couple who have become parents at 18 (or under) and then expect their teenage son/daughter to abstain from sex when they are of the same age. Is that an unfair expectation to start with? Nothing against people who have their hearts in the right place, I am simply hoping we are not pushing everything to the next generation, or the one after, to do things that we never addressed :winky:
Lurker Posted August 18, 2012 Posted August 18, 2012 In summary, my point was that there are people at different parts in India doing some amazing things which no one knows about. We have lost many great minds to this phenomena. It may not be as great as that in the US but there still are. The way to break this cycle is to encourage people to carry out such studies i.e. if we have the time from Hindu-Muslim riots, calling NE chinks. BJP vs Congress etc. [1] http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~pb/pubs-yearwise.html [2] http://videolectures.net/icwsm2010_oconnor_ftp/ [3] http://jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards.html#chi Perfect! Thanks for a lovely and detailed response Dex M. Those links are phenomenal. Thank you for sharing. Yes it is a lot down to us as well on what we choose to highlight, linguistic socio discoveries or SMS sent out in Bangalore. PS: I did know who Sam Pitroda was :winky:
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