I am just wondering whether these reviewers would consider Michaevelli's The Prince as an "honest" book while the Gita is "dishonest"? Just because one provides no apologia while the other seems to qualify it's message based on the position in society? One friend felt the Mahabharat to be highly casteist - the prejudice is openly displayed visavis Karna for example as the adopted son of a charioteer. I agree. Of course this person was Greek and did not seem to think the Odyssey has a fair amount of fatalism.
On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 6:05 AM, Bharat Shetty <[email protected]>wrote: > Ah Kiran, > > I knew before that Doniger and Pankaj Mishra are both generally well > criticized writers. Mishra's posts have been criticized and proved to > be hollow before and these are the types of writers who along with > Martha Nausbaum try to write carefully as to make their side of > argument stand out. > > Ramachandra guha is another example. He would cleverly filter out > non-Nehru and non-congress stuffs from his books. > > So I would pick a low priced copy of this book just for the reading fun :-) > > -- Bharat > > On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 7:57 AM, Kiran K Karthikeyan > <[email protected]> wrote: > > 2009/4/29 Bharat Shetty <[email protected]> > > > >> Ok, fairly interesting book. > > > > > > Looks like Doniger is somebody whose scholarship disputed and has a > fairly > > strong inclination to favor a sexual interpretation of Hindu texts. But > as > > the article below points out, this malaise has spread throughout US > Hinduism > > studies. > > > > > http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Hinduism/2004/06/U-S-Hinduism-Studies-A-Question-Of-Shoddy-Scholarship.aspx?p=1 > > > > This particular excerpt from the article was enough to convince me that > she > > should be read with a pinch of salt - > > > > [University of Chicago professor Wendy Doniger has been quoted in the > > Philadelphia Inquirer calling the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text, "a > > dishonest book" that "justifies war."] > > > > I'm no scholar of the Gita, but I have read 4 > > versions/translations/interpretations, and I'm confused on how she > arrived > > at this conclusion. The wikipedia article doesn't speak too highly of her > > either (though it is disputed), so you if you are reading it, you might > want > > to check out the talk section for it too. > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Doniger > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wendy_Doniger > > > > But if you do manage to find a lower priced India copy, do let me know. > I'm > > poor too :) > > > > Kiran > > > >
