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Re: ARTICLE : Just say no to "Hinduism"
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To: ghen@netcom.com
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Subject: Re: ARTICLE : Just say no to "Hinduism"
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From: Vivek Sadananda Pai <vivek@cs.rice.edu>
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Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 15:26:19 -0500 (CDT)
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References: <ghenDxMoLK.Mou@netcom.com>
In article <ghenDxMoLK.Mou@netcom.com>,
Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rbalasub@ecn.purdue.edu> wrote:
|>Please refer to the archives. HKS has not had a civil
|>discussion with even _one_ person outside his tradition here or in srv. One
|>needs to only look at the archives.
Interestingly, this exchange reminds me of an essay Salman Rushdie had
written about the role of memory in Midnight's Children. Anyone who's
read that book will find it filled with inaccuracies, and some people
have apparently written to him about some of the "errors."
Of course, Rushdie was writing fiction, so in addition to reporting
the events regarding Amitabh Bacchan's stay in Breach Candy Hospital,
he also adds in events which never occurred, like the land reclamation
projects in Bombay (see the book for details).
Now, how does this compare to SRH? Simple - RB takes it upon himself
to point people to the archives. Of course, these same archives would
show that some of the points RB's been stating don't have a factual
basis, especially his summaries of events regarding other people.
Recently, RB stated his usual line of attack against the Gaudiyas, and
when confronted with evidence counter to his claims, rather than
discuss the evidence itself, he changed the topic. Instead of
discussing what Vishvesha Tirtha (sp?) did or didn't say, the reply
was about what Manish Tandon did or didn't say, and in that reply, he
managed to mangle the entire topic of debate. Most humorously, he
didn't even seem to find fault with Tandon's approach of "I'll make
the claim, but the evidence, unfortunately, died with my account at my
last job." How Fermatesque.
So, it's amusing to me that RB attacks the Gaudiyas because he claims
they've distorted history, but RB himself doesn't mind a bit about
history. Oh yes, and the archives will bear out what I've said. As RB
suggest, one needs to only look at the archives.
-Vivek
