apparently successful deconstruction overlooks is what is in fact blindingly
obvious. In Orientalism in its original meaning was not oppression of the East,
but the colonization of the western mind by the East. It is the strength of Indian
ideas and Indian texts that overpowers the western scholar, that forces him to
spend his life in willing servitude to them.
Notes
1 Salutary is Jamison’s acknowledgment of the Vedic scholarship of A. B. Keith,
“undervalued, presumably because of the superficial contempt he affects for the
texts. (But could he have spent so much care and intelligence without some respect
for the texts? And can those who evince more respect for the texts claim as large a
contribution to our understanding of them? I cannot.)” ( Jamison 1991: xiv).
2 Kejariwal’s work establishes that “the world of scholarship and the world of admin-
istration...were worlds apart” during the period he studies, 1784–1838 (Kejariwal
1988: 226). Trautman notes, “So far from there being a thick institutionalized con-
nection between Orientalism and empire, as readers of Said might be led to imagine,
one could say, roughly, that the study of Sanskrit varied inverselywith imperialism
... It is as if the British had been persuaded by James Mill’s preposterous argument
that ignorance of Indian languages was a positive aid to the formation of unclouded
views on imperial policy” (Trautman 1997: 189).
3 Hastings quoted the Bhagavadgı ̄ta ̄in his letters to his wife, finding it a source of inspi-
ration. In his private notebook he asked himself “Is the incarnation of Christ more
intelligible than... those of Vishnu?” The current European superiority owed
nothing to Christianity, but was due to “a free government, cold climate and print-
ing and navigation” (quoted by Trautman 1997: 72).
4 Inner second panel of west pillar of north gate, the Great Stupa, Sanchi. The
monkey’s story is given in the Dhammapadatthakattha; see Sivaramamurti 1977: 190.
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