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judgments, and, often, outright misunderstandings. The researcher has the potential
to extend knowledge or to perpetuate bias and ignorance.^18
INDIGENIZING RESEARCH
ON HINDUISM
Can a non-Hindu researcher carry out research on Hinduism? The answer must be
a qualified yes: yes, but not on his or her own. He or she would need to devise a way
to suitably position him- or herself as a non-Hindu researcher. Research on Hin-
duism should involve “mentorship” of responsible Hindu/Indic scholars, who in
turn must satisfy the rigor of research. Such research must be supervised by a
Hindu/Indic researcher, not by a researcher who happens to be an Indologist. In-
digenizing research on Hinduism means drawing upon the body of knowledge and
corresponding code of values that have evolved over the millennia through the
input of indigenous Hindu commentators and scholars.
Hindu indigenism is grounded in an alternative worldview and a value system
that locate individuals in sets of relationships with the environment and levels of be-
ings and existence. Reframing research on Hinduism is about assuming greater con-
trol over the ways in which issues and problems pertaining to Hinduism are dis-
cussed and handled. The reframing of an issue is about making decisions; about its
parameters; about what is in the foreground, what is in the background; and what
complexities exist within that frame. It means resisting being boxed in and labeled
according to alien categories that may not fit.
PARADIGMS OF THEORY
AND RESEARCH ON HINDUISM
The question will inevitably arise, whether Hindu-directed research on Hinduism
is or can be its own paradigm. It would be unproductive to engage in a debate over
this right now because it might set up comparisons with Western research on Hin-
duism. Suffice it to say that, given its incipient phase, Hindu-directed research on
Hinduism will remain in the near future both less than and more than a paradigm.
A start may be made by undertaking research based on articles compiled in India
through Hindu Categories, edited by McKim Marriott (1990).
Creation of new parameters and methodologies for undertaking research on