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20. Hinduism with Others

Interlogue

laurie l. patton

andchakravarthi ram-prasad,

withkala acharya

This essay is published for the first time here.

This essay is presented as a prolegomenon to building constructive and collegial re-
lationships between Hindu and non-Hindu both inside and outside the academy.
Our work was born out of a set of conversations and experiences among the three
of us that we believe to be far more extensive and everyday than is usual in the
present intellectual climate, where there is suspicion on one side and resentment on
the other. This essay is an attempt to put the Gandhian principles ofsatyagraha—
which were articulated at one scholarly meeting in 2002 and are now sadly at risk of
being mired in unproductive exchange—into philosophical practice within the
academy.^1 We believe that the cumulative effect of everyday acts of understanding
and cooperation between Hindu and non-Hindu is extremely powerful and can help
shape our world. Such acts, rather than the recalcitrant memories of bitter exchange,
deserve our focus and exploration.

INTERLOGUE:

A NEW WORD FOR AN OLD CONCEPT

We begin with some questions, based on our everyday experience, that break down
the categories that currently dominate the language of the debate about the repre-
sentation of Hinduism. We start with these queries because we are interested in the