Indian Exceptionalism: Colonial Stereotypes and Postcolonial Realities

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Re hamidm2 #23

[........ and don't pull a homi bhaba on me because if, for a while, the ruse of desire is calculable for the uses of discipline soon the repetition of guilt, justification, pseudo-scientific theories, superstition, spurious authorities, and classification can be seen as the desperate effort to 'normalize' formally the disturbance of a discourse of splitting that violates the rational, enlightened claims of its enunciatory modality.]

I take my hat off to you. I had you pegged down as the guy who can talk for an hour with just 6 Powerpoint slides and who says things like "...vertical and horizontal integration of business units.... empowering key decision-makers along the entire spectrum of the organization.... monetizing business opportunities", etc. To think that you can pull a Samina Shah on us, and on Samina herself!

Re: # 74

Please let it be known for the record that the interactor known as "Dash_Dot" spends a great deal of time and energy posting threads about and to me, despite my repeated wish not to interact with him/her.

let me also confess - before neembuji demands (and gets a Legal Order from the Court of Chowk-Staff) (as she has done with the bans on UP)

: I am not a professor, or a lecturer. Just a lowly humble guy - your average joe-blog) making my ends meet one-way or the other - and I donot even have the privilege of being a "PowerPointtologist" that is reserved for my betters.

Re: # 72

That should not be a case with an article on chowk.

Either the guy makes it interesting for us to go and read the background material, or take the trouble to explain this stuff to us. Its like expecting you to understand how Riemann sums can be used to approximate integrals, and the use of compact support to show that some kinds of neural networks can approximate a whole set of non-linear functions, with out a basic introduction to some of these terms and topics. (Let me assure that this is of great practical value and has a lot of economic potential - in fact you are subjected to this everyday of your life). But it is not done out of shear respect.

So please......try another trick on...

we might be numbskull's but not fools. we might have a limited understanding of the vocabulary used, but do have a reasonably good sceptical mindset to question the validity of the mind droppings going on.

Re: # 63

ROTFL neembu mohterama!

You are very quickly impressed with a few titles. Come, come now, that is not the kind of analytical and skeptical mind-set we expect of you. (and yes thats a compliment)

Let me say this - for you to consider this to be an academic journal shows your naivety.

This is a place where common folk not necessarily endowed with titles (I am one of them let me assure you) come to read and understand and perhaps assimilate ideas and views different from theirs.

(the rest _ as I have just noticed has been said by Wheel O Time and Hamidm2 (Hope you are sufficiently impressed with his ability to outdo you guys with his vocabulary and prose and analysis ;-) - Hamimd2 you are one heck of a guy....) have said it better than I can....

OK, neembu, I will do that.

In the meanwhile, it will be GREAT if 'professor' chopra took time to explain a little better what he meant by Indian exceptionalism, why that term has been used, and by whom, and why he does not believe in it. Because, if all this is clear only to those who read Leila Ahmed first, professor chopra would have already lost most of us.

In any case, my objections were only about the methods professor chopra uses to make his point. One can actually argue any thing and make a decent case for it.

Thanks for listening.

Re: # 71

I did not find the language, ideas, sentence structure, concepts, etc. to be unclear. Let me put it into perspective: google Leila Ahmed's Women and Gender in Islam. I believe a chapter from this book is available on the net. Read a few paragraphs of her work and see if you can understand it.

Before you claim that you cannot, please know that I assign this book to juniors and seniors at a State University. They may not know interdiscplinary studies, or the subject matter, but they understand her framework, her discussion and her analysis. Hope that puts this whole discussion in perspective for you.

Neembu, I cannot deny that 'interfaith dialogue' isn't my personal favorite subject.

Self interrogation, yes, that will be very helpful, but what is the point of that if most Indians can't understand what the interrogation is about?

Look, neembu, of ALL these chowkies here, Professor Chopra chooses to (or can) 'interrogate' his subject with you. Now, there is nothing against you, but this seems like someone who is happy living in his ivory tower, and supposedly talking to himself.

"Social" scientists ought to be a bit relevant, to talk to us ordinary people, in our language sometimes. Or at least be able to argue their points of view with people like us, who are often ignorant, and always bigoted.

If professor chopra does not have the confidence or the ability to explain and defend himself among us commoners, it is hard to return any respect.

Hope you see where some of us are coming from.

Re: # 69

but thats the whole point, isnt it? to find point of intersection. my fields include cultural studies, so i was able to understand his explication and what i didnt understand, i asked politely.

you could ask politely, but you chose to insult someone whose work seems to move towards positive and honest self identity and the effort of interfaith dialogue.

or do you resent that this work is so self/state interrogative?

neembu, the first thing "professor' chopra should have done was to explain what he meant by Indian Exceptionalism. Then he should have traced, for us, a little bit of the term's history, if any. Then he should have told us WHY he does not believe in it.

As of now, I do not know (and one guesses, many do not know) what the 'professor' is talking about. You said something, and the man quickly agreed, supposedly seeing one possible sympathizer.

IMHO, that is not the mark of a mature mind, but I am sure we can all learn from him if he clarified his ideas.

Re: # 65

and yet we can also look to hafiz's blasphemous assertion that God favors religions besides Islam, Oludah Equino's narrative of enslavement as Thomas Jefferson performed moral incontinence, Aisha's authorship in the Hadith.

These are also voices from the margins.

Re: # 64

I don't think you have offered any critique of prof. chopra's ideas except invective. kindly explicate where you found this theoretical framework lacking. your response will be evaluated on its' production of evidentiary support.

# 65, ...or, for children only.

Re: # 63

... you know what is really dangerous about these 'social scientist' ?........ some guy like lenin or stalin gets hold of stuff by marx and engels and goe berserk ! ..... or, even worse, a mob gets hold of some stuff by rousseau and goes on a rampage .... or, why go far, a cave dweller gets hold of the work of god and starts a holy war ....

.... i would suggest that all 'great' works of social science should carry the warning label, "not for politicians, prophets, peasents and children"