Topic started by Venki (@ proxyle02.ext.ti.com) on Wed Jul 10 14:22:57 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

"In the modern planetary situation, Eastern and Western ‘cultures’ can no longer meet one another as equal partners. They meet in a westernized world, under conditions shaped by western ways of thinking." --- W. Halbfass[i]

"This essay argues that intellectual svaraj (self-rule) is as fundamental to the long term success of a civilization as is svaraj in the political and financial areas. Therefore, it is important to ask: whose way of representing knowledge will be in control? It is the representation system that defines the metaphors and terminology, interprets what they mean in various situations, influences what issues are selected to focus on, and, most importantly, grants privileges by determining who is to control this marketplace of ideas."

From: The Axis of Neocolonialism
at: http://www.sulekha.com/column.asp?cid=218625

Are we Tamizhs sufficiently equipped with the necessary intellectual rigor based on our classics? If not, what needs to be done and how can the system be changed to do so?

Responses:

• From: P.N.Kumar (@ 202.154.23.98) on: Thu Jul 11 07:04:34
  
  Venki,
  
  Thanks for this URL.
  
  This observation is really thought provoking:
  
  >>>Furthermore, the marginalization of India’s heritage in its education system, particularly in the English medium system that produces most of the leaders of modern Indian society, has resulted in the leaders of industry, civil service, media and education becoming a culturally lost generation. The result is today’s self-alienated, cynical youth prevalent in many places, especially in elite positions<<<
  
  How true:-(
  
  
• From: Vishvesh Obla (@ dialup-65.58.205.3.dial1.albany1.level3.net) on: Sat Jul 13 13:34:17
  
  India can only survive by confronting this raw, new, aggressive, powerful world with fresh diviner creations of her own spirit, cast in the mould of her own spiritual ideals. She must meet it by solving its greater problems in her own way, through solutions arising out of her own being and from her own deepest and largest knowledge...
  
  - Sri Aurobindo, Foundations of Indian Culture
  
  I don't see any direct relation of the article with the title of this thread, but thanks to Venki for the link. This issue has been much more perceptively discussed by Sri Aurobindo in his Foundations of Indian Culture under the section Indian Culture and External Influence. I don't know if it is available in the web, but I am sure it would be a much more interesting read for anyone interested in such an issue.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: Srini (@ 203.197.239.1) on: Wed Jul 17 06:20:25
  
  Venki:
  An excellent article, and thanks for the link. But, sorry friend, not having enough time to discuss it further here.
  
  I do, however, see a subtle link between the Article and your thread, in the sense, as Tamils do we even know what our worldview has been, to lament its demise at the hands of neocolonialism ? Yes, there can be no civlization without an underlying emotion that supports its sustenance. In a modest way, I have started making some amends, in the pesonal views and choices I now make. That's all I have to say, and yes the demise is lamentable, and let me equip to be a qualified person to lament. That can be my little contribution.
  
  
• From: tamil (@ 1cust253.tnt6.des-moines.ia.da.uu.net) on: Thu Aug 15 21:31:12
  
  As long as india remain Hindia, tamils can't prosper. They loose their identity first to Hindians, hindians loos theirs to westeners, we will be made third class in world order.
  
  Aug 15 is BLACK DAY for Dravidians. This day they lost their soverignity and language identity to Aryans.
  
  

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