Oxford asked to remove the offending panel depicting William Jones and three Indian scholars
University College, Oxford asked to remove the offending panel depicting William Jones and three Indian scholars
By Kalyanaraman
William Jones' third discourse published in 1798 with the famed "philologer" passage is often cited as the beginning of comparative linguistics and Indo-European studies. Indo-European is a family of languages that by 1000 BC were hypothesised as spoken throughout Europe and in parts of southwestern and southern Asia.This is his
quote, claiming to establish a "tremendous" find in the history of linguistics:
The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have spring from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists. (Sir William Jones, Supreme Court Judge of the British East India Company, 1786, Singer 1972, 29)...
On 27 April 1794 Jones died at Calcutta in the forty-eighth year of his age, and was buried there... the directors of the East IndiaCompany showed their sense of his services by the erection of a monument to him in St. Paul's Cathedral. His wife also placed a monument to his memory, executed by Flaxman (1796-1798), in the
ante-chapel of University College, Oxford.
http://www.eliohs.unifi.it/testi/700/jones/Jones_DNB_article.html
Let us take a look at this Oxford memorial monument. Why is Jones shown in a skull-cap of the type worn by a Pope?
Click
To justify the depiction of the marble frieze in a chapel?
Arindam Chakrabarti, Professor of Philosophy, University of Hawaii, brought to Rajiv Malhotra's attention a colonial wall carving in Oxford which blatantly boasts of the intellectual conquest of Sanskrit by the British.
There is a monument to Sir William Jones, the great eighteenth-century British Orientalist, in the chapel of University College, Oxford. This
marble frieze shows Sir William sitting on a chair writing something down on a desk while three Indian traditional scholars squatting in front of him are either interpreting a text orcontemplating or reflecting on some problem.
It is well known that for years Jones sat at the feet of learned pandits in India to take lessons in Sanskrit grammar, poetics, logic, jurisprudence, and metaphysics. He wrote letters home about howfascinating and yet how complex and demanding was his new learning of these old materials. But this sculpture shows – quite realistically –the Brahmins sitting down below on the floor, slightly crouching and bare-bodied – with no writing implements in their hands (for they knew by heart most of what they were teaching and did not need notes orprinted texts!) while the overdressed Jones sits imperiously on a
chair writing something at a table. The inscription below hails Jones as the "Justinian of India" because he "formed" a digest of Hindu and
Mohammedan laws. The truth is that he translated and interpreted into English a tiny tip of the massive iceberg of ancient Indian
Dharmashastra literature along with some Islamic law books. Yet the monument says and shows Jones to be the "law-giver," and the "native
informer" to be the "receiver of knowledge."
What this amply illustrates is that the semiotics of colonial encounters have – perhaps indelibly – inscribed a profound asymmetry of epistemic prestige upon any future East-West exchange of knowledge.
(Arindam Chakrabarti, "Introduction," Philosophy East & West Volume 51, Number 4 October 2001 449-451.)
See also: Teltscher;and Kate, 1995, India Inscribed : European And British Writing On India 1600 – 1800, Figure 6. Memorial to Sir
William Jones by John Flaxman (1796-8), University College, Oxford.203, New Delhi, Oxford University Press.
It took Rajiv Malhotra nearly two years to locate the marble frieze in a chapel at Oxford, which he had to personally visit to see and then to go through a bureaucratic quagmire to get the picture of it. RajivMalhotra notes: [quote] The picture symbolizes how academic Indians
today often remain under the glass ceiling as "native informants" of the Westerners. Yet in 19th century Europe, Sanskrit was held in great
awe and respect, even while the natives of India were held in contempt or at best in a patronizing manner as children to be raised into their
master's advanced "civilization." [unquote]
Is the display in the chapel of the University College, Oxford a true depiction of William Jones in his true colours – as an evangelist?
By Kalyanaraman
William Jones' third discourse published in 1798 with the famed "philologer" passage is often cited as the beginning of comparative linguistics and Indo-European studies. Indo-European is a family of languages that by 1000 BC were hypothesised as spoken throughout Europe and in parts of southwestern and southern Asia.This is his
quote, claiming to establish a "tremendous" find in the history of linguistics:
The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have spring from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists. (Sir William Jones, Supreme Court Judge of the British East India Company, 1786, Singer 1972, 29)...
On 27 April 1794 Jones died at Calcutta in the forty-eighth year of his age, and was buried there... the directors of the East IndiaCompany showed their sense of his services by the erection of a monument to him in St. Paul's Cathedral. His wife also placed a monument to his memory, executed by Flaxman (1796-1798), in the
ante-chapel of University College, Oxford.
http://www.eliohs.unifi.it/testi/700/jones/Jones_DNB_article.html
Let us take a look at this Oxford memorial monument. Why is Jones shown in a skull-cap of the type worn by a Pope?
Click
To justify the depiction of the marble frieze in a chapel?
Arindam Chakrabarti, Professor of Philosophy, University of Hawaii, brought to Rajiv Malhotra's attention a colonial wall carving in Oxford which blatantly boasts of the intellectual conquest of Sanskrit by the British.
There is a monument to Sir William Jones, the great eighteenth-century British Orientalist, in the chapel of University College, Oxford. This
marble frieze shows Sir William sitting on a chair writing something down on a desk while three Indian traditional scholars squatting in front of him are either interpreting a text orcontemplating or reflecting on some problem.
It is well known that for years Jones sat at the feet of learned pandits in India to take lessons in Sanskrit grammar, poetics, logic, jurisprudence, and metaphysics. He wrote letters home about howfascinating and yet how complex and demanding was his new learning of these old materials. But this sculpture shows – quite realistically –the Brahmins sitting down below on the floor, slightly crouching and bare-bodied – with no writing implements in their hands (for they knew by heart most of what they were teaching and did not need notes orprinted texts!) while the overdressed Jones sits imperiously on a
chair writing something at a table. The inscription below hails Jones as the "Justinian of India" because he "formed" a digest of Hindu and
Mohammedan laws. The truth is that he translated and interpreted into English a tiny tip of the massive iceberg of ancient Indian
Dharmashastra literature along with some Islamic law books. Yet the monument says and shows Jones to be the "law-giver," and the "native
informer" to be the "receiver of knowledge."
What this amply illustrates is that the semiotics of colonial encounters have – perhaps indelibly – inscribed a profound asymmetry of epistemic prestige upon any future East-West exchange of knowledge.
(Arindam Chakrabarti, "Introduction," Philosophy East & West Volume 51, Number 4 October 2001 449-451.)
See also: Teltscher;and Kate, 1995, India Inscribed : European And British Writing On India 1600 – 1800, Figure 6. Memorial to Sir
William Jones by John Flaxman (1796-8), University College, Oxford.203, New Delhi, Oxford University Press.
It took Rajiv Malhotra nearly two years to locate the marble frieze in a chapel at Oxford, which he had to personally visit to see and then to go through a bureaucratic quagmire to get the picture of it. RajivMalhotra notes: [quote] The picture symbolizes how academic Indians
today often remain under the glass ceiling as "native informants" of the Westerners. Yet in 19th century Europe, Sanskrit was held in great
awe and respect, even while the natives of India were held in contempt or at best in a patronizing manner as children to be raised into their
master's advanced "civilization." [unquote]
Is the display in the chapel of the University College, Oxford a true depiction of William Jones in his true colours – as an evangelist?
[quote] The Bible Is a Wonderful Book because of its literary characteristics. It contains the highest literature of the world. It appeals to the aesthetic and intellectual as well as moral and spiritual faculties... Sir William Jones sums it all up in the following beautiful eulogy: "The Scriptures contain, independently of a divine origin, more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains both of poetry and eloquence, than could be collected, within the same compass, from all other books that were ever composed in any age or in any idiom."[unquote] Click
In the face of this monument, Jones' eulogy on Sanskrit sounds hollow.
In the face of this monument, Jones' eulogy on Sanskrit sounds hollow.
Maybe, the scholars who participated in conferences held in Calcutta and Pune in April, 1994 to mark the bicentenary of his death did not
know that this eulogy was only a camouflage for the depiction of a supreme court judge sitting on a high chair and three indian scholars sitting at his feet. The eulogy of Sanskrit didn't last long in the eurocentric studies called IE linguistics with the invention of a hypothetical PIE with *.
The authorities of University College, Oxford should: 1) apologise to Indians for this gross, humiliating, insulting representation of
Indian scholars, on a monument displayed on the walls of the College chapel; and 2) remove the offending marble frieze from display.
know that this eulogy was only a camouflage for the depiction of a supreme court judge sitting on a high chair and three indian scholars sitting at his feet. The eulogy of Sanskrit didn't last long in the eurocentric studies called IE linguistics with the invention of a hypothetical PIE with *.
The authorities of University College, Oxford should: 1) apologise to Indians for this gross, humiliating, insulting representation of
Indian scholars, on a monument displayed on the walls of the College chapel; and 2) remove the offending marble frieze from display.
Note: I had posted this on July 18, 2005. I am reposting this in the context of a post made reproducing an article by Sistla Lakshmipathy Sastry on Reconstruction of Indian History. http://bharatkalyan97.