Despite significant attempts over the years by professional Indologists, South Asia specialists, and literary scholars, a fully contextualized history of German Indology is still largely lacking. Existing works on the subject are older, internal histories of the discipline and are limited to addressing concerns contemporary with their creation. Thus, they tend to ignore questions concerning the intellectual and cultural-political context in which Indology as a science developed in the German states. There are more historical studies available on British Indology than on German Indology, even though historically German Indological production in the form of travel accounts, grammars, lexicons, philosophical and philological treatises, translations, commentaries, anthologies of Indian myths and fables, and histories surpassed that of Great Britain—in fact, “certainly surpassed all the rest of Europe and America combined” (Pollock, 1993).
     While the lack of direct German colonial involvement in India does not completely eliminate the relevance of Edward Said’s claims in Orientalism (1978) for German Indology, it does however call for an individual appraisal of the German case. If there was a special historical connection between Germany and India or a special dialogue between their intellectual traditions, as purported by some professional Indologists, then this special relationship must be investigated historically. That is, it must be viewed within the broader institutional and intellectual currents and political developments in the German states as compared to those of other European states.
     The panel discussion will address the following questions: What are the grounds for claiming the existence of a special historical relationship between India and Germany? What was the impact of Indological knowledge on German cultural identity and on the course of German history? How were Indological knowledge claims employed for political ends by Germans? What are the theoretical and ethical problems related to the study of a foreign civilization which the history of German Indology can illustrate?

Chair: Dietmar Rothermund, Heidelberg University
Organizer: Peter K.J. Park, University of California, Los Angeles
Co-Organizer: Indra Sengupta, Heidelberg University
 
 

     PART I.   9 AM to 1 PM

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Chaired by Dietmar Rothermund, Heidelberg University (Heidelberg, Germany)

Chen Tzoref-Ashkenazi, Tel Aviv University (Ramt Gan, Israel) "India and European Identity: The Case of Friedrich Schlegel"

Peter Park, University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, United States) "India and the Rise of the Comparative-Historical Sciences"

Saverio Marchignoli, University of Bologna (Bologna, Italy) "What is Yoga?  Early German and French Indologies and the Theory of Translation"

Commentator: Maria Schetelich, Leipzig University (Leipzig, Germany)

 

     PART II.  2 PM to 6 PM
 

Chaired by Dietmar Rothermund, Heidelberg University (Heidelberg, Germany)

Indra Sengupta, Heidelberg University (Heidelberg, Germany) "State, University and Indology: The Politics of the Chair of Indology at German Universities"

Douglas McGetchin, University of California, San Diego (San Diego, United States) "Wayward Disciples: Indology Students and Buddhism in fin-de-siècle Germany"

Pascale Rabault, Université de Provence (Chambery, France) "From Language to Man? German Indology and Ethnology in the Epistemological Battlefield of the Late 19th century"

Commentator: Jürgen Lütt, Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany)

 

     After the Panels
 

Dinner at Amrit, Oranienburgerstrasse, Berlin.  Left side of table, left to right: Peter Park, Saverio Marchignoli, Maria Schetelich, Jürgen Lütt. Right side of table, front to back: Frank Neubert (Leipzig University; gesturing to Pascale Rabault to get into the picture), Indra Sengupta, Doug McGetchin, Chen Tzoref-Ashkenazi, Dorit Tzoref-Ashkenazi.

Visit to Paul Dalhke's (1865-1928) Buddhistische Haus (Buddhist House), Edelhofdamm 54, Frohnau-Berlin.  Left to Right: Doug McGetchin, Peter Park, Saverio Marchignoli.

Library at Buddhistische Haus, Frohnau-Berlin. Left to Right: Peter Park, Doug McGetchin, Saverio Marchignoli.

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To International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) II web page
To Doug McGetchin's research page and CV page.
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