Sanskrit and Orientalism: Indology and Comparative Linguistics in Germany, 1750-1958

Sanskrit and Orientalism: Indology and Comparative Linguistics in Germany, 1750-1958

By- Douglas T. McGetchin, Peter K.J. Park, and D. R. SarDesai (Eds.)

The groundbreaking studies contained in this volume present a history of Sanskrit philology and comparative-historical linguistics that is fully integrated with German political and intellectual history ranging from the Enlightenment to Cold War eras. The authors engage and extend the intercultural ‘dialogue’ that Wilhelm Halbfass powerfully initiated in India and Europe: An Essay in Understanding (1988). This volume contains his last public address, in which he challenges the ‘Otherness’ of German Indology, seeing Germany as fitting a European pattern.

While the lack of direct German colonial involvement in India does not completely eliminate the relevance of Edward Said’s arguments in Orientalism (1978) for German Indology, it does call for an individual appraisal of the German case. The long-tauted special historical relationship between India and Germany, as purported by some professional Indologists, is at last critically examined in this volume by historians who are able to approach the question with a knowledge of the particulars of institutional as well as intellectual and political history.

Douglas T. McGetchin is a Lecturer at the University of California, San Diego.

Peter K.J. Park is a candidate for a Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Los Angeles.

 D.R. SarDesai is Professor Emeritus at UCLA. A member of the History faculty since 1966, he was the Department’s Vice-Chair and the first holder of the Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair in Indian History, from 1998 to 2001.

 ISBN  81-7304-557-7    2004   386p.   Rs.895/ pounds 55

MANOHAR PUBLISHERS & DISTRIBUTORS
4753/23 Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002
Phones: 23284848, 23289100
Fax: 23265162
E-mail: manbooks@vsnl.com
sales@manoharbooks.com

To order your copy at www.manoharbooks.com