Muslim girl tops Sanskrit examination

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by DaShi
...Muslims could be better...than Indians

Erm. 130m Muslims are Indians.

[DaShi]

Only further proves my point.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by DaShi

Aneeshm, given your usual attitude toward Muslims and generally anything non-Indian, I find your extreme praise for this girl disturbing. It reaks of overcompensation.

Not really . This girl did something unequivocally good , and symbolic of everything I like , so I praised her unequivocally . Anything wrong in that ?

Originally posted by DaShi

So, don't you worry that it may be that Muslims could be better at Sanskrit than Indians, given the origins of Hindu civilization and all?

As to the first part of the sentence - I don't care who it is who revives this language in India , I just want to see it revived . If it happens to be the people most unlikely to revive it , good for them and us .

And as for Muslims being better - it doesn't matter . I couldn't care less about who is better . As I said , the language is important , and its revival is important . If the Hindus do it , fine . If the Muslims do it , even better , because maybe it'll exert a moderating influence on them and their religion .

And how is it that you do not include Muslims as Indians ? Indian Muslims are as much Indian citizens as anyone else .

[Gamecube64]

Gah, let the language die. The world doesn't need more languages, they will only serve as a barrier to complete globalisation.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by aneeshm


Not really . This girl did something unequivocally good , and symbolic of everything I like , so I praised her unequivocally . Anything wrong in that ?



As to the first part of the sentence - I don't care who it is who revives this language in India , I just want to see it revived . If it happens to be the people most unlikely to revive it , good for them and us .

And as for Muslims being better - it doesn't matter . I couldn't care less about who is better . As I said , the language is important , and its revival is important . If the Hindus do it , fine . If the Muslims do it , even better , because maybe it'll exert a moderating influence on them and their religion .

And how is it that you do not include Muslims as Indians ? Indian Muslims are as much Indian citizens as anyone else .

Then why is it such a big deal that a Muslim girl did so well ?Remember ,I'm not saying that it is disturbing that you are praising this ,I'm pointing out the degree of praise being given for it .Since she is Indian as well ,it either comes across as overcompensation or "Oooh ,look what the monkey can do ." This line seems to indicate that it's both :"If the Muslims do it , even better , because maybe it'll exert a moderating influence on them and their religion ."

[Donegeal]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Don't generalise

I was actually thinking that when I posted it. There are what, 1.2 billion Indians? I know two, and half of them don't abuse their space bar.

[Cort Haus]

What I liked about the story is the fact that Shajeena is passionate about, and excels in, something intrinsic to Indian culture and history generally, rather than something specific to her own religion. This should be no big deal of course, but it is unfortunately, because these days ethnicities are often encouraged to look inward rather than outward.

In my view the way forward for multicultural relations is to emphasise what people have in common, rather than what sets them apart. It seems to me that Shajeena has set a good example in this regard.

It was also interesting to read that she didn't get any resistance from her community, which shows that the fundies aren't everywhere.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by DaShi
Then why is it such a big deal that a Muslim girl did so well ?Remember ,I'm not saying that it is disturbing that you are praising this ,I'm pointing out the degree of praise being given for it .Since she is Indian as well ,it either comes across as overcompensation or "Oooh ,look what the monkey can do ." This line seems to indicate that it's both :"If the Muslims do it , even better , because maybe it'll exert a moderating influence on them and their religion ."

It's interesting (to me) because Sanskrit is seen as the "North Indian Hindu language," and isn't often studied by South Indians or non-Hindus. That's all.

[Q Classic]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Erm. 130m Muslims are Indians.

Why do you have to phrase it that way? Why not say it as, "130m Indians are Muslims."

[Arrian]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Why the **** would anybody learn Sanskrit?

My best friend took a Sanskrit course in college for fun. He's gonna be a professional academic, so it was kinda up his alley.

-Arrian

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
Why do you have to phrase it that way? Why not say it as, "130m Indians are Muslims."

Followed the same order as the sentence to which I was responding.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by LordShiva


It's interesting (to me) because Sanskrit is seen as the "North Indian Hindu language," and isn't often studied by South Indians or non-Hindus. That's all.

Um. . .ok. I didn't ask you, but if you felt the need to explain yourself, you're free to do so.

[Lul Thyme]

Re: Muslim girl tops Sanskrit examination

Originally posted by aneeshm


Of course , learning the Divine Language , the Language of the Gods

this is how "fundamentalists" speak, you know that right.
Sanskrit is an old dead language like many others in other areas.
Yes it has a very rich history but calling it the Language of the Gods is closing yourself to the rich history that the non-India part of the world has...

[aneeshm]

Re: Re: Muslim girl tops Sanskrit examination

Originally posted by Lul Thyme


this is how "fundamentalists" speak, you know that right.
Sanskrit is an old dead language like many others in other areas.
Yes it has a very rich history but calling it the Language of the Gods is closing yourself to the rich history that the non-India part of the world has...

How cultural misunderstandings occur !

You see , according to Indian tradition , the Gods speak Sanskrit when speaking among themselves . It is literally a Language of the Gods . That is one of the names used for the language - it does not really mean anything , except for an esoteric reference to Indian tradition .

This in no way implies that I close myself to other literary traditions . If given a chance , I would love to learn Latin , Greek , Arabic , and Hebrew ( but not Chinese - I don't have the rote learning ability required to memorise all those individual word symbols ) . But before all of these , I'd like to learn Sanskrit . And I plan to do so , in my third or fourth year of college .

We in India have a tradition of giving many names to great things . Each of our primary deities has literally thousands of names . It is but natural that the synthetic language we invented must have many names . Language of the Gods is just one among them .







And the point I was trying to make with that sentence is that anybody who first learns Sanskrit and then takes a serious interest in Indian philosophy will find it impossible to become a fundamentalist , because Indian philosophy is extremely diverse and extremely intuitive . It becomes difficult to take a fundamentalist argument seriously when you have seen it being demolished regularly over and over again , as Indian philosophers regularly did in their debates .

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by DaShi
Um. . .ok. I didn't ask you, but if you felt the need to explain yourself, you're free to do so.

I was pointing out how your ignorance of the context led you to an erroneous conclusion.