In India, we are orphaned of our mother tongues

[“It is shocking that the intellect is so despised in the community of IY sadhaks”... By in large a better phrasing of it might be that reason is seen as "hostile to the yoga" but it is certainly not exaggerated in the case of the book and in many experience I have had with "sadhaks" - I use the term loosely- in the yoga, whom when an intellectual perspective other than Sri Aurobindo's is raised is summarily dismissed, one person actually told me that my fascination with McLuhan was dangerous, another when I raised issues brought up by Derrida, Habermas, Bateson, into a conversation told me I was referencing pre-personal thinkers??? And these are two people -whom I otherwise respect- one a highly cultured businessman, one who writes widely on integral psychology. In fact the major thrust by A in his Mr Objective rap, is that the book its too rational, and the subtext: rational = western, and western = imperialist. (now to despise reason by ordinary folk is one thing, but for reason to be demeaned by one who claims to be a physician is wholly unnerving and ironic) Re: The Core Problem Part II Tony Clifton Tue 14 Apr 2009 01:39 PM PDT]

Evidently, Tony Clifton (Richard Carlson) touches a raw nerve, but the perplexity in focus is multilayered, and hence warrants appropriate diagnosis with perspective. A few pointers:

• People are dissimilarly endowed and destined, and play their respective roles in the world-play a la Lila.
• In India, we are orphaned of our mother tongues, and a lot of scholarship goes into grappling with multiple languages (The Mother has added to the woe by co-opting French) which is reflected in our handicap in articulating (that facilitates as well as seen as thinking).
• Suspicion of western/imperial sentiment is a legacy of recent Indian history that is hard to throw over so easily or early. Outpouring of hegemonistic diatribe during the Heeh's imbroglio has further petrified it.
• Conflicting reception of various thinkers among the Westerners themselves raises ambivalent attitudes about them, which a student in India finds as an alibi to avoid the trouble of delving into their works. Stagnant college level syllabi too play spoilsport.
• As a specialist, by definition, knows more and more about less and less, his communicants too become sparse - an unsavory fact which the avant garde must learn to live with. [TNM]