Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 00:05:31 -0700 From: "C. J. S. Wallia" <cjwallia-AT-indiastar.com> Subject: Re: Said 1998: on Naipaul >C.J.S. Wallia wrote: > >// The erasure of traditions imposed by Islamic conversion was >almost total in many instances. The demolition of the Buddha statue >at Bamiyan recently by the Taliban (fundamentalist Islam) is a vivid >reminder of this totalitarian erasure of the long tradition of >Buddhism in Afghanistan.// > >My comment here is a bit of an aside, and but I have seen on TV the >Taliban's response to the matter of the Bamiyan statues. As I >recall, what the Taliban spokesman said was that some European >organization was spending a great of money on renovation of the >statues, but was refusing to provide any assistance, in the form of >food, etc, to the people in the area who were starving. So for that >reason, the Taliban destroyed the statues. > >At the time that the statues were destroyed, and petitions of >protest and outrage were going around, I thought - well, it's just >statues. There are more important things to be outraged about. The >Taliban spokesman I saw on TV said much the same thing. "It's just >rock and mud." > If anyone out there has any more information on this matter, please let me know. Margaret Trawick ================================To: Margaret Trawick As if destroying the monuments sacred to the Buddhist tradition taught a lesson to the Europeans and they immediately despatched plane loads of food to the Taliban terrorists! Are you aware that in Delhi, there's a thirteenth-century mosque which bears an inscription at the entrance boasting (in Arabic) that it was built from the stones of 27 Hindu temples demolished by the Muslims? Naipaul's thesis that Arab imperialism in the garb of Islam was much more disruptive in India than British colonization is correct. E. Said, disconcerted by this thesis, fails to counter it, and resorts to name-calling in his review of Naipaul's 1998 book, Beyond Belief. (Said article posted on this list by Mr. Ismail Talib.) Mr. Talib also posted a quote from Naipaul stating the lack of intellectual discourse in India. Naipaul is correct in this observation too. With 500 years of Islamic colonization of India followed by 200 years of British colonization, the muffling of Hindu discourse was inevitable. Only in recent decades has Hindu renaissance emerged. C. J. S. Wallia ************************************************** C. J. S. Wallia, Ph.D. Editor, IndiaStar Review of Books http://www.indiastar.com (510) 848-8200; cjwallia-AT-indiastar.com 2707 College Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705, U.S.A. **************************************************
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C.J.S. Wallia wrote:
// The erasure of traditions imposed by Islamic conversion was almost total in many instances. The demolition of the Buddha statue at Bamiyan recently by the Taliban (fundamentalist Islam) is a vivid reminder of this totalitarian erasure of the long tradition of Buddhism in Afghanistan.//
My comment here is a bit of an aside, and but I have seen on TV the Taliban's response to the matter of the Bamiyan statues. As I recall, what the Taliban spokesman said was that some European organization was spending a great of money on renovation of the statues, but was refusing to provide any assistance, in the form of food, etc, to the people in the area who were starving. So for that reason, the Taliban destroyed the statues.
At the time that the statues were destroyed, and petitions of protest and outrage were going around, I thought - well, it's just statues. There are more important things to be outraged about. The Taliban spokesman I saw on TV said much the same thing. "It's just rock and mud."