Showing papers in "Diogenes in 2003"

Discourses of Demonization in Africa and Beyond

Abstract: Recent theoretical perspectives on religion and violence and on cultural difference are grounded within a discussion of the discourses of demonism and satanism which have become increasingly preval...

English as Global Language: Problems, Dangers, Opportunities

Abstract: Now that the age-old dream, which never materialized, of a universal language has evaporated, we note that English is in the process of becoming if not the universal at least an omnipresent language. In many multilingual countries it has become the language of communication. Globally it is imposing itself as the language of business, aviation and scientific research. Is this a pure benefit for humanity, or does it conceal risks or even dangers? Is the spreading of English a secondary effect of Americanization? Is linguistic diversity being sacrificed? Only if the countries affected submit to linguistic and cultural homogenization. The ideal - which remains within reach - would be to accept English as a practical tool of communication without ceasing to strive for the maintenance and strength of other languages in symbiosis with their own cultures.

Democracy De-Realized

Abstract: In times of crisis, when democracies are under threat, our lessons of justice and equality are best learnt from those who are marginalized or oppressed. There could be hope for democracy if responses to the attacks of September 11, for example, were characterized not by blind revenge but by democratic solidarity. To think of democracy in terms of non-realized ideals does not adequately challenge the failures of its promises. ‘Not to respond’ is often a strategic necessity for democratic discourse, which recognizes failure as part of its evolutionist and utopian narrative. The internal dialectic of the unrealized finds in the negative instance of failure a strange moral coherence. Thus it is proposed to consider democracy as something de-realized rather than unrealized. The term ‘de-realized’ places the democratic experience at a distance, in a context not of its making, in order to de-familiarize it and to block its natural or normative reference. The idea is to see the potential of democracy in translati...

Educational Challenges of the Liquid-Modern Era

Abstract: A liquid modernity, where the traditional certainties have become fluid and blurred, presents a major challenge for education. The world is changing so quickly that homo sapiens, learning animal par excellence, can no longer rely on strategies acquired through learning experiences, let alone those derived from traditional values or wisdom. The excess of useless information creates a glut. When saturation level is reached, accumulation ceases to be a sign of wealth and becomes undesirable. Knowledge is confined - discarded like refuse - in the infinite capacity of cyber-computers. What should we humans keep and what should we reject in this process? In times of liquid modernity, how and what should our children be taught in order to be able to develop survival strategies throughout their lives?

The International Institute Charles Perrault, France (IICP): Institut International Charles Perrault – France

Abstract: Modernity; Literary Theory; and Translation Studies. The Council, the members of which have working bases in some two dozen different cultures, is now headed by the distinguished scholar Koji Kawamoto (Tokyo). As mentioned, the next congress will be located in Hong Kong. Since the congress of 2000 was held in Africa, the congress of 2006 will likely take place in either the New World or Europe. Where to hold a future congress is one of the most important matters which the General Assembly decides by ballot. One characteristic of AILC/ICLA has been reinforced decade by decade through the activities of a myriad of concerned individuals. By the truly impressive breadth of its critical and theoretical efforts, AILC/ICLA has converted into an attractive reality the famous 'prophetic' opening paragraph of Henry Rernak's essay 'Comparative Literature: Its Definition and Function' (1961). The seemingly unrealizable dimensions which Remak posited four decades ago in his description of potential avenues of comparatism are the dimensions which, collectively, AILC/ICLA has been elaborating in fact. This diversity sometimes is disconcerting or even intimidating for colleagues used to working in more restrictive environments, but it can also become exhilarating. AILC/ICLA provides a congenial horne for comparatists with particular interests who can band together in working groups (e.g. to study the interrelation of literature and the other arts, to pursue South Asian literatures cross-culturally, to elaborate a theoretical understanding of literary learning with the aid of cognitive psychology, and so on). AILC/ICLA simultaneously provides a complex network which allows individuals to flow out of one approach or orientation into another. Respect for a multiplicity of CL activities creates a natural barrier against conformist norms, even when certain geocuItural territories might for a time be in the grip of this or that prescriptive thinking. In this respect, we cannot underestimate AILC/ICLA's value to many colleagues as an instrument for gaining intellectual liberty under the sometimes adverse conditions in particular cultures.

Teaching English as Culture: Paradigm Shifts in Postcolonial Discourse:

Abstract: The teaching of an `imperialist' language like English in a postcolonial era presents not only unprecedented difficulties to the teacher, it also raises disconcerting questions about the paradigms underlying the concepts of language, language teaching, and culture. This new perspective makes inadequate, on the one hand, the pedalinguistic categories of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and ESL (English as a Second Language), and, on the other, the postcolonial critique in general of hegemonic languages. Another category needs to be recognized, to which the author gives the acronym TUE (Teaching Unbroken English). For the purposes of analysis, the author focuses on his experience teaching English in Hong Kong before and after 1997, during the end of the colonial and the beginning of the postcolonial era.

Muslim Women: Between Cliché and Reality:

Abstract: The cliches attached to Islam and Muslim women that the West had perpetuated since the Middle Ages and that were later propagated by Orientalist writers and painters, are reviewed in this article. The emergence of the subject of women as the centrepiece of western accounts of Islam in the late 19th century is equated with the beginning of European colonialism in Muslim countries, and the reasons for choosing the two controversial issues related to Muslim women: polygamy and the veil. It clarifies the status of women before Islam and after its Revelation, assessing the positive and little-known aspects of the Muslim woman's role throughout history and the grounds for the deterioration of her status. The article closes with a matter-of-fact assessment of the position of women in the Islamic world today, reproving any approach based on generalities and oversimplifications when dealing with Islam-related issues.

Iconoclasm and Iconophobia: Four Historical Case Studies

Abstract: Iconophobia, literally the fear of religious images, usually occurs in proportion to the powers attributed to them by their believers. In the worst cases, these fears have led to, or coincide with, a cycle of violence that may involve the actual destruction of images (iconoclasm) and of human life. Semiotics helps interpret the interconnectedness of these seemingly separate events. Most iconoclasm involves confusion between the image or sign (such as a statue) and its referent (the actual subject), and a re-encoding of the signified (the meanings assigned to the sign). This article explores four case studies. In the aftermath of iconoclasm, fragments and ruins can be trans-valued as relics, and thus inspire hatred of the perpetrator and sympathy for the group whose sacred precincts have been violated. Or, broken statues may be preserved by a re-encoding as `art'. Yet not only do historical models warn of recurring conditions in which violence may be perpetrated against people and objects, but the more rec...

Introduction: Indications of the Knowledge Society

Abstract: Is ‘knowledge society’ yet another empty slogan? More than ever, ‘knowledge is power’. But we can hardly affirm that the society we live in is based on the vigour of knowledge. The market price placed on knowledge fails to provide it with the needed qualitative impetus. Inequities remain the blind spot of technological systems. To be sure, we are living in an information society at higher scales of exchange, with ‘a great deal of information, but little knowledge’. We may indeed be restoring a sort of enlightened despotism of a technologically neo-positivistic type, a realm of experts whose ‘know-how’ is but another term for ‘doing without knowing’. In a truly democratic sense, the knowledge society is a basic human right. Knowledge is nourished in society. Conversely, societies find in knowledge a compass for their peaceful co-existence.

Cultural Encounters and the Orient: A Study in the Politics of Knowledge

Abstract: Johann Galtung in one of his lectures talks of a painting that hung in the ante-room of the late Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah. It was a giant picture of Nkrumah himself struggling loose from his chains. There is thunder and lightning in the air, and in one corner of the picture are three men, three white men. The first is a capitalist and he carries a briefcase. The second is a missionary and he clutches a Bible. The third, the meekest looking carries a book whose title can be barely read. It is African Political Systems, and the third man is an anthropologist. The iconography of the picture used to haunt me. In the 1970s, as I taught my political anthropology classes, I saw it as a classic example of nationalism struggling against the depredations of western capitalism, missionary Christianity and colonial science. But today the picture seems outdated, mildewed and almost embarrassing. National movements, once thought liberating, have turned dictatorial. The new battles for freedom have created strange bedfellows as grassroots groups battle development projects and globalization produces its accompaniment in civic internationalism. There is a politics of memory here that does not allow for amnesia or innocence. The cultural presence of huge Indian, Chinese and African diasporas shuffles the politics of cultural encounters, creating hybrids out of competing dualisms. In fact, the history of cultural encounters can never be read in single registers. They have varied from the banal and the surreal to the unimaginable. They have ranged from the sublimity of Martin Buber’s ‘I and Thou’ dialogue to the eerie silence of genocide epitomized by King Leopold in the Belgian Congo. Given this range and complexity and given the political nature of the subject which has produced the writings of Gandhi, Tagore, Nirad C. Chaudhari, V.S. Naipaul and also Fanon and Said, any writer is forced to engage in two preliminary rituals: he has to outline a map of possibilities; and he has to state his political and academic position.

Relevant or Not? Literature, Literary Research and Literary Researchers in Troubled Times

Abstract: This article notes the significance of the contribution that literary researchers - who must see themselves as `researchers-as-artists' - make in the area of policy and politics. The `researcher-as-artist' chooses words aesthetically to tell stories that construct new stages for debate and discussion, and that inspire governments and policy-makers, They push intellectual boundaries; they challenge; they stimulate and confer visibility on creative ideas; they provoke - artistically, educationally and morally; and make connections. They encourage new ways of looking and seeing. Thus, for example, they can contribute to discussions of soap operas and connect them to folk-tales - tales of the folk, endlessly repeated variations on common themes. Using a literary optic in this way demonstrates not only the evolutionary powers of literature, but the vital role of literary researchers and of the stories they tell.

Religious Pluralism and Crises of Identity

Abstract: Processes of globalization have transformed the religious field, raising questions of identity for different religious traditions and their relations with the State, especially in European countries. Religious pluralism remains in most cases the most important characteristic of the current religious situation. This article reviews the origins of the phenomenon and the part it has played in the study of the sociology of religion, and examines the legal and political conditions that form the backdrop to pluralism. The author then considers some consequences, taking as an example the `new religion' of the internet. Finally, the author considers the view of fundamental-ist movements as anti-modernist reactions to the identity crises experienced by religions such as Islam in the face of globalization.

Religion and Conflict in Japan with Special Reference to Shinto and Yasukuni Shrine

Abstract: While Japanese society in some respects appears to be very coherent, its history has frequently been one of internal tension and strife. Factionalism is strong even today, and takes both political and religious forms. When the indigenous Shinto religion was harnessed for political and ideological purposes in the 19th century, during a time of rapid national development, life was made very difficult for other religions such as Buddhism. The post-war Constitution of 1946 provided for the equality of all religions under the law and the separation of religion, in particular Shinto, from the state. Since then, however, there have been a series of politically controversial questions, one of the most important being that of the legal status of Yasukuni Shrine, a Shinto institution, at which the war dead are commemorated. Various Buddhist and Christian groups have strongly opposed a movement to reconvert this shrine into a national institution. Since Yasukuni Shrine is at the centre of such sharp controversy, on ...

View from Islam, View from the West

Abstract: The East has been upsetting and sometimes even revolutionizing Europeans’ modes of thought, feeling and enjoyment since the most ancient times, well before Marco Polo, when it transmitted its techniques and arts (printing, paper money, the compass, porcelain, etc.). From the 18th century Europe has played a similar role in the technological and even the philosophical field, with regard to India, China and Japan. Apart from the infrequent exchanges between West and East, the transmission of knowledge was carried out through ‘buffer civilizations’ – Persians, Sassanids, the Turkic-Iranian Muslim world – whose languages were Indo-European or whose religion was Abrahamic, and so culturally linked to the West. Thus it was to the east of them that the great frontier between civilizations was situated, in a region that, since around the seventh century, has been dedicated to Islam. The huge Euro-Asian bloc was the arena for several encounters, or clashes, between civilizations which considerably enriched the technical skills, culture and taste of Europeans; the transmission of Greco-Arab knowledge in the 12th century, the contribution of Chinese techniques thanks to the great Asian land routes (christened the Silk Road in the 19th century), the importation of Indian techniques over the sea routes. These encounters were also the occasion for two-way trade that gave a new face to countries like India or Japan; the latter, for instance, opened up not only to western technologies in the Meiji period, but also to the philosophies of Husserl and Heidegger in the early 20th century (the case of the Kyôto School of philosophy should be mentioned). The last of the great encounters date from the late 19th and the 20th centuries at the very moment when Europe and the American world were claiming to be the only ‘civilization’ worthy of the name, and considered they had nothing to learn from others, but, on the contrary, could teach them everything. However, this was also the time when a deepening knowledge of India, China,

The International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL):

Abstract: Andersen / Tomi Ungerer's Toys and Tales. There have been other international meetings recently, for example a seminar about 'Children's Books and Visions of Childhood in Black Africa', another about the 'Contemporary Perspectives of the Children's Novel', and one will take place in March 2001 about 'Literary Appropriation in Fairy Tales'. The accession of the Institute to membership of FILLMis yet another effort to reinforce its international dimension. Moreover the ncp would be glad to host an FILLMcongress in the future. The Institute had previous experience of arranging a large venue when it organized in Eaubonne the 1998 Children's Literature Association conference on the theme 'Children's Literature and the Fine Arts'. A possible theme if a FILLMcongress were to be held in France would be 'Water', which allows numerous approaches, from symbolism to ecology. This international approach is also developed along other lines. The Institute is in touch with all the main international associations involved in children's literature, like the IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People). It takes part in a European research project on picture books, as the focus on illustrations enables the exchange of books between classes from different countries. International exchanges are also favoured through the invitation of foreign authors to stay at the Institute for periods of about 10 days, offering them the opportunity to meet French children as well as personalities from the book industry: in November 2000for instance, in connection with the symposium about Africa, an author from Mali stayed in Eaubonne. Another aspect is the promotion of translation. Translations of children's books into French or from French into other languages are encouraged (e.g, by helping translators to find publishers) and studied in seminars. An interesting point is that a significant number of French authors have translated children's books into French. Moreover some of the seminars or training sessions are organized not only in French but also in English for foreign students wishing to widen their knowledge of French children's literature. A recent example was a seminar held in English in June 2000 on French illustrators of children's picture books. I would say that the difficulties of the Institute spring from its strengths. The ambition and variety of its aims make it hard to find the necessary funds (in spite of subsidies from local or national authorities), but also the people or time to carry out at once the different missions it has set itself. It is sometimes difficult not to scatter energies when there is so much to do. One step towards the achievement of all these aims has been the recent development of the Institute's staff (now a president, a secretary-general, a secretary and two archivists), each person having a particular task to carry out. Efforts should also be made to increase attendance at the events organized and strengthen the continuity of the Institute with its members (there are 71 currently). The publication of a quarterly newsletter since March 1999 has partly been a solution to these problems.

The role of Iranians in the spread of Buddhism, Manichaeism and Mazdaism in China

Abstract: Gandhara, an area that welcomed Buddhism and where the earliest monasteries are found from the late third century BC, was also a ‘land of immigration’.1 With the aim of converting the Greco-Iranian peoples to Buddhism, the dignitaries in charge of these provinces under Asoka had identified in Greek and Aramaic vocabulary equivalents of Hindu or Buddhist themes. But the Gandhara Buddhists seem not to have continued this attempt to translate their sacred texts into Greek, Aramaic and probably Middle Iranian. On the other hand the Buddhists from Bactrian, Sogdian and Xinjiang translated the great texts of Buddhism from Sanskrit into the indigenous languages. It was from these translations and also from the Sanskrit originals that the first translators of Buddhism,the Parthians (An Shigao,An Xuan), Yuezhi (Zhi Loujiazhan, Zhi Qian), and Sogdians (Kang Mengxiang, Kang Ju, Kang Senghui), started to spread the impressive Buddhist canon through the Empire of the Middle Kingdom. The literary activity of these interpreters – who had come from the Iranian world – extends from the middle of the second century to the first decade of the third. However, the development of popular Buddhism in the various regions of the empire, the rise of local beliefs and cults, the way doctrine was taught to the illiterate population, the social and economic functions of the Church in rural communities encountered the obstacle of language. Only a few foreign monks had reasonable Chinese, and before the fourth century no Chinese were thought to know Sanskrit. Hence the importance of the monks from the ‘Iranian world’, who acted as intermediaries between India and China. The introduction of Buddhism into China is directly related to trade. Non-Chinese Buddhists were merchants, refugees, envoys and hostages. The first translator of Buddhist texts, and also the first propagandist for the doctrine of the Buddha in China, was the Parthian An Shigao. An Shigao, the ‘Marquess of An’, the Parthian lord, arrived in the year 148

What was a Roman Emperor? Emperor, Therefore a God

Abstract: Caesarism is contrasted with medieval monarchies, and the emperor is evaluated as a citizen who is in charge of the Republic and is all-powerful However, two-thirds of the Augustuses and the Caesars died a violent death, often at the hands of close family members Nobility is a ruling caste, in which bloody rivalries, usurpations and political romanticism are rife as it struggles to retain its social pre-eminence The Senate, though, does not itself want to govern and eventually degenerates into an Academy The imperium, with its patriarchal nature, remains very popular among the people/citizens Though the imperial cult would lead to tyranny, it continued to express both the stature and love accorded to the individual emperor, and the power of tradition, of charisma and the institution

The Emancipation of Thought: On the Work of Michel De Certeau:

Abstract: When we consider the social and political disarray of the moment, we are forced to recognize how hard it is, in periods of crisis, to clarify the changes taking place. So it is an urgent and necessary task to return to Michel de Certeau's work, whose central aim is to clarify the transformations that abruptly emerge during times of crisis, transformations that undermine our most tenacious assumptions. Certeau's project is the work of constant reconnaissance. He expressed his need to elucidate what he would call `generating flashes'. The meaning of that need for inventive distancing can be informed by psychoanalysis. From this perspective, the obligation to clarify the most heterogeneous ruptures appears as the echo of an ancient need to express the desire to be with the Other. But Certeau's attitude provoked incomprehension and irritation, so much so that in order to correctly approach his legacy we must first explain the different reception Certeau's texts receive in French-speaking countries compared wi...

Global Cities in Informational Societies

Abstract: Modern cities have recently evolved as centres for material and intangible exchanges and this obliges us to rethink the urban scene. The passing from the industrial era to the new age of information has rendered obsolete the models envisaged by Max Weber, Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin. Basing her argument on the typology put forward by Saskia Sassen, Barbara Freitag sketches out the different profiles of contemporary cities. Urban centres are now defined by the level, scale and intensity of the exchanges to which they give rise. On the first level is the global city, nerve centre of the globalized economy (Tokyo, New York, London...) and capable of challenging the power of the state. On the second level are the megalopoles (Mexico, Sao Paulo...), which are only prevented from joining the ranks of the global cities because much of their population is excluded from the global economy. Next come the metropoles, cities like Paris (‘19th-century capital’), which have retained a way of life global centres ca...

Between Christianity and Buddhism: Towards a Phenomenology of the Body–Mind:

Abstract: This paper is situated in the broader context of an examination of the relationship between East and West from the particular perspective of our experience of the body. It is therefore based on two specific traditions, one belonging to the East – a particular strand of Tibetan Buddhism – the other to the West – the Orthodox tradition of the heart prayer – in order to try to show the similarities and differences in their approach to the body and attempt to compare them in the light of their respective ‘phenomenology’. In this sense phenomenology, as a western philosophical discipline, plays a pivotal role in this comparison and hopefully helps to bring new light to bear on this investigation. The early Eastern church evokes the concrete experience of the body as a holy body and sees it as an exemplary route to deification via the mystical practice of the ‘heart prayer’ (hesychasm). As regards Tibetan Buddhism, it advocates the gradual experience of the body as a rainbow body, defined as a path towards illumination, by means of ‘sitting meditation’ which brings liberation in bardo. In order to carry out this analysis, I shall refer to two recent books that are authorities in both these fields, Corps de mort et de gloire, Petite introduction à une théopoétique du corps by O. Clément1 and Rainbow Painting: A Collection of Miscellaneous Aspects of Development and Completion by Tulku Urguyen Rinpoché.2 Given the emphasis on the experience of the body in each religious context, I am going to highlight points that focus on the concrete attitude of the person who is seeking this kind of incarnation, as well as the subtle methods they use to cultivate this attitude. At the same time, I shall note the different features that characterize the various existing phenomenologies of the body, together with those that result from these spiritual experiences of incarnation as listed in Table 1. The four themes featured on the first line of Table 1 give an indication of the phenomenological method I use, starting from experiences of the lived body in an attitude of natural living embodiment and proceeding to develop phenomenological categorial features that may count as universal via the empirical characteristics of

‘East versus West’: Beyond Dichotomy and towards an Acknowledgement of Differences

Abstract: The theme ‘East versus west’ is an old topic for discussion, but one that is constantly being rehashed. Though it has many aspects, a number of elements remain vague. Do East and West each form a monolithic bloc? Where does the East begin in the West’s eyes, and vice versa, the West for the East? What, if any, are the basic differences separating the two? Palaeontologists tell us that a dividing line indicating a divergence of traditions in stone tools can be traced back to the Lower Palaeolithic era, that is, a million years ago, in the western region of India. To the east of that line, in other words in East and South-east Asia, the most common tools are choppers and chopping-tools, while to the west, in western Asia, Europe and Africa, the main tools are hand-axes.1 The former are suitable for working vegetable materials and making bamboo or wooden, therefore perishable, objects, which for this reason leave no trace in the form of archaeological clues. The hand-axes are capable of being worked into stylized shapes and are appropriate for dismembering large herbivores and cutting up their meat. This divergence is thought to derive initially from differences in the respective fauna and flora of the regions chosen by the first emigrants from Africa. The hypothesis underlying this east–west divergence in the earliest human industries, which was first presented in the 1940s by Hallam L. Movius Jnr, an American palaeontologist, has recently been advanced and developed, on the basis of new archaeological and anthropological discoveries, by Japanese palaeontologist Takeru Akazawa.2 The relationship between the Homo erectus of the period and Homo sapiens, the ancestors of present-day humans, is still a controversial topic. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that already, in the early stages of working with stone, humans are thought to have developed specific local technologies, depending on the character peculiar to the surrounding ecological conditions; even today distant reminders of the contrast between these characteristics might be perceived.

Knowledge Society or Leisure Society

Abstract: Such is the scale of information production today that the verb ‘to know’ may be heretofore declined in the impersonal. A new ‘subject of knowledge’ - the machine - is seen as removing from homo sapiens the so far uncontested role of ‘learned subject’. This calls for a rethinking of our notions of knowledge and democracy. To think of a knowledge society where every single person would be capable of knowingly taking any type of decision on community life, points to an incapacity to rethink the concept of knowledge. The fragmentation of knowledge transforms democracy into a simple possibility for each and every person to choose ‘the expert’ by whom he wishes to be guided. Kant had distinguished between ‘knowledge’ and ‘thought’, associating the latter with leisure. It appears today that pleasure and games may be the ultimate bulwarks of humanity. Perhaps we ought to be speaking of a leisure society rather than a knowledge society.

On Butterflies: Stories and Fables for Children from the 17th Century to the Present Day

Abstract: In this article, a chapter from a more general study, the butterfly is considered as an arresting `index', highlighting the evolution of children's culture and the relationships between science and literature. Comparing Furetiere's knowledge of this insect, as set out in his Dictionnaire universel (1690), to its literary representations in Charles Perrault's or Fenelon's tales, helps to assess the context in which children's literature came to be written within the higher circles of the Versailles Court society. It also explains some aspects of the `Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes'. Flying the flag for modernism, the butterfly stands in rhetorical opposition to the industrious bee or `zephyr' of the pastoral and idyll, as a sign of liberated childhood. An epilogue shows that butterflies in contemporary writings for children offer a postmodern illustration of the baroque trend that was initiated in children's literature at the end of the 17th century, and impart a special flavour to some of the most p...

East–West Cultural Relationship: Some Indian Aspects

Abstract: Cultural space knows no official boundary. Civilizational interaction, recorded and unrecorded, is an ongoing process. Diffusionism and parallelism get interfused in civilizational studies. To think of one-sided borrowing or lending in the realm of culture rests on bias or prejudice, perhaps both. To think that originally there was only one culture (Egypt or India or China) and that all other cultures are its diffused or dispersed form is incorrect, both theoretically and evidentially. Comparably incorrect is the anthropological hypothesis that different cultures, in response to diverse social and natural stimuli or conditions, developed quite independently and in parallel manner. Once we believe, as I think we must, that cultural space is a continuum, the parallelistic thesis is bound to collapse. If, on the other hand, we totally reject the possibility of independent, relatively independent, origin and development of different cultures, we are obliged to deny the differentiable identity and personality and distinct cultures. To deny cultural pluralism is psychologically untenable and ideologically pernicious, and I have argued the point at length elsewhere.1 Insights of comparative linguistic studies clearly show that the supposed line of demarcation between Asia and Europe is purely fanciful, nothing more than a theoretical construct. Demographic migration and immigration have been an all-round and ongoing process from time immemorial. Only a part of this process has been recorded in the history but its truth is easily capturable from the history of languages, their development and transformation. The point may be clearly illustrated from a wide spectrum of Indo-European words for elements like earth/land, water, sky/heavens, air/wind, sun/fire and their cognates. Kinship terms, numerals, words for animal life and plant life also bear out the point. The terms for expressing abstract concepts like social relations, law, religion and philosophy, etymologically