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Oriental Reckoner

Laudable, if arbitrary attempt

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Oriental Reckoner
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The world's second most populous nation; that simmering cauldron of regions, religions, traditions and cultures, "ideas, issues and innovations", gets a one-line entry. "India: see Assam, Kashmir, Punjab," it says, encapsulating in five words the western stereotype of one of the oldest civilisations.

T.J.S. George sets about to dismantle such well-knit cobwebs with a Subject Dictionary that should be made required reading for every western researcher, academic, businessman and journalist who spins major theories on this vast and complex country with little or no idea of its history and contemporary life. As George, who co-founded Asia week—and which still carries a dictionary on its backpage despite the Hong Kong-based magazine's sale to Time Inc—points out in his preface, "Subject dictionaries abound in advanced countries; indeed they are a measure of development."

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But they are conspicuously devoid of Indian, Asian and Third World items. Neither the Dictionary of Religions (Penguin) nor the Encyclopaedia of Living Faiths (Hutchinson) has anything to say on Hindutva. The Dictionary of Modern Thinkers (Fontana) has no space for Satyajit Ray or C.V. Raman.

Enquire seeks to right such wrongs. Sure, it's debatable how many McScribes would want to learn what Abhidharmakosa is (a treatise on ethics, psychology and metaphysics relating to the doctrines of Buddhism), or what Black Athena is (a term used by Martin Bernal to illustrate his thesis that Africa and Asia were the roots of classical civilisation, not Greece as western scholarship propagates).

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Sure, it's debatable how many westerners would want to know who Muthuswamy Dikshitar is: one of the Carnatic musical trinity. Or who S.R. Ranganathan is: the pioneer of library science in India. Or who S.S. Vasan is: the man bought a studio for 87,420 rupees, 11 annas and 9 paise and turned it into South India's most famous film-producing centre: Gemini Studios.

George says he has tried not to match the Eurocentric approach of the established dictionaries with an Indocentric one. To that extent, there are gems galore from an East Asia expert. Zaibatsu: massive Japanese combines that control multiple economic activities and thereby play a central role in the country's growth. Confucianism: not a religion but an ancient Chinese moral code. Seppuku: Japanese for hara-kiri.

But as he throws light on such arcane terms as Agrahara (a village or part of it inhabited by Brahmins); Adhyatmavidya (studies relating to spirituality in Indian philosophy), Matsyanyaya ("the law of the fish...that societies without just governments will bring about anarchy with big fish swallowing small fish"), it's clear this is a labour of love. Sure, it's not comprehensive. But then this isn't an encyclopaedia. Sure, it's subjective.

Gandhism is in, Gandhi is not. And there are lots of entries on Kerala. ISS (a militant Muslim organisation that sprouted in 1990 as a counter to the Hindu RSS); Malankara (Syrian Christians of the Eastern Orthodox Church); Tharawad ("a joint undivided family in Kerala").

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Still, The Enquire Dictionary is a heroic first. Heroic because here is an editor, after 48 years in the business, not cosying up for a Rajya Sabha seat, or a diplomatic posting. Heroic because here is an editor not brandishing his pen for a TV programme, or for some plum property. Heroic because George—an acknowledged wordsmith—has taken the time and the pain to answer his profession's first calling: words. Salut!

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