A via Facebook
I was under the impression that we were done with 'East-West' conversations - largely because they have all the nuance of a sledgehammer and are usually inaccurate (as in this instance).
The idea that time influences how we think/are is interesting - and the study of a three volume magnum opus by Ricoeur:
http://www.amazon.com/Time-Narrative-1/dp/0226713326
I was hoping that an article on time would go beyond linearity vs cyclicity. For instance, a friend who works on Mughal history points out that at any given point of time there were several co-existing/competing calendars - Hindu Calendars, Islamic Calendars, Agricultural Calendars, notions of time based on the reign of the Emperor, notions of time based the idea of ghardis and pehars etc
So where does this leave your east vs west binary?
I am also really flummoxed by your monochromatic idea of the past - "The state of Pakistan turned its back on the millennia-old history that it shared with present-day India and adopted and tried to make alien Arabic roots its own" .Pakistan has many problems - but insufficient history lessons are the least of it.
Come on, Mohanty, you know that the 'millennia-old history' is a contested space - that from its inception, this millenia old history points to links with west asia/ middle east. No one really knows the constituents of this 'ancient' culture.
This idea of past consciousness as a cultural quality - raises three simple definitional questions - what past? what culture? what quality?
MY RESPONSE
I think it is sad that we do not have these 'East-West' conversations anymore. Especially since the conflict is still very alive and gets so little attention and whenever it is brought up it gets condescendingly ignored with smug comments like this one. I suggest you check out the recent book 'Breaking India' by Rajiv Malhotra -
http://www.breakingindia.com/
This article was less about the true nature of time and more about how civilisations perceive time. Beliefs guide cultures and that was the point I tried to make here. Sure there are multiple models and multiple cosmologies, but that was not what this article was about.
I do not doubt the existence of the many calendars you mention. I chose the cyclic model of time to make my point about a world view rooted in eternity. A world view that is reflected in cosmology, mythology, and even the Indian people's way of life. This eternity-infinity oriented view of life is beneath the inclusive and open character of Indian civilisation even today.
As for Pakistan, it does have history lesson problems. Since the reign of General Zia Ul Haq, a field of study known as "Pakistan Studies" has been part of the curriculum of the average Pakistani student. It pictures India as the big bad Hindu monster next door and it paints the Pakistani military establishment as the country's sole hope against a world out to get it. Not only that, Pakistan Studies also creates an alternative past for the nation in which it is more closely related to the West-Asian chapter of the Islamic empire than it is with India.
Read this:
http://articles.timesofindia.indiati...dies-textbooks
And Read this:
http://aacounterterror.wordpress.com...akistan-study/
(A random Google search got me these links. I am sure you can find more if you search. The pseudo-historicity being taught in Pakistan's schools is fairly well-documented.
So Pakistan's history lesson are not the "least" of the problem. If anything, they are at the root of the problem.
Moving on, the millennia-old history of India is not as contested a space as you make it out to be. Saying, "No one really knows" is a plain old cop-out. Looking for the truth takes effort and fortunately, there are plenty of scholars out there who are doing active research on India's antiquity and bringing up abundant quantities of evidence from archaeology, linguistics, and even genetics. The overwhelming conclusion up until now is that India does indeed have an unbroken civilisational line that starts in ancient times and extends to the present.
The Aryan Invasion Theory has been thoroughly debunked, so it no longer points to "links with west asia/middle east". That again was a myth propagated (without ANY evidence) by Max Muller, who some scholars have said, tried to fit Indian time-scales into the Judeo-Christian model of a 5000 year-old universe.
One good book I can recommend here is the Archaeological Survey of India's "The Saraswati Flows On" -
http://www.flipkart.com/sarasvati-fl...ook-8173052026