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Document Details : Title: A Longing for India Subtitle: Indophilia among German-Jewish Scholars of the Nineteenth Century Author(s): PELGER, G. Journal: Studia Rosenthaliana Volume: 36 Date: 2002-2003 Pages: 253-271 DOI: 10.2143/SR.36.0.504926 Abstract : During the nineteenth century a metaphysical thirst for all things Indian spread across Europe, captivating writers, philosophers and phiologists. Since the end of the eighteenth century the search for the 'cradle of mankind' and the discovery of ancent Oriental texts caused a shift in scholarly attention to the East. This re-orientation reduced and marginalised the importance of Judaism and Jewish monotheism in history and cultures of the West. By constructing an Indo-European narrative, scholars gave European societies an instrument with which to deny the historical importance of Judaism and their dependence on it. The study of ancient Hindu texts supplied a basis for European myths of exclusive identities, providing a stepping stone for the modern anti-Semitism that developed in the nineteenth century. With the benefit of hindsight and historical distance, Indophilia can thefroe be seen to have established a momentum of extreme exclusity directed not only against Oriental Cultures but against Europe's Jews as well. |
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