West Sees East: Cultural Stereotypes in Twentieth-Century Czech Discourse about Indian Religions

Tomáš Bubík

doi:10.33356/temenos.8615

Abstract

The history of the humanities suggests that no scholarly discipline or theory can function without the models and categories it generates and relies on. Since they are necessarily conditioned by the cultural and ideological context in which they are developed, however, they readily become distorting stereotypes. During its academic history, the academic study of religions has been formed by philosophical perspectives and worldviews drawn from Evolutionism, Positivism, Historicism, Scientific Atheism, Theology, and other schools of thinking. This article explores this use of stereotypes through the example of shifting perceptions of a different culture in the history of Czech understandings of Indian religions during the 20th century, on the basis of a critical analysis of Czech discourse about Indian religions in several academic disciplines: theology, philosophy, history, study of religions, sociology, etc. We see that the religions of India were repeatedly evaluated through stereotypes and a European colonial mindset of cultural values, such as the Western search for doctrinal order in the ‘Oriental chaos’, an emphasis on Western ‘activity’ as opposed to perceived Oriental ‘passivity’, or seeing Catholic hierarchy reflected in the Indian caste system. These stereotypes were also deeply entrenched in Czech popular understandings of Indian culture, despite the low levels of contact between Czech and Indian society. Both in academic and in popularized discourse, we can recognize the uncritical and mechanical adoption of models, categories and values from a Western European cultural framework rather than as a result of scholars’ empirical experience and scholarly evidence. Keywords: Czech Study of Religions, Indian Religions and Culture, Orientalism, Stereotypes

Highlights

The history of the humanities suggests that no scholarly discipline or theory can function without the models and categories it generates and relies on
It needs to be stressed that stereotypes, that is to say, specific and characteristic cultural and ideological generalizations, emerged within each of the widely varied contributing disciplines, including theology, philosophy, history, sociology, ethnology, the study of religions, etc
It is clear that the stereotypes in question drew their strength from European understandings of science – Positivism, Historicism, Evolutionism, and Empiricism – and from the personal faith and world view of the scholars themselves

Summary

The Orient in the Light of Philosophical and Theological Assessment

In Czech literature of the 20th century, the Orient is often portrayed as an idyllic place, the home of mystics and ascetics, a world of fantasy and magic, a world that is colorful and varied. At the same time, it is. For example Josef Kubalík, a Catholic theologian, historian of religions and follower of Wilhelm Schmidt’s theory, sees in his Dějiny náboženství (History of Religions, 1984) the most important similarity between these two traditions in the belief of the ancient Indians in Dyaus pitara (patar) or Dyaus asura, which later gave way to the influence of other gods such as ‘The Father of Heaven’, the Lord of Heaven and the greatest of gods as well as the lord of gods and humans This common image of the greatest of gods could correspond to the Biblical Divine Creator, Yahweh. Unlike the Protestant scholars, Catholics (because of their study of non-Christian religions) found certain grounds for the defense of the historicity of Biblical revelation, a concept frequently criticized by modern philosophy and other disciplines

Oriental Pessimism and Western Engagement

Conclusion