{"id":15690,"date":"2020-12-27T18:18:05","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T17:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.testanonpertinente.net\/?p=15690"},"modified":"2021-02-17T20:53:35","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T19:53:35","slug":"15690","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/?p=15690","title":{"rendered":"historiographie, postcolonial, singularit\u00e9, traductibilit\u00e9, traduction, Veyne (Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe. Postcolonial thought and historical difference)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let me make it clear that the raging Medusa of cultu\u00adral rela\u00adti\u00advism is not rea\u00adring her ugly head in my dis\u00adcus\u00adsion at this point. To allow for plu\u00adra\u00adli\u00adty, signi\u00adfied by the plu\u00adra\u00adli\u00adty of gods, is to think in terms of sin\u00adgu\u00adla\u00adri\u00adties. To think in terms of sin\u00adgu\u00adla\u00adri\u00adties, however\u2014and this I must make clear since so many scho\u00adlars these days are prone to see paro\u00adchia\u00adlism, essen\u00adtia\u00adlism, or cultu\u00adral rela\u00adti\u00advism in eve\u00adry claim of non-Western difference\u2014is not<\/i> to make a claim against the demons\u00adtrable and docu\u00admen\u00adtable per\u00admea\u00adbi\u00adli\u00adty of cultures and lan\u00adguages. It is, in fact, to appeal to models of cross-cultu\u00adral and cross-cate\u00adgo\u00adri\u00adcal trans\u00adla\u00adtions that do not take a uni\u00adver\u00adsal middle term for gran\u00adted. The Hindi pani<\/i> may be trans\u00adla\u00adted into the English \u201cwater\u201d without having to go through the super\u00adior posi\u00adti\u00advi\u00adty of H_{2<\/sub>O. In this, at least in India but per\u00adhaps elsew\u00adhere as well, we have some\u00adthing to learn from non\u00admo\u00addern ins\u00adtances of cross-cate\u00adgo\u00adrial translation.<\/p>\n}

I give an example here of the trans\u00adla\u00adtion of Hindu gods into expres\u00adsions of Islamic divi\u00adni\u00adty that was per\u00adfor\u00admed in an eigh\u00adteenth-cen\u00adtu\u00adry Bengali reli\u00adgious text cal\u00adled Shunya-puran<\/i>. (The evi\u00addence belongs to the \u201chis\u00adto\u00adry of conver\u00adsion\u201d to Islam in Bengal.) This text has a des\u00adcrip\u00adtion, well known to stu\u00addents of Bengali lite\u00adra\u00adture, of Islamic wrath fal\u00adling upon a group of oppres\u00adsive Brahmins. As part of this des\u00adcrip\u00adtion, it gives the fol\u00adlo\u00adwing account of an exchange of iden\u00adti\u00adties bet\u00adween indi\u00advi\u00addual Hindu dei\u00adties and their Islamic coun\u00adter\u00adparts. What is of inter\u00adest here is the way this trans\u00adla\u00adtion of divi\u00adni\u00adties works :<\/p>\n

Dharma who resi\u00added in Baikuntha was grie\u00adved to see all this [Brahminic mis\u00adcon\u00adduct]. He came to the world as a Muhammadan \u2026 [and] was cal\u00adled Khoda\u2026 . Brahma incar\u00adna\u00adted him\u00adself as Muhammad, Visnu as Paigambar and Civa became Adamfa (Adam). Ganesa came as a Gazi, Kartika as a Kazi, Narada became a Sekha and Indra a Moulana. The Risis of hea\u00adven became Fakirs\u2026 . The god\u00addess Chandi incar\u00adna\u00adted her\u00adself as Haya Bibi [the wife of the ori\u00adgi\u00adnal man] and Padmavati became Bibi Nur [Nur = light].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Eaton\u2019s recent stu\u00addy of Islam in Bengal gives many more such ins\u00adtances of trans\u00adla\u00adtion of gods. Consider the case of an Arabic-Sankrit bilin\u00adgual ins\u00adcrip\u00adtion from a thir\u00adteenth-cen\u00adtu\u00adry mosque in coas\u00adtal Gujarat that Eaton cites in his dis\u00adcus\u00adsion. The Arabic part of this ins\u00adcrip\u00adtion, dated 1264, \u201crefers to the dei\u00adty wor\u00adshi\u00adped in the mosque as Allah\u201d while, as Eaton puts it, \u201cthe Sanskrit text of the same ins\u00adcrip\u00adtion addresses the supreme god by the names Visvanatha (\u2018lord of the uni\u00adverse\u2019), Sunyarupa (\u2018one whose form is of the void\u2019), and Visvarupa (\u2018having various forms\u2019).\u201d Further on, Eaton gives ano\u00adther example : \u201cThe six\u00adteenth-cen\u00adtu\u00adry poet Haji Muhammad iden\u00adti\u00adfied the Arabic Allah with Gosai (Skt. \u2018Master\u2019), Saiyid Murtaza iden\u00adti\u00adfied the Prophet\u2019s daugh\u00adter Fatima with Jagat-jana\u00adni (Skt \u2018Mother of the World\u2019), and Saiyid Sultan iden\u00adti\u00adfied the God of Adam, Abraham, and Moses with Prabhu (Skt. \u2018Lord\u2019).\u201d<\/p>\n
In a simi\u00adlar vein, Carl W. Ernst\u2019s stu\u00addy of South Asian Sufism men\u00adtions a coin issued by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna (c. 1018 C.E.) that contai\u00adned \u201ca Sanskrit trans\u00adla\u00adtion of the Islamic pro\u00adfes\u00adsion of faith.\u201d One side of the coin had an Arabic ins\u00adcrip\u00adtion whe\u00adreas the other side said, in Sanskrit : avyak\u00adtam ekam muha\u00adma\u00addah ava\u00adta\u00adrah nrpa\u00adti maha\u00admu\u00adda<\/i> (which Ernst trans\u00adlates as, \u201cThere is One unli\u00admi\u00adted [unma\u00adni\u00adfest?], Muhammad is the ava\u00adtar<\/i>, the king is Mahmud\u201d). Ernst com\u00adments, expres\u00adsing a sen\u00adsi\u00adbi\u00adli\u00adty that is no doubt modern : \u201cThe selec\u00adtion of the term ava\u00adtar<\/i> to trans\u00adlate the Arabic rasul<\/i>, \u2018mes\u00adsen\u00adger,\u2019 is stri\u00adking, since ava\u00adtar<\/i> is a term reser\u00adved in Indian thought for the des\u00adcent of the god Vishnu into earth\u00adly form\u2026 . It is hard to do more than won\u00adder at the theo\u00adlo\u00adgi\u00adcal ori\u00adgi\u00adna\u00adli\u00adty of equa\u00adting the Prophet with the ava\u00adtar<\/i> of Vishnu.\u201d<\/p>\n
The inter\u00ades\u00adting point, for our pur\u00adpose and in our lan\u00adguage, is how the trans\u00adla\u00adtions in these pas\u00adsages take for their model of exchange bar\u00adter rather than the gene\u00adra\u00adli\u00adzed exchange of com\u00admo\u00addi\u00adties, which always needs the media\u00adtion of a uni\u00adver\u00adsal, homo\u00adge\u00adni\u00adzing middle term (such as, in Marxism, abs\u00adtract labor). The trans\u00adla\u00adtions here are based on very local, par\u00adti\u00adcu\u00adlar, one-for-one exchanges, gui\u00added in part, no doubt\u2014at least in the case of Shunya-puran<\/i>\u2014by the poe\u00adtic requi\u00adre\u00adments of alli\u00adte\u00adra\u00adtions, meter, rhe\u00adto\u00adri\u00adcal conven\u00adtions, and so on. There are sur\u00adely rules in these exchanges, but the point is that even if I can\u00adnot deci\u00adpher them all\u2014and even if they are not all deci\u00adphe\u00adrable, that is to say, even if the pro\u00adcesses of trans\u00adla\u00adtion contain a degree of opacity\u2014it can be safe\u00adly asser\u00adted that these rules can\u00adnot and would not claim to have the \u201cuni\u00adver\u00adsal\u201d cha\u00adrac\u00adter of the rules that sus\u00adtain conver\u00adsa\u00adtions bet\u00adween social scien\u00adtists wor\u00adking on dis\u00adpa\u00adrate sites of the world. As Gautam Bhadra has writ\u00adten : \u201cOne of the major fea\u00adtures of these types of cultu\u00adral inter\u00adac\u00adtion [bet\u00adween Hindus and Muslims] is to be seen at the lin\u00adguis\u00adtic level. Here, recourse is often had to the conso\u00adnance of sounds or images to trans\u00adform one god into ano\u00adther, a pro\u00adce\u00addure that appeals more \u2026 to popu\u00adlar res\u00adponses to alli\u00adte\u00adra\u00adtion, rhy\u00adming and other rhe\u00adto\u00adri\u00adcal devices\u2014rather than to any ela\u00adbo\u00adrate struc\u00adture of rea\u00adson and argument.\u201d<\/p>\n
One cri\u00adti\u00adcal aspect of this mode of trans\u00adla\u00adtion is that it makes no appeal to any of the impli\u00adcit uni\u00adver\u00adsals that inhere in the socio\u00adlo\u00adgi\u00adcal ima\u00adgi\u00adna\u00adtion. When it is clai\u00admed, for ins\u00adtance, by per\u00adsons belon\u00adging to devo\u00adtio\u00adnal tra\u00addi\u00adtions (bhak\u00adti<\/i>) that \u201cthe Hindu\u2019s Ram is the same as the Muslim\u2019s Rahim,\u201d the conten\u00adtion is not that some third cate\u00adgo\u00adry expresses the attri\u00adbutes of Ram or Rahim bet\u00adter than either of these two terms and thus mediates in the rela\u00adtion\u00adship bet\u00adween the two. Yet such claim is pre\u00adci\u00adse\u00adly what would mark an act of trans\u00adla\u00adtion mode\u00adled on Newtonian science. The claim there would be that not only do H_{2<\/sub>O, water, and pani<\/i> refer to the same enti\u00adty or sub\u00adstance but that H_{2<\/sub>O best expresses or cap\u00adtures the attri\u00adbutes, the consti\u00adtu\u00adtio\u00adnal pro\u00adper\u00adties, of this sub\u00adstance. \u201cGod\u201d became such an item of uni\u00adver\u00adsal equi\u00adva\u00adlence in the nine\u00adteenth cen\u00adtu\u00adry, but this is not cha\u00adrac\u00adte\u00adris\u00adtic of the kind of cross-cate\u00adgo\u00adrial trans\u00adla\u00adtions we are dea\u00adling with here.<\/p>\n}}
Consider the addi\u00adtio\u00adnal example Ernst pro\u00advides of such non\u00admo\u00addern trans\u00adla\u00adtion of gods. He men\u00adtions \u201ca fif\u00adteenth cen\u00adtu\u00adry Sanskrit text writ\u00adten in Gujarati for gui\u00addance of Indian archi\u00adtects employed to build mosques. In it, the god Visvakarma says of the mosque, \u2018There is no image and there they wor\u00adship, through dhya\u00adna<\/i>, \u2026 the form\u00adless, attri\u00adbu\u00adte\u00adless, all-per\u00adva\u00adding Supreme God whom they call Rahamana.\u2019\u201d The expres\u00adsion \u201csupreme God\u201d does not func\u00adtion in the man\u00adner of a scien\u00adti\u00adfic third term, for it has no higher claims of des\u00adcrip\u00adtive abi\u00adli\u00adty, it does not stand for a truer rea\u00adli\u00adty. For, after all, if the supreme One was without attri\u00adbutes, how could one human lan\u00adguage claim to have cap\u00adtu\u00adred the attri\u00adbutes of this divi\u00adni\u00adty bet\u00adter than a word in ano\u00adther lan\u00adguage that is also human ? These ins\u00adtances of trans\u00adla\u00adtion do not neces\u00adsa\u00adri\u00adly sug\u00adgest peace and har\u00admo\u00adny bet\u00adween Hindus and Muslims, but they are trans\u00adla\u00adtions in which codes are swit\u00adched local\u00adly, without going through a uni\u00adver\u00adsal set of rules. There are no ove\u00adrar\u00adching censoring\/limiting\/defining sys\u00adtems of thought that neu\u00adtra\u00adlize and rele\u00adgate dif\u00adfe\u00adrences to the mar\u00adgins, nothing like an ove\u00adrar\u00adching cate\u00adgo\u00adry of \u201creli\u00adgion\u201d that is sup\u00adpo\u00adsed to remain unaf\u00adfec\u00adted by dif\u00adfe\u00adrences bet\u00adween the enti\u00adties it seeks to name and the\u00adre\u00adby contain. The very obs\u00adcu\u00adri\u00adty of the trans\u00adla\u00adtion pro\u00adcess allows the incor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtion of that which remains untranslatable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let me make it clear that the raging Medusa of cultu\u00adral rela\u00adti\u00advism is not rea\u00adring her ugly head in my dis\u00adcus\u00adsion at this point. To allow for plu\u00adra\u00adli\u00adty, signi\u00adfied by the plu\u00adra\u00adli\u00adty of gods, is to think in terms of sin\u00adgu\u00adla\u00adri\u00adties. To think in terms of sin\u00adgu\u00adla\u00adri\u00adties, however\u2014and this I must make clear since so [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[93,2622,478,2621,1003,88],"class_list":["post-15690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-non-classe","tag-historiographie","tag-postcolonial","tag-singularite","tag-traductibilite","tag-traduction","tag-veyne","post_format-post-format-quote"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}