U-turn theory

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According to Malhotra, the Western appropriation of Indic ideas and knowledge systems has a long history. According to Malhotra, in what he calls "the U-Turn Theory",[1] the appropriation occurs in several stages:[web 1][web 2]

  1. In the first stage, a Westerner approaches an Indian guru or tradition with extreme deference, and acquires the knowledge as a sincere disciple.
  2. Once the transfer of knowledge complete, the former disciple, or/and his/her followers progressively erase all traces of the original source, repackages the ideas as their own thought, and may even proceed to denigrate the source tradition.
  3. In the final stage, the ideas are exported back to India by the former disciple and/or his followers for consumption. Malhotra cites numerous examples to support this theory, dating from the erasure of Upanishadic and Vijnanavada Buddhist influences on Plotinus to the modern day reimportation of Christian yoga into India.

Another example is the influence of Vivekananda's influence on western thought, for example William James and his The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902).[2] According to Malhotra, Vivekananda's ideas have continued to exist in the West in various manifestations, for example via Aldous Huxley and his The Perennial Philosophy (1945), and the works of Ken Wilber. Malhotra's gives an overview of westerners who were influenced by Vivekananda's ideas across the generations, examining how they shaped 20th-century Western thought, and questions why much of his influence remains unacknowledged and unaccredited.[2][note 1]

Notes[edit]

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  1. Malhotra disagrees with contemporary academic scholarship on Vivekananda,[3] which shows how Vivekananda himself was influenced by western ideas, such as Universalism, via Unitarian missionaries who collaborated with the Brahmo Samaj.[4][5][6][7][8]

Web[edit]

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References[edit]

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