बोरी व्हिजन टॉक्यूमेंट-- थिटे

• बोरी व्हिजन टॉक्यूमेंट
• Vision BORI

  Note prepared by Dr.Shrikant Bahulkar, Dr.G.T.Panse, Mr.Bhupal Patwardhan, Mr.Shyam

  Satpute, Dr.Sadanand More and Dr.Maitreyee Deshpande.

  Academic Projects:

  A scrutiny of the research projects is suggested to be done on two levels. A primary scrutiny

  may be done by experts belonging to the institute. A secondary scrutiny may be done by

  scholars of international repute, both Indian and foreign. It is suggested that that the members

  of the academic committee should get their project proposals scrutinized by scholars not

  connected to the institute to make the scrutiny impartial.

  An editorial board should be established for evaluating the work of the Mahabharata project.

  This should be headed by the chief editor Prof.M.A.Mehendale.

  An Editorial Board is also recommended for the Annals of BORI. These members have to

  take care to maintain the quality of the Journal. The articles need to be scrutinized by a peer

  review committee consisting of renowned foreign scholars before publishing them. This will

  help the Institute get the status of a refereed journal. The members of the Editorial Board

  should also be involved in the proof-reading, etc. of the journal.

  Management of Resources:

  Movable assets:

  Procurement of computer, scanner, etc. for starting a modern printing unit is planned. By this

  we will be able to reprint the out-of-print but still in-demand publications. Also by scanning

  the old books we could have the digitized form of these books for easy reference and avoid

  handling of these old books.

  Immovable assets:

  As part of the modernization and conservation programme the heritage buildings are to be

  repaired and modernized internally. The present guest house is in a miserable state. With the

  modernization of that building we can look forward to a renewed source of income.
• A construction of a modern hostel building and an auditorium is on the anvil.

  In this respect we urgently need to get the title on our land records in order get demarcation

  certificate for the proposed construction.

  There are plans to modernize the library too. The library needs to be more user-friendly.

  MKCL has placed before us a plan to modernize the library and make it up-to-date. With this

  it is expected that the books and manuscripts will be find optimum utilization.

  We have plans of creating a museum to display the exclusive curios and manuscripts that we

  possess. We are seeking suggestions in this respect.

  Financial Resources:

  1. Short term

  2. Long term:

  A regular follow-up needs to be done on the proper utilization of the grants that we have

  obtained. Also a follow-up is required by us for obtaining grants from government or other

  organizations.

  It is suggested that 15% of the academic grant be utilized for administrative purposes.

  Time Expenditure: A positive effort is essential to tap the varied potential of our members

  and make use of it for the benefit of the institute. The members should be encouraged to get

  involved in the working of the institute in whatever capacity they can.

  Co-ordination:

  The GB, RC and the EB have to function in co-ordination. For doing this, clarity in their

  powers is essential. This needs to be done through necessary constitutional amendments. The

  members need to be taken into confidence for the overall improvement of the organizational

  behaviour.

  Most of the present staff members are untrained in their work. We need to train them to get

  the most out of them. Also they all need to be made at least computer-literate. We may

  whenever required get trained personnel on contract-basis
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• बोरी व्हिजन टॉक्यूमेंट
  

  Since R.N.Dandekar was closely associated with BORI as its Hon.Secretary for

  more than fifty years, it will be pertinent to deal with his leadership in the BORI in

  somewhat more details. This will also help us in having our own future vision of this

  institute. Without being lengthy I can summarize his activity in BORI in a single

  sentence. He successfully preserved the BORI as a healthy, robust, beautiful Bonsai. Thus

  he neither let it grow too much so that it would grow out of control nor did he let it die or

  be mal-nutritioned. This in itself was not an easy job. R.N.Dandekar could do it because

  he had two very rare and extra-ordinary qualities in which his contemporaries could not

  compete him. His first and foremost quality was that he was very much laborious and

  hard-working. He used to read and write incessantly. His general knowledge was far

  superior to all other contemporary scholars who at the most were knowing only Sanskrit.

  In addition to Sanskrit Dandekar knew German very well and was fairly acquainted with

  French. He knew History, Geography and Political science. He used to read more books

  and journals than any other scholar in India because he kept himself busy with the work

  of Vedic Bibliography for almost sixty years and for that work this was necessary. Indeed

  he was so laborious and industrious that his enemies used to call him “a labour donkey”.

  But he was an intelligent and scholarly worker. So his enemies could not reach up to his

  level. His second extra-ordinary quality was his incomparable English-oratory. He had an

  excellent command of English language, he used to apply chiselled English words, no

  one could express oneself better than he as far as the field of Indology was considered.

  Thereby he could become the leader not only of BORI and AIOC but also in international

  activities in the field of Sanskrit. He could control the BORI and its high standard as long

  as he was the Hon.Secretary of it.

  Now coming to the future vision let me take into consideration the SWOT

  (Strengths, Worries, Opportunities and Threats) of the institute. In the first place I

  consider this concept of SWOT as a part of verbosity in the jargon of the priests in

  business management who do not have any entrepreneurship on their part but give only

  lectures. According to me Strengths and Opportunities can be clubbed together and

  Worries and Threats can be clubbed together. Thus ultimately you have to take into

  consideration only two things viz. Opportunities and Threats. It will have to be strongly

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• emphasized that BORI is not and should not be a profit making factory or company. Its

  main purpose of existence (raison d’être) is to preserve the traditional knowledge and not

  to produce or sell profitably. Any attempt to make it financially rich and prosperous will

  destroy its very raison d’être. Scholarship in the fields of Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Ancient

  Indian Culture, Manuscriptology is to be preserved in this institute. Even if nothing more

  is added, if protection of whatever is existing here is done the purpose of this institute

  will be served. BORI is like a sanctuary or protected forest where animals like tiger,

  zebra, lion, giraffe, etc. in the form of orientalists should be preserved. Just as these

  animals deserve to be protected even though they are not useful for milk or meat or as

  draught animals, similarly scholars of Sanskrit etc. should be preserved even if they are

  not commercially useful or profitable. Just as the word bio-diversity is used in connection

  with the preservation of flora and fauna similarly I use the word Sophia-diversity

  (knowledge-diversity) in this connection. The vision of BORI should be thus from the

  point of view of Sophia-diversity. Experts in management-art and administration,

  journalists, business giants should help the academic activities in this institute only from

  outside but should not themselves enter into the institute and try to improve it. In case

  they enter either they will fail or if they are successful the institute will fail.

  While the most important strength of this institute is its glorious past, the most

  important threat to the institute is in the form of absence of good devoted scholars with

  capability of research. During the last ten years the number of students in Sanskrit, Pali,

  Prakrit, Indology etc. has grown tremendously but these students lack the basic

  knowledge of these subjects. As a part of propagation of Sanskrit, many students get good

  marks in the examination, have certificates of all types but they do not have sufficient

  expertise in the subject nor do they know that they do not know.

  The Oriental studies were carried out for the last two centuries without any help

  of computer and can be satisfactorily carried out without any proficiency in computer.

  For administrative work, computer knowledge is extremely essential; for academic work

  it is useful but not essential or indispensable. In this institute a research minded scholar

  knowing Sanskrit etc. very well but not knowing even email is preferable to a person

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  knowing email etc. but not knowing basic Sanskrit grammar. Thus there should be

  emphasis on the knowledge forming part of Orientalogy rather than that of computer.

  In the near future I see two possible pictures in my vision. In the first picture there

  will be a lot of commercialization, a big financial turn-over, lot of meetings and quarrels

  with plenty of coffee and cookies, occasionally with Chablis

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  and cheese, too many

  computers, employees discussing about increase in salaries, frequent visits by political

  leaders and business tycoons, reports on these visits in the press, abundance of T.A. and

  D.A., tenders, building constructions, gossiping on misuse and wastage of public money,

  discussions on holidays, duty-leaves, maternity-leaves, bonus, etc., lot of seminars on

  “relevance of ancient Indian culture and literature” participated by “relevance-maniacs”,

  numerous conferences on ecology, science and technology and Ayurveda, plans about the

  history and future of the institute devoid of any actual outcome, workshops, exhibitions,

  press-conferences, dozens of unending pseudo research projects pretended to be carried

  out through paid proxies and much ado about nothing. My second vision is that the

  Institute will remain a bonsai as it is now, conservatism will prevail, academic interest

  will predominate, only a few retired scholars whose research aptitude has been

  objectively proved will work in the Institute without any financial expectations, there will

  be only few meetings of Executive Board and Regulating Council, and in general the

  Institute will play on a low-key-note. Personally I will prefer the second vision. But who

  can predict the future?