South Africa BKWSU PR under the guise of academic degree

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ex-l

ex-BK

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South Africa BKWSU PR under the guise of academic degree

Post31 May 2013

Another BK who turned service into a academic paper ... repeating the usual factually inaccurate "official" crap on the historical side and add little to nothing to the discussion?

"The BKWSU South Africa: Self Transformation is World Transformation, Journal Of Sociology and Social Anthropology 2013" by Dr Gerelene Jagganath, University of Kwazulu-Natal, (who at least clarifies that she has been a BKs adherent since 2006).

I dare say Gerelene Jagganath got extra toli from Dadi for it ...
    File under "more BK whitewash"
As an interesting footnote, one of the BK Brothers that is named in the paper and did so much to develop service in South Africa ended up having some kind of mental breakdown and was somewhat discarded by the BKs, the other now runs the 'anti-BK cult' website BKWSUwatch. The author raises neither of these incidents nor does she go into any of the interesting politics including Jayanti Kripalani which lead to the latter's leaving of the BKWSU.

Anthropology is a notoriously flakey science. It's probably the most hippy of all academic disciplines and has little practical value, especially in the job market.

It is basically writing about people in natural units on the basis of extended participation in and observation of their societies. In other words, hanging out with natives in exotic locations and writing about what happens. It's had to struggle to establish its legitimacy.

Personally, I think anthropology is a very good thing, and interesting. Individuals such as Malinowski and Evans-Pritchard have done good work and move thought on and, Colin Turnbull's high descriptive and accessible works on the 'Ik people' of Uganda (The Mountain People) in comparison to his book on the 'Mbuti pygmies' of Zaire (The Forest People) is very moving and should be require reading at high school level.
    But shouldn't it require individuals to go out and participate in 'other' societies rather than their own?

    And should professors require some kind of greater accuracy, objectivity and screen for biases?
At it's worst, and I think both the BK anthropologists score pretty badly in their work on the BKWSU, it can just too easily end up as traveling writing that someone like Bruce Chatwin did better or more BK PR whitewash.

As I publicly criticised Ramsay of ... it's just too easy for a BK to copy and paste a load of tripe about the BKWSU, irresponsible to repeat factual inaccuracies, and professionally unethical to do so without address some of the many obvious controversies within their cult. Especially as she is now a Post-Doc lecturer at the University.

Would she not demand factual accuracy and balance of her own students in other subjects?

I do not know 'how' involved BK Gerelene is/was, or whether she has left, so apologies for any misrepresentation in that. Given time, I might review the paper later. Comments and corrections from others or the author herself welcomed.

Is this the same Gerelene who as a student at University of Durban-Westville became Miss India Silver Age 1991? Nice to see a Brahma Kumari Sister polishing up well with a bit of 'lippy' and facial hair plucking.

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