Sean Doyle was kind enough to send me a copy of his latest book: Light of the East. The Calcutta School of Jesuit Indology on Hindu Advaita Non-Dualism, ed. Sean M. Doyle. Boston: Institute of Jesuit Sources, Boston College, 2026.
A handsome book, and one that is a great addition to the literature about the encounter between Christianity and Hinduism in India.
The Calcutta School of Indology is not very well known, though the adepts certainly know about it. It was mentioned in Doyle's own earlier book, the one resulting from his doctoral research on Pierre Johanns, himself one of the leading figures in the School (Sean Doyle, Synthesizing the Vedanta: The Theology of Pierre Johanns, S.J. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2006).
The Calcutta School of Indology includes Pierre Johanns, SJ (1882–1955), Georges Dandoy, SJ (1882–1962), but also William Wallace, SJ and Michel Ledrus, SJ.
Doyle's book provides an introduction to the School, summaries of the lives and insights of its members, and selections from their writings, all pertaining to their encounter with Advaita Vedanta. An appendix of supplementary materials also includes obituaries of Brahmobandhav Upadhyaya (who is in many ways the forerunner of the School), Animananda, and William Wallace (perhaps the "pioneer-founder" of the School), as well as texts of the last two.
Richard De Smet gets a few mentions, but is nowhere prominent. The question arises: could he be considered part of the School? The great members were certainly among his outstanding teachers in Kurseong, and he deliberately puts himself in their wake. Perhaps a son of the School, if not a full-fledged member...
