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Sheldon Pollock is amongst today’s most important philologists. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the South Asian Languages and Civilizations department in Chicago, he discussed some of the crucial methodological and philosophical issues raised since the early years of Area Studies. Recently, they are highly contested by new political developments: in 2016, an online petition demanded to remove Pollock from the general editorship of the prestigious Murty Classical Library of India, accusing his “disrespect for the unity and integrity of India”. In his article published in The Journal of Asian Studies in November 2016, the author passionately argues for a political and ethical understanding of philological research as a generator of solidarity between different pasts and a pluralistic society in the present.Please find the article here.