ross nolan wrote: and even Indian dancing -- again an example of the reversal of cultural transfer and rejection of the British and European in favour of the ancient and Eastern (that even those societies have abandoned in favour of the European model )
"even Indian dancing" passing over for now your usage of the crass blanket term "indian" used to describe a classical genre that has many rich and diverse regional schools and traditions spanning centuries and a tone that would not be out of place in BNP rally I am perplexed why you consider anyone who studies or absorbs non- western art to be guilty of 'rejection of the British and the European' and not indulging a pursuit that can be enlightening and lead to new idioms as it did so in the case of Blues and Jazz? (and ultimately rock and other popular styles)
Indian African and Asian classical musics both ancient and modern all use devices and techniques that are as advanced as any that are found in western classical music, study and analysis only leads to musical and philosophical and aesthetic enrichment. I don't see how you can be familiar with european art and culture (especially art of the 20th Century) and not be aware of the large part those, as you put it, ' backward and unsophisticated' cultures have contributed both directly and indirectly.
Have you actually read the Upanishads, Mahabharata,Vedas that you can dismiss them so casually? Have you actually read for that matter Hume Locke and Kant? Or the logical positivists? I find many parallels between philosophers such as Berklee Kant Wittgenstein and certain passages in the Upanishads.
To pull this back on track, St James was profoundly irresponsible in exposing the more esoteric and powerful elements of Hindu mysticism to young children, in the same way it would have been wrong to intensively instruct existentialism surrealism or dadaism. They are also wrong in misleading parents into the true nature of the school. The state funded faith schools in London, Jewish, Muslim and Christian/Catholic etc are all completely transparent, St James should be so too.