It is well known fact that students for Ph.D. do research and write
thesis mostly to get Ph.D. degree and to prove their ability to do
scholarly research. Gregory also did some research and wrote thesis.
He earned doctorate because he did some research mostly related to
rumors in Leadbeater's life. Till this point what Gregory did was
logical and sensible from viewpoint of the candidate for Ph.D.
But Gregory made big mistake later. His research on rumors - which
formed very small part of the life of Mr. Leadbeater - was published
by Gregory as his full biography. In Adyar TS there are large number
of members who have Ph.D. or master's degree. Most of these scholars
rejected this biography considering it completely misleading as it
focused on small part of his life and was published by Gregory as
full biography of Mr. Leadbeater. These scholars in Adyar TS and
many outside TS also considered this biography as most unscholarly
biography. It formed opinion that Gregory does not have capacity to
do any objective, scholarly research and his character is not pure
enough to place before world accurate facts in balanced manner.
So whatever credit Gregory had earned by getting Ph.D. was lost by
printing thesis as biography.
If he was wise enough, after taking Ph.D. he could have said " thesis
is written to get Ph.D, I wrote it and earned doctoral degree. Matter
is over, I don't want to discuss that subject" If he had said so,
nobody would have ridiculed Gregory or questioned his capacity to do
research. But after getting doctoral degree also he published that
small part of Leadbeater's life as biography. Result was hundreds of
scholars in Theosophical circles and outside ridiculed Gregory,
considered his work as unscholarly and came to conclusion that
Gregory lacks capacity to do research and he can't present correct
picture. So what Gregory earned by getting Ph.D. was lost by
publishing thesis as biography.
Anand Gholap
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