(2010- 2011) English - Indian Council of Philosophical Research

through its extensive programme of fellowships and grants for seminars, conferences and research
projects. It does not follow, however, that philosophy in the country is flourishing to the satisfaction
of all of us.
State of Philosophy in India
The state of philosophy in the country unhappily is far from being satisfactory. Notwithstanding
the support of ICPR and other organizations like the UGC and the Indian Institute of Advanced
Study, philosophical research has not made any significant mark. This is all the more surprising
because philosophy has enjoyed a place of pride and preeminence in Indian thought. There are
important historical reasons for it. Philosophy, like other social science disciplines, suffered from
centuries of colonial domination. Caught between the strong native tradition and the powerful
western influence, philosophy suffered a kind of paralysis, lost its identity and became unable to
significantly influence the course of national thinking.
From the Indian perspective, philosophy cannot originate in a cultural vacuum. Philosophy has a
practical and applied dimension that arm-chair philosophers tend to ignore. Applied philosophies are
necessarily contextual, and not isolated but interdisciplinary. Again, this is the hallmark of wisdom
as distinguished from knowledge. Also, philosophy may be seen as the running thread that weaves
the cultural fabric. In a significant sense it is what gives identity and distinctiveness to a tradition.
During the years of colonial dominance in many countries of Asia, knowledge was cut loose from
the native traditions and this has resulted in an identity crisis in all culture-bound disciplines; and
philosophy is the worst affected.
Philosophy in India since the colonial period has suffered an identity crisis and is still reeling from
its effects. This is all the more painful because Indian philosophy from classical times had its own
identity. Philosophy in India tended to be applied in a large measure since Vedic times and up until
the colonial period. It was nurtured by interdisciplinary involvement.
Because of its avowed involvement with life, Indian philosophy grew along with religion, science
and other human endeavours. So we find that Hindu scriptures like the Vedas and the Bhagavad
Gita are rich sources of classical Indian philosophy. Here theory and practice went together. In
fact, practice appears to have taken precedence over theory. Vedas are filled with rituals and only
in the later Upanishads the theory is explicated. Ramayana is the epic about the ideal person; and
the Yoga- Vasista tells us how such an ideal person is made, the practices needed to lead a man to
perfection. Again, valuable philosophical ideas are embedded in medical texts like Caraka Samhitā,
political-economic treatises like Kautilya’s Artha Shastra, legal codes like Jaimini’s Dharma Shastra,
the art books like Bharata’s Natya-Shastra and Vatsyayana’s Kama-Sutra, and psychological thought
and practices as in Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutra. Philosophy in India has been truly a wisdom discipline.
Wisdom is knowledge applied to life. Life is ever changing; so are philosophies. However, there is
a need for continuity and intellectual connectedness.
This tradition of philosophy as wisdom to be cultivated continued unabated until British education
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