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

contextual, culture-relevant and problem-oriented. Gandhi’s is an important illustration of this.
To further complicate matters the present academic climate is skewed in favour of science and
technology with utter neglect of disciplines like philosophy. This is reflected in the number of
talented students attracted to philosophy and the quality of published research. The over emphasis
on engineering and technology and also medical and management education has weaned away the
young talented students from the traditional disciplines, including the basic sciences. This trend is
dangerous in important ways. The lopsided growth of technological education and the neglect of
basic subjects would be in the long run self-defeating in that technological development itself would
be stifled if there were no parallel developments in supporting sciences. Also, the development of
science and technology alone without corresponding developments in humanities and social sciences
would lead to a mechanized development without direction, economic growth without human face,
brute force without control, wealth without happiness, and a human condition bereft of values. It
would result in the words of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan “Rakshasa Rajya”. There is, therefore, an
urgent national need to balance in our system of education the study of applied and basic sciences
on the one hand and human and physical, i.e., the “inner” and “outer” sciences, on the other.
Having suffered the ravages of colonial domination, Indian philosophy has become a colourless
abstraction, in some ways a poor imitation of the western thought and in other ways a relic of the
past to remember rather than an intellectual force moving the nation forward.
Indeed, Indian philosophy is going through an identity crisis. The identity crisis is responsible
for (a) lack of creativity and originality on the part of Indian philosophers, (b) dwindling interest
among students and (c) philosophy’s lack of relevance to current national policy concerns. Therefore,
the biggest challenge before philosophers in the country is to help Indian philosophy find its
own identity. We are convinced that this may be accomplished by emphasizing its applied and
interdisciplinary aspects and by taking it out of its self-imposed isolation and making it truly a
contextual discipline.
Now, this does not seem to be peculiar to philosophical study and research alone, but true of several
areas of social sciences. Claude Alvares in a recent special article in Economic and Political Weekly
(May 28, 2011) severely criticizes what he calls the Eurocentric bias of social sciences teaching and
research not only in India but in other countries of Asia and Africa as well. He argues that not just
the content but even the assumptions and methodology of social sciences are uncritically imported
from the European academic tradition. “Though the critique of Eurocentricism in the social sciences
is well accepted, there is very little display of either coverage or determination among academics in
non-western universities in rising their own distinct set of assumptions that would enable them to
work and conduct meaningful research outside the framework of western academic preoccupations
and interests” (p.72). This is something we should keep in perspective in our attempts to promote
philosophy in the years ahead.
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