It must be obvious by now that a tremendous amount of work needs to be done. A great deal of empirical enquiry is required, if we are to begin taking our task seriously. A great deal of theoretical work is necessary, if others are to make sense of what we might say. There is one question I have not asked: why might we want to undertake such a task? Writing down answers to this question would entail composing another paper, so I will not answer it in this abstract form. I will take another, more personal tack:
What are some of my motivations for writing such a paper or for wanting to undertake the task? They are, not in the order of importance, two fears, a suspicion, a curiosity and a quest.
(a) Fears first. Just as Europe is turning inwards, America is turning towards Asia. One of the consequences of the latter will be the influx of thousands of American scholars, backed by their millions of dollars, into the Asian intellectual scene. Should this happen, which seems likely, we would be drowned by the sheer size, if not the quality, of the outpour of studies on Asia. Within a very short time, they will have succeeded in defining the terms of any social enquiry. Our only chance is to keep a small, insignificant flame lit somewhere. The hope is not that one day it would become the âprairie fireââ there are far too many sophisticated fire-fighting techniques in the world today for that to happen â but that it might come in handy when the batteries go out.
Secondly, there is fear of the future. India, more than any other country in Asia, frightens me. Today, whole groups of people are talking in terms of âtotal exterminationâ of other groups. Such talk is not only hailed by the so-called âradicalâ intelligentsia; it is also encouraged and supported by them and some Western institutions as, heaven forbid, the âliberating ideology of the oppressedâ. Indian Marxists with all their âclass warsâ turn out to be gentle folk when compared with the virulent, vicious and violent ideologists and their ideology supported, how ironic, by sections of the Christian Church in the West. This paper is addressed to those of you who share my fear.
( B ) There is a suspicion that Western social theories are exhausted. Their heuristic has worked itself out. Social sciences are due for a renewal, but they will not come from within. True, there is more bustle in these areas now than at any one time before. True, there is greater formal and methodological sophistication than at any other time previously. But they cover up the vacuity of content: when you have nothing to say, it is best to mathematize it.
If social theories are to say something significant, it will only be if new heuristics are used. Our culture may just be able to do provide precisely that. Even if they do not, the try will have been worth the effort. But all of this is just a suspicion.
© There is, of course, the curiosity: will the world really and truly look different, if we looked at it our way? What might such a venture or its results be like?
(d) There is, then, the quest. For a long time now, this has been the issue facing me and many other friends of mine: at the level of social upheavals, Asia has experienced everything the West has without having had an intellectual upheaval, which even remotely resembles those that have occurred in the West. We have had revolutions, palace coups, dictatorships, capitalisms, democracies and what-have-you. We have even had colonisations and independence movements. But where are our renaissances or our enlightenments? Why not a Vienna Circle or, at least, a Frankfurt School? Surely, our culture has had its share of brilliant men and women. Where, then, are our Marxes, or Webers or Freuds? We could at least produce a Parsons or a Durkheim? We can afford a Popper, surely, if not a Russell or a Wittgenstein? Where are they?
In search of answers to these questions, I have explored every possible hypothesis: from the âmost mechanicalâ to the âsophisticated dialecticalâ; from the âsociologicalâ to the âspiritualâ. All of them have led to so many cul-de-sacs.
In this paper, I am trying out another avenue of exploration: we could not produce the intellectual revolutions because the heuristics that produced social theories in the West do not make sense to us. If what should aid you in the creation of theories becomes just a meaningless set of statements, if using a productive and fertile heuristic is no different from chanting an incomprehensible mantra, how could you possibly build new and exciting theories on that basis? You could not! That is why Asia has not accomplished much at the level of social theories. I do not know whether this avenue is any better than the previous ones, but this is all there is left and I am willing to give it a go. Hence the paper.
I would have preferred to wait for some more time, do some further reading and thinking, before putting things down on paper. But some things do not just wait around till you are ready to begin. It is with great diffidence therefore (âmodestyâ from someone who writes a position paper for decolonizing, no less, the social sciences) that I share this document with you. I want to persuade you to look in the direction I am looking. It is entirely possible that I am looking at the wrong place; I cannot shake off the feeling (not for want of trying, I assure you!) that I am looking at least in the right direction. This is what I have tried to share with you.
What are some of my motivations for writing such a paper or for wanting to undertake the task? They are, not in the order of importance, two fears, a suspicion, a curiosity and a quest.
(a) Fears first. Just as Europe is turning inwards, America is turning towards Asia. One of the consequences of the latter will be the influx of thousands of American scholars, backed by their millions of dollars, into the Asian intellectual scene. Should this happen, which seems likely, we would be drowned by the sheer size, if not the quality, of the outpour of studies on Asia. Within a very short time, they will have succeeded in defining the terms of any social enquiry. Our only chance is to keep a small, insignificant flame lit somewhere. The hope is not that one day it would become the âprairie fireââ there are far too many sophisticated fire-fighting techniques in the world today for that to happen â but that it might come in handy when the batteries go out.
Secondly, there is fear of the future. India, more than any other country in Asia, frightens me. Today, whole groups of people are talking in terms of âtotal exterminationâ of other groups. Such talk is not only hailed by the so-called âradicalâ intelligentsia; it is also encouraged and supported by them and some Western institutions as, heaven forbid, the âliberating ideology of the oppressedâ. Indian Marxists with all their âclass warsâ turn out to be gentle folk when compared with the virulent, vicious and violent ideologists and their ideology supported, how ironic, by sections of the Christian Church in the West. This paper is addressed to those of you who share my fear.
( B ) There is a suspicion that Western social theories are exhausted. Their heuristic has worked itself out. Social sciences are due for a renewal, but they will not come from within. True, there is more bustle in these areas now than at any one time before. True, there is greater formal and methodological sophistication than at any other time previously. But they cover up the vacuity of content: when you have nothing to say, it is best to mathematize it.
If social theories are to say something significant, it will only be if new heuristics are used. Our culture may just be able to do provide precisely that. Even if they do not, the try will have been worth the effort. But all of this is just a suspicion.
© There is, of course, the curiosity: will the world really and truly look different, if we looked at it our way? What might such a venture or its results be like?
(d) There is, then, the quest. For a long time now, this has been the issue facing me and many other friends of mine: at the level of social upheavals, Asia has experienced everything the West has without having had an intellectual upheaval, which even remotely resembles those that have occurred in the West. We have had revolutions, palace coups, dictatorships, capitalisms, democracies and what-have-you. We have even had colonisations and independence movements. But where are our renaissances or our enlightenments? Why not a Vienna Circle or, at least, a Frankfurt School? Surely, our culture has had its share of brilliant men and women. Where, then, are our Marxes, or Webers or Freuds? We could at least produce a Parsons or a Durkheim? We can afford a Popper, surely, if not a Russell or a Wittgenstein? Where are they?
In search of answers to these questions, I have explored every possible hypothesis: from the âmost mechanicalâ to the âsophisticated dialecticalâ; from the âsociologicalâ to the âspiritualâ. All of them have led to so many cul-de-sacs.
In this paper, I am trying out another avenue of exploration: we could not produce the intellectual revolutions because the heuristics that produced social theories in the West do not make sense to us. If what should aid you in the creation of theories becomes just a meaningless set of statements, if using a productive and fertile heuristic is no different from chanting an incomprehensible mantra, how could you possibly build new and exciting theories on that basis? You could not! That is why Asia has not accomplished much at the level of social theories. I do not know whether this avenue is any better than the previous ones, but this is all there is left and I am willing to give it a go. Hence the paper.
I would have preferred to wait for some more time, do some further reading and thinking, before putting things down on paper. But some things do not just wait around till you are ready to begin. It is with great diffidence therefore (âmodestyâ from someone who writes a position paper for decolonizing, no less, the social sciences) that I share this document with you. I want to persuade you to look in the direction I am looking. It is entirely possible that I am looking at the wrong place; I cannot shake off the feeling (not for want of trying, I assure you!) that I am looking at least in the right direction. This is what I have tried to share with you.