PPST Bulletins

Introduction

2011-11-10T02:03:00.000-08:00

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BRAZIL CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT

2011-10-31T02:44:00.000-07:00

"The three centuries which followed the European discovery of the Americas in AD 1492 were a prolonged world-wide extension of this European discovery accompanied as it was by the conquest and subjugation of the conquered. After it, i.e. during the 19h century AD, the conquering west felt the need to salvage the soul of the discovered, and to lead them to enlightenment through world-wide Christianization. The world-wide program of Christianization was soon followed by the 1848 Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx, and at the realization of the Marxist-Leninist vision. Now that missionary Christianization has become somewhat downgraded, and the Marxist-Leninist vision seems to have collapsed altogether - the West, or the Westernized, seemed to have been in dire need of a new emotive phrase. The aggressive nature of Western man and his belief in his problem-solving capacities and in building powerful images about himself and his doings would have, in time, ordinarily provided the necessary emotive phrase. But as the Gods also seem to side with the West it did not have much difficulty in-finding the new emotive word. The word is Environment and it is going to be enthroned as the undisputed monarch of the world at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on the continent of South America.

To an extent the words Environment, Ecology, Biosphere have been with us, and have been heard more and more loudly as each year passed, since the 1970s. Concern about the damage to the Biosphere, about the pollution of the environment, about the prolonged ill effects of modern methods of agriculture, of cattle breeding, of forestry had however begun to be expressed by perceptive individuals as early as the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Mahatma Gandhi perhaps perceived such ill consequences as early as 1909. Many in Britain and Europe were opposed to power driven machine industrial production from the beginning of the 19th century itself when such production actually began on any appreciable scale.

While the crowning of the 'Environment' is yet to key place various countries of the world and their leaders of state as well as of their non-governmental organizations have been busy collectively as well as nationally in making preparation for this great crowning. One major mobilization of it was in Paris from Dec.16-20, 1991, at the personal invitation of the President of the French Republic. Some 600-800 participants from various corners of the world, about 60 from India itself, gathered in Paris for this august occasion. As many of the non-Western participants did not seem to agree with the statement, previously prepared by France, as emanating from this gathering they issued another statement of their own on the subject. Incidentally, one of the prominent Indian environmentalists is also said to have been publicly "rebuked by the UN representative at the Paris conference and told that as it was on the resources and occasions provided by them that he did his unending world travel he had no business to be talking against the international system from which he drew his sustenance. The rebuke was so sharp and unexpected that it made him feel as if he was part of a lower humanity, and he expressed his feelings bluntly in a formal session of the Conference next morning.

The magic of the world Environment seems to be so powerful that even the Indo-German eight month long Festival in Germany is also devoting some of its time and resources to the theme of Environment. The adventurous Dutch (i.e. the "people of Holland or the Netherlands as it is formally called) however have found an additional inventive approach to Environment. While them - must has also held national and international conferences on the French and similar models they further decided to invite some scholars and social workers from the non-Western world to give the Dutch their view of how they as non-Westerners looked at this subject. The result is a recently published book of 128 pages published from Holland and tided 'A Vision from the South: How. Wealth degrades Environment: sustainability m the Netherlands'.' Its authors are Mercia Gomes (cultural anthropologist, and government administrator in the very city of Rio de Janeiro where the 1992 Environment conference is to be held), Chandra Karana (involved in environmental studies in Indonesia), Sami Songanbele (agronomist from Tanzania), and Rajiv Vera (sociologist and Gaitflhian from India).

While 'A Visio from the South' has a fascination of its own, some of the facts about Holland it presents are frightening indeed. According to it while 'recycled water from sewage' is safe for drinking in the Netherlands, 'the water that drops from the clouds' (p.58-59) is not. If we in India are only a decade or two away before we ourselves undergo the Dutch experience it is time that we forget our ancient boil where rain water collected and was used for drinking even for years, and similar Indian mechanisms of harvesting rain water. According to the book the acid content of the atmosphere is so high (pH level of 4.5) that rain actually does not precipitate but is a dry fall. 'So it does not help if you hurry from the rain to avoid your hair become acidic; it will get that anyway. But you can always use tap water and a nice bio degradable shampoo to clean if. Further, 'the acid water that precipitates on trees is not easily washed off but rather oozes into them in a way that ends up killing them, or in a strange sense, making them suffer'. It may be well to remember that the 1970's European and German interest in Environment started after noticing the vast damage which had been done by acid rain to the forests and individual trees.

Another dimension of the Western environmental concern is with regard to the vast amount of domestic garbage produced by each household. In Holland it amounts to 3,000 kg. Per household per year (p.109). The far more astounding quantity, it may be very specific to Holland which seems to thrive on meat and dairy industry, is of d u n g produced by the vast numbers of domestic animals which Holland has. Holland has a human population of 15,000,000 and ll0 million domestic animals (p.124). So there are eight animals to each human being, and each group of these eight animals, on the v. average, is sad to produce 60,000 kg. of dung per year (p.109). Two-thirds of this dung seems to result from cattle feed provided to Holland by countries like Brazil and Thailand out of sheer international economic compulsions. While Holland is thus .enmeshed in the stench of dung countries like Brazil, Thailand, etc., not only have less area producing food for their people but also-are deprived of essential organic nutrients for their soils. While only 2,400,000 hectares of land is cultivated in Holland (p,62) the Dutch farming industry commands the produce of some 15,000,000 hectares (p.72)-in other countries to supply it agricultural products for its food, meat and dairy industry.

The book goes on producing similar details and data about Dutch life and industry, and here and there sees signs of hope and a new beginning in which the European world and the rest of mankind may achieve a reasonable equity. One such sign is of the European world taking to organic agriculture. But while the number of agricultural farmers in Holland in 1986 was 108,000 (p.71) the number engaged in organic farming was just about 500 (p.81). That the productivity of organic agriculture amounts to less than 6% of the modern (p.61) is said to be one of the causes of the small number taking to organic farming. The other is that these organic farms do not receive any governmental funding or support, or even loans at normal farm interest rates, as the farms engaged in modern agriculture do. Consequently, food produced on these organic farms 'costs twice or three times as much as from other farms'. So much therefore for hope.

Perhaps, the greater value of 'A Vision from the South' is in its indirectly presenting the increasingly dependent and servile status of most of the non-European world in today's context. Even if the European world were to revert, say in the next fifty years, to organic agriculture and to a newly designed industrial structure which is much less injurious to the environment it would not solve any of the multiplying problems which the non-European world faces here and now. Hope is useful but determination, assertion and action is what would actually tell. The determination and assertion of a non-European way or of multiple ways, and its example and strength alone can make an effective intervention in bringing some equivalence in the relationship between the European world and the non-European world.

Yet there seem to be some signs, though halting, of such determination and assertion. For instance some of the participants who gathered in December at Paris reacting to the 'Draft Citizen Action Plan for the 1990s' placed before the conference came with a draft of their own and titled it 'Agenda South'. Its preamble stated:

The roots of our future should not grow out of the roots of the past of the last five centuries.
Over this period a few powerful political and economic actors based in the North (and now including Japan) have carried out a sustained and monstrous assault on nature everywhere, in the name of progress and development, throwing the lives of millions of ordinary people out of joint.
That assault continues today and shows no signs of abating, despite protests and Pleadings from citizens and earth groups based in the North. On the contrary the very same economic and Political actors get fatter, more prosperous and more powerful. They enhance their legitimacy and increase the reach of the so-called world-system to areas and peoples of the earth till now safely out of their reach or attention.
These activities of the dehumanized actors of the North during the last five hundred years have followed from a way of life and a perception of man and nature that seems inherent in Western culture, and defines Western man. This Western perception of man and nature is wholly alien to ideas of living in organic harmony with nature and earth, which have formed the basis of all major non-Western cultures.
These powerful actors now seek to colonies the environment movement and the forces that have made this movement the most vibrant and unsettling phenomenon of the present time. Through UNCED these actors which include Western governments, including that of Japan, international financial institutions and multinational corporations, now seek to gain a fresh level of legitimacy without having to discontinue any of their current activities. We do not wish to be part of this new wave of environmental colonization.
The best that can therefore be achieved in the circumstances of today, when the economic and political elite of the North has began to claim an environmental consciousness and sensitivity, is to bring the environments of the South completely out of the control of the North, and thus from the injurious effects of Western ways of thought and living. The North at the same time should utilize its newly discovered environmental sensitivities to learn to live a lifestyle that reduces and reverses damage to the environment of the earth.
The Knowledge and wisdom of the indigenous people of the South ensured survival and health of the environment over centuries. It is these sources that the world must return to for solution to the present crisis, for which the North has little to offer.

Moving from the preamble the 'Agenda South' asked its signatories to resolve:

The idea of establishing a global environmental regime with powers to enforce its decisions and direction is for these reasons rejected. Any such global authority shall necessarily be dominated by the physical and fiscal power of the North and thus shall be polluted by the environmentally destructive Western ways of thought and living.
The international financial institutions like the World Bank, which continue to finance disruptive projects across the planet, shall not be vested with any environmental jurisdiction.
In place of the global environmental regime, possibilities of establishing regional environmental conventions between countries of similar geographical and cultural endowments should be seriously explored. The countries of Europe thus should have an environmental convention among them and take concerted actions to preserve their own environments. This European convention may also include in its other countries like the U.S.A., Canada and Australia which are predominantly populated by people of Western stock. The need of an environmental discipline is in fact the most urgent amongst these countries alone. These countries of the South, like those of South Asia, South-East Asia and various .regions of Africa and also Latin America may also work towards establishing compact regional conventions, as and when the need arises. At a later stage these various regional conventions can interact among themselves to evolve some global conventions.

The people of the South however reject any global authority or conventions that may be imposed by the forces upholding the present world system. The people of the South are already choked with the various international regimes that control and inhibit their actions and make it impossible for them to live out their own life-styles. They do not need another international authority exercising control over them in the name of environmental protection.

The organizing principles of the South are in fact based upon local communities coming together to look after their own affairs. Regional and larger authorities can evolve only out of the mutual interaction between the autonomous and sovereign local communities. This-Southern process of starting from local level organizations to larger ones alone can be acceptable to the South in the matter of environmental regime also. Any regime imposed from above therefore must be firmly rejected.
Any fund established for the purpose of environmental protection and up gradation shall be in the form of reparations paid by the North for the damage it has caused to the environment of the earth through its actions during the last five hundred years. Since these funds are in the nature of reparations paid for injuries caused, those who are responsible for the injuries shall have no control on such funds. The environmental reparations funds shall be put in the control of a body constituted exclusively of the governments and non-governmental organizations of the South. This body shall be empowered to decide on the ways of distribution and utilization of these reparations funds. The principles of distribution shall however take into consideration the extent of damage caused to the natural environment in a particular region or country through the actions of the North'.

The participants who signed the Agenda South not only came from the non-European world but were also joined in their declaration by some of the participants from Italy, Great Britain, Romania, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil and Japan. Signatories from the non-European world came from Malaysia/ Fiji, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tunisia, Sir Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India.

Author: Dharampal

NOTES AND COMMENTS - PERFORMANCE OF OUR SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL JOURNALS - SOME RESPONSES

2011-10-31T02:38:00.000-07:00

We reproduce below extracts from some of the responses that we received on the article "The Performance of Modern Science and Technology in India: The Case of our Scientific and Technological Journals" by C.N.Krishnanand B.Viswanathan that appeared in the last issue of our Bulletin (No.11, June 1987, pp 1-19). This article was also reproduced in abridged form by The Hindu (Science Supplement, 23rd September 1987), Science Age (October 1987 issue) and Science Today (November 1987 issue). It is our hope that this-issue gets seriously debated by our science and technology community and major steps are initiated to improve the state of our scientific and technological journals.

- Editor

1. A well known information scientist writes:

I read your article on Indian Scientific and Technological journals in the latest issue of PPST Bulletin. The point of view deserves wide exposure and a reasoned debate.

There are a few conceptual errors. You seem to have mistaken two different definitions of impact factor to be the same. The journal impact factor is calculated on the references in a whole year's journal literature (approx. 4000 journals) made to articles published in the two previous years; part of these published in the earlier of the two years would have had a better chance than the other part, published in the year immediately preceding. The individual impact you have quoted from Garfield's Third World study is for a five-year period: calculated by counting all citations to papers published in a given year in the same year as well as in the four years following. There are a few other points which could be contested. But on the whole it reads well; the flow is natural and IT WILL MAKE AN IMPACT.

2. The Director of a CSIR Laboratory writes:

Thank you for drawing my attention to the paper on 'Performance of Modern Science and Technology in India: The case of our Scientific and Technological Journals" published in the PPST Bulletin of June 1987. The science and technology journals in India deserve a very serious but sympathetic look particularly because the scientific community as a whole seems to be caught in the vortex of publication - recognition relationship. So long as the science policy makers and science administrators would not explicitly state that the merit of publishing in Indian journals '.is no less than that of publishing in the foreign journals, (no matter the equation is invalid to start with), the egg and chicken story would appear as the stumbling block. We cannot imagine strengthening Indian journals and rearing them up to the international standard, if best of our contributions do not get published in these. That would happen only when a deliberate attempt is made to ensure quality printing, perfect periodicity, much wider circulation and adequate recognition of such papers in recruitments, promotions, awards etc. No doubt there is a need for very high order of restraint and sacrifice on the part of research scientists and technologists in diverting the real stuff to the Indian journals and there is an equal need on the part of professional bodies and the Government to appreciate such initiatives by instituting appropriate awards and incentives. Other suggestions are:

- The editorial board of journals should not wait for researchers to contribute articles and papers on their own but rather take initiative in soliciting such contributions from important research groups within the country.

- It would be a good idea to classify journals by constituting expert bodies in different disciplines and assign ratings which should be reviewed periodically as the quality of this or that journal moves up and up on time scale.

- Proliferation of journals must be resisted not only by professionals bodies but also, as far as possible, by the Government.

- There is a growing tendency to contribute to conferences and symposia because they provide authors the opportunity to travel abroad. Authors of outstanding papers published in the Indian journals should have avenues of obtaining financial assistance from the Government or from other professional bodies for presentation of their contributions abroad, if and when such invitation is received by the authors.

- The University Grants Commission, Universities and the Institutes of Technology should encourage Ph.D scholars to publish their work in the Indian journals.

These are some of my stray thoughts which I have expressed in the hope that you would be able to compile similar responses from others to draw up a working paper which should be put to a round table discussion.

3. A renowned Medical Scientist writes:

Thank you for sending me a copy of the PPST Bulletin. Indian scientists, particularly Fellows of the Academies, must agree to publish at least seventy percent of their important papers in Indian journals such as those published by the Indian Academy. Until and unless such an agreement comes into operation, I fear that our journals will continue to languish as they do now…

4. A renowned Chemist writes:

I have received... the PPST Bulletin No. 11. I am delighted to go through an article which describes the painful situation with regard to the practice of science in general and practice of publication of results in particular...Your article provides me with more material to push forth a point of view I have on this subject.

Let me take the opportunity to congratulate you on the marvelous job you are doing in the interest of true science and scientific spirit relevant to our country.

5. A renowned Physicist writes:

I thank you very much for taking the trouble of sending me a copy of your Bulletin. I was very much interested to read its contents and I find myself in agreement with many of the views expressed….

Publication in Indian journals has been a favorite topic of mine for more than a decade.... Against much opposition, I also laid down for a period the stipulation that all papers coming from my laboratory be published in Indian journals...

I do not think one really needs citation index to find out whether a paper is good or not or for that matter whether a journal is good or not. People had a way of deciding these questions long before such parameters came into existence. I think there is a definite way in which this assessment can be made even as a referee assesses a paper. I am quite sure that most competent experts will come to the unbiased conclusion that most of our journals are better closed down. If that happens then we would not have many journals but just a few that are roughly on par with international journals of a similar nature, barring a few glamorous ones. However I do not think our society is mature enough to take such a bold decision. Just as we have institutionalized mediocrity elsewhere, we have allowed it to happen in the field of scientific publications also and are now complaining…..

It seems to me that one should really not worry too much about impact as measured by parameters designed by others for their own situations. Take the case of G.N. Ramachandran. What happened was that he did not get citations. However by putting him on those problems. Raman enabled Ramachandran to sharpen his analytical abilities, and the training definitely paid off in later years. One has merely to see not only Ramachandran's brilliant work on various subjects but also the many students he produced. Indeed for me this is a paradigm of impact relevant to our situation. We need not really worry about external impact; rather we should be concerned about the internal impact.

I think the argument I am making has relevance to other countries also. For example, when Nature produced a special issue on science in Japan, the editor noted that many Japanese scientists complained that few outside Japan refer to their work. So the citation index for many Japan papers is rather low and yet we know that this does not tell the whole story of the growth and the development of science and technology in Japan.

I now come to the sensitive topic of publishing in Indian journals. Here I am afraid that the guiltiest ones are the best of bur scientists. I do not expect them to send their papers to journals lacking in quality. However, I don't believe the Academy journals are sub-standard. In fact it is my experience that many referees of the Academy journals take their jobs a little too seriously! This is indeed quite strange. While they themselves would not care to publish in the journal, they become very concerned about standards when the journal sends them a paper for refereeing. So I am convinced that the standard of Pramana, for example, is not at all bad. However, most good physicists dodge sending their papers there. A few occasionally send some papers rather like paying tax. The only occasion when we are able to elicit without much coercion is when we publish a felicitation volume. On such occasions people write nice reviews and send it to the Academy journals.

What does one do with such a situation? Some years ago it was suggested that if money for research comes from India, then the product of the research must appear in an Indian journal. The argument was that research arid publications are two sides of the same coin and since both are supported by Government, scientist could not accept only one and ignore the other. When this suggestion "was made there was a big furor. Cries of dictatorship etc. were raised and the idea was promptly dropped. To be fair, one can see the point of the authors also a lack of visibility. This is a point which very much weighs in the minds of all active scientists and is also linked to the possibilities of finding openings in foreign laboratories. The compulsions of international peer recognition are not easily brushed aside. At the same time, I am deeply concerned that thanks to the rising cost of journals, our students and college lecturers have no access to foreign journals. If only we can trap what is going outside, then our journals would be substantially improved and our students would be benefited since Indian journals are nowhere near being as expensive as foreign journals. In a few years there should be a visible impact. I always find that when I publish in an Indian journal I get many requests from within India, especially from small places. It is clear to me that damming the outflow will make an internal impact even though we might lose out on the citation front. But how to bell the cat? No, amount of appeals to patriotism seems to have any effect. Nor also references to famous examples like that of Homi Bhabha. When he came back from England he published most of this papers in India, particularly in the Proceedings of the Indian Academy, Landau did a similar thing in USSR. But today nobody has the time to listen to such arguments'.

I am sorry this letter is rather long and inconclusive. My objective was not to specifically answer or raise points relating to the article published in your Bulletin but just to convey to you that I have been worrying about this problem for many years and that I have not seen the light yet!

6. Finally the following is the response from a reputed senior scientist:

The issues your raises have bothered me and have in fact been bothering me since 1970. I remember the comment C.V.Raman once made about journals in India, humorous at first sight but full of serious impact - "There are two types of people who want to have Indian journals - those who are working in the forefront of science and who are fighting for priority and those who cannot get their papers accepted in any decent journal anywhere else". I think this is still true.

Raman ensured his priority for the discovery of the Raman Effect (and hence the award of the Nobel Prize) because he published in an Indian journal. One can also give many examples of cases in recent years when Indian scientists got recognition and priority only because their papers were published in India.

Probably, the majority of the papers that Indians produce do not come under the two extreme categories Raman mentions

I agree with you that all our Science and Technological activities and concerns must have roots within our country and the scientific community has to acquire an Indian identity. In my limited way, I have attempted to propagate this idea. I think a time has come when younger people have to espouse this cause and fight this battle.

NOTES AND COMMENTS - ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY WAS NEVER SIMPLE

2011-10-31T02:33:00.000-07:00

I. INTCODUCTION:

Sri A.V. Balasubramanian's write-up on Is Indigenous Technology Simple' (vide PPST Bulletin No. 11, June 1987) while providing information on some ancient technologies, fails to answer his own question adequately. No doubt, Indigenous Sciences and Technologies (S and T) need to be studied and understood in our own terms and in relation to our society, our history and our needs; one may go further and maintain that they should have been applied in the present times so that the S and T base is widened appreciably and usefully. However, a direct comparison of Eastern (Indian) and Modem (Western) S and T becomes difficult since the respective cosmologies and hence, the linguistic and semantic contents of S and T itself is divergent. It is, further, not a question of right or wrong of a given method; it is rather its appropriateness with respect to a' situation, given the fact that human beings around the world are not completely different, but have the common goals of Dharma, Artha, Kama and sometimes, Moksa to top it all. This paper provides an example in the S and T practiced in the ancient worlds with comparisons1 of the Western world-view and purports to provide an answer to Sri Balasubramanian's query.

All ancient technologies, be it Indian, Chinese or American Indian - have a holistic and theocentric conception of the universe with the position and role of humans well defined. The Western science' and hence, technology is still homocentric or anthropocentric. This difference in outlook is basically due to the cosmological models pursued by each of the two cultures. Indeed, one may even go to the most basic of all concepts in the phenomenal world to appreciate this dichotomy - namely, the ideas regarding time and space which differentiates these two cultural outlooks. In the Indian view, space and time are mere phenomenal appearances while in the Western view; a linear homogeneous existence is ascribed to these fundamental entities. Quoting K.N. Nayak (cultural relativity: A unified theory of knowledge, Vol. 1, Saddharma Prakasaka, Mangalore 1982, p.2-3)

‘Frames of references generated by taking for granted the positive existence of time and space, with linearity and homogeneity as their respective characteristics, can be characterized as exclusive frames. Conversely, the frame of reference generated without commitment in advance to any type of existence of time and space in any definite terms can be characterized as an inclusive frame. These two types emerge because a frame of reference which is 'positive' rather than simply 'neutral' about time and space forecloses its own reform and thus restricts inquiry. It thereby becomes an exclusive frame in comparison to a reference frame which renders its own reform unnecessary by means of non-commitment or 'neutrality' as to any conclusions whatsoever about time and space - an inclusive frame which will not exclude any inquiry and ultimate conclusion. The exclusive frame excludes the inclusive frame and the inclusive frame includes the exclusive frame. Thus, the exclusive and inclusive frames are the opposite poles "on a continuum of the entire ideological frame-spectrum rather than a pair of opposites' (author's emphasis).

Thus we see an antipodal approach to space and time, diverging views on cosmology and the role of humans, as well as the evolution of man that emerge from the Indian and the Western view, respectively! Naturally, the S and T base emerging out of these world views are different. For example while Ayurveda, Acupuncture, Yoga etc., emphasize the cosmic energy flow and balance of humors in the body vis-a-vis their interactions with cosmological factors, modem Medicine is preoccupied with the pathological basis and individual organ abnormality without any relation to the environment, both internal and external. Only now, modern Medicine has turned its attention to the psychosomatic basis of disease processes implying a mind-body link even if an imbalance is apparent only in the body.

2. SIMPLICITY IN S AND T:

Simplicity or otherwise of any process should be defined from the point of view of people interacting maximally with the system. Since 'Simplicity' implies accessibility to most people, people coming across such a technology will be tempted to buy the end product of the technology. However, unlike what is made out in the above cited paper, simplicity need not imply increased cost nor even increased neither energy consumption nor degradation of the environment. Balasubramanian gives the example of a bicycle - its complex design; however, it is obvious that this mode of transportation is probably the least expensive, it is least polluting and consumes very little energy during normal use. Indeed one might say, under specific circumstances, it even improves the health of an otherwise sedentary urban user.

Simplicity is also related to the overall cosmological perspective involved in the development of an ideology. Naturally, a complex cosmology will give rise to a complex interaction pattern whose specific outcome is difficult to discern. For example, there are 72,000 nadis in the human body (as per Ayurveda and Yoga) each interlinked with others, crisscrossing through various chakra points and passing close to the skin at more than 300 points. Stimulation of the 300 odd points on the body surface through heat or a needle (as per Acupuncture) will open and close channels at distant locations in the body thus balancing the humeral outflows. It will take several years of hard work for a traditional acupuncturist to learn all these intricate networks, apart from reading of nadi (pulse), looking at the eyes, observing myriad reactions of the body, tracking the pattern of mind, correlating astrological charts, detecting family traits, etc. Thus, a traditional acupuncturist is at once an astrologer, nadi examiner, cosmologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, nature cure expert, physiotherapist and not the least, a good friend of the patient.

Modern Medicine is an off-shoot of the anthropocentric science of the middle ages. While modern (meaning Western) science has succeeded in throwing off the shackles of anthropocentric and reductionist attitudes of the middle ages and of the late nineteenth century, Biology, Psychology and related medical sciences have yet to gain such insights. They are still groping with materiocentric concepts in trying to understand life and evolution. Thus, the role of the mind, subtle energies and environmental factors in health and disease are not under stood and not even properly formulated thus far. Hence, the modern medical sciences are 'simplistic' in outlook, though the technological support for this simplistic attitude has become very complex and expensive. One wonders what technological innovations will come to pass when this simplistic outlook of modern science gets knocked down and more sophisticated and inescapable concepts of mind - ecology - God are introduced!

Turning once again to the ancient medical technologies, only a select few with occult abilities, deep understanding of human nature and an unswerving dedication to the sick are selected to serve the sick. In contrast, almost anyone with a mediocre knowledge and a smattering of and casual acquaintance with medical terminology could practice modem medicine. Avail ability of a set of powerful drugs, powerful imaging technology methods and a simple cosmology has produced a large number of medical technologists who can deal adequately with many diseases.

3. CONCLUSION:

In the light of the above examples, it is obvious that simplicity in S and T is related more to the philosophy backing the S and T rather than to the equipment, cost and energy inputs the process requires. This is to be expected as the inclusive frame includes the cosmos, the human and the anu (atom) in one sweep/ integrating their interdependence and, hence energy exchanges in a complex way. Thus, the inclusive frame of medical practices (Ayurveda, Acupuncture, Yoga, American Indian Medicine etc) are more sophisticated in concept and hence in practice,1 than the exclusive frame of modern medicine. This is further obvious from the earlier definition of Dr. Nayak wherein it was mentioned that the inclusive frame includes the exclusive frame, while the converse is not true. Further, since in the inclusive frame, position of human beings is non-central, and since nature is central, the technological innovations are related to maximizing natural processes and not necessarily to maximize the insatiable desire of humans, thus, the examples cited by Balasubramanian and others in agriculture, water management, forestry, development of tools and technologies (all nature-centered) satisfy the criterion of maintaining and sustaining natural cyclicity. However, any human who works under constraints of egoistic ends, ends up as an agency reduced to 'mere button pushing. This is not related to the cosmic philosophy of the S and T, rather on individual philosophy..A woman who carries water from a well two miles away is as much a button pusher as*a woman who is bent over a conveyor belt picking out improper electronic components in an air-conditioned factory. Here, the attitude to work rather than the work itself in question. A philosophy which is able to sustain an attitude of self-less service perhaps to the family and then to the society - is one that makes a person transcend the mere, egocentric experience of button pushing. The Indian philosophies indeed emphasize such self¬less service; perhaps this is why our population is still able to retain semblance of sanity. Needless to say, n practice, the modern Indian falls far short of such lofty goals, while one finds people in a less profound philosophical environment, practicing more profound attitudes of charity and love. Only time and attitudes of people can tell if we could ascend to the levels of glory .in this country where no one is in the centre, and yet, everyone is a complete human being.

Author:Prof. T.M. Srinivasan

NOTES AND COMMENTS - MORE ON THE ALLEGED SIMPLICITY OF INDIGENOUS TECHNOLOGY

2011-10-31T02:27:00.000-07:00

"When we speak of colonial experience everything becomes topsy-turvy. What looks an angel in the 'mother' country looks like a demon here.

- D.R. Nagaraj, Amrita Mattu Garuda (Nectar and Eagle)

This is so from the point of view of both the colonizer and the colonized.

This short write-up purports to add a few footnotes to what Sri.A.V.Balasubramanian has written in connection with the alleged 'simplicity' of the indigenous technology in the last issue of the PPST Bulletin.

In establishing its hegemony over the colonial peoples, imperialism resorts to various types of manipulations - social, political, economic, historical (in the distortion of the past of the colonial people) and less conspicuously but equally cleverly, semantic. The invoking of the concept of 'simplicity' for denigrating the indigenous technology of the colonized people is a clear case of a semantic manipulation. As Balasubramanian has pointed out 'simplicity' has been claimed as a desirable and even necessary quality of scientific theories by many western scientists and philosophers of science. According to them simplicity not only constitutes an aesthetic virtue but also promotes and enhances the explanatory power of scientific theory and: therefore must figure in our evaluation and choice of scientific theories. Not only in science but even in technology 'simplicity' is claimed to be a guiding factor. Thus, Karl Popper while juxtaposing what he calls "Social Engineering" which he recommends, with the idea of a revolutionary and radical reconstruction of society (advocated by Marxists, for instance) which he despises, says "the social engineer or the technologist approaches institutions rationally as means that serve certain ends, and .... as a technologist he judges them wholly according to their appropriateness,1 efficiency, simplicity etc.," (1) thereby implying the simplicity is a decisive consideration in technological choice.

But when it comes to the characterization and evaluation of the technology of the non-western societies, simplicity becomes a. vice by a peculiar twist of logic. However, the recent discussions on the notion of simplicity have convincingly shown that 'simplicity' is too problematic to be claimed as a guiding factor in the decisions concerning scientific choice. By the same logic it" follows that it cannot be invoked for the purposes of 'establishing' the inferiority of the technologies of the non- western societies. The objections against the view that in scientific theorizing 'simplicity' has an unambiguous methodological meaning and scientific practice constitutes a domain of its paradigmatic application can be classified into (1) theoretical and (2) practical. The theoretical objection pertains to the fact that there are many senses in which 'simplicity can be and has been, used; in other words there are different notions of simplicity. Mario Bunge, an eminent philosopher of science, mentions four such, notions - syntactical, semantic, epistemological and pragmatic (2). Syntactical simplicity depends on the number and structure of (a) basic predicates used in a theory, (b) the independent postulates of a theory, and (c) the rules of statement - transformation (i.e. the rules that connect theoretical concepts/statements to observational or experimental outcomes). Semantic simplicity which means economy of presuppositions depends on the number of meaning - specifiers of the basic predicates that figure in a theory. Epistemological simplicity which concerns parsimony of theoretical terms depends upon experimental proximity; that is to say, the more a theory is amenable to experimental evaluation, the more epistemologically simple it is. Pragmatic simplicity depends on factors like computational convenience, feasibility of experimental design etc. As Bunge points out "No dependable measure of any of the four kinds of simplicity is known at present" (3). That is to say, there is no criterion to decide about the relative importance of each of these distinct types of simplicity. Consequently, we will not be able to decide on objective grounds, which of the two competing theories have to be validated if one of them is simpler than the other in one sense but less simple than the other in another sense.

The practical objection concerns the fact that in actual scientific practice (a) it is impossible to decide by consensus what is simple and what is not, and (b) 'simplicity' has been blatantly violated for the sake of other considerations.

That there are no clear-cut and neutral standards to guide us in actual scientific practice as to what is simple and what is not, can be very well brought out by considering the way 'simplicity' figured in the controversy between the followers of Ptolemy and Copernicus. Copernicus and his followers argued that their theory was simpler than that of Ptolemy which, in their opinion, had become highly complex and cumbersome. But their opponents rightly thought that the Copemican theory was much less simple because it needed the radical overthrow of the then prevalent world-view. Is it not, they asked, simpler to add some computational devices and hypothetical entities in accounting for certain observations than to overthrow a whole world-view? Moreover, the Cbpernicans felt their theory to be very obviously simple even though they too resorted to techniques like 'mean sun', circles moving on circles (similar to the epicycles of Ptolemians) and other adhoc strategies such that "A comparison of the two figures representing Ptolemaic and Copemican systems does not show that one was in any obvious way simpler than the other" (4). Even if we accept the Copemican system to be in a sense simpler than the pre-Copernican one, we must also accept that the latter is simpler than the former in an equally important and more obvious sense. It is because of the simplicity of the old theory that even to-day the theory and practice of navigation and surveying start with the assumption of the old view ("Let as assume that the earth is at rest"). As Kuhn points out "Evaluated in terms of economy, the two sphere universe remains what it has always been; an extremely successful theory" (5). Further, it must be noted that what appeared to Copernicus and his followers to be only 'pitching up and stretching engaged in by Ptolemians was for their opponents 'a natural process of adaptation and ‘extension' (6). No line of demarcation between 'natural adaptation' and 'artificial patching up' could be satisfactorily drawn in terms which were neutral to the contending points of view.

No wonder, 'simplicity' does not figure substantially in the process of settling the controversies at rest. In fact, in the history of science, the norm of simplicity has been even grossly violated with the result that in more than one way the new theories would be less simple than the old ones. Such violations are due to the" fact that simplicity is not necessarily in conformity, in* fact might even conflict, with other overwhelming considerations such as concilience or extendibility; that is, the ability of a theory to encompass more domains than one in which it was originally applied. Hamilton's formulation of dynamics was preferred to Newton's because it could deal with a wider class of dynamical problems and also because it can be extended beyond dynamics (into Field Theory). Yet epistemologically and syntactically it is' more complex in terms of equations and character of concepts. Going back to the geo- centric and helio- centric controversy, t he fact that the former theory was in a sense more simple than the latter or at least no more complex than the latter could not save it from being displaced by the latter.

All this shows that science is far from being a paragon of the virtue of simplicity and 'simplicity' is highly problematic as a methodological norm in scientific evaluation. It needs no argument to say that when it comes to technological matters, it would be even more problematic. Hence, simplicity cannot be invoked to 'establish' the superiority of modern western technology by declaring it to be simple as opposed to non-modern technology which is 'cumbersome'. By the same logic, it cannot be invoked for the opposite claim (but for the same purpose of denigrating non-modern technology) that non-modern technology is simple and therefore inferior as against modern technology which is "refined" and "sophisticated". Both the contradictory characterizations of non-modern technology aimed at the same purpose of 'establishing' the inferiority of indigenous technology and superiority of western technology presuppose that the notion of simplicity is non-problematic since its role is very transparent in scientific practice. The above discussion has sought to establish the dubious character of such an assumption on both theoretical and practical grounds.

But let us, for the sake of argument,' grant that 'simplicity' is not at all a problematic and contestable notion? Let us also, overlook the perverse logic behind the claim that indigenous technology is inferior because it is simple and that it is simple because it is crude, however miserable the arguments behind such juvenile equations. But there is another more obvious and definitely more familiar sense in which modern western technology is 'simple' (of course, this is not the sense in which it is used by those who 'establish' the superiority of modern technology on the daim that it is simple). Modern western technology simplifies economic production by reducing all dimensions of economic production and activity to one and only one dimension - Profit. Undoubtedly a very clear and straightforward type of simplicity accrues from such" a reduction and the consequent simplification of the role of technology. Modem western technology is an organic part of a civilization according to whose ethos, to use Schumacher's words from a different but related context, "The totality of life can be reduced to one aspect - Profits... That is the essential idea in all its stark simplicity. The power of its appeal stems also from its simplicity. Everything is crystal clear after you have 'reduced' reality to one - one only - of its thousand aspects. You know what to do: whatever produces profit; you know what to avoid: whatever makes a loss. Not only is there an absolute clarity about aims, there is also a perfect measuring rod for success or failure - profit. Let no one befog the issue by asking whether a particular action is conductive to the wealth and well-being of society, whether it leads to moral, aesthetic or cultural enrichment - simply find out whether it pays; simply investigate whether there is any alternative that pays better. If there is, choose the alternative" (7).

But let us, for the sake of argument,' grant that 'simplicity' is not at all a problematic and contestable notion? Let us also, overlook the perverse logic behind the claim that indigenous technology is inferior because it is simple and that it is simple because it is crude, however miserable the arguments behind such juvenile equations. But there is another more obvious and definitely more familiar sense in which modern western technology is 'simple' (of course, this is not the sense in which it is used by those who 'establish' the superiority of modern technology on the daim that it is simple). Modern western technology simplifies economic production by reducing all dimensions of economic production and activity to one and only one dimension - Profit. Undoubtedly a very clear and straightforward type of simplicity accrues from such" a reduction and the consequent simplification of the role of technology. Modem western technology is an organic part of a civilization according to whose ethos, to use Schumacher's words from a different but related context, "The totality of life can be reduced to one aspect - Profits... That is the essential idea in all its stark simplicity. The power of its appeal stems also from its simplicity. Everything is crystal clear after you have 'reduced' reality to one - one only - of its thousand aspects. You know what to do: whatever produces profit; you know what to avoid: whatever makes a loss. Not only is there an absolute clarity about aims, there is also a perfect measuring rod for success or failure - profit. Let no one befog the issue by asking whether a particular action is conductive to the wealth and well-being of society, whether it leads to moral, aesthetic or cultural enrichment - simply find out whether it pays; simply investigate whether there is any alternative that pays better. If there is, choose the alternative" (7).

References

1. The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper, Vol. I. Routledge and Kegan Paul. Fifth edition (1966) p.24 (emphasis added).

2.The weight of simplicity in the Construction and Assaying of Scientific Theories by Mario Bunge, Philosophy of Science, Vol. 38 (1961).

3.1bid

4. The Birth of a New Physics by I.B. Cohen Vakils, Feffer and Simons, (1965) p.57.

5. The Copemican Revolution by Thomas Kuhn, Harvard University Press (1957) p. 37.

6.Ibid p.75

7. Schumacher on Energy (Ed) Geoffrey Kirk, Jonathan Cape Ltd. (1982) p. 37.

Author:S.G. KULKARNI

BOOK REVIEW - RICE IN ABUNDANCE FOR ALL TIMES THROUGH RICE CLONES (A POSSIBLE ONE-GRAIN RICE REVOLUTION By. Dr. R.H. Richharia (1987)*

2011-10-31T02:22:00.000-07:00

In a world of more than 250,000 different species of flowering plants, just three grasses - rice, wheat and corn dominate as the sources of most of the food supply for human beings. All three have been objects of agricultural experimentation and exploitation by human beings for more than 6,000 years. Long before the discovery of Mendel's laws, in 1900, human ingenuity had created about 100,000 cultivated varieties of rice suited for every purpose, land and season, with about 70,000 of these varieties cultivated by farmers in India. It is remark able, and to some a very sad story, that just in the, last two decades more than half, the human population of the world has come, to depend on only a handful of these varieties for their sustenance. Obviously, the high yielding varieties of rice developed by modern techniques of plant breeding have not caused a green revolution in India in the sense wheat seems to have, since the latter has given more than projected yields in the past ten years. One of the failures of modern agricultural sciences is that the technology evolved to increase yield in plants is biased towards individual elite varieties rather than to all varieties evolved by human beings in the past 10,000 years of domestication.

We are now desperately looking for any technique that would increase yield in rice, even by a few per cent, to produce food for the increasing population. Hybrid rice, now growing in about a third of the rice growing areas in China, has about 25% yield increase over the high yielding modern cultivars thanks to the phenomenon of hybrid vigor or heterocyst. However, there are indications that these varieties may not be as successful in the more tropical conditions of India. The potential increase in yield through any breakthrough in genetic engineering with rice remains unknown and unpredicted. It is against this background that one should appreciate Dr. Richharia's recent small book of 132 pages offering "a possible one-grain rice revolution" with novel suggestions for establishing "rice gardens" that could produce 100 tonnes per hectare per year (as against about 15 tonnes per hectare for three crops through conventional techniques of rice cultivation). The romantic title of Masanobu Fukuoka's work, The One-Straw Revolution" is better adapted here for this book, written by a scientist and summarizing nearly 45 years of his research on certain fundamental and potentially useful properties of rice plants. We read a book for what it says, and often also for who says it. Richharia knows the rice plant as well as any human being can, and his experience and contributions remain unmatched by any single rice researcher in India.

Richharia has organized his book carefully beginning with a lucid introduction to his they is in Chapter II, and exploring the more involved applications that require some knowledge of crop production, in the subsequent chapters. The appendices clearly bring out how he has been championing, for more than 25 years, the adoption of his clonal propagation techniques for yield enhancement in certain varieties and hybrids of rice. I did find some sentences cumbersome to read, about half a dozen typesetter's spelling errors, an odd list of 48 names in 'Hindi (in a book otherwise fully written in English), and an appendix on "In vivo and in vitro clonal propagation in rice" only of peripheral interest to the theme of the book. However, these are very minor shortcomings in a book that has so much to offer, is so well documented, and clearly sets forth the importance and implications of clonal propagation in rice.

The thrust of Richharia's message is that 17 to 61% increase in yield can be obtained by clonal propagation of certain varieties, and that this technique can be exploited not only for yield increase but also for overcoming the problems of (a) sterility among hybrids and tetraploids (b) maintenance of quality in aromatic varieties of rice, and (c) submergence of seedlings during flooding. Clonal propagation also helps in the better management of ratoon crops and plants produced through tissue culture methods, and provide a degree of resistance to insects such as the stem borers and gallfly. What is this new technique of clonal propagation that is claimed to offer an alternate means of increasing yield in rice? Tillering, the ability to produce branches from the axillary buds located at the nodes, is a feature common to many grasses. All tillers derived from a main stem possess identical genetic makeup. While tiller production is considered undesirable in most major cereal crops, yield in rice is dependent upon the ability to produce a number of healthy tillers that would eventually produce panicles and grains. Primary tillers develop from the main shoot about 10 days after transplanting. Secondary and tertiary tillers develop from the primary tillers, and in about 50 to 60 days after transplanting, a single seedling in a hill could have given rise to about 25 tillers. A significant feature of tillers is that 50 to 70% of them develop panicles that produce mature grains about the same time as the panicle on the main stem thus yielding more grains per hill. Tillering capacity is a varietal characteristic, as often pointed out in this book.

What Richharia offers is a procedure to take advantage of this innate perennating capacity of the rice plant to multiply hhe genetically identical clones to obtain some 300 times more man the usual number of tillers from a single seedling during 5 to 6 months of propagation. Additionally - and this is very important - the seeds obtained from the clones, when used to raise a normal crop in the next season, produce healthier plants, offering up to 60% more yield than plants raised from seeds obtained from conventional techniques of crop production. When a seedling has produced two tillers, Richharia suggests separating them from the main stem and replanting all three individually in pots or in a plot. When each one of them has produced two tillers, the procedure is repeated usually in intervals of about 15 days. Under ideal circumstances, with three tillers (x = 3) per split, and about 8 such splits (n = 8) between February and July, as many as xn = 6561 clones can be obtained from a single seed. Tiller separation seems to enhance subsequent vigour and growth of the clone resulting in the production of more fully- filled and uniformly mature and healthier seeds capable of better yield in the next generation. Richharia is quick to point out that successful tiller production is a varietal character and that clonal propagation technique is merely a manipulation of the untapped but natural potential of the rice plant.

Richharia then proceeds to explain how ihis crucial but simple procedure of physical t separation of tillers from each other can be applied to stubble left in the field after harvest, to a whole ratoon crop, to a large field after transplanting is over, and to a nursery bed with aged seedlings. Apparently, farmers in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh have been practicing a form of clonal propagation known as beusaning or biyasi where a field with broadcast cultivation is 'ploughed' to split the tillers. Richharia further explores the possibility of applying the clonal propagation technique to improve yield and/or quality in: (1) tetraploids where 40-45% sterility is encountered but propagation of even a few seeds is worth the effort in view of the increased protein content of tetraploid grains, (2) about 300 cultivars of aromatic rice where uniformity in genetic make-up would ensure consistency in quality (and this has great export potential), and (3) seedlings obtained through tissue culture and genetic engineering techniques. Often, in science, simpler solutions have wider applicability. It is interesting to note that Richharia extends his clonal propagation technique to cultivation of plants in a closed system for extended space travel and colonization. This, I submit, is not farfetched, and the rice plant is certainly the most suitable of all cereals for this purpose by virtue of its hardiness, temperature tolerance, perennating habit and ability to grow in aquatic as well as terrestrial media.

Richharia cites examples of field trials conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Madhya - Pradesh, Mysore, Uttar Pradesh ahd West Bengal to substantiate the claims of yield increase “through clonal propagation. Two obvious questions come to mind while reading this book: (1) What is the physiological basis for yield increase in clonal propagation? (2) Why such a promising technique is not more widely practiced, and why Richharia, himself once an occupant of key positions in rice research (Director of Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, and Madhya Pradesh Rice Research Institute, Raipur), has not been able to convince researchers, pla'nners and farmers throughout India ?

As for the physiological basis of yield increase, the only significant finding available so far seems to be the preferential movement of nitrogen and phosphorus to grains rather than to the culms. It is known from other studies that the chemical environment of different grains within a panicle is age- dependent and that younger grains may have more of a growth hormone such as abscise acid than the older and fully mature grains. Also, seed treatment "with certain growth regulators is known to improve productivity in later stages of growth. Perhaps, clonal propagation similarly affects the chemical environment of the seeds whose beneficial effects are realized in the subsequent generation. Obviously, a great deal of research is required to "understand the effects of tiller separation on the autonomous status of the isolated tiller and the development of panicle and grains. Most examples cited in this book are of tillers grown during the long day periods of February to June. While- photosensitive varieties are suitable for this season; insensitive types would start initiating panicles even before the third split can take place. One wonders ii this is the reason why no data is available in this book as to how much more yield can be obtained when the high yielding IR varieties are propagated through clonal cultivation. Could this be a reason, then, for the lack of widespread adoption of this technique - that most of our better yielding or at least fertilizer responsive types do not have the photosensitive gene incorporated in them? Clonal propagation, as described in this book, requires about six months of constant effort to grow, manure, water, weed, protect from pests and diseases, and split and replant the tillers, periodically. Planting these tillers in July would yield grains, not for consumption, but for raising a regular crop in the next season, i.e., in the following July. Yield from this crop, sometime in November, will be the source of food. Because of this extremely long period required to raise plants through clonal propagation, a cost/benefit analysis is required for cultivation under extended field conditions in farmers' holdings.

This little book has much more to offer, than the techniques of clonal propagation. Here, Richharia has summarised some of his lorig-held views and suggestions for an "Indian Hybrid Rice" programme with less emphasis on the use of conventional cytoplasmic male sterile and fertility restorer systems . His suggestions for the use of abnormal floral structures and clustered spikelet types deserve the attention of researchers. Richharia also reveals some of his vast knowledge and appreciation of the "why" of the many practices in rice cultivation observed among the so called "tribal" populations of the country. Indeed, one hopes that he would record in greater detail these traditional techniques of cultivation lest the onslaught of modernity should wipe out knowledge built over many thousands of years.

It is with a fooling of satisfaction that one closes the cover of "Rice In Abundance for All Time Through Rice Clones" - that this most benevolent plant still holds many mysterious ways of feeding the millions.

Author:P. Dayanandan

BOOK REVIEW - ORIENTALISM By Edward W. Said (New York, Vintage, 1979)

2011-10-31T02:17:00.000-07:00

Following the capture of the US embassy in Teheran in 1979, the mass media in the US launched an all-out war of propaganda against the Iranian revolution. Leading newspaper? and magazines carried statements to the effect that "civilization is receding" (Wall Street Journal editorial) supported by quotes from rancorous Oriental authorities one of whom says that "the disorder of the Orient is deep and endemic"; the attempt was not only to discredit and/or deny that any genuine popular revolution had taken place, expressing protest against tyranny and the desire of a people to have a life of their own. Much worse, there was an attempt to justify the torture-regime of Moheza Pahalvi by drawing upon the prevalent notions of Iranian history: "it can be argued that he was entirely in the tradition of Iranian history " (Washington Post). Even if the preceding utterances were viewed as "normal", arising out of a sense of anger at an enemy, the trend of arriving at these opinions is significant viz. to describe the political upheaval and participants in terms of known and available notions of Islam and Muslims. These notions require no support from immediate factual evidence, as they fall back on a certain collective, inherited doctrine which provides them with strength and authority, to make them appear as statements of Truth. This doctrine is what Edward Said calls "Orientalism" and his book under review attempts, among other things, to provide a historical perspective on "Orientalism" within the general history of Europe, its nature and role as one of the dimensions of the larger Western Quite significantly, this book also attempts to show how the Orientalist images diffuse into the popular culture and how the scholarly Orientalism, itself a great body of enterprise, interacts and even shapes the (foreign) 'policy making apparatus of the Western nations.

'Orientalism' is divided into three long chapters and twelve shorter sub-units. The first chapter outlines the entire field of study, indicating the dimensions of it and its philosophical and political themes. The second chapter, somewhat chronological in nature, traces the development of modern (i.e. late XVIII century onwards) Orientalism by the description of a set of devices common to the works of important poets, artists and scholars, down to the period 1870. The last chapter is largely a description of Orientalism from 1870 till the end of World’War II, whiles the very last section of this chapter, considers the present phase of the Orientalism in the US.

While "Orientalism" is a general term covering roughly all the "Asian" cultures, Said's study of the Orientalist paradigm is based mainly on the European experience of the 'Wear Orient", "The Middle East" or the Arab-speaking world, largely Islamic. Such a limitation is a matter of contingency and according to the author is brought about by the sheer volume of material to be considered even when dealing with the Arab-World. Partly because of this, this review does not attempt g the book in its entire course. Instead, the attempt here is to focus on the set of generalizations which form the basis of this book relating to the power of the cultural domination of the West and Orientalism as part of this hegemony: Specifically, our interest is to highlight the functional use of Orientalism in expansionist politics and its authority within the general Western culture in shaping its experience of the Orient. At the academic level, "Orientalism" is less preferred today than "Area Studies", sustained primarily by specialists. At the other, more general level, "Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between "the Orient" and "the Occident" (p.2). Thus, a very large mass of writers and thinkers who have accepted the basic distinction between East and West as starting point for building elaborate theories, will be accommodated in this kind of Orientalism - writers as diverse as Dante, Hugo and Marx (p.3).

Orientalism tends to acquire a more substantial meaning when viewed with XVIII century as the starting point. Since this period, Orientalism has acquired the shape and structure of a corporate institution of the West for dealing with the Orient - "for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient". It is to be viewed as "the whole network of interests inevitably for ought to bear on .... any occasion when that peculiar entity "the Orient" was in question; so much so that "no one, writing thinking, or acting on the Orient could do so without taking account of the limitations on thought and action imposed by Orientalism" (p.3). The notion of the existence of a distinct "Orient" as compared to "the Occident" confers on "the Orient" a certain antiquity making it as old as "the West" itself. To the extent to which the West has a history, "the Orient" also history and a tradition of thought. In fact, the imagery of the Orient can be traced back to Homer (in his Iliad) who, in turn, relies upon some earlier utterance concerning the Orient (p.20). The images become more intensified in Dante in his Divine Comedy where he describes the punishment meted out to the Prophet Mohammed in hell for having been a "falsifier" (that is, for preaching false religion) (p.68-9). The indignation felt by an eminent cleric in XI century, the success of Muslim armies in Europe was expressed by drawing upon the reserve of 'Orientalist' feelings, that they had "all the appearance of a swarm of bees, but with a heavy hand they devastated everything" (p.59).

What changes did the rapid expansion (since renaissance)-and consolidation of European Power (in XVIII) century in a large part of the Orient bring about in the European attitudes toward the Orient? It resulted in what Said calls the Orient becoming "Orientalised". With the emerging power relationship of colonialism in the East, the Orient was not only perceived to be "Oriental" in "all those ways considered commonsensical by an average XIX century European, but it could be made Oriental" (p.6). But this perception of the Oriental backwardness in general is an outcome of the hegemonistic character of European Culture, which is rooted in "the idea of European identity superior one in comparison with all the non-European peoples and cultures" (p.7). What emerges out of this hegemonistic culture and its conquest of the Orient is "a complex Orient suitable for study in the academy, for display in the museum,' for reconstruction in the colonial office, for theoretical illustration in anthropological, biological, linguistic, racial, and historical theses about mankind and the universe, for instances of economic and sociological theories of development, revolution, cultural personality, national or religious character" (p.8). Orientalism thus becomes not only a collection of text and information about the Orient but also a way of knowing about the Orient The authoritative position that Orientalism occupies in the Western consciousness arises from its capacity to form and sustain images, or representations of the Orient for the Occidental audience in an internally consistent fashion. To .the extent to which Orientalism fulfills this purpose, it is "a considerable dimension of modern political - intellectual culture, and as such has less to do with the Orient than it does with "our world" (p.12), or the present day West.

What is the role of Orientalist utterances (in a functional way that is)? While Said observes that Orientalism cannot be viewed as a mere structure of lies and myths calculated to benefit a certain end inspired by imperialism (p.6) he views it "more valuable as a sign of European Atlantic power over the Orient than... as a periodic discourse about the Orient (which is what, in its academic or scholarly form, it claims to be)" (p.6). Academic Orientalism is only a grid for "filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness". It is viewed mainly as a body of theory and practice, meant for achieving this end. As a Western doctrine about the Orient, it has less to do with producing a system of facts concerning the Orient, than with creation and sustenance of its images in the scholarly tradition and the general culture.

II
That much of the body of information collected on "the Orient" by way of textual studies, was put to the end of justifying colonial rule is perhaps an acceptable proposition today. What is perhaps not quite well known is the manner in which it was put to use to prepare in advance for colonial conquest. This sense, is one of the significant observations made in this book and is worth elaboration through a description of the Napoleonic conquest of Egypt.

Napoleon Bonaparte decided to invade Egypt partly because his conquests could not continue in Europe and also because he wanted to put himself across the British access to India. Also "Napolean considered Egypt a likely project precisely because he knew it tactically strategically, historically and.... textually, that something one read and knew through the writings of recent as well as classical European authorities. (For him) Egypt was a project that acquired reality in his mind, and later in his preparations for the conquest, through experiences that belong to the realm of ideas and myths culled from texts, not from empirical reality". For his Egyptian expedition, Napoleon enlisted the services of several "authorities" on Egypt, some of whom were members of the Institute d' Egypt which he had founded and which conducted studies on several topics related to Egypt. In addition, Napoleon had the benefit of reading an earlier work by one Volney, which had recounted, step by step, the obstacles to a French expeditionary force. In his opinion (he saw himself as a scientist) Muslims constituted the important obstacle, more than the British.

Once in Egypt (in the year 1798) Napoleon used a variety of Egyptian sentiments of enmity to certain sects and the newly found European concept of Equality, to wage a war against Muslims. Equipped with a team of Orientalists, "Napoleon tried to prove everywhere that he was fighting for Islam; everything he said was translated into Koranic Arabic just as the French army was urged by its command to always remember the Islamic sensibility.... When it seemed obvious to Napoleon that his force was too small to impose itself on the Egyptians, he then tried to make the local imams, rhytis and ulemas interpret the Koran in favor of the Grand Armee. This worked and soon the population of Cairo seemed to have lost its distrust of the occupiers" (p.82). Victor Hugo hailed this victorious expedition:

Sublime, he appeared to the dazzled tribes like a Mahomet of the Occident.

"But dealings with the Muslims were only part of Napoleon's project to dominate Egypt. The other part was to render it completely open, to make it totally accessible to European scrutiny.... The Institute, with its team of chemists, historians, biologists, archaeologists, surgeons and antiquarians, was the learned division of the army. Its job was no less aggressive: to put Egypt into Modern French.... Everything said, seen, and studied was to be recorded in that great collective appropriation of one country by another, the Description de Egypte, published in twenty three enormous vo(each page a square meter in size) between 1809 and 1828".

The aim of the Project, in the words of Jean-Baptiste Fourier, the Institute's Secretary, was as envisioned by Napoleon: "to offer a useful example to the Orient, and finally also to make the inhabitant's lives more pleasant, as well as to procure for them all the advantages of a perfected civilization". The appearance of the Description is in a sense the real triumph of the Napoleonic expedition*. With its appearance, the hitherto "closed" Egyptian society had been opened up while its own history and identity came to be comprehended only as part of a 'World" or European history. The conquest did the service of rendering any resistance to this onslaught absent, [thus making the Orientalist position somewhat invulnerable. Until that time, utterances concerning the Orient would be said to belong to the realm of the imagery but with the appearance of the Description, the very language of Orientalism changed radically. Its descriptive realism was upgraded and became not merely a style of representation but a language, indeed a means of creation the Islamic Orient would henceforth appear as a category denoting, the Orientalists power and neither the Islamic people as neither humans nor their history as history". What is said of Islamic people is true of any of conquered peoples (In India, the conquest had taken place earlier and the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal had been founded in 1784, well before the French Revolution).

In a direct sense, the purpose of Orientalism was political. But the interrelationship between the politics of imperialism and the culture of which Orientalism is a substantial part, goes deeper. While the political in relates to subjugation of the Orient, it is "the culture that created that interest, that acted along with brute political economic and military rationales to produce the Orient" (p.12). At the level of general culture, acquisition of an enormous quantity of Oriental information makers very little impact on alteration of the hegemony. If Europe had been ignorant of the Orient prior to conquest, the ignorance has only become more refined at the general cultural level.

III
In the post-enlightenment culture of Europe, the upgraded realism of the Orientalist discourse tended to acquire an increasingly authoritative position in matters regarding the Orient. Such authority was backed by the reality of an unresisting, subjugated Orient, which had started to diffuse into the general consciousness. Large number of writers, thinkers and administrators, who thought about Orient in different contexts, were well aware of ct of the European domination of the Orient. More than the political victory, it was the cultural hegemony, enriched by the Orientalist exercise of "producing" the Orient that contributed to the strengthening and reinforcement of the general Orientalist doctrine. Even as details of the Oriental culture flowed in, the Orientalist paradigm changed only its exteriority to suit the emerging culture of the late XVIII century Europe, moving from the free-floating Orientalism to textual isation.

While scholars re-represented the Orient in the newly acquired style of textualisation, writer’s poets and philosophers supplied the necessary colors. A large mass of creative writing of late XVm and early XIX century persistently depicts the Oriental from the ethnocentric perspective of Orientalism. Writers as diverse as Goethe, Flaubert, Scott and Dickens made use of the new exteriority of the Orientalist discourse to repeat the hegemonistic a centric view of Europe regarding the Orient and the Oriental. At another level, the Orientalist text served rival parties in philosophical discourse (for example, Voltaire's hailing of the "Ezourvedam" only to make the point that it disproved the Biblical great deluge). Or, Edward Schelegal's praise for the 'Vedantic" philosophy arose out of the concern for supplementing the perceived materialistic philosophy and way of life in the late XVIII century Europe and also because 'Vedantic" philosophy could be used as a point to downgrade "the Semitic" philosophies, to which Europe had been hostile traditionally.

The authority of Orientalism, in its imaginatively restructured form is brought out powerfully in the case of Karl Marx, who in his 1853 analysis of the British rule in India (p.153) "returned with increasing conviction to the idea that even in destroying Asia, Britain was making possible there a real social revolution".

"Now sickening as it must be to human feeling to witness those myriads of industrious, patriarchal and inoffensive social organizations disorganized and dissolved into their units, thrown into a sea of woes, and their individual member losing at the same time the ancient form of civilization and their hereditary means of subsistence, we must not forget that these idyllic village communities inoffensive though they may appear, had always been the solid foundation of Orientalism, that they restrained the human mind within the smallest possible compass, making it the unresisting tool of superstition, enslaving it beneath the traditional rules, depriving it of all grandeur and historical energies.... England, it is true, in causing a social revolution in Hindustan was actuated only by the vilest interests, and was stupid in her manner of enforcing them. But that is not the question. The question is, can mankind fulfill its destiny a fundamental revolution in the social state of Asia? If not, whatever may have been the crimes of England she was the unconscious tool of history in bringing about that revolution.

Then, whatever bitterness the spectacle of the crumbling world may have for our personal feelings, we have the right, in point of history, to exclaim with Goethe; "Should this torture then torment us since it brings us greater, pleasure? Were not through the rule of Timur Souls devoured without measure?".

The quotation which supports Marx's argument comes from Goethe's Westestostlcher Diwan and identifies the source of Marx's conception about Orient. That the lifeless Asia must be regenerated receptively is a piece of pure romantic even messianic Orientalism, which wins out over whatever sympathies Marx may have had towards the suffering humanity. Somehow the "vocabulary of emotion dissipated as it submitted to-the lexicographical police action of Orientalist science and even Orientalist art. An experience was dislodged by a ' dictionary definition: One can almost see that happen in Marx's Inclian essays, where what finally occurs is that something forces him to scurry back to Goethe, there to stand in his protective Orientalised Orient" (p.155).

In the later sections of the book, which cover the period roughly from mid-nineteenth century onwards up to the present times, Orientalism tends to focus almost exclusively on "the Arab World" (a term much deprecated by Said). The coverage and survey of scholars and literary figures involved is quite impressive, as also that of national traditions of scholarship. What in the earlier sections was subtle, impassioned sarcasm (see Said's account of Karl, Marx) I "upgrades" itself into abuse as the period closes in on contemporary developments (see, in particular, the vehement attack on the American academic establishment of "Area studies", expertise and its role in formulation of the US policy in the Middle East, pp.300-320). That the traditional Western scholarship in Orientalism has gradually transformed itself into offering more openly the necessary useful services for the power system is well brought out. But, the question is there an alternative to Orientalism? Said attempts to answer this question by pointing to the emergence of newer insights, concepts and methods in contemporary human sciences "that could dispense with racial, ideological, and imperialist stereotypes of the sort, provided during its historical ascendancy by Orientalism" (p.328).

In trying to view this critically, we shall take up a brief from H.A.R. Gibb, the British Orientalist of this*century, "surveyed" by Said. Gibb is, quoted as saying (in 1931) that the study of the Orient "for its own sake" will "assist" us to liberate ourselves from the narrow and oppressive conception which would, limit all that is significant in literature, thought, and history to our own segment of the globe" (p.256). This calls for a knowledge of the Orient "for its own sake", in diametric opposition to some of the earlier declarations (one quoted by Said is in 1899) on such knowledge and its direct usefulness to expansion of European suzerainty over "the Orient", and reflects, in Said's words (p.257), "the changed political and cultural realities of the postwar era" of Independence movements and political contests of European supremacy by the native peoples. Thus arises for the West the

"need of the Orient as something to be studied because it releases the spirit from sterile specialization, it eases the affliction of excessive parochial and nationalistic self-centeredness, it increases one's grasp of the really central issues in the study of culture. If - the Orient appears more a partner new-rising dialectic of cultural self-consciousness, it is/first, because the Orient is more of a challenge now than it was before, and second because the West is entering a relatively new phase of cultural "-- crisis, caused in part by the diminishment of Western suzerainty over the world."

The foregoing analysis is fairly accurate when applied to the system of inter-relationships between the West and the non-West today, in the post-second world war period. In *his * period of benign imperialism, the battle against "the Orient" is perhaps subtler, waged as it is with the falsely universal categories of the human sciences, which continue to emerge and which are looked up to with some hope in this book. Said sees the danger of "the Orientals" perceiving themselves as "Orientals" in contemporary world (p.322) but somehow fails in noticing the grave danger in viewing themselves through the 'universal' categories of the human sciences. To cite one example, apart from the dilettantism of developmental sociology and economics, accounts are constructed, with the aid of these, of "peasant state" as a political formation, only to enable their use in building a universal scheme of political formations that would accord the West the requisite supremacy. At another level, a set of computer men, all American could acclaim the "usefulness" of the syntax of Sanskrit language based on the system of Panini, while totally denying any merit to the host of its traditional commentators, using conceptual tools of contemporary linguistic and automata theory. The discourse of power between the West and the non- West (in the sense of Michael Foucault), does continue though the mode of assertion has changed. Thus, this book, though restricted in its appeal for action to certain types of scholarship in the West, nevertheless succeeds in powerfully challenging the classical Orientalism through a brilliant portrayal.

Author:V. Balaji

Note:

* Physically, the expedition was failure as the French army was defeated by Egyptians after the
departure of Napoleon.

SOCIOLOGY OF INDIAN SOCIETY: THE NEED FOR A NEW PERSPECTIVE

2011-10-31T00:09:00.000-07:00

Modern sociological writings on Indian society can be traced back to earlier European, especially British, interpretations of Indian social institutions like jati, village communities etc. Though numerous observations about Indian society were made by European travellers or visitors from around 1500 A.D., systematic recording of information on India began only around the eighteenth century. European and British writings on India may be classified under three heads. Scholars like William Jones, Max Muller and other Sanskritists, Indologists or Orientalists* form one category". They were by and large concerned with ancient texts like the Vedas, Upanishuds and Dharmasastras. Missionaries who studied and interpreted ancient texts or collected information on Indian customs and practices may be included in the same category. British administrators like Munro, Mackenzie, Elphinstone, Metcalfe etc., who collected a variety of information from another category. Also falling in this category are men like Hamilton', Thornton and Colebrooke who were specially commissioned to undertake surveys and write Imperial and District Gazetteers, and Census Commissioners and officers like Risley, Hutton and O'Malley. Marx, Maine and other scholars who constructed a theoretical framework out of data and reports provided by the British administrators form the third category.

While Indologists and orientlists were generally motivated to trace the links between European culture, Indian culture and language, administrators like Munro and Metcalfe were preoccupied J with revenue settlements of various provinces that came under British rule. Their observations and conclusions were mainly aimed at defending one or the other system of land settlement introduced by the British. Scholars like Marx and Maine were interested in establishing their universal theories of social evolution cr development and found in Indian society a laboratory to test some of their hypotheses.

The organization of Indian society into innumerable jatis and the nature and characteristics of the Indian village find repeated mention in the reports of British administrators. While one can understand the European or British curiosity about jati, as it was regarded as a uniquely Indian institutional is significant that the Indian village should receive an equal attention in the reports of administrators and others. The earliest observations about the Indian village were made by District collectors and other revenue officials in the context of the British preoccupation with the revenue settlements of various provinces. The absence of private ownership of land, the multiple rights enjoyed by various groups or individuals on the agricultural produce, the periodic exchange or rotation of land among a community of owners, and the large amount of rent-free holdings called inams, maniyams or mafees attracted the attention of these early British administrators. The reports of these district revenue officials along with the proceedings of the Board of Revenue were sent to London for information and suitable policy guidelines.

The Fifth Report of the Affairs of the East India Company submitted to the House of Commons in the year 1812 is the earliest consolidation by London of various reports and observations of British officials in India* .It must be remembered that the Fifth Report as also the reports of British officials in India were meant for British policy formulations at the highest level. It is on the basis of this report that Marx and Maine drew their picture of the Indian village and constructed their theories of Oriental Despotism and the Primitive Indo-Aryan Commune respectively. Since the days of Marx and Maine the Fifth Report has been quoted any number of times and we would therefore be doing no harm quoting from it again:

"A village geographically considered, is a tract of country, some hundreds or thousands of acres of arable and waste land; politically viewed, it resembles a corporation or township Us proper establishment of officers and servants consists of the following descriptions: The Potail or head inhabitant, who has the general superintendence of the affairs of the village, settles the disputes of the inhabitants, attends tc the police, and performs the duty, already described, of collecting the revenues within his village, a duty which the situation and concerns of the people renders him best qualified to discharge; the curnum, who keeps the accounts of cultivation, and registers everything connected with it; the Talliar and Totie: the duty of the former appearing to consist, in a wider and more enlarged sphere of action, in gaining information of crimes and offenses, and in escorting and protecting persons travelling from one village to another; the province of the latter, appearing to be more immediately confined to the village, consisting, among other duties, in guarding the crops, and assisting in measuring them; the Boundary-man who preserves the limits of the village, or gives evidence respecting them, in cases of dispute; the Superintendent of the tanks and water courses who distributes the water therefore, for the purposes of agriculture; the Binhmin who .performs the village worship; the Schoolmaster who is seen teaching the children in the villages to read and write in the sand; the Calendar Brahmin or astrologer, who proclaims the lucky or unpropitious periods of sowing and threshing; the Smith and Carpenter, who manufacture the implements of agriculture and build the dwellings of the ryot; the Potman or potter; the Washerman, the Barber, the Cow-keeper, who looks after the cattle; the Doctor; the Dancing Girl, who attends at rejoicings; the Musician and the Poet. These officers and servants, generally constitute the establishment of a village; but in some parts of the country, it is of less extent, some of the duties and functions above described being united in the same person, in others, it exceeds the number of individuals which have been described.

Under this simple form of municipal government the inhabitants of the country have lived, from time immemorial. The boundaries of the villages have been but seldom altered; and though the villages themselves have been sometimes injured, and even desolated, by war, famine, and disease, the same name, the same limits and the same interests and even the same families, have continued for ages. The inhabitants give themselves no trouble about the breaking up and division of kingdoms; while the village remains entire, they care not to what power it is transferred, or to what sovereign it devolves; its internal economy remains unchanged".

Marx, while quoting the Fifth Report, takes the second para to pour scorn on Indian way of life.

"....these idyllic village communities... have always been the solid foundation of oriental despotism, that they restrained the human mind within the smallest possible compass, making it the unresisting tool of superstition, enslaving it... depriving it of all grandeur and historical energies this undignified, stagnatory and vegetative life.... rendered murder itself a religious rite in Hindustan".

As downright condemnation of Indian life and civilization, Marx's judgment is perhaps surpassed only by lames Mill. The Fifth Report's observation that villages in India remained the same in spite of war, famine and disease came in handy for Marx to establish his thesis that more than conquering force, it is economic factors that transform society. It is rather strings that Marx did not realize that the Fifth Report's observation was motivated by a desire to build an argument that the British rule is hardly an interference with Indian way of life, that what the British had done was what had always happened in India and that political changes never concerned the average Indian. In order to emphasize his point that British free-trade and steam power brought about a social transformation in India, Marx even went to the extent of it, underplaying the role of the British tax gatherer. It is highly improbable that a scholar like Marx did not know that the British collected about 50 percent of the gross produce as revenue, thus dealing a death" blow to a number of village institutions and functions.

How far is the description of the village administration in the Fifth Report hinting at its autonomy and economic self sufficiency true? There seems to be a fair consensus among scholars that the descriptions contained in the Fifth Report, as also the earlier descriptions of Munro and Metcalfe", are too romantic to be true. It is also held that Indian nationalists use these very descriptions to serve their ideological purpose of condemning the British rule for having destroyed the self-sufficient village republics and painting the pre-colonial era as la golden age.

Srinivas (197551) in an essay on the myth and reality of Indian village argues that the Fifth Report is an oversimplification of reality. He says:

"It seems unlikely that villages were entirely indifferent to the fate of the kingdom of which they were a part. They would have had a natural preference for a 'good' king and distaste for a 'bad' one, judged by the share of the crop he collected by way of tax and the effectiveness of the protection he offered them against robbers, marauding troops etc".

Questioning the economic self-sufficiency of the Indian village, Srinivas says that an essential commodity like salt was not produced in every village nor was iron, indispensable for making agricultural implements, available in every village. About the abilities of the village communities to survive temporary disasters, Srinivas says mat it is an exaggeration and quotes Baden-Powell approvingly.

"As to the villages being unchangeable, their constitution and form has shown a progressive tendency to decay and if it had not been for modern land revenue systems trying to keep it together, it may well be doubted whether it would have survived at all" (Baden-Powell as quoted in Srinivas, 1957:52) “.

If the Fifth Report was interested in presenting a picture of stability and stagnation of Indian 'village in order to show that the British rule after all was no serious interference in the Indian way of life, Baden-Powell was clearly interested in upholding the Zamindari and Ryotwari systems introduced by the British and hence talked about the tendency of Indian villages to decay.

Dumont (1966) says that the Fifth Report and the descriptions by Metcalfe and Elphinstone actually refer to the village community as a political society. Admitting that there is some truth in the descriptions by Elphinstone or Meltcalfe, Dumont says that there is an element of idealization in the supposed political independence of village communities. Even if one agrees with Srinivas and Dumont, there still remains the question as to why our villages appeared as republics to the British administrators and others. For instance, William Adam, a Baptist missionary who surveyed the system of indigenous education in Bengal around 1830 remarked that there were about one lakh schools in the Province. It can be argued today that Adam did not make a proper survey or that he was exaggerating. But is it not sociologically significant that Adam talks about one lakh schools in Bengal Province? Adam must have been struck by the widespread nature of the indigenous education in contrast to what had obtained in England then. Similarly, it can be argued that when British administrators described Indian villages as republics they must have done so by contrasting the Indian village with the village in England or Europe.

What did the British administrators actually see in the Indian village that made them describe H as a republic? One of the earliest and most detailed records of the institutional structure of the Indian village is a detailed survey of about 2000 villages in the Chingleput district of Tamilnadu conducted in the 1760's . The survey records the total land belonging to each village and its utilization including the details of muniyams etc The more important part of the survey, however, concerns the details of deductions made, from the total agricultural produce of the village for maintenance of various institutions of the village as well as institutions and offices outside the village. In each village deductions were made on the average out of about 50 items, ranging from temples and irrigation works to water pandals and flower gardens. A number of village functionaries like Talliar, Karnam, Corn-measurer, Barber, Washerman, Panjangam Brahmin, Purohit, Cow keeper. Carpenter, Blacksmith, Doctor, Snake Doctor, School Teacher, Potter, Devadasi, Valluvan etc. were provided for from the total agricultural produce. Apart from these village institutions and functionaries, great temples outside the village and some offices and functions of the judicial administrative kind belonging to the larger locality around the village also got a share from the village produce. Chief among the offices or functions outside' the village were the great temples, the Brahmin scholar, Palegar, Deshmukh, Tookery, Canoonco etc.

Taking eight villages at random, Dharampal has recently presented the data of the actual deductions made for each item or function out of 100 kalams of agricultural produce. Out of 8 Villages considered, 4 belong to the Ponnery area and 4 belong to Carangooly area. AH the eight villages have 600 cawnies or more of cultivable land. The data is summarized in Table -1.

When we analyze the data for these 8 villages we find that great temples outside the village received between 2 and 5 percent of the gross agricultural produce of each village. The Brahmin scholar outside the village received about 0.5 percent of the produce. The Poligar,
who is the area militia chief received about 25 to 4 percent, while the Tookery about 2.5 to 3 percent of the produce. The average deduction made in respect of the Deshmukh, which is a political office of the region is 1.5 to 2 percent. In all about 10 - l4 percent of the total agricultural produce of the village was allocated to support religious, cultural and wider political institutions and functions.

When one considers the deductions made for the infrastructure of the village, we find that irrigation received the maximum, about 3 to 4 percent of the gross produce. Karnam, who was the registrar of the village, received about 2.5 to 3percent, It may be pointed out that the deductions for Karnam could have been shared by a number of persons as the job of the Karnam required maintaining a sort of secretariat of, the village. The Talliar who was generally from Paraiah jati received about 1.5 percent of the produce. The carpenter and blacksmith were" together allocated on an average 1.7 percent of the produce. The barber and washerman received 0.5 to 1 percent each. As against these deductions made for functions performed by lower jatis, the Purohit and Panjangam Brahmin received on an average only about 0.25 percent of the produce. Even the Valluvan (astrologer from lower jatis) received a little more than the Panjangam Brahmin. The Devadasi received an allocation of about 0.25 percent and the flower garden, water panda) etc., received about 012 to 0.25 percent each. Interestingly/among the village temples that received allocations, the Amman temple and Dhararnaraja temple belonging to the lower jatis received about percent while Eswaran, Perumal and Ganesha temples of the higher jatis received only 0.5 percent. In all about 20 to 25 percent of the total agricultural produce was allocated for various functions, institutions' and individuals within the village. Adding the deductions made for institutions/functions outside the village, the total amount deducted from produce ranged between 30 and 40 percent.

The picture one gets from the Chingleput data is one of relatively autonomous localities or villages which managed their own affairs by a complex system of allocation of resources. That these villages were not completely isolated or cut off from the wider society or polity comes out clearly from the allocations made for institutions, functions etc. outside the -village. That every function was taken care of-and every individual provided for reminds one of the functions supposed to be performed by a modern welfare state.

In the light of the data from Chinglcput one would naturally look for corroborative evidence from other parts of India. According to John Malcolm, a major British military commander and later governor of Bombay Presidency, the dcductions: made for such purposes in the villages of Malwa region was about .25 percent. We have a lot of data from early British records pertaining to Bengal during 1765-1790 about the nature and extent of revenue assignments to religious, cultural institutions and for administrative-economic functions. According to this data, there were two categories of assignments called Chakeram Zameen and Bazee Zameen, implying that the recipients of the former were engaged in administrative functions and the latter, in religious cultural functions. Around 1777 in the Nuddcah district of Bengal a total of 96,827 Beeghas of land was assigned as Chakeram Zameen. Out of this about 15,000 Beeghas were assigned to Turrufdars and Karmacharis; 7,488 Beeghas for village Pykes about 15,000 Beeghas for village accountants; 8,000 Beeghas for Sudder officers 7,500 Beeghas for officers of Pergunnah cutcheries'. Bazee Zameen assignments in the district of Rajashahi in 1777 amounted to 4,29,149 Beeghas Of these 80,900 Beeghas was for temples and 2,80,520 Beeghas for learned individuals. The Collector of Rungpore reported in 1789 that over 24,000 persons held Bazee Zameen assignments in his district. Similarly, the Collector of Beerbohm estimated that the resumptions that would-be allowed under the new British regulations would affect over 10,000 persons in1 his district. According to H.J. Prinsep, a major authority on land resumptions, the district of Burdwan alone had received over 72,000 applications for registration and 'confirmation of Bazee Zameen around 1780. Regarding the extent of these assignments, the President of the Board of Revenue in Bengal in 1789, Sir John Shore, stated that the total produce of these alienated lands, estimated at over Rs.2.5 crores, was almost one-third of the gross produce, which was estimated at about Rs.8 crores.

A very similar picture emerges from the British accounts of the Rajasthan area around 1818- 1830.. According to Captain Stewart, political agent at Jaipur in 1818, out of the total revenue of the state, estimated at Rs.6530,216, the religious and charitable assignments amounted to Rs.10,10,492. In addition Tunkhadars got Rs.11, 93,889 and Jafreerdars Rs.17,11,446. The revenue receipts of the exchequer (khalsa) was thus only Rs.26,11,389. The position in the Madras presidency was not very different even after a period of disorganisation and dispossession between 1750 and 1800. As late as 1807, Thomas Munro, as Collector, reported to the Board of Revenue that over 30-40 percent of the land in Ceded districts (the present day Bellary, Anantapur and Cuddappah) camejunder the category of revenue-free assignments called inams. An idea of the number of persons to whom these hams were assigned may be had from the settlements made by the name commission of the Madras Presidency. By 1369 the Commission has settled a total of 3,67,427 inams. The recipients of the inams included religious institutions, public utilities like chattrams, schools etc., individual functionaries like the Poligar and the Brahmin.

The revenue free assignments, variously called as inams, mafees etc. must have had the sanction of long standing custom, or convention and no ruler could ordinarily cancel them. In Bengal and Bihar areas, which were under Muslim rule for a long time, more than 90 percent of the assignments were in the name of Hindu institutions. It is thus clear that the Indian village was basically a self-regulating community with an infrastructure of services and amenities along with a measure of political autonomy. Though we do not yet have a clear picture of the actual linkages that existed between the village and the wider society/polity, it is beyond doubt that the Indian village did contribute to the larger society in terms of both material and human resources. That a certain sense of cultural unity based on very ancient traditions and norms existed is well indicated by institutions and structures like temples, chatrams receiving scal support from various regions of India. As Dharampal says (1986:138)

"....the available data seems to suggest the kind of society and polity that (in recent times) Mahatma Gandhi tried to spell out in his concept of Oceanic circles, where the innermost circle retained the utmost autonomy and extended to the outer circles fiscal and other support required to perform such of those functions that could not be performed at the local level".

II
In order to understand the European formulations on Indian Society it may not be totally out of place here to have a look at the British society in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is generally held that the Norman Conquest consolidated feudalism in England in the mid-eleventh century. The main consequence of the conquest was that the people of the conquered areas were deprived of their land and other natural resources and around 95 percent of the resources were appropriated by the Normans. This 95 percent was distributed in roughly the following proportion:25 percent to the King, 25 percent to the established church and 50 percent amongst the followers of the conquerors. These followers in due course came to be known as the nobility and aristocracy in England and of Wales, Ireland and Scotland too. The original inhabitants of England, estimated at about 1.5 million in the mid-eleventh century were mostly reduced to the status of serfs and villains’. For instance Gregory King's analysis of the incomes of English families in the late 17th century illustrates the manner in which the resources were concentrated and controlled at that time (the data is presented in Table II). A look at the distribution of land and resources in the next century (see Table III and IV) suggests that though the British society underwent several changes in the following centuries, the property right of the nobility and aristocracy as also the hierarchical structure of wealth and power more or less remained intact as late as 1873.

TABLE - II

A SCHEME OF THE INCOME OF THE SEVERAL FAMILIES OF ENGLAND: CALCULATED1 FOR THE YEAR 1688:

Number of Families	Banks, Degrees, Titles and Qualifications	Average yearly Income per Family (£)
160	Temporal Lords	2,800
26	Spiritual Lords	1,300
800	Baronets	880
600	Knights	650
3,000	Squires	480
12,000	Gentleman	280
5,000	Persons in Office	240
5,000	Persons in Office	120
2,000	Merchants and Traders by Sea	400
8,000	Merchants and Traders by Land	200
10,000	Persons in the Law	140
2,000	Clergymen	60
8,000	Clergymen	45
40,000	Freeholders	84
140,000	Freeholders	50
150,000	Farmers	44
16,000	Persons in Science and Liberal Arts	60
40,000	Shop keepers and Tradesmen	45
60,000	Artisans and Handicrafts	40
5,000	Naval Officers	80
4,000	Military Officers	60
-----------		-----------
511,586		67
-----------		-----------
50,000	Common Seamon	20
364,000	Labouring People and Out Servants	15
400,000	Cottagers and Paupers	6.5
35,000	Common Soldiers	14
-----------		-----------
849,000	Families + Vagrants(30,000) Persons	10.5
-----------		-----------
511,586	Increasing the Wealth of the Kingdom	67
849,000	Decreasing the Wealth of the Kingdom	10.5
--------------		-----------
1,360,586	Familes Net Totals	32
--------------		-----------
Source: Gregory King Esq: Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England (pp 73)

TABLE - III

A SCHEME OF INCOME OF THE SEVERAL FAMILIES OF ENGLAND (C.1B12)

	No. of Families	Average Annual Computed share of incomer per family
THE FIRST
Temporal Lords	516	10,000
Spiritual Lords (Archbishops and Bishops)	48	5,010
Baronets	861	3,510
Knights and Esquires	11,000	2,000
Gentlemen and Ladies Living on Incomes	35,000	800
Eminent Bankers and Merchants	3,500	2,600
	--------------
In all	50,925
	--------------
THE SECOND
Higher Civil and Military Servants	50,080	200
Eminant Clergymen	1,500	720
Lesser Clergymen	17,500	200
Judges, Barristers, Attorneys etc.	19,000	400
Physicians, Surgeons, Apethecaries	18,000	300
Artists, Sculptors, Engravers	5,000	280
Freeholders of land of the bettor sort	70,000	275
Leeser Merchants	22,800	805
Engineers, Surveyors, Master Builders	8,700	300
Owners of ships, various manufacturers	54,150	600
University Teachers	874	600
	--------------
In all	2,68,404
	--------------
THE THIRD
Lesser Freeholders and Farmers	4,90,000	100
Minor Manufactures like Tailors Milliners etc.	43,750	180
Shopkeepers and Retail Tradesmen	1,40,000	200
Clerks and Shopmen	95,000	70
Inn-Keepers and Publications	87,500	100
School-owners and Teachers employing some capital	35,000	204
Dissending Clergymen	5,000	100
Actors in Teachers etc.	875	200
	--------------
	8,97,125
	--------------
THE FOURTH
Half pay Officers	6,500	100
Common Soldiers	2,80,000	35
Seaman and Marine	1,71,540	42
Army Pensioners in Homes etc.	42,000	15
Labouring People in Agriculture Mining etc. (including earnings of the females)	7,42,151	45
Aquatic labourers in the Merchants	1,80,000	45
Umberlla and Parasol Makers, Lace Workers, launderers etc.	70,000	50
Artisans, Machanics, labourers in Manufactories, building works etc.	10,21,974	48
Hawkers, Pelders, etc	1,400	45
Persons in prison for debt	3,500	30
Paupers, producing from their own labour in Miscellaneous employments	3,87,100	10
	--------------
In all	28,99,100
	--------------
Source: Patrick Colquhons: Treatise on the population, wealth, power and Resources of the British Empire in every quarter of the World (1814).

TABLE - IV

LAND OWNERSHIP IN ENGLAND AND WALES, 1873

Number of Owners	Class	Extent in Acres
400	Peers and Peeresses	5,728,979
1,288	Great Landowners	8,497,699
2,529	Squires	4,319,271
9,585	Great Yeomen	4,782,627
24,412	Lesser Yeomen	4,144,272
217,049	Small Proprietors	3,931,806
703,289	Cottagers	151,148
14,459	Public: The Crown, Barracks:	165,427
	Bodies: Convict, Prisons:
	: Lighthouses & c :

	: Religious, Educational :	947,655
	: Philanthropic & c. :
	Commercial and Miscellaneous	330,466
	Waste: Commercial and Miscellaneous	1,524,264
973,011	Total	31,523,974
Source: John Bateman: The Great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland 7883 (p.515).

After some 120 years, i.e. in 1812, the hierarchical relationships of this society had changed only marginally- A contemporary' analysis presented the picture presented in Table (II under four categories. Even later in 1873, the same pattern persists as can be seen from an analysis of land ownership in Britain and Ireland, in 1873 presented in Table IV above.

As may be seen from the above data, the aristocracy in England from the time of Norman conquest was] mainly preoccupied with preserving and extending its property and consequently all English norms arid institutions lhat were framed from time to time preserved this institution of private property. The primacy of private property as well as the wealth-based and power-graded hierarchical order, in its train, led to a scries of coercive laws which governed the rates of wages of artisans and laborers as well as the movement, especially of the latter, away from their habitual place of residence. Even while serfdom and villienage were disappearing, receiving and paying wages above the fixed rate was made a cognizable offense in the sixteenth century itself. Such fixing of wages continued till the early eighteenth century when the market forces took its place. In King's data given above (Table I), 849,000 families of common seamen, laboring people, cottagers etc., whose average income was 10, were considered as decreasing the wealth of the kingdom and 511,586 families with an average income of 67 were considered as increasing the wealth of the kingdom. The logic is strange and funny. You first fix the wages of some categories low and then argue that since their incomes are low they contribute nothing to the wealth of the Kingdom. This was raised to the status of a theoretical principle by Adam Smith who argued that the labourer was not Worth more than his hire and it was wrong therefore to pay the laborer more than what was needed for his subsistence, and the less the sum on which he was hired the better it was for the economy.

If we compare the above data with the Chingleput data presented earlier, it seems that at a gross level Indian society of pre- British era was more egalitarian than British society of the corresponding period. Further, the British social hierarchy based on wealth and power has been as rigid, if not more, than the so-called caste hierarchy of India. In this context one really wonders if the European or British hostility to and condemnation of, caste an institution were because of reasons other than it being a hierarchy of statuses and positions or a system of social inequalities. It seems more likely that the British opposition to caste as an institution was because of it being a major obstacle in their way to atomize Indian society.

III
Whatever data one may collect; about the fiscal and political structure of the Indian village, discussion of these communities cannot be complete without facing the question of caste or jati. It was the rigid hierarchical jatis system that supposedly bound the village society in its vice-like grip and classified the crass inequalities in a theoretically unshakable frame. Breaking the jatis system and thereby releasing the forces of progressive egalitarianism then became the major argument in favor of the destruction of Indian social structure, and made this destruction look like an act of civilizing grace even to someone like Marx. Support of an obnoxiously in egalitarian jati system remains even today the main charge leveled by scholars, politicians and the enlightened laymen, against the traditional social and political structure of India. It is difficult to discuss objectively a phenomenon that has generated so much righteous indignation and civilizing zeal amongst foreigners and the educated Indians alike over such a long period. But let us at least put together what the scholars have been discovering about this peculiar system of India.

The phenomenon of the division of Indian society into innumerable jatis has been much discussed, researched and theorized about. While the theories themselves differ a great deal in tracing the origin and development, or in describing the structure and function, of jatis, the fact that for centuries the Indian people belonged to, and continue to belong to, jatis is undisputed. It is also an accepted fact that in the course of our history, a number of jatis were born both by a process of fission and fusion. It is also likely that a few jatis disappeared altogether, while some took new names. It is generally accepted that the origin of the jati system is hidden in pre-history. The attempts by ideologists to trace the origin of jati to varna has become discredited since the emergence of empirical sociology. It is now generally accepted that varna and jati are different. Many have expressed doubts whether the varna model or theory is useful at all in understanding the reality of jatis. It is said, for instance, that there are no Kshatriyas in a majority of villages an&Vaisyas are conspicuous by their absence in many part of India. It is also a well known fact that most of the Hindu rajas were Sudras.

It is now realised that there are a number of jatis which may not find a place in the varna scheme. Modem sociologists are agreed that varna is a general frame of reference or theory or ideology that orders Hindu society in a particular way. It is widely held that this theorisation or attempt at ordering Hindu society was undertaken by higher jatis, especially the Brahmins. Hence the model or theory found in, for example, Mariusamhita, is basically a Brahmanical model that may never have operated at the level of a village or a region. Most of the earlier theories about jati based on analyses of Manu and other law givers were therefore attempts at understanding the phenomenon of jatis from the top. It may be interesting to speculate whether the Western fascination with Brahmanical texts was the consequence of the European social reality itself being a linear hierarchy. In this context, it is pertinent to note that in 1815 when London had begun discouraging the translation and publication of Indian works, only the re-publication of "Institutes of Manu" was approved, as the Public Dispatch to Bengal of 63.1815 declared:

"After the most attentive consideration we have been enabled to give as to the merits and utility of the works mentioned in the paragraph under reply, there is only one," the "Institutes of Manu", that appears to be of the description to which our former orders our patronage should be confirmed, viz. to works of real utility and of moderate expenses. We must therefore strictly enjoin you to confine your future patronage of literary works to such as shall be entirely of the description above mentioned".

While it can be seen from the above that the British ruler? Considered Manu's Dharmasastra a work of real utility, among Indian scholars and in schools of higher learning where Indian law was taught Manu's Dharmasastra did not seem to have enjoyed the status of sole authority. According to Adam, in all the 19 schools of higher learning of five districts of Bengal where law was taught, the main text used was that by Raghunandana, and Manu and the Mitakshara, (the commentary of Vijnancswara on Yajmvalkya Swriti) were known only by name.

What the British Census operation did in the early years of this century in fixing the social rank of different jatis has been well documented. Though the publication of his work Tribes and Castes of Bengal in 1891 had, resulted in a lot of quarrel between Kayasthas and Vaidyas, Risely went ahead and provided a classification according to social rank in 1901 Census that rekindled enmities. As Rajat Kanta Ray (1984:43) observes:

"The immediate occasion for the outbreak of caste antagonisms on a large scale at the beginning" of the twentieth century was the use of Census operations of 1901 by the British government to fix the social rank of different castes. An elaborate list of caste precedence, drawn up by Sir Herbert Risely, was submitted to committees of Indian gentlemen for scrutiny and1 criticism. An extraordinary amount of ill-feeling and jealousy characterized the debates of these committees, which in more than one instance failed to reach a decision. This use by government of census operations to fix caste rank" was an extraordinary exercise of official power",

Now, what are jatis? Sociologists have listed several characteristics of jatis or the jatis system. Broadly jatis are considered closed kindred, endogamous groupings, generally following a hereditary calling". Some principles of hierarchy such as superior-inferior, pure-impure,
auspicious-inauspicious or clear-unclear are said to be at the basis of the jatis system. This view finds it’s most rigorous exposition Jin Dumont’s Homo Hierarchicus. What is therefore described as the jati system is the inter-relationship between jatis supposedly governed by the principle of hierarchy. It is claimed that this hierarchical arrangement of jatis can be found in every village or locality, though it is also conceded that in the middle regions of the hierarchy there is a lot of ambiguity about the relative ranking of jatis. In other words, except for the top (Brahmin) and the bottom (Pariah) position which are accepted everywhere, there is dispute about the relative superiority or inferiority of other jatis.

That the jatis were also arranged in different ways, without reference tovarnas is seldom taken serious note of. For example, the division of jatis into right-hand (Balagai) and left-hand (Yedagai) with jatis placed in between as Madyasthas has not been pToperiy understood. According to many British reports the Balagai jatis seemed to have consisted largely of the peasantry and those clearly linked with agriculture, while he Yedagai jatis seemed largely to have consisted of people following various crafts and trades. It was often the case that in many "disputes between the balagai and Yedagai divisions, the Paraiahs and Chakkiliars took leading role on behalf of the respective divisions.

In the Baramahal records an estimate is available of the probable number of cultivators, tradesmen, etc., in the BaJagai, Yedagai and Madyastha jatis. Out of a total population of six lakhs made up of 116lahs, the Madyasthas formed a majority, of 66 jatis with 2,29,642 persons. The Batagai jatte numbered 39 with a population of 1,83,763 and the Yedagai had 11 jatis with a population of 1,86,595. It was also estimated that among Paraiahs who numbered 65,075 there were 32,474 cultivators 36,478 tradesmen and 5433 independents (apparently these are not mutually exclusive categories and cultivators could also be tradesmen). It appears from the British records that there were many disputes between the Balagai and Yedagai jatis. While the significance of the Balagai - Yedagai division and the role of Madyasthas need to be properly understood, the fact that there were such divisions clearly indicates that the jati system was not necessarily a linear hierarchy.

The Balagai - Yedagai division also suggests that jatis combining themselves in a power struggle need not b.1 viewed as a Irecent phenomenon. It seems that jatis have always played a political role in so far as they are cohesive groups giving protection and security to their members. Therefore, the so called politicization of jatis need not be taken as the consequence of the introduction of elections or the democratic process in general. It may on the other hand be that having been used to mobilization of their members for political or power struggle jatis have responded to the introduction of the democratic process in a similar way. Thus, by considering politicization of jatis as a recent change in the caste system, sociologists have failed to appreciate the political nature of jati organization. It was perhaps this characteristic of the jatis to mobilize its members that made the British rulers so inimical to this institution. The European or British criticism of jatis, could not have been based on the principle of equality, for equality as an ideology is quite recent in origin and popularity within the Western society itself.

Another aspect that deserves mention here, but which is often ignored in discussion of jatU is the fact that there were a number of Sampradayas with their followers drawn from various jatis. That one retained one's jati even while belonging to a sampradaya like Veerasaivism which questioned notions of purity- impurity suggests that jatis may continue to exist even in sampradayas that proclaim the spiritual equality of all. Some interesting questions arise in the context of Veerasaivism, or even Buddhism. The commonly held view that though both wanted to abolish jatis, they could not succeed because of the power of the jati system needs reexamination. May be the Buddha and Basava were not against jatis themselves though they questioned the varna system of ordering jatis. Put differently, the fight, if ever, was against a particular arrangement of, or relationship between jatis.

This brings us to a crucial question. How were the jatis related at the level of village or locality? It is held that while jati was a segmental division of society there was also interdependence of jatis at the village or locality. This interrelationship between jatis has been called the jajmani system. Ever since Wiser's 'discovery' of the system in a village in 1930, a number of sociologists have commented upon it. For some scholars like Beidelman the system is merely a rationalization of the economic exploitation of the lower jatis. For others the essential features of the system is that it is fundamentally religious in nature and perhaps a substitute of sacrificial pattern. ThusLannoy considers the jajmani system to be nothing but a degraded imitation by the peasant jatis of the royal style in which the Kshatriya-king patronized a priest. According to him (Lannoy 1971:157-8).

"... the Jajmani system first appeared in the period when Vedic sacrifice was abandoned as the primary religious rite of the Hindus - that it was a substitution for sacrifice, on another more functional level rather in the same way as purification rites spread beyond the sacrificial domain to include the entire gamut of social regulation. Jajman came to mean all the basic reciprocal relations of patronage, not merely that between Kshatriya and Brahman, it is a privilege and responsibility for a family to patronize not only the domestic priest, but also all other specialists in the village. The system ensures the service of specialists and their subsistence; in exchange they receive annual gifts of products from the soil - a fixed portion of the crops".

For Dumont (1980:105) to the system is basically religious though with a richer content than suggested by Lannoy. According to him the system is designed to satisfy the need of everyone who enters into the system of jajmani relationships. It is a "sort of co-operative where the main, aim is to ensure the subsistence of everyone in accordance with social function, almost to the extent of sharing out the produce of each piece of land". Therefore, argues Dumont, the jajmani system in which each is assigned his place, is fundamentally religious and not economic. Srinivas, on the other hand considers the jajmani system to be essentially an economic relationship between jajman and kamin jatis. Writing on Indian social structure in the Gazetteer of India he states: 'Though primarily an economic or ritual tie, it has a tendency to spread to other fields and become a patron-client relationship". (Srinivas 1982:14). Thus two broad positions are taken on the jajmani system. One which describes it as a religious, ritualistic tie that ensures the subsistence of every jati, and the other, which considers the jajmani as a rationalization of exploitative economic relationship. But both are agreed that the relationship is one of patron-client or master-servant or jajman - kamin.

In the light of the data from Chingleput discussed earlier about the deductions made for various functions and individuals from the total agricultural produce of the village, one is tempted to question these views on jajmani system. If each village provided for a number of functions like irrigation, temples, chatrams, education, police and so on, why not regard the arrangement as politico-economic-administrative rather than religious- ritualistic? That they system was not merely religious or ritualistic can be seen from the variety of individuals, functions and institutions for which allocations were made. Further, the allocations made were not token or symbolic, but quite substantial. Nor were the allocations in the nature of mere subsistence allowance. That the agricultural produce, or the land-tax, or both allocated to a person or function was not related to the ritual status of the person or function can be seen from the fact that the purohit often received less than the barber or washerman. It also does not seem to be the case that the non-cultivating or servicing jatis lived at the mercy of the peasant. On the other hand, these jatis seem to have received their share in the produce as a matter of right. (In fact, according to records, a substantial part of these deductions were made even before the produce was shared between the king and the cultivators). Apart from such deductions, many functionaries had maniyam lands. Even jatis often classed as untouchable had maniyams assigned to them.

Thus what is presented as jajmani system by sociologists seems a caricature of what had actually obtained only 200 years ago. Simply because it was called jajmani in some parts of India one need not associate it with ritual gifts offered to the priest at the vedic ritual. Nor is it indicative of the Kshatriya's role assumed by peasant jatis. It may however be added that by and large the peasant jatis seem to have wielded effective political power. That must be so given the nature of our village, with one or two jatis engaged in agriculture constituting 50 percent or more of the households and other jatis numbering 15-20 on an average, providing other crafts and services. According to the Dutch missionary Ziegenbalg who was in South India in the 17th and early 18th century, the status of a Vellala or the peasant was so high that:

"Even if one be bom a Brahmin, the person is by no means considered to be of as great excellence, as when born a Vellalar; neither the King's splendor nor the Merchant's nor the Brahmin's is to be compared with the Vellalar's excellence".

The concept of dominant caste developed by Srinivas thus seems to be stating the obvious in a way. The non-cultivating jatis, numbering only a few households each in a village could have only provided checks and balances to the power of the peasant jatis. It is very likely that the non-cultivating jatis sometimes came together to check the peasant jatis or a particular jati mobilised its own jatis members from neighboring villages to protest ill-treatment or injustice. Thus what is called horizontal solidarity of jatis must have existed even in earlier times. There are several instances of barbers or washer men refusing their services to a family or jati as a protest against injustice. There may have been several ways of protesting against injustice as also ways and means of resolving such conflicts and clashes between jatis.

Untouchability or a form of communal slavery is said to be intrinsic to the jati system. While we make no attempt to defend it or explain it away, it seems necessary to raise some questions about the phenomenon of untouchability and untouchables'. First and foremost, who are the Untouchables? Are they the descendants of chandais or the outcastes mentioned in the dharmasastras? If so, how did the outcastes form themselves into jatis and how do we explain their large numbers today? Secondly, did the untouchables suffer economic deprivation as much as is generally claimed? It is a well known fact that Mahars and Chamats were soldiers. Similarly Paraiahs were landowners and cultivators even around 1830. There is also evidence to the effect that Paraiahs were expert weavers. Paraiahs and Mahars also assumed the important village offices of the policeman, boundaryman, corn measurer etc. According to the early 19th century report on Mirasi Right by F.W.Ellis:

"In Tondamandalam the Paraiyar, especially affect to consider them as the real proprietors of the soil. The villeins possess established rights and privileges of which they cannot be deprived which constitute their Mirasi... First the Paracheri... Secondly, they are entitled to a share in the produce of every crop.... Thirdly, they hold the inferior offices of the village as Talaiyari, Vcttiyan, Combucattu, Alavucareu, Totti, etc. for which they are allowed manyams and sotuntrums from those above mentioned".

If this was the status of Paraiahs and other supposedly untouchable jatis even in the early 19th century, then how "do we explain their, present status? It would be interesting to investigate the process through which the Paraiahs from being artisans, soldiers, weavers and real proprietors of fhe soil in the 19th century deteriorated to being outcaste landless agricultural labourers by the early 20th century.

The foregoing discussion touches. upon only a few issues such as the political economy of the Indian village and the jati system. Our aim has been to discuss the nature of modern sociological writings on Indian society keeping a few such areas in focus. It seems clear that there is a need for a fresh investigation and understanding on various aspects of Indian society. It is our hope that our sociologists and scholars would take up such a task that would help us to arrive at a new perspective on Indian society.

References

1. Baden-Powell (1972) Indian Village Community Delhi Cosme Publications

2. Dumont, Louis (1966) "The Village Conrctunity from Munro to Maine" Contributions to Indian Sociology 9:67-89.

3. Dumont, Louis (1980) "Homo Hierarchjcus (Complete Revised English Edition) Chicago, University of Chicago.

4. Dharanpal (1986) "Some aspects of earlier Indian Society and Polity – II New Quest 57:T33t146.

5. Lannoy, Richard (1971) The Speaking Tree London, Oxford University Press

6. Mukherjee, Ramakrishna (1979) Sociology of Indian Sociology Bombay, Allied Publishers.

7. Ray, Rajat Kanta (1984) Social Conflict and Political Unrest in Bengal: 1875 - 1927, Delhi, Oxford University Press.

8. Srinivas MN (1975) "The Indian Village : Myth and Reality" In Beattie JHM Leinhardt RGj (Ed) Studies in Social Anthropology, Oxford, The Clarendon Press : 4"i-85.

9. Srinivas MN (1982) India : Social Structure Delhi, Hindustan

Author:G. Sivaramakrishnan

Note:

* Chingleput-data as also the other data about Bengal, Bihar etc are from the archival material collected by Dharampal in the last two decades. Exact references of the sources etc can be had from the PPST Foundation.

THE METHODOLOGY OF INDIAN MATHEMATICS AND ITS CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE

2011-10-30T23:39:00.000-07:00

Abstract:

While considerable attention has been paid to the achievements of Indian mathematicians, by cataloguing the results and processes discovered by them, very little work seems to have been done on the methodological foundations of Indian mathematics, its under- standing of the nature of mathematical objects, the nature of mathematical knowledge and the methods of validation of mathematical results and processes. Traditionally such issues have been dealt with mainly in the so called 'commentarial literature' which (though it formed an important component in traditional learning) has been completely ignored by modern scholarship. An attempt is made in this paper to present a preliminary view of the methodology of Indian mathematics as may be gathered from the major commentarial works, the commentary Buddhivilasini of Ganesha Daivajna (c 1545) on Bhaskaracharya's Lilavati (c 1150) and the commentary Bijanavankura of Krishna Daivajna (c 1601) on Bhaskaracharya's Bijaganita (c 1150).

While these commentaries provide a general exposition of many basic aspects of Indian mathematics, their main emphasis is in presenting what they refer to as upapatti (roughly translatable as demonstration, proof) for every result and process enunciated in the original texts of Bhaskaracharya. We present a few examples of such upapattis including a long demonstration (involving a series of demonstrations of many intermediate results) of the so called kuttaka process for the solution of first order indeterminate equations. As we see, one main feature of the Indian upapattis as contrasted with the Greek or the modern Western notion of 'proof is that the former does not involve any reference to formal deductions performable from some fixed set of axioms. This appears to be closely linked with the fact that in the Indian tradition mathematical knowledge is not viewed to be in any fundamental sense distinct from that in natural sciences. The Indian mathematicians declare that the purpose of upapatti is to clarify, disambiguate, remove all confusions etc, and to convince the fellow mathematicians of the validity of a result.

The Indian epistemological view point appears to be radically different from the standard Greek or modern Western view which seeks to establish mathematical knowledge as infallible absolute truth. Further, the Indian views concerning the nature of mathematical objects such as numbers etc., appear to be based on the framework developed by the Indian logicians and differs significantly at the foundational level from the set-theoretic universe of contemporary mathematics. It is argued that the Indian epistemological view point and the Indian views on the nature of mathematical objects etc, could contribute in a significant way to the development of mathematics today as they appear to have the potential of leading to an entirely new edifice for mathematics. A comprehension of the Indian methodology of mathematics would also help in making contemporary Indian mathematics come on its own and make its mark in the world of science.

I
Quite a few books have been written on the history of Indian tradition in mathematics (1). In addition, several general works on history of mathematics devote a section, sometimes even a chapter, to the discussion of Indian mathematics. While it is true that many of the results and processes discovered by the Indian mathematicians have been catalogued, there has been a total lack of attention to the methodology and foundations of Indian mathematics. There is very little discussion of the arguments by which Indian mathematicians arrive at and justify their results and [processes. In the same way no attention is paid to the philosophical foundations of Indian mathematics, its understanding of the nature of mathematical objects, the nature of mathematical knowledge and the nature of validation of mathematical results and processes.

Many of the commonly available books on history of mathematics declare or imply that Indian mathematics, whatever be its 'achievements, does not have any sense of logical rigor. It is p often said that no rigorous proofs are advanced in Indian mathematics (2). While the modern scholarship seems to be almost unanimous in holding the view that Indian mathematics totally lacks any notion of proof, a study of even the source works available in print would reveal that a great deal of emphasis is laid on providing what our Sastrakaras refer to as upapatti (roughly translatable as demonstration, proof etc.) for every result and process. In fact, some of these upapattis were noted in the various European works on Indian mathematics up to the first half of the nineteenth century (3). It would indeed be interesting to find out how the currently popular" view, that Indian mathematics lacks the very notion of proof, has come about during the last 100-150 years.

One of the major reasons for our total lack of comprehension, not merely of the notion of proof, but also of the entire methodology of Indian mathematics, is the scant attention we have so far paid to the source works themselves. It is said (4) that there are over one lakh manuscripts on Jyotihsastra which includes apart from ganita shandha (mathematics and mathematical astronomy) samhita skandha (omens) and hora (asrrology) also. Only a very small fraction of these texts have been published so far. The recently published 'Source Book of Indian Astronomy' (5), lists about 285 works published in mathematics and mathematical astronomy, of which about 50 are works written prior to the 12th century A.D., about 75 are works written during 12-15 centuries and about 165 are works written during 16-19th centuries. A serious study of even these published works would give us a reasonable idea of the methodology of Indian mathematics and astronomy.

In this context it is very important to realize that a great deal of methodological discussion is usually contained only in the so called 'commentarial literature' and is just briefly touched upon (if at all) in the so called 'original works'. While most of modern scholarship has concentrated on translating and analyzing a given work, without paying much heed to its commentaries (except in so far as to settle some points of controversy in fixing the data of the text),, it appears that traditionally the commentaries seem to have played at least as great a role in the exposition of the subject as the original text itself. It is no wonder that great mathematicians and astronomers such as Bhaskaracharya, Bhaskaracharya II, Ganesa Daivajna, Parames vara, Nilakantha Somasutvan, Muniswara, Kamalakara etc, not only wrote major original treatises of their own, but also took great pains to write erudite commentaries on either their own works or on important works of earlier scholars. It is in such commentaries that one finds detailed upavattis (demonstrations) of the results and processes discussed in the original text, as also a discussion of the various methodological and philosophical issues concerning Indian astronomy and mathematics. In the Appendix I we give a list of important commentorial works in Indian mathematics and astronomy, which are available in print. 'Even a cursory glance at these texts will show that the Indian mathematicians and astronomers have paid a great deal of atten Hon to the methodological foundations of their science and, more importantly, they lay great stress on providing elegant upapattis for every one of the results and processes discovered bythem.

It is true that none of the above published works has so far been translated into any of the Indian languages, or into English (6); nor have they been studied in any detail with a view to analyse the nature of mathematical arguments employed in the upapattis or to comprehend the methodological and philosophical foundations of Indian mathematics and astronomy. In this article we shall attempt to present Some examples of the kinds of upapattis provided in Indian mathematics, with particular reference to the commentaries of Ganesha Daivajna (c 1545) and Krishna Daivajna , (c 1601) on the texts Lilavati and Bijaganita respectively, of Bhaskaracharya II (c 1150). Apart from this, we shall also attempt some speculation on the philosophical foundations of Indian mathematics and its relation to other Indian sciences. More definitive understanding of the nature of Indian mathematics will call for a full-fledged study of all the source-works including a great mass of unpublished material. Such a study would not merely place our understanding of Indian mathematics in proper perspective, but also would help restore creativity to contemporary Indian mathematics by opening many new vistas especially at the foundational level.

II
According to Ganesha Daivajna, ganita the Indian science of mathematics is defined as follows: Ganyate sankkyayate tadganitam. Tatpratipadakatvena tatsamjnam sastram ucyate. Ganita is the (process) of calculation or numeration and the science which expounds this is also characterized by this name ganita. This ganita is mainly of two types: vyakla ganita and avyakta ganita.Vyaktaganita (also called pati ganita - calculation with the board), is that branch of ganita which employs clearly manifest procedures well known to the intelligent as well as the lay men for performing calculations. This is in contrast to avyakta ganita (also called bija ganita) which takes recourse to the use of avyakta or unknown (indeterminate, unmanifested, non-lapparent) quantities such as yavat tavat (as much as) kalaka (black) nilaka (blue) etc. These avyakta quantities are also called varna (colours) and are denoted by symbols ya, ka, ni, just as in modem algebra unknowns are denoted by symbols x,y, t etc.

The science of mathematics is generally taken to be a component part of Jyotihsastra (7). In fact, according to Nrisimhadaivajna (the Vartikakara for the autocomentary Vasanabhashya of Bhaskaracharya for Siddhantasiromani) the ganita skandha of Jyotihsastra is composed of four types of ganitas: vyakta ganita, avyakta ganita, graha ganita (mathematical astronomy which deals with calculation of planetary positions) and golaganita (spherical astronomy, which deals with demonstrations of calculation procedures using gola the sphere and vedha or observations). According to Ganesha Daivajna the prayojana (purpose) of the study of ganita sastra is 'the acquisition of knowledge concerning the orbits, raising, setting, measurements of sizes etc., of the planets, stars etc., and also the knowledge of samhita (omen) jataka (horOscopy) etc., which are the indicators of the merits and demerits earned via the deeds of former births'. The classification of ganita into avyakta and vyakta is dependent on whether or not indeterminate.quantities like yavat tavat etc., are employed in the various processes discussed. Thus vyakta ganita subsumes not only arithmetic and geometry, but also even topics included undc' 'algebra' such as solutions of equations, if one does not have to take recourse to introducing indeterminate quantities for carrying through the process of solution (8).

The most important feature of the commentaries such as those of Ganesha Daivajna and Krishna Daivajna is that they provide detailed demonstrations of every rule and procedure enunciated in the original text. The mode of exposition of these commentaries is as follows: In the beginning of each section, the context of the section is introduced along with its relation with what has already been expounded. Then each rule or process stated in the text is taken, its content explained in unambiguous terms and then a demonstration is provided justifying the given rule or procedure. The commentaries also deal with the appropriateness or otherwise of the way in which the exposition is organised in the original text, and any other important question that needs to be clarified in order to facilitate the understanding of the text. But they do not usually go into any discussion of further results they may be obtained as a consequence of the rules stated in the text. In fact the main purpose of a commentary such as the Buddhivilasini of Ganesha DaWajna on Lilavati is indeed one of providing upapattis.1 As Ganesha declares right at the beginning of his commentary:

"There is hardly any novelty in writing explanations for the extremely clear statements of Sri Bhaskara. Hence the knowledgeable mathematicians may take note of the specialty of my intellect in the statement of upapattis which is afterall the essence of the whole thing".

Amongst the works on Indian mathematics and astronomy which have been published, the earliest exposition of upapattis are those in astronomy by Bhaskarcharya (c 1150) found both in his commentary Vivarana on Sisyadhivriddhida-tantra of Lalla and his autocommen tary Vasanabhashya on his own Siddhantasiromani. Apart from these, Bhaskaracharya provides an idea of what is an upapatti in his own notes on Bijaganita in two places. In the chapter on Madhyamaharana (quadratic etc., equations) he poses the following problem:

"Say what is the hypotenuse of a plane figure, in which the side and upright are equal to fifteen and twenty? And show the upapattis (demonstration) of the received mode of computation".

Bhaskaracharya goes ahead and provides two upopattis which we shall discuss later) of this so called Pythagoras theorem. Again, towards the very end of the book in the chapter on Bhavita (equations involving products), while considering solutions (in integers) of equations of the form ax+by=cxy, Bhaskaracharya takes up an example and goes ahead to explain:

"The demonstration follows. It is twofold in each case: One geometrical and the other algebraic. The geometric demonstration is here delivered... The algebaric demonstration is next set forth..; This very operation has been delivered in a compendious form by ancient teachers. The algebraic demonstration must be exhibited to those who do not comprehend the geometric one. Mathematicians have declared algebra to be computation joined with demonstration: else there would be no difference between arithmetic and algebra. Therefore this explanation of the principle of resolution has been shown in two ways".

Clearly the tradition of exposition of upapattis is a much older one and Bhaskaracharya and the later mathematicians and astronomers are merely following the traditional practice of providing detailed upapattis in their commentaries and notes to earlier (or their own) works. These upapattis, as Bhaskaracharya has noted, are mainly of two types: Kshetragata upapatti or geometrical demonstration and avyakata ritya upapatti or algebraic demonstration (which could be rasigata or arithmetico- algebraic or varnagata or purely algebraic). To understand the nature of mathematical argumentation employed by Indian mathematicians, we shall in what follows present a few examples of upapattis as expounded by Ganesha Daivajna and Krishna Daivajna in their commentaries on Lilavati and Bijaganita of Bhaskaracharya. What we attempt is only a rought translation of the upapattis. These upapattis are in fact written in a technical Sanskrit (much like say the English of a modern text on Topology' in English) and hence these translations need to be improved upon after undertaking a systematic study of all these upapattis.

(1) The rule for calculating the square of a number:

According to Lilavati, the multiplication of two like numbers Hogether is the square. The square of the last digit is to be placed over it, and the rest of the digits doubled and multiplied by the last to be placed above them respectively;then repeating the number, except the last digit, again perform the like operation....' (see the example below):

Ganesha's upapatti for the above rule is as follows:

"By using the rule on multiplication, keeping in mind the place-values, and by using the mathematics of indeterminate, let us take a number with three digits with 'yd at the 100th place 'ka' at the 10th place and 'hi' at the unit place. The number is then (in the Indian notation with the 'plus' sign understood) ya 1 ka 1 ni 7. Using the rule (of Bijaganita) for the multiplication of indeterminate quanti ties, the square (of the above number) will beyaval yaka bha 2 ya ni bha 2kaval kani bha 2 ni va 1 (using the Indian notation, 'va' after a symbol standing for varga or square and 'bha' after two symbols standing for bhavita or product). Here we see in the ultimate place, the square of the first digit 'ya'; in second and third places there are 'ka' and 'ni' multiplied by twice the first 'ya'. Hence the first part of the rule "The square of the last digit..." In the fourth place we have square of 'hf. In the fifth we have 'ni' multiplied by twice 'ka'. In the sixth we have square of 'ni'. Thus we have derived the rest of the rule "Then repeating the number, excepting the last digit, again perform the last operation".

While Ganesha provides such avyaktaritya upapattis or algebraic demonstrations for all procedures employed in arithmetic, Sankara Variar in his commentary Kriyakramakari presents exclusively kshetragata upapattis or geometrical demonstrations for all such procedures.

(2) The theorem on the square of the diagonal of a right angled triangle: (generally referred to as the Pythagoras theorem):

Ganesha provides two upapattis for this which are the same as the ones outlined by Bhaskaracharya in his notes (vasana) on Bijaganita, and were referred to earlier. The first one is the upapatti involving the avyakata method and proceeds as follows:

Take the hypotenuse (karna) as the base and assume it to be 'ya' as in the figure. Let the bhuja and koti (the two sides) be 3, 4 respec tively. Let the perpendicular to the hypotenuse from the opposite vertex be drawn. This divides the triangle into two triangles which are similar to the original. Now the rule of proportion (anupata). When 'ya' is the hypotenuse the bhuja is 3, then when this bhuja 3 is the hypotenuse, the bhuja, which is now the segment of the hypotenuse to the side of the HoriginaU bhuja will be 3.3 ya. Again when 'ya' is the hypotenuse, the koti is 4, then when the koti 4 is the hypotenuse, the koti, which is now the segment of hypotenuse to the side of the (original) tod* will be 4.4 ya. Adding the two segments (abadhas) of ya the hypotenuse and equating the sum to (the hypotenuse) ya ... we get ya = 5'(9).

The other upapatti that Ganesha gives is the kshetragata or the geometrical upapatti which is as follows:

Take four triangles identical to the given and making different bhujas rest on different kotis form the square as shown. The interior square has for its side the difference of bhuja and koti. The area of each triangle is half the product of bhuja and koti and four times this added to the area of the total figure. This, by the rule... is nothing but the sum of the squares of bhuja and koti... The square root of that is the side of the (big) square which is nothing but the hypotenuse'.

The above example serves to indicate what Indian mathematicians mean by avyaktaritya upapatti and kshetragata upapatti.

(3) The rule of signs in algebra:

One of the crucial aspects of Indian mathematics is that in many upapattis the nature of the underlying mathematical objects plays a crucial role. We can for instance, refer to the upapatti given by Krishna Daivajna for the wellknown rule of signs in Algebra. While providing an upapatti for the rule, "the number to be substracted if positive (dhana) is made negative (rim) and if negative is made positive", Krishna Daivajna states:,

'Negativity (rinatva) here is of three types - spatial, temporal and object-wise. In each case, (negativity) is indeed the vaiparitya or the oppositeness.... For instance, the second direction lying along the same line is called the opposite direction (viparita dik); just as West is the opposite of East.... Further, between two stations if one way of traversing' is considered positive then the other would be considered negative... In the same way, when one possesses said objects they would be called his dhana (or wealth). The opposite would be the case when another owns these objects... With this understanding of positivity (dhanatva) and negativity (rinatva) we now proceed to state the upapatti of the above rule as follows...'

Krishna Daivajna goes on to explain how the distance between a pair of stations can be computed knowing that between each of these statios and some other station on the same line. Using this he demonstrates the above rule that "the number to be substracted if positive is made negative...." (10).

(4) The Kuttaka process for the solution of linear indeterminate equations:

To really understand the nature of upapatti in Indian mathematics one will have to analyse some of the real lengthy demonstrations given by them for the more complicated results and processes. One will also have to analyse the sequence in which the results and the demonstrations are arranged to understand their method of exposition and logical sequence of argumentation. One can quote many examples of such long and sequential demonstrations in the works cited above. We shall consider the systematic derivation given by Krishna Daivajna for the entire Indian process of kuttaka employed to solve first order indeterminate equation of the form (ax+c)/b - y, where a, b, c are given integers and x, y are to be solved for in integers (11).

Since this upapatti is rather lengthy, it is presented separately as Appendix n. We may here merely recount the essential steps. Krishna Daivajna first shows that the solutions for x,y do not vary if we factor all the three numbers a, b and c, by the same (common) factor. He then* shows that if 'a' anil V have a common factor then the above equation will not have a solution unless 'c' is also divisable by the same common factor. Then follows the upapatti of the process of finding the greatest common factor of 'a' and 'b' by mutual division (the so called Euclidean algorithm). He tnen provides an upapatti for the kuttaka method of finding the solution by using the quotients obtained in the above mutual division, based on a detailed analysis of the various operations in reverse (vyasta vidhi). Finally he shows why the process differs slightly depending upon whether there are odd or even number of coefficients generated in the above mutual division!

III
What seems to be all too apparent from any study of the upapattis in Indian mathematics is that the notion of upapatti is significantly different from the notion of proof as understood in the Greek and the modern Western traditions in mathematics. This has been for instance noted by Saraswati Amma, who remarks that (12):

"There was an important difference between the Indian proofs and their Greek counterparts. The Indian's aim was not to build up an edifice of geometry on a few self-evident axioms, but to convince the intelligent student of the validity of the theorem so that visual demonstration was quite an accepted form of proof... another characteristic of Indian mathematics which makes it differ profoundly from Greek mathematics. Knowledge for its own sake did not appeal to the Indian mind. Every discipline (Sastra) must have a purpose".

In what follows we shall elaborate on the above very perceptive remarks of Saraswati Amma.

The upapattis of Indian mathematics are presented in a technical or precise language and very carefully display all thestepsof the argument as also alt the general principles which are employed. In this sense they are no different from the 'proofs' pund in Greek or modern Western mathematics. But what is peculiar to the upapattis of Indian mathematics is that while presenting the argument in an 'informal' manner (which is common in mathematical discourse anyway) they make no reference what-so- ever to any fixed set of axioms or link the given argument to 'formal deductions' performable from such axioms. The upapattis of Indian mathematics are not formulated with any reference to a formal deductive system.

Most of the mathematical discourse in the Greek as well as modern Western tradition is carried out with clear reference to some formal deductive system, though the discourse it sell might be in the 'informal' mode, a la Indian mathematics. More importantly the ideal view of mathematics in both the Greek and modern Western tradition is that of a formal deductive system. Their view is that 'real mathematics' is (and ought to be presented) as formal derivations from formally stated axioms. This ideal view if mathematics is intimately linked with yet another major philosophical presupposition of Western tradition - that mathematics constitutes a body of infallible or absolute truths. Perhaps it is only the ideal of a formal deductive system which could presumably measure up to this other ideal of mathematics being a body of absolute truths. It is this quest for securing absolute certainty to mathematical knowledge, which has motivated most of the foundational and philosophical investigations into mathematics and has also shaped the entire course of mathematics in the Western tradition, right from the Greeks to the contemporary times (13,14).

What the upapattis of Indian mathematics reveal is that the Indian epistemological position on the nature and validation of mathematical knowledge is very different from that in the Western tradition. This is brought out for instance by the understanding held amongst the Indian mathematicians as to what a upapatti is supposed to achieve. Ganesha Daivajna declares in his preface to the commentary on Bhaskaracharya's Lilavati that:

"Whatever be stated in the vyakta or avyakta branches of mathematics without upapatti it will not be ren dered nirbhranta (free from misapprehension). It will not acquire any standing fin an assembly of scholarly mathematicians.' The upapatti is directly perceivable like a mirror in hand. It is therefore, as also for the elevation of the intellect (buddhi vriddhi), that 1 proceed to enunciate upapatti in its entirety".

As the above statement shows, the purpose of upapatti seems to have been (i) to remove misapprehension and confusion in the interpretation and understanding of the result or process expounded in the text; (ii) to satisfy the scholarly community of mathematicians (that the result is acceptable and the person who enunciates it is competent) and (iii) to enhance the powers of intellect. Clearly the purposes for providing upapattis appear to be very different from what a 'proof in Western tradition of mathematics is supposed to do, namely to establish once and for all the 'absolute truth' of a given proposition.

In this context it is perhaps important to emphasize that in the Indian tradition, mathematical knowledge is not taken to be different in any 'fundamental sense' from that in all other natural sciences. The methods for acquiring valid knowledge in mathematics are the same as in all other sciences, namely via the Pramanas: Pratyaksha (perception) Anumana (inference) Sabdaor Agama (tradition or textual) etc. In fact Ganesha's statement regarding the role of upapattis in vyakta and avyakta ganita is a rephrasing of an earlier statement of Bhaskaracharya on the role of upapattis in mathematical astronomy (grahaganita). In the beginning of the goladhvya of Siddhantasiromani, Bhaskaracharya states:

'Starting from the Madhyamaadhikara (the beginning of Grahaganitadhyaya of Siddhantasiromani) whatever be the ganita (calculational procedure) described here of the (motion of the) heavenly bodies, without its upapatti a mathematician will not acquire status in the scholarly assemblies; he will not himself be free of doubt (inissamsaya). Since this upapatti is easily perceivable in the (armiliary) sphere like a gooseberry in the hand, I therefore start golodhyaya (the section on Spherics) for the sake of expounding upapatti'.

'As the commentator Nrisimha Daivajna explains, 'the phala (utility) of upapatti is panditya (scholarship) and "also removal of doubts (for oneself) which would enable one to reject wrong interpretations made by others due to bhranti (misapprehension) or otherwise'.

In his auto commentary Vasanabhashya to Siddhantasiromani, Bhaskaracharya discusses what is the main source of valid knowledge (pramana) in mathematical astronomy. And he declares that 'Yadyevamucyate ganitaskandhe upapattimanagama eva pramanam' - 'Whatever is discussed in mathematical astronomy, the pramana is tradition or established text which can be supported by upapatti'. And of course here upapatti surely includes observation also, as it is clearly stated; say for instance, that the upapatti for the mean periods of planets involves observing it through instruments daily etc. Observation or experiment is also acceptable as upapatti in mathematics.

What emerge from all this is the following: The upapatti or demonstration in Indian mathematics serves to clarify and dis ambiguate the given result or process and to convince the lister nerjreader as to the validity of the result. In no sense is it iintended to be an approximation to some ideal of a mechanical or fool-proof way of establishing the absolute truth of the given result starting from a once for all given set of axioms. In fact the upapattis of Indian mathematics have a considerably flexible argumentational structure, depending on the context and purpose of enquiry, the result to be demonstrated, and the listener/ reader for whom the demonstration Is meant. While being contcx tual in this manner, the upapattis, are still highly technical and, whenever necessary,go into a great deal of hair-splitting argumentation. Further, they are written in a technical Sanskrit which, though not always as precise as the language of Navya- nyaya, is precise enough to carry on most of the mathematical argumentation as clearly as possible. It is no wonder then that Bhaskarcharya declares (in his Vasanabhashya) that upapatti can only be understood by one proficient in the Intricacies of language.

We have so far discussed how upapattis are not concerned with establishing the absolute truth of a result and hence are not formulated with reference to any formal deductive system. As regards the modes of argument which are allowed in the upapattis of Indian mathematics one distinctive feature appears to be that Indian mathematicians allow the method of indirect proof (reduction ad absurdum) only for showing the non-existence of certain entities, but not for proving the existence of an entity, which existence, is not demonstrable (at least in principle) by other (direct) means of proof. The method of indirect proof is called tarka by the Indian logicians. What the Indian mathematicians are following is only the general methodological dictum of most schools of Indian philosophy that tarka is not an independent pramana, and cannot be used to conclude the existence of an entity, which existence cannoi be otherwise proved (at least in principle) by the allowed pramanas.

We should here emphasise the fact that the Indian mathematicians do not eschew the method of indirect proof altogether. For instance let us consider the upapatti of the result that "a negative number has no square root". To show this Krishna Daivajna proceeds as follows:

'A negative number is not a square. Hence how can we consider its square root? It might however be argued that "why will a negative number not be a square? Surely it is not a royal fiat"... Agreed Let it be stated by you who claim that a negative number is a square as to whose square it is; surely not of a positive number, for the square of a positive number is always positive by the rule .... not also of a negative number. Because then also the square will be positive by the rule.... This being the case, we do not see by any means that number whose square becomes negative'.

In not accepting the method of indirect proof as a valid means for establishing existence of an entity (which existence is not even in principle establishable via direct means of proof), the Indian mathematicians tend to take what is now-a-days referred to as the constructivist approach to the issue of mathematical existence. But the Indian philosopher’s logicians etc do much more than merely disallowing certain existence proofs. The general Indian philosophical position is in fact one of completely eliminating from logical discourse all reference to such aprasiddha (unlocatable) entities, whose existence is not even in principle accessible to direct means of verification. This appears to be also the position adopted by the Indian mathematicians. It is for this reason that many an "existence theorem" (where all that has been proved is that the non-existence of a hypothetical entity is incompatible with the accepted set of postulates) of Greek "or modern Western mathematics would not be considered significant or even meaningful by Indian mathematicians.

IV
The Indian epistemological view point on the nature of mathematical knowledge and its validation needs to be investigated in detail, as it could prove to be of great relevance for the development of mathematics today. Contemporary mathematics, being rooted entirely in the modem Western tradition, does suffer from serious limitations which can be traced to the kind of epistemology and philosophy of mathematics which have governed the development of mathematics in the Western tradition right from the Greek times. Firstly there is the perennial problem of "Foundations" posed by the ideal view of mathematical knowledge as a set of infallible of absolute truths, which is basic to the Western epistemology of mathematics. As is well known, the continued effort of mathematicians and philosophers of the West to secure for mathematics the status of indubitable knowledge has not succeeded; and there is perhaps a growing feeling that this goal may after all turn out to be impossible. However, within the Western philosophical tradition, it is not likely that any radically different epistemology of mathematics would get developed, and so the driving force for Western mathematics is likely to continue to be a search for absolute truths and modes of establishing them, in one form or the other. Surely this could lead to progress in mathematics, but it would be 'progress' of a limited kind and within the narrow confines of the Western quest for indubitable knowledge in the domain of mathematics (15).

Apart from the problems inherent in the very goals set for mathematics, there are also several other serious inadequacies in the Western epistemology and philosophy of mathematics which are now-a'-days being seriously discussed by many scholars. Most of these center around the issue that the ideal view of mathematics as a formal deductive system causes serious distortion in the very practice of the science of mathematics. Some scholars have argued that this ideal view of mathematics has rendered philosophy of mathematics totally barren and incapable of providing any understanding of the actual history of mathematics, the logic of mathematical discovery "and in fact the whole of creative mathematical activity (16). Consider for instance the contrast between the ideal view that a mathematical proof ought to be infallible and actual (and accepted) mathematical practice as portrayed in a recent book (17):

'On the one side, we have real mathematics, with proofs which are established by the "consensus of the qualified". A real proof is not checkable by a machine, or even by any mathematician not privy to the gestalt, the mode of thought of the particular field of mathematics in which the proof is located. Even to the "qualified reader" there are normally differences of opinion as to whether a real proof (i.e. one that is actually spoken or written down) is complete or correct. These doubts are resolved by communication and explanation, never by transcribing the proof into first order predicate calculus. Once a proof is "accepted", the results of the proof are regarded as true (with very high probability). It may take generations to detect an error in a proof... On the other side, to be distinguished from real mathematics, we have "met mathematics".... It portrays a structure of proofs which are .indeed infallible "in principle".... (The philosophers of mathematics seem to claim) that the problem of fallibility in real proofs.... has been conclusively settled by the presence of a notion of infallible proof in metamathematics... One wonders how they would justify such a claim".

Apart from the fact that the modern Western epistemology of mathematics fails to give any adequate account of the history of mathematics and current mathematical practice, there is also the growing awareness that the ideal of mathematics as a formal deductive system has had far reaching consequences in the teaching of mathematics. The formal deductive format adopted in most mathematics books and articles greatly hamper understanding and leave the student with no clear idea of what is being talked about (18). Still, if real mathematics is indeed formal derivations from formally stated axioms, then such understanding should indeed be sought elsewhere, and no reform need to be attempted in the style of mathematical discourse (19).

We wish to emphasize that the Indian epistemology of mathematics, if sufficiently researched upon by our present day scholars, may lead to a major revision of the current concepts on the nature of mathematical knowledge and its validation. Another important foundational issue in mathematics is that concerning the nature of mathematical objects. Here again the philosophical foundations of contemporary mathematics are extremely 'unsatisfactory' with none of the major schools of thought, namely Platonism, Formalism or Intuitionism, being able to give satisfactory account of what indeed is the nature of the objects (such as numbers) dealt with by mathematics and how they are related to (other) objects in the world (20).

For a discussion of the nature of mathematical objects as understood in the Indian tradition, we will have to see not only the texts in mathematics but also various texts of the different schools of Indian philosophy, wherein is debated the ontological status of mathematical objects such as numbers and their relation to other entities of the world. This would require a major investigation by itself. To give an idea of the isophistication of the Indian philosophy of mathematics in this regard, we will briefly outline the theory of numbers as developed for instance in the Nyaya-Vaiseshika school. As is well- known, in the Western tradition of mathematics, there was really no significant discussion on the nature of numbers after the Greek times, till the work of Frege in the nineteenth century. Recently there have been some investigations (21) which seem to indicate that the Nyaya theory of numbers might prove to be considerably superior in several respects to Frege's theory or the later developments which have followed from it (22).

In the Nyaya-Vaisesika ontology, samkhya or number-property is assigned to the category guna (roughly translated as quality) which resides in dravya (roughly translated as substance) via the relation samavaya - translated as inherence, which is also the relation between whole and parts, jati (genus or universal) and vyakti (species or individual) etc. This samavaya is the relation by which" a samkhya such as dvitva (two-ness or duality) is related to each of the objects of a pair, and gives raise to the jnand or cognition: 'Ayam dvitoavan' - This (one) is (a) locus of two-ness'. Apartjfrom this, the number-property, dvitva (two- ness) is related to both the objects together via a relation called 'paryapti (completion) and gives rise to the cognition 'Imau dvau' - 'These are two'. So according to Nyaya, there are two ways in which number-properties such as one-ness or unity, two-ness or duality, 'three-ness etc., are connected with things numbered- firstly via samavaya relation with each thing and secondly via paryapti'relation with the things together.

The paryapti relation connecting the number-property to the numbered things together is taken by the Naiyayikas to be a svarupa sambandha (or a self-linking relation), where the two terms of the relation is identified ontologically. Thus, according to the Naiyayikas any number property such us two-ness is not unique. There are indeed several two-nesses one associated (and identified) with every pair of objects (23). There are of course the universals such as dvitvatva (two-ness) which inhere in each particular two-ness associated (and identified) with each pair of objects.

The fact that the Naiyayikas talk of the relation paryapti by which number property such as two-ness resides in both the numbered objects together and not in each one of them, has led various scholars to compare it with 'the Frege's theory of numbers. According to Bertrand Russel's version of this theory, there is a unique number two which is the set of all sets of two elements (or pair of objects). Thus the number two is a set of 'second-order' somewhat analogous to the universal two-ness (dvitvatva) of the Naiyayikas which may be thought of to be a property of 'second-order'.

The most crucial Way in which the Naiyayika theory differs from all the modern Western formulations is that the Naiyayikas talk only in terms of properties and that too with clearly specified ontological status, and totally avoid notions such as sets whose ontology is dubious (24). Any number property such as two-ness associated with a pair of objects is ontologically identified with the pair, or both the objects together, and not with any 'set' (let alone the set of all sets) constituted by such a pair.

The Naiyayika theory of number and paryapti is a highly sophisticated one and was developed during 16-I9th centuries in the context of some important issues in Indian logic. Its further development in the context of mathematics and its foundations are perhaps major challenges facing our contemporary scholars in logic, mathematics and philosophy. Apart from their theory of numbers, the general approach of the Indian logicians is what may be referred to as 'intentional' as opposed to the 'extensional' approach of most of Western logic and mathematics (25). It is precisely because of the fact that the Indian logicians have built a very powerful system of logic which is able to handle properties as they are (with both their intentions and extension) and not by reducing them to classes (which are pure extensions, with the intention being abstracted away), that there seems to be a great potential for the methodology of Indian logic in creating an entirely new edifice for mathematics. For, as is generally understood (26):

"Mathematics, as it exists today, is extensional rather than intentional. By this we mean that, when a prepositional function enters into a mathematical theory, it is usually the extension of the function (i.e. the totality of entities or sets of entities that satisfy it) rather than its intention (i.e. its "context" or meaning) that really matters. This leaning towards extensionality is reflected in a preference for the language of classes or sets over the formally equivalent language of predicates with a single argument...."

If the elementary propositions of the theory are of the form T(x)'(x has F' - where 'F' is predicate with single argument V which runs over a domain of 'individuals') then it is indeed true that it is but a matter of preference whether we use the language of predicates or of the classes (of all those individuals which satisfy the corresponding predicate). However the elementary propositions of Indian logic are of the form 'xRy' which relate any two 'entities' (not necessarily 'individuals') x, y via a relation R. The elementary proposition in Indian logic is always composed of a viseshya (qualificand x), viseshana or prakara (qualifier y) and a samsarga (relation R). Here y may also be considered as a dharma (property) residing in x via relation R. Using these and many other notions, the Indian logicians have developed a precise technical language, based on Sanskrit, which is unambiguous and makes transparent the logical structure of any (complex) proposition and which is Used in some sense like the symbolic formal languages of modern mathematical logic (27). The Indian logicians seem to have used this language mainly as a vehicle of conducting philosophical discourse concerning the nature of entities (padarthas) and their relations.

Now, as regards the nature of mathematics, the dominant view perhaps subscribed to by most contemporary mathematicians is essentially that adopted by Bourbaki, which may be stated as follows (28):

"... Mathematics is understood by Bourbaki as a study of structures, or systematic patterns of relations, each particular structure being characterized by a suitable set of axioms. In mathematics, as it exists at the present time, there are three great families of structures... namely algebraic structures, topological structures and ordinal structures. Any particular structure is to be thought of as inhering in a certain set E which functions as a domain of individuals for the corresponding theory".

It is for the above reason that, 'Bourbaki presents the whole of mathematics as an extension of the theory of sets' (29). Now if the study of abstract structures is indeed the goal of mathematics, there is no reason why this enterprise should necessarily be based on the theory of sets, unless one does not have the appropriate logical apparatus to handle philosophically more perspicuous notions such as properties, relations etc. As we stated earlier, the endeavor of the Indian logicians has been precisely one of developing such a logical apparatus. How powerful this apparatus is and how it could be employed to evolve a more comprehensive mathematics or theory of structures is very much a topic of speculation, if not serious investigation, in the years to come.

What we have indicated above are just a few examples (which are at this stage quite tentative and speculative) of how the methodology of Indian mathematics could turn out to be of considerable relevance for the development of mathematics today. For the Indian mathematicians' this could be of particular significance since the Indian tradition of mathematics, which was alive and fairly creative and dynamic till about two centuries ago, has yet to come on its own once again. It is all too apparent that while in the recent decades there has been a considerable revival of mathematical activity in India; it is yet to make any serious impact by way of significant contributions or new directions of research in mathematics. For Indian mathematics to come on its own, it would be necessary for us to rediscover our own genius in mathematics, as that is what would perhaps shape the nature and directions of our endeavors’ in mathematics as it has done over the long history of Indian civilization. It is perhaps only this way that we can really comprehend the nature and potential of the achievements of even our twentieth century mathematicians, starting from the legendary Srinivasa Ramanujan (whose works have so far been analyzed solely in the context of and the from the stand point of the modem Western tradition in mathematics), and evolve a way of creating a dynamic tradition of mathematics once again in this country.

References and Footnotes

1. Some of the books are:

(a) B. B. Datta and A.N. Singh, History of Hindu Mathematics, Part I, II Lahore 1935,
1938 (Rep. Delhi 1962)

(b) C.N. Srinivasa Iyengar, History of Indian Mathematics, Calcutta 1967

(c) A.K. Bag, Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India, Varanasi 1979

(d) T.A. Saraswati Amma, Geometry in Ancient and Medieval India, Varanasi 1979.

2. The following quotation is adequate to bring out this commonly aired opinion:

'As our survey indicates, the Hindus were interested in and contributed to the arithmetical and computational activities of mathematics rather than to the deductive patterns. Their name for mathematics was ganita, which means "the science of calculation".

There is much good procedure and technical facility, but no evidence that they considered proof at all. They had rules, but apparently no logical scruples. Moreover, no general methods or new viewpoints were arrived at in any area of mathematics. It is fairly certain that the Hindus did not appreciate the significance of their own contributions. The few good ideas they had, such as separate symbols for the numbers, were introduced casually with no realization that they were valuable innovations. They were not sensitive to mathematical values. Along with the ideas they themselves advanced, they accepted and incorporated the crudest ideas of the Egyptians and Babylonians'.(Morris Kline: Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times, Oxford, 1972, p. 190).

3. For instance, Colebrooke's translation of portions of Brahmasphutasiddhanta of Brahmagupta and Lilavati and Bijaganita of Bhaskaracharya (published in London in 1817 under the title 'Algebra with Arithmetic and Mensuration from the Sanskrit of Brahmagupta and Bhaskara') contains (as part of footnotes) sketches of many upapattis (provided by the commentators to these works) which are referred to as demonstrations. Another important notice of the fact that detailed proofs are provided in the Indian texts on mathematics, is due to Charles M. Whish, who in an important article in 1830 ('On the Hindu Quadrature of the Circle...' Trans. Roy. As. Soc. (G.B.) 3,1839, 509-523) pointed out that infinite series for π and for trigonometric functions were discussed in texts of Indian mathematics much before their 'discovery" in Europe. Whish concluded his paper with a sample proof from the Malayalam text Yuktibhasha (c 1608) of the theorem on the square of the diagonal of a right angled triangle (the so called Pythagoras theorem) and also promised that: 'A farther account of the Yuktibhasha, the demonstrations of the rules for the quadrature of the circle by infinite series, with the series for the sines, cosines, and their demonstrations, will be given in a separate paper'. It appears however that Whish did not publish any further paper on this subject.

4. See for instance, D. Pingree, Jyotihsastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature, Wiesbaden 1981, p. 118.

5. K.V. Sarma and B.V. Subbarayappa, Indian Astronomy: A Source Book, Bombay 1985.

6. The book of Saraswati Amma (Ref Id) and the following works of C.T. Rajagopal and his collaborators provide an idea of the kind of upapattis that are presented in the Malayalam work Yuktibhasha of Jycstha Deva (c.1608) for various results in geometry, trigonometry and
(hose concerning infinite series for the trigonometric functions and π :

(a) K. Mukunda Marar, Proof of Gregory's series, Teacher's Magazine 15,1940,28-34.

(b) K. Mukunda Marar and C.T. Rajagopal, On the Hindu Quadrature of the Circle, J.B.B.R.A.S. 20, 1944, 65- 82.

(c) C.T. Rajagopal, A Neglected Chapter of Hindu Mathematics, Scripta Mathematica 15, 1949, 201-209.

(d) A. Venkataraman, Some interesting proofs from Yuktibhasha, Math Student 16,1948,1-7.

(e) C.T. Rajagopal and A. Venkatarman, The Sine and Cosine Power Series in Hindu Mathematics, J.R.A.S.B. 15,1949,1-13.

(f) C.T. Rajagopal and T.V.V. Aiyer, On the Hindu Proof of Gregory's Series, Scripta Mathematical, 17,1951,65- 74.

(g) C.T. Rajagopal and M.S. Rangachari, On Medieval Kerala Mathematics, Archive for History of Exact Sc., 35(2), 986,91- 99.

7. It is not that the study of mathematics is completely tied up with astronomy alone. In fact the earliest texts dealing with geometry, the Sulva sutras (generally dated as being prior to 8th century B.C.) are part of Mpa (a vedahga different from jyotiska) and deal with the construction of altars. At a much later period the laina mathematician Mahavira (c 9th century) enumerates the uses of ganita as follows:

In all transactions which relates to wordly, vedic or other similar religious affairs calculation is of use. In the science of love, in the science of wealth, in music and in drama, in the art of cooking/in medicine, in architechture, in prosody, in poetics and poetry, in logic and grammar land such Other things, and in relation to all that t. constitutes the peculiar value of the arts, the science of calculation (ganita) is held in high esteem. In relation to the movement of the sun and other heavenly bodies, in connection with eclipses and conjunctions of planets, and in connection with the triprasna (direction, position and time) and the course of the moon-indeed in all these it is utilized. The number, the diameter and the perimeter of islands, oceans and mountains; the extensive dimensions of the rows of habitations and halls belonging to the inhabitants of the world of light, of the world of the gods and of the dwellers in hell, and other miscellaneous measurements of all sorts - all these are made out by the help of ganita. The configuration of living beings therein, the length of their lives, their eight attributes, and "other similar things; their progress and other such things, their staying together, etc. - all these are dependent upon ganita (for their due comprehension). What is the good of saying much? Whatever there is in all the three worlds, which are possessed of moving and non-moving beings, cannot exist as apart from ganita (measurement and calculation)'. (Passage from Ganitasarasathgraha of Mahaviracharya in cited B.B. Datta and A.N. Singh Ref (la), Vol. I p. 5).

8. The well-known text Lilavati of Bhaskaracharya II (c 1150) deals with vyakta ganita and is divided essentially into the following sections: (1) Paribhasha (units and measures) (2) Samkhyasthananirnaya (place value system) (3) Parikarama shtakani (eight operations of arithmetic, namely addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square, square root, cube, cube root) (4) Bhinnaparikarmashtakam (operations with fractions) (5) Sunyaparikarmani (operations with zero> (6) Prakirna (miscellaneous processes, including trairasika (rule of three) (7) Misravyavahara (investigation of mixture, ascertainment of composition as principal and interest joined and so forth) (8) Sredhivyavahara (progressions and series) (9) Kshetravyavahara (plane geometry) (10) Khatavyavahara (excavations and solids) (11) Citi, rakacha and rasi vyavahara (calculation with stacks, saw, mounds of grain) (12) Chayavyavahara (gnomonics) (13) Kuttake (linear indeterminate equations) (14) Ankapasa (combinatorics of digits).

The text Bijaganita of Bhaskaracharya deals with avyakata ganita and is essentially divided into the following sections: (1) Dhanarnashadvidham (the six operations with positive and negative quantities, namely addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square and square root) (2) Khashadvidham (the six operations with zero) (3) Avyaktashadvidham (the six operations with indeterminate quantities) (4) Karanishadvidham (the six operations with surds) (5) Kuttaka (linear indeterminate equations) (6) Vargaprakriti (quadratic indeterminate equation of the form Nx2 + m = y2 ) (7) Chakravala (cyclic process for the solution of above quadratic indeterminate equation) (8) Ekavarnasamikarana Khanda (simple equations with one unknown) (9) Madhyamaharana (quadratic etc., equations) (10) Anekavarnasamikarana (simple equations with several unknowns) (11) Madhyamaharanasyabhedah (varieties of quadratics) (12) Bhavitam (equations involving products). Here the first seven sections, starting from dharnashadvidham to chakravala are said to be bijopayogi (adjuncts to analysis) and the last five sections deal with bija or analysis which is mainly of two types: Ekavarnasamikarana (equation with single unknown) and Anekavarnasamikarana (equation with several unknowns).

Ganesha Daivajna raises the issue as to the propriety of including discussion of kuttaka (linear indeterminate equations) and ankapasa (combinatorics) etc., in the work on vyaktagunita, Lilavati, as they ought to be part of Bijaganita. He then goes on to explain that this is alright as an exposition of these subjects can be given without employing avyaktamarga, i.e., procedures involving use of indeterminate quantities. An interesting discussion of the relation between vyakta and avyakta ganita is to be found in the commentary of Krishna Daivajna on Bijaganita of Bhaskaracharya. The statement of Bhaskara 'vyaktam avyakta-bijam' can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly that vyakta is the basis of avyakta (avyaktasya bijam) because till the knowledge of vyakta ganita (composed of addition, and other operations, the rule of three etc.) is not had, one cannot even think of entering into a study of avyaklaganita. It is also true that vyakta is that which is based on avyakta (avyaktam bijam yasya) because though the procedure of vyaktaganita do not depend upon avyakta methods for being carried through (svarupa nirvana), when it comes to justifying the vyakta methods by upapattis or demonstrations whole of vyakta ganita is dependent on avyakta ganita.

9. This method of proving the so called Pythagoras theorem using similar triangles seems to have appeared in Europe for the first time in the work of Wallis in the seventeenth century.

10. It would be interesting to compare this clear understanding of the rule of sighs in Indian mathematics with the kind of confusion that seemed to prevail on negative quantities in Europe even as late in the 18th century, as noted by Bourbaki (Theory of sets, Paris, 1968, p.
314):

The embarrassment of algebraists in the presence of negative numbers vanished only when analytical geometry provided them with a convenient "interpretation". But, even in the eighteenth century d'Alembert (although a convinced "positivist"), when I discussing the question in the Encyclopedia, suddenly lost courage after a column of somewhat confused explanations and contented himself with concluding that the rules of algebraic operations on negative quantities are generally admitted by everyone and are generally received as correct, whatever interpretation is to be attached to these quantities'".

11. It may be of interest to note the history of the solution of linear indeterminate equation in Europe, as given by Dickson (History of theory of Nurhbers, Vol. II, New York, 1952, p.v.)

'An account of the method of solving ax+by=c (was) given by the Hindu Brahmagupta in the Seventh century. It was based on the mutual division of a and b as in Euclid's process of finding their greatest common divisor. Essentially the same method was rediscovered in Europe by Bachet de Meziriac in 1612, and expressed in the convenient notation of the development of a/b into a continued fraction by Sauhderson in England in 1740 and by Lagrange in France in 1767. The simplest proof that the equation is solvable when a and b are relatively prime is that given by
Euler in 1760'.

12. T.A. Saraswati Amma Ref (ld) p. 3.

13. To cite contemporary authorities, we have for instance Bertrand Russel recounting. “I wanted certainty in the kind of way in which people want religious faith. I thought that certainty is more likely to be found in mathematics than elsewhere"; or David Hilbert declaring "The goal of my theory is to establish once and for all the certitude of mathematical methods" (Both quotations cited in Reuben Hetsh, Some Proposals for Reviving the Philosophy of Mathematics, Adv/Math. 31,1979,31-50).

14. A recent book recounts how the continued Western quest for securing absolute certainty for mathematical knowledge originates from the classical Greek civilization, as follows:

The crisis (in the foundations of mathematics which became an important issue in the 20th century) was a manifestation of a long-standing discrepancy between the traditional ideal of mathematics, which we call the Euclid myth and the reality of mathematics, the actual practice of mathematical activity at any particular time... What is the Euclid myth? It is the belief that the books of Euclid contain truths about the universe which are clear and in dubitable. Starting from self-evident truths, and proceeding by rigorous proof, Euclid arrives at knowledge which is certain, objective and eternal. Even now, it seems that most educated people believe in the Euclid myth. Up to the middle or late nineteenth century, the myth was unchallenged. Every one believed it. It has been the major supporter of metaphysical philosophy...

The roots of the philosophy of mathematics as of mathematics itself are in classical Greece. For the Greeks, mathematics meant geometry, and the philosophy of mathematics in Plato and Aristotle is the philosophy of geometry. For Plato, the mission of philosophy was to discover true knowledge behind the veil of opinion and appearance, the change and illusion of the temporal world. In this task, mathematics, had a central place, for mathematical knowledge was the outstanding example of knowledge independent of sense experience, knowledge of eternal and necessary truths' (Philips J. Davis and Reuben Hersh, The Mathematical Experience, Boston, 1981, pp. 323-325)

15. To cite a historical instance, we only need to recall how the adherence to the Greek philosophy of mathematics had left Western mathematics in a very poor shape as for as arithmetic and algebra are concerned, for over a thousand and five hundred years. As a Western scholar remarked recently, We may certainly say that the Greeks have given the Western world geometry, but algebra and the number system has had to come from the Indian and Arabic world. There is every reason to uphold that this rejection of algebra by the Greeks was consciously done as not "fitting" the philosophy they subjected mathematics to' (W. Kuyk, Complementarity in Mathematics, Reidel 1977, p.71)

16. One philosopher of science has argued that this barrenness of the contemporary philosophy of mathematics can be traced to the basic epistemological position on the nature of mathematical knowledge espoused in the Western tradition:

'Under the present dominance of formalism the school of mathematical philosophy which tends to identify mathematics with its formal axiomatic abstraction and the philosophy of mathematics with metamathematics,. one is tempted to para phrase Kant: The history of mathematics, lacking the guidance of philosophy, has become blind, while the philosophy of mathematics, turning its back on the most intriguing phenomena in the history of mathematics has become empty... The history of mathematics and the logic of mathematical discovery, i.e. the phylogenies and the ontogenesis of mathematical thought, cannot be developed without the criticism and ultimate rejection of formalism...

But formalist philosophy of£mathematics has very deep roots. It is the latest link in the long (chain of dogmatist philosophies of mathematics. For more than two thousand years there has been an argument between dogmatists and sceptics. The dogmatists hold that - by the power of our human intellect and/or senses - we can attain truth and know that we have attained it. The sceptics on the other hand either hold that we cannot attain the truth at all (unless with the help of mystical experience), or that we cannot know if we can attain it or that we have attained it. In this great debate, in which arguments are time and again brought up-to-date, mathematics has been the proud fortress of dogmatism. Whenever the mathematical dogmatism of the day got a 'crisis', a new version once again provided genuine rigour and ultimate foundations, thereby restoring the image of authoritative, infallible, irrefutable mathematics, 'the only Science that it has pleased God hitherto to bestow on mankind' (Hobbes (1651], p.15). Most sceptics resigned themselves to the impregnability of this stronghold of dogmatist epistemology. A challenge is now overdue'. (I. Lakatos, Proofs and Refutations, Cambridge 1976, pp. 1-5)

17. Philip J. Davis and Reuben Hersh: The Mathematical Experience, (Boston, 1981, pp. 354-5).

18. The nature of the mathematical discourse fostered by the 'Euclidean methodology' is aptly described as follows:

'Euclidean methodology has developed a certain obligatory style of presentation. I shall refer to this as 'deductive style'. This style starts with a painstakingly stated list of axioms, lemmas and/or definitions. The axioms and definitions frequently look artificial [and mystifyingly complicated. One is never told how these complications arose. Tine list of axioms and definitions is followed by the carefully worded theorems. These are loaded with heavy-going conditions; it seems impossible that anyone should ever have guessed them. The theorem is followed by the proof.

The student of mathematics is obliged, according to the Euclidean ritual, to attend this conjuring act without asking questions either about the background or about how this sleight-of-hand is performed. If the student by chance discovers that some of the unseemly definitions arej proof- generated, if he simply wonders how these definitions, lemmas and the theorem can possibly precede the proof, the conjuror will ostracize him for this display of mathematical immaturity.

In deductive style, all propositions are true and all inferences valid. Mathematics is presented! as an ever-increasing set of eternal, immutable truths. Counter example, refutations, criticism cannot possibly enter. An authoritarian air is secured for the subject by beginning with disguised monster-barring and proof-generated definitions and with the full-fledged theorem, and by suppressing the primitive conjecture, the refutations, and the criticism of the proof. Deductive style hides the struggle, hides the adventure. The whole story vanishes, the successive tentative formulations of the theorem in the course of the proof- procedure are doomed to oblivion while the end result is exalted to sacred infallibility" (I. Lakatos, Proofs and Refutations, Cambridge, 1976)

19. In fact it was argued twenty-thirty years ago in the West, that the reform should go the other way - replace whatever informal mathematics that may be there in school curriculum etc., by axiomatic, set theory etc. The West might have by and large given up this project, but its followers elsewhere are still keen on cleansing the school curricula of irrelevancies.

20. See for instance, the following:

(a) Navjyoti Singh, A Comparative Study of the Foundation of Mathematics in Greece, India, China and the Modern West, PPST Bulletin No. 8,1985,53-73

(b) Chhatrapati Singh, The Philosophical Foundations of a General Theory of Numbers, Paper presented at the NISTADS Conference, Delhi 1984.

21. See for instance the following:

(a) D.H.H. Ingalls, Materials for the study of Navya- nyaya Logic, Harvard, 1951.

(b) D.C. Guha, Navya-nyaya System of Logic, Varanasi 1979.

(c) J.L. Shaw, Number: From Nyaya to Frege-Russel, Studia Logica, 41, 1982, 283-291.

(d) Roy W. Perret, A note on the Navya-nyaya Account of Number, Jour. Ind. Phil. 15, 1985, 227-234.

(e) B.K. Matilal, On the Theory of Number and Paryapti in Navyanyaya, JASB, 28, 1985, 13-21.

22. Ironically hundred years ago Frege himself laid the blame for the totally unsatisfactory character of arithmetic (that prevailed in his times and earlier) to the fact that its method and concepts originated in India:

'After deserting for a time the old Euclidean standards of rigour, mathematics, is now returning to them, and even making efforts to go beyond them. In arithmetic, if only because many of its methods and concepts originated in India, it has been the tradition to reason less strictly than in geometry which was in the main developed by the Greeks' (G.Frege, Foundations of Arithmetic, Tr. by J.L. Austin, Oxford, 1956, p.le)

23. This is only part of the story. The full picture is more complicated as described below (B.K. Matilal Ret 21 [el pp. 18,19):

'Ail numbers are recognized as objective realities, in fact objective properties resident in the things numbered. All numbers except unity or one-ness (according to some) are transitory entities created in such numbered objects and then destroyed when one of their crucial causal factors is destroyed. This crucial causal factor is however a cognitive, event - which is technically called apeksha budhi a conjunctive - count-oriented cognition. This cognitive event tacitly arises in the observer (counter) and may be expressed verbally as "this is one and that is one (which makes two)". This emergent "counting cognition" continues to exist until the observer or counter has perceived the two-ness, three-ness etc., in two things or three things. After such perceptions, this count-oriented cognitive event perishes (as all events must), and when such a crucial factor disappears there is no reason, as the Nyaya argument goes, for us to think that twoTness or three-ness exists. This two-ness is thus unique (particular) in two ways, due to its own unique causal history as well as due to the uniqueness of the items counted. Universals are however said to inhere in particulars and hence a universals of two-ness is also posited as resident by inherence in each instance of duality (as we count two objects).

The usual English number-words, one, two etc. have slightly ambiguous syntactical function. They are used mostly as adjectives or qualifiers; two mangoes, one man. We can also use "two is a number" etc. This substantial use of "two" can be designative of properties or locates (dharma). Hence to dispel such ambiguity we may follow the Sanskrit style and use "two-ness" or "duality" as designative of the property that we call number two.

One cannot fail to notice the strain of "subjectivity" in the above Nyaya conception of numbers as "Objective" properties. They are caused by a cognitive event that arises in the observer and the same event also accounts for its perception by the observer. They arise as particular occurant and disappear from the objective world as soon as the said cognitive event is over. They seem to be very strange sort of objective properties, if we can call them objective at all. They are neither mental and it may be wrong to call them material in the usual sense. Two points are suggested to explain this oddity. Firstly, here as elsewhere, Navya-nyaya does not choose to talk in terms of such a mental-material dichotomy. But the exponent of Navya-nyaya would resist all attempts to describe numbers as mental entities, if such descriptions mean that they are not "out there" in the things. Secondly, even a cognitive event in Nyaya is treated as an object and its causation, may deliver "objective" realities. In fact even the self in Nyaya can hardly be called "subject- dependent" or "subjective".

24. For an account of the problems associated with the notion of a "set", see Chatrapati Singh, What is a Set, Indian Law Institute Preprint 1985.

25. As one scholar has explained:

The translation of Navya-nyaya talks of properties into talk of classes seems gratuitous. Navya-nyaya confines itself to talk of universals and particulars, never introducing talk of I classes and members. In this sense Navya-nyaya is an intentional system. The term "intentional" can be a source or confusion, for it is variously used in a number of senses. Here I want to commit myself to no more than the claim that Navya-nyaya accepts properties as elements of the system, though it does not explicitly admit classes as such elements... Recent work in intentional logic, however, casts doubt upon the sanguine assumption that intentional arguments can always be rendered into extensional system... It is extremely important to recognize that Quine's claim that properties are reducible to classes is a philosophical thesis. It is, furthermore a highly controversial thesis... It leaves us with unattractive consequences such as the supposed identity of apparently distinct properties like "having a kidney" and "having a heart", since the instances of each are identical. There seem good reasons, then for not interpreting the Navya-nyaya account of number extensionally in terms of classes and numbers. (Roy. W. Perret, Ref. 21d, pp. 228-9).

26. G.T. Kneebone, Mathematical Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics, London, 1963, p. 117.

27. See for instance, M.D. Srinivas, The Indian Approach to Formal Logic and the Methodology of Theory Construction: A Preliminary view, PPST Bulletin No. 10, 1986, 32-59.

28. G.T. Kneebone, Ref. 26, p. 326.

29. 29. G.T. Kneebone, Ref. 26, p. 326.

Author:M.D. Srinivas

EUROPE AND THE NON-EUROPEAN WORLD SINCE 1492-1991

2011-10-24T21:38:00.001-07:00

To achieve any serious comprehension of the concepts of Environment and Development, their varying meanings from different standpoints and seemingly unending clash, one has to go back several centuries. An attempt is made in this paper to provide a backdrop to our present dilemma by briefly looking into the major events of the past five centuries, especially as represented by the experience of India. An effort is also being made to reflect on how the world has been affected by what has happened, on the surface of the Earth, in terms of thought processes as well as events since about 1942. This attempt may in some little way help us to better comprehend, and perhaps suggest steps to resolve, the dilemma we face.

1492: The Beginnings

The modem discovery of the non-European world by Europe began five hundred years ago when Christopher Columbus and his sailors reached the islands of the Americas in 1492. The search of Columbus, and of several other contemporary European navigators, was in fact for a sea passage to India and to the lands of South-East Asia. The new theory, which some European scientists had propounded, some years [earlier, that the] Earth was like a sphere, is said to have persuaded Columbus to sail Westward to ultimately reach the Eastern lands like India and others in the Indian region! Western Europe, till then had no idea that a vast continent, later named America from around 1550 A.D., stretching more or less from the North Pole to the South Pole, lay in between Europe and Africa on the one hand and China and India on the other.

Such however, was the drive of late fifteenth century Europe, perhaps in some way linked to the events of the Black Death which had swept Europe for about a century till around 1450, that merely six years later in 1498 a sea passage to India was found by going eastward around Africa. The finding of this passage may have been helped by Asian navigators, who are said to have assisted Vasco da Gama in reaching Calicut on the Kerala coast of India in 1498. In another forty to fifty years Europe had more or less encircled the Earth. One of the dramatic representations of such encircling was the presence of the members of the newly established Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, in a place as distant and civilization as distinct from Europe as Japan, by around 1540. A further demonstration of the European drive and vigor is provided by the fact that in another sixty years, by the early 17th century, around 4,00,000 Japanese had been converted to Christianity through the labors of the Jesuits.

Early European Conquests

It is not as if the people who inhabited the lands, which from the late sixteenth century came to be known as Europe, had no contact with the rest of the world before 1492. Europe had interactions with the lands of West Asia, of Persia, even with certain border areas of India and with North America, since the days of European antiquity. It is believed that Rome had a mutual trade with coastal Tamilnadu, in South India, around the beginning of the Christian era. Similarly, parts of China seem to have been known to Europe from around the 7th century A.D.

The phenomena of discovery, conquest, expansion, etc., do not begin with 1492. These may be as old as the beginning of man on earth. The young adventurer Alexander is said to have entered north-western India as early as 326 B.C. It is true that he did not succeed in bringing -any significant part of India under Greek dominance. Around a thousand years later, in the 7th century A.D., the Arabs under the banner of Islam reached and conquered parts of Southern Europe as well as Sindh in Western India. Later at the end of the 11th century, during the time of the Crusaders, Europe conquered, occupied and ruled large parts of Byzantium, West Asia and the older lands of Turkey supported by the Roman Christian church and led by the sons of West European landed aristocracy.

India it seems did not engage in such widespread conquest, perhaps because it had every material thing it wanted within its own vast and fertile land, or, it may be that India did not have such ambitions and inclinations, or it lacked the crusading zeal necessary for such adventures. Yet, its scholars, Pandits and Buddhist Bhikshus seem to have travelled to and settled in various parts of Asia as early as the beginning of the Indian Vikrami era, over 2,000 years ago.

A New Theory of Conquest

The discoveries, conquests and expansions of Europe since 1492 evidently belong to a different genre. It is possible that the methodology of these conquests was not very different from that which the states of ancient Greece or Rome had pursued in the days of European antiquity. The methodology of conquest which the British adopted from about the 16th century seems in many ways quite akin to what William the conqueror and his successors had adopted from the mid-llth century onwards in the conquest and subordination of England. The major vehicles of the post mid-15th century European worldwide conquest however were called the merchant and trading companies, while for the 11th to 14th century crusades, once they had got going, it were the religious and military orders of medieval European Christianity that served as vehicles of extending conquest and subsequent consolidation. One pre-1492 instance of the new methodology of conquest is provided by a charter of Henry VII of England issued in 1482. It granted to one John Cabot and his sons the license to occupy and set up the King's banners and ensigns, 'in any town, city, castle, island or mainland whatsoever, newly found by them' anywhere in the 'eastern, western and northern sea, belonging to 'heathens and infidels, in whatsoever part of the world placed, which before this time were unknown to all Christians'. The King empowered them to 'conquer, occupy and possess' all such places, the main condition being, that they will give in turn to the King 'the fifth part of the whole capital gained' in every voyage by their enterprises (1). There were innumerable such charters issued by the various rulers of Europe perhaps from about 1450 and extending to more or less our own times.

Another instance of the new methodology as practiced by England is provided in relation to its neighbor, Ireland. Writing in early 17th century, Sir John Davies, English attorney general for Ireland, Suggested the following as a more effective policy for Ireland: The defects which hindered the Perfection of the Conquest of Ireland were of two kinds, and consisted: first, in the faint prosecution of the Ware, and next, in the looseness of the civil Government. For, the husbandman must first break the Land, before it be made capable of good seed (2) and when it is thoroughly broken and manure, if he do not forthwith cast food seed into it, it will grow wiled again and bear nothing but weeds. So a barbarous country must be first broken by a ware, before it will be capable of good Government; and when it is fully subdued and conquered, it be not well-planted and governed after the conquest, it will oft-soonest return to the former Barbarisms'.

European Conquest of the Americas

From about 1500 Europe was expanding not only in the west but towards the east as well. In the west its targets were the vast lands of the Americans, and their mineral and forest wealth. This led to the increasing settlement of the people of Europe on the islands near the Americas as well as on the eastern mainland of north, central and south America. The indigenous people who inhabited the Americas at the time of European discovery in 1492 are estimated to have numbered around 9 to 11.2 corers (90-112 millions) (3). The population of Europe then was around 6 to 7 corers (60-70 millions). Innumerable wars were waged on the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas, and these continued for some 400 years, till practically all of them were physically annihilated. Attempts were made to enslave them and to use them as labor in mining, on the newly started plantations, and in similar other occupations. But this did not work out. Practically all of them seem to have preferred annihilation to slavery.

Even more than the wars with the newcomers of Europe; it was the diseases of Europe, carried to the Americas by European men and their accompaniments that were fatal to the people of America. The populations of whole regions got wiped out after they were visited by the newcomers. For instance, there was a major plague in New England in North America around 1618. Before the contact with Europe the people of the Americas were not exposed to, and therefore had no immunity against, many of the malignant diseases which had ravaged the European world: small pox and measles, and very likely, tuberculosis, malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, typhus and various venereal infections. (4). ‘To one Englishman who arrived in New England in 1625,' the large scale elimination of the original inhabitants appeared to be the work of providence'. He thought that such elimination made the region,' ‘so much more fit for the English nation to inhabit it, and erect in it temples to the Glory of God'. Around the same time another Englishman reported, 'God had laid open this country for us, and slain the most parts of the inhabitants by cruel wars and a mortal disease. (5)'. Fifty years later a description of New York stated,’ It hath been generally observed that where the English come to settle, a Divine Hand makes way for them, by removing or cutting off the Indians either by wars one with the other, or by some raging mortal Disease'. And the writer added that,' it is to be admired, how strangely they have decrease by the Hand of God, since the English first settling of those parts; for since my time, where there were six towns, they are reduced to two small villages. (6)'. By the mid 18th century, periapts from a much earlier date, some of the European diseases, like smallpox and a variety of plagues, seem to have been consciously and deliberately introduced by the newcomers amongst the indigenous American people. In 1763, at any rate, small-pox wes consciously and deliberately introduced in North America by the British military commander when he gave orders that he 'wished to hear of no prisoners should any of the villains be met with in arms', and added that 'he had heard that small pox had broken out at Fort Pitt and wondered whether the disease could not be spread to good advantage'. To this one of his military colonels replied that, .T will try to inoculate the bastards with some blankets that may fall in their hands, and take care not to get the disease myself. (7)'. The 20th century practice of introducing fatal human, animal and plant diseases amongst the enemy' seems to have fairly old European precedents.

Slave Labor and Indenture

The discovery and occupation of the Americas created an urgent need for labor. As the indigenous people of the Americas Could not be made to undertake such labor, and as European man on his own could not manage the mines, cut the forests, or run the plantations, Europe began to capture the youths and adults of western and central Black Africa, and those who survived the battles of capturing were forced into slavery. They were then shipped to the Americas. The number of those who actually reached the shores of America, or the Atlantic islands from about 1500 to 1870 is placed, on the basis of shipping records, at around one corer (10 million) (8). Taking into account the casualties in the varied processes of capturing, in transporting from inland to the African coast, in loading into ships, and of those who perished on the ships during the long voyages, the total black African population actually involved in the whole process might have been, a at moderate estimate, around 5 corers (50 millions). It could possibly have been even as high as 10 cores (100 millions). This estimate however does not take account of the disruption in the social structure of the affected areas of Africa, of the large scale deprivation of adult males in these societies, and of the new diseases which European instruction would have introduced into Africa.

By 1770 the proportion of these enslaved persons in the total population of the British and French Caribbean was 91 percent, in North America 22 percent and in the southern United States 40 percent. In the U.S.A., as it was then, it was 19.3 percent of the total non-indigenous inhabitants in 1970, the people of European stock being around 80 percent. The proportion of the African people in the United States of America went down to 11.8 percent by 1900 (10). The original inhabitants evidently were not counted at all either in 1790 or 1900.

In addition, European men and later women too, belonging to what were termed as the lower orders, (in Britain the term was used till around 1900) were forced into a state of indenture for a number of years and shipped to the Americas. Being fellow Europeans their condition and future was less harsh and held more promise as after the period of indenture they were made free, given some land and allowed to work on their own. The annual emigration of such indentured servants from the English port of Bristol to North America was around 400 annually from 1655 to 1678, from London in 1684 it was 764, and from 1745 to 1775 the number of indentured servants who reached Annapolis in North America from Britain was 19,920. These latter included 9,360 who were termed convicts (11). The large scale indenturing of people from India in the 19th century and their being shipped to British possessions in South East Asia, South Africa, and the Atlantic islands was only a replication and extension of this earlier European practice.

The institution of slavery had existed in Europe from the days of European antiquity. Slavery in the states of ancient Greece and in pre-Christian Rome seems to have been practiced on a massive scale. In Athens of circa 432 B.C., around the time of Socrates, the number of slaves is estimated at 1,15,000 out of a total population of 3,17,000. Besides there were 38,000 Metals and their families. In Sparta the proportion of slaves is estimated to be far larger. In 371 B.C. Sparta, in the age of Plato, the number of Helots (slaves) ranged from 1,40,000 to 2,00,000 and of periodic (sort of slaves) from 40,000 to 60,000 in a total population of 1,90,000 to 2,70,000. The number of Spartiates (full citizens) was a mere 2,500 to 3,000, their families numbered from 7,000 to 9,000 and Spartiates with inferior rights numbered 1,500 to 2,000 (12).

Eastward Expansion: The Early Phase

Simultaneously with Europe's expansion in the Americas, and its interventions in Africa, Europe was also expanding eastwards into the lands of Asia. Within 10 to 12 years ‘of the discovery of the sea passage to India Europe had occupied Goa and the territory around it. The early impact of Europe in India may be gauged from the fact that by mid-sixteenth century the rulers of the great Vijayanagara had begun to rely on the Portuguese for arms, and by the early 17th century, Jahangir, the Mugharuer of the Delhi empire, was seeking English help in clearing the sea routes, of those who were termed as pirates, between western India on the one hand and the Persian Gulf and Arabia on the other. By 1550 Europe's presence was being felt in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, the Indonesian islands and other neighboring areas.

During the 17th century, Europe seems to have established its supremacy on the coasts of south and east Africa, Arabia, India and many other lands up to China. All this was done through the medium of the various East India companies which had been sponsored, or given charters by the various states of Europe, and had the protection of their naval as well as land forces.

According to a contemporary writer, the English Tied places of trust conferred upon them, both in civil and military branches' of the government of Siam (Thailand) much before 1687. One Englishman was Shawbandar or custom-master at Mirju and TanacarinV, and another Englishman was as high as 'admiral of the King’s fleeing (13). The Dutch and the Portuguese who had greater influence in South-East Asia in the 17th century might have held many more such situations in the areas where they were dominant.

While the large scale division of Africa amongst the European nations dates to the latter half of the 19th century, European penetration and domination in Black Africa goes back to the early 16th century. Staging posts were established at various points on the African coast - west, south and east - soon after the discovery of the passage to India and to South-East and East Asia. Enslavement of the Africans for transportation, firstly from about 1450 to the islands around the Mediterranean and then to the Americas, led to European penetration into the heart of Africa. The discovery of areas suitable for European colonization and of mineral wealth, initially in South Africa, made the dominance complete. For many areas this had happened by about 1700. During the latter part of the eighteenth century, Europe penetrated into Australasia, and the islands around it, a replication of what had happened in the Americas happened here also.

Till about 1700 there were no major European incursions into the mainland of India. India perhaps was too vast and too complex, a n d China even more so. So t h e attempt seems to have been aimed at encircling India first, to cut its links with other lands, and then, when the opportunity offered, to directly conquer it. While the incursions began by the early eighteenth century, the major offensive to conquer areas of India started only about 1750, initially in the Madras area, and ten years later in Bengal. From then onwards the process of conquest continued for nearly a century till about 1850. China was even vaster; and more inaccessible than India and European incursions into China consequently began later, after 1800. By 1850 Europe had gained mastery over the whole world.

Pre-British Indian Society: Political Formation

In comparison to the near total annihilation of the indigenous inhabitants of trie Americas, and later of those of Australasia, and a very violent disruption of political, social and cultural life in western and central Africa by treating its young and adult males as merchandise, the treatment of Asia by Europe looks fairly mild. The natural descendants of the people who inhabited the lands of Asia before 1498, when Europe discovered the sea passage to them, continue to inhabit these lands even 500 years later. The impact of Europe on the Asian lands however was accompanied with continual violence, and as their people physically survived the European onslaught, their social and mental disruption over time went much deeper.

The nature of the non-European societies and the distinctive impact upon them can perhaps be well illustrated by a reference to India. One of the major characteristics of India has been its emphasis ‘on communities based on shared localities as well as relations of kinship termed as jatis, in contrast to the preference for individuation in 'non-Slav Europe. The number of localities in the India of 1947 was around 7,00,000. 'Their number a thousand or two thousand years earlier might not have been very different. The number of the main jatis, sometimes with different names in differing regions of India, is not more than one hundred. One of the characteristics of a jatis is the sharing of one or more specific occupations amongst those who are bam into a jatis or those who at some earlier period would have got admitted to it. A sort of inter-relatedness or complementarily of the jatis and also of localities makes up Indian society. This not only applies to the Hindus, who even today form some 85 I percent of the Indian people. Those who have been converted to Islam and Christianity in the past 800 and 200 years respectively are organized and interlinked more or less similarly.

Given this characteristic of the jatis, India has been basically a society of consensus amongst the groups living in any particular region or locality. It was complementarily and relatedness amongst groups within localities, and more so within regions, which has shaped India's polity for the past two thousand years and more. This interrelatedness and the consensus, which grew out of it, seem to be the major elements that define the Indian concept of dharma. Indian civilization is based on this sense of dharma and a shared view of the past. It is not as if there were no tensions or differences between locality and locality, region and adjoining regions, or between the various interpretations of dharma. The Indian mind, however, seems to have been mounded by a common basic approach to life and phenomena, and this has ordinarily overridden the local tensions and differences.

Given such characteristics India has been a slow moving society and as a society not easily disturbed by events. Consensus, equivalence and balance have been more important to India than the most alluring images of a new future. It is not as if no -movement or change occurs at all. But the change or rather the movement socially acceptable in India has been such that it does not destroy the consensus and the balance. Hence the role of the polity in India was not that of a guide, or that of a superman as preferred by Plato, or of a controller but merely of performing the task of an administrator functioning in accordance with the customs and preferences of the locality or the region. This naturally led to a civilization confederal polity in which - while its parts shared common basic ideas and features, one with the other, yet the linkages amongst them were considered loose the flexible. The ancient concept of Chakravartin seems to have been evolved to serve as a symbol of the confederal nature of India as well as of its shared civilization expressions. The symbol of the Chakravartin also probably provided a sense of strength and invincibility to this confederal polity.

Such-a polity seems to have served India well for a long time. Despite European theories about the non-Indian origin of the people of India, it is perhaps correct to say that India, the ancient region of Bharatavarsha, has been one of the least conquered areas on earth. It is not as if the people inhabiting it are necessarily of one ethnic stock. Some immigrants did enter India, largely through India's western land borders, from time to time. But till about the end of the 12th century A.D. India was ruled by its own people and polities. Even the Islamic conquests and domination of part of India from the 13th century onwards to the early 18th century, while creating occasional havoc and political and economic disruption in the conquered regions, did not in any basic way disturb the tenor of Indian society and its arrangements. The Islamic intervention however did make, as time passed, much of Indian society weaker and fearful, and uncertain of its own inner strength. Such weakness and sense of uncertainty also possibly has roots in some of India's ancient concepts.

The sense of courage in India however was not wholly lost even till the early 19th century. During the period of early British dominance there was widespread resistance to what by Indian norms was considered unrighteousness. The major resistance was in the form of persuading the unrighteous, or the wrongdoer, of the unrighteousness of his conduct and makes him return to the shared norm. The techniques adopted in current idiom were of non-cooperation, boycott, civil-disobedience, and what Mahatma Gandhi implied by the term Satyagraha: Such resistance was expressed by the peasantry, the artisan classes, as well as by those who lived in towns and cities. A major instance of it was in 1810-11 in the ancient city of Varanasi, and in several other towns of the present Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where a tax on houses had been imposed by the British. Contemporary evidence suggests that various inhabitants of the Varanasi region, including the peasantry and the artisans, especially the, metal workers and other technologists, were party to, this unarmed resistance. Some 20,000 persons were reported to have sat on dharma in Varanasi for many days, and around 2,00,000 persons were reported to have gathered in the grounds adjoining the city. Even those who assisted in the cremation of the dead had struck work and the dead were placed in the flowing Ganga without cremation rites (14). Innumerable cases of such resistance are recorded during the early years of British A mode of compelling compliance with a righteous demand flowing from shared norms, by sitting at the door of the person perceived to have violated the norm, and there remaining without tasting food till the demand shall be complied with rule and these occurred practically in all regions of India, There was major resistance against the British enhancement of the tax on salt in the city of Surat even as late as 1843(15).

Early British and other European observations of 17th and 18th century India seem to suggest that till then it were not the people who were in awe of their rulers but instead it were the rulers who stood in awe of the people under their rule (16). If the ruler was considered unrighteous or unjust, the norm was to replace him. Such a norm also implied an inbuilt courtesy between the ruler and the ruled, and when one visited the other it was customary that each gave some gift to the other. The one who came to visit came with some gift, often nominal, and on departure was offered a gift, often a substantial one, from the host. Even persons appearing before judicial authority seems to have expected and received pan-super (betel and betel nut) at the time of their departure (17).

Pre-British Indian Society: Material Culture

Coming to India's material culture , its manifestations a r e v e r y visibly commemorated in India's still standing great temples, some of which go back at least to the 6th century A.D. in the innumerable inscriptions India still possesses, like the early 10th century A.D. inscription at Uttiramerur near Madras relating to the organization of the area's polity in India's ancient small, medium and large water works; and in the large number of ancient iron pillars, like the well known iron pillar at Delhi. Though most of the hitherto published material, both Indian and western, does not make much reference to it/such a material culture was still very manifest in most regions and localities of India around A.D. 1800. It is possible that it had declined in its excellence and sweep relative to the heights it had reached before the 12th century A.D. But even if it had lost its heights, it was still very extensive on the ground till about'1800.

India seems to have been divided from long back into some 400 smaller regions, now called districts, and into some 15-20 main linguistic and cultural regions. Most regions and districts of India continued to have spinning, dyeing, weaving and printing of cotton cloth and of some silk and wool too, on a vast scale. Cloth was manufactured in practically all the 400 districts. Many districts of south India had 10,000 to 20,000 looms in each district even around 1810 (18). Similarly it seems that at a moderate estimate India had some 10,000 furnaces for the manufacture of iron and steel. Indian steel was considered of very high quality and in the early decades of the 19th century it was being used by the British for the making of surgical instruments. Each of these small portable furnaces had the capacity to produce about 20 tons of good iron in 40 weeks of operation in a year.

There were large numbers of silversmiths and goldsmiths, bronze and brass workers and people who worked in various other metals. Similarly there were those who did the mining of the ores, the-manufacture of various metals, and engaged in stone-quarrying. There were carvers of stones, painters, builders, and many others. Besides, there were manufacturers of sugar, of salt, of oil (perhaps up to 1 percent of the people), and manufacturers of many other commodities. Crafts and industry seem to have employed some 15 to 25 percent of the Indian people, the proportion varying from region to region, before and around 1800. In addition there was part time spinning of cotton yarn. Eight hours of weaving on a loom would have ordinarily needed about 25 hours of spinning on the spinning wheel. As the number of weaver households was around 5 percent of the total households, it seems that most households of India would have engaged in some spinning throughout the year. Regarding the health of human beings, as also of domestic animals, Indians had a well established ancient system of medicine and surgery. Basic plastic surgery, and surgical operation of cataract etc., was being performed in various parts of India till around 1800. Incidentally, modern plastic surgery in Britain is stated by its inventor to have been derived from and developed after the observation and study of the Indian practice from 1790 onwards. The widespread Indian practice of inoculation against smallpox was also observed and described in detail by British visitors or residents in India around mid-18th century for the benefit of British medical men. It may be added that practically all detailed descriptions of each and every Indian practice communicated by British observers and specialists to Britain was with a view to the improvement of such practice in Britain, or suggesting that the adoption of a specific practice would be beneficial. A detailed communication to the British Royal Society by a British commander-in-chief in Bengal, around 1770, was of the latter type. It related to the process of the artificial manufacture of ice in the relatively warm climate of the Allahabad region. The instances of the former are many. Some seed drills were sent from south India to the Board of Agriculture in London around 1795 so as to help improve the newly introduced British seed drill. Details of the process and ingredients of Indian mortar and dyes, and of the manufacture of steel communicated to Britain seem to have aimed at improvement in the then existing British practices (19). When Britain started the education of its ordinary children around 1800 it had to initially depend on the monitorial method of imparting school education as it was practiced in India and noticed by Europeans during the 17th and 18th centuries (20). The major occupation of the Indian people was agriculture, and along with it animal husbandry. However, in most regions no more than half of India's people were engaged in agriculture directly. As mentioned above, the tools of agriculture were of high sophistication. But so also seem to have, been the various agricultural practices, including the selection of the seeds used, their preservation, the maturing of land, the cropping patterns and the methods of irrigation. Through their sophisticated practices and implements the peasants of India were able to obtain rather high yields. According to a 1803 British review comparing agricultural production in the Allahabad-Varanasi region with that of lands in Britain, it was found that the Indian production of wheat was about 2-1/2 to J times that in Britain. Recent ongoing research pertaining to the district of Chengalpattu in Tamilnadu seems to suggest that the average production of paddy in this district around 1770 was around 3-4 tons per hectare, and the best lands in the district produced six tons and more per hectare. It may be mentioned that the high yields of paddy production in the world today are around six tons per hectare.

A certain balance and equivalence may also be deduced from the consumption pattern around 1800 A.D. A detailed description of it is available from the 1806 districts of Bellary and Cuddapah. The whole population was divided into three classes the high, the families of medium means and those of low means. In the Bellary district the population in the high category totaled 2,59,568 of the medium means 3,72,887 and of those of low means 2,18,684. Their annual consumption expenditure per family in money value was in the proportion of 69:37:30. Every facility consumed the same amount of food-grains, but of differing quality and variety according to the class. The consumption list included 24 items. The consumption of ghee and oil was in the proportion of 3:1:1 approximately, and of pulses in the proportion of 8:4:3 (21).

The Chengalpattu District Data

The society and political economy of mid-18th century India is perhaps well represented and illustrated by the information recorded in a detailed survey of the district of Chengalpattu, in Tamil Nadu, during 1767-1774 (22). While very detailed, the survey was the first of its kind, and was done by the British, who till then were not too familiar with the intricacies of Indian society, and its production methods and industrial infrastructure. The data from this survey may therefore be treated as an approximation the ground reality, and it is possible that it missed certain things which existed on the ground, or understated many others. An obvious understatement, for instance, pertains to the number of salt-manufacturers, which are given as 39, while the district of Chengalpattu had a coast-line of over 100 kilometers, and salt-pans covering an area of over 2,000 hectares. It is possible that in this case the survey recorded only those who were engaged in the supervision of salt-manufacture and not the number of actual manufacturers. The following tables taken from this data may be helpful in comprehending the circa 1770 society of Chengalpattu, and thus the society of India as it was till the latter part of the 18th century.

I. Total Land Area:

(For 1910 localities, in kani; one kani is a little more than 0.50 hectares)

Total Land	7,79,132
Under hills and rivers	36,099
Waste	84,973
Salt-pans	4,190
Irrigation sources (lakes, tanks, etc.)	1,00,806
Wood	1,30,790
Tope (groves/plantations)	14,055
Habitat	24,088
Uncultivated irrigated land	58,667
Uncultivated unirrigated land	50,622
Cultivated irrigated	1,82,172
Cultivated unirrigated	88,069

Out of the total cultivated land a substantial proportion was known as manyam, (in Bengal as chakeran, and bazee zameen), that is the cultivated land the land-tax of which had been assigned, usually in perpetuity, to the sustenance and support of various administrative, economic, cultural and religious functions, institutions and persons. The amount of such cultivated manyams in 1770 Chengalpattu was 44,057 tarns of irrigated and 22,684 tarn's of unirrigated lands. In many-other areas, both in north and south India, about half of the cultivated land had, in the course of time, but perhaps most of it by the 10-12th century A.D. been assigned as manyams. The number of institutions and persons having such rights in any district ran into tens of thousands, and in one district in Bengal, there were over 70,000 claimants of such assignments around 1770 A.D.

II. Total Number of Cattle, Goats and Sheep (for 1544 localities):

Cows	94,685
Buffaloes	5,417
Goats	14,931
Sheep	14,970
Bullocks	59,550

The period from 1748 to 1770 is a period of war, plunder and butchering of men as well as cattle in large parts of South India, and much more in areas around Madras. It is therefore possible that the number of cattle recorded in this survey was much less at the time of enumeration than what it might have been twenty years earlier.

III. Total Number of Households (for 1544 localities)

Total Households			62,529
Peasantry and Cattle-keeping			33,963
	Vellalas	7,411
	Pollys	9,693
	Pariars	11,052
	Reddys	1,417
	Kammawars	1,005
	Cow-keepers	2,573
	Shanars	812
	Crafts and Industry
	Weavers	4,011
		85
	Cotton-Refiners	536
	Carpenters	394
	Ironsmiths	45
		209
	Artificers	637
	Braziers and Gold and Silver Smiths	389
	Vegetable oil manufacturers
	Pot-makers
	Wood-cutters	596
	Salt manufacturers	39
	Fishermen	590
	Shoemakers	78
	Stone-cutters	89
	Others (approx.)	500
Merchants, Traders and Banking			4,312
	Chettis	2,051
	Other Traders	1,839
	Shroffs (Banking)	422
Essential Services			1,685
	Barbers	664
	Washermen	862
	Medicalmen	159
Scholarship, higher learning ritual performances, and culture			8,684
	Brahmins	6,646
	Pandarams	1,054
	Devadasis	622
	Valluvans	137
	Wochuns	173
	Musicians	27
	Kootadi (stage performers)	25
Administration and Police			2,681
	Kanakkappillai(Registry/Record-keeping/Accountancy)	1,660
	Panisevans	314
	Taliars	707
	Militia System	1,479
	Muslims	733
	Moormen	671
	Fakirs	62
	Remaining Other Households	748

IV. Allocation of Produce Besides the assignments of the tax from manyam lands (or from the Chakeran and Bazee zameen in north India) to various institutions and persons, many of the same institutions and persons, and many others, also received a share of the gross agricultural produce, and quite possibly similar shares from the incomes of those engaged in non-agricultural activities, like commerce, finance and industry. It seems that a quarter of the total gross agricultural production was so allocated, and these allocations, starting from the allocation to the main local temple or shrine, were the first charge on the production. In Chengalpattu these allocations were around 27 percent of the total gross agriculture production of the district. The following table indicates the major allocations worked out on the basis of production data of 1458 localities in kalams, for a variety of institutions and persons. One kalam is roughly equal to 125 kilograms.

Total Agricultural Produce			14,79,646
Total Allocations			3,94,950
For Institutions and Occupations within each locality			2,64,824
	Local Kovils (temples, shrines)	13,882
	Pandarams/ Devadasis /Astrologers	18,503
	Cultivator/servants	87,504
(possibly majority of them were from amongst the Pariars)
	Irrigation Fund	19,806
	Artificers (Carpenters/Irorisrhiths)	19,470
	Potters	2,749
	Barbers	6,169
	Washer men	6,058
	Corn measurers	11,561
	Shroffs	9,332
	Kanakkappilhis	31,624
	Panisevans	3,110
	Tottys	1371
	Chief Inhabitants	31,197
	Various Others	2,488
For outside Institutions and Persons			130,126
	Great Kovib/Mathams (places of higher learning)
	Scholars	25321
	Administration	53,572
	Palayakkarans (Militia)	45,936
	Fakirs/Mosques/Dargahs	2,518
Various Others			2,779

Degradation of Physical Resources

Along with the degradation of the dignity- of the. Indian people and the disorganization of their agriculture, education, industry, and technology, etc., there also took place an extensive destruction of the physical resources, and degradation of the natural environment. To an extent the degradation of the forests and the water sources in large parts of India was the result of deprivation of resources from and of attention to them following the establishment of an alien order. But it is also known that British-Indian forest policy, as European policy elsewhere, saw forests of India as reservoirs of accumulated wealth which needed to be mined and transport orated to Europe. As early as 1750 to 1800 timber syndicates by private Europeans were formed in many parts of India," especially in Malabar, whose forests were said to be inexhaustible. From around 1805 London started insisting on direct government control of all forests. When parts of Burma were annexed by the British in 1826, after the defeat of Burma in the first Anglo-Burmese war, the forests there were declared to be government property straight away. And, from the port of Moulmein alone one million ton of teak was exported during 1840 to 1848 (23). From the 1850's the development of railways and other industrial needs of Britain put far larger demands on Indian forests. Thus arose the forest policy and the forest legislations which in a period of 25 years between 1855 to 1880 made the entire forest wealth of India into British state property.

But this exploitation of forests as reservoirs of accumulated wealth and their consequent destruction was perhaps not peculiar to British policy in India, and the policy the British introduced in India was merely a replication of what was being done in Europe and the Americas, but perhaps executed much more ruthlessly in India. Europe looked upon nature as merely a material resource provided by the creator for human exploitation. This assumption led to intense destruction of forests in Europe. But the end of the 17th century only 14.2% England was wooded, and by 1823 this proportion had come down to 4.3%. In France around 1800 only l/12th of the land was under wood.

By the early 1840s decay was spreading in the political economy of India at a much faster pace. Around the same time information had reached London from North America that the wholesale destruction of forests there had an adverse effect on rainfall. This made London anxious and the British governments in Bengal, Bombay and Madras were asked to make proper enquiries about the matter. The matter was enquired into in the Madras Presidency and most of the British officers in the districts agreed with the widely held Indian opinion that more rain falls in mountains and forests than in the areas bereft of forests. In 1849 the Madras Board of Revenue and the government of Madras however came to somewhat different conclusions. Their conclusions were:

That extensive tracts of ground covered with trees in the level countries of India have not the power of producing rain.
That while their effect on the climate and productiveness of the country is problematical all large tracts of jungle in tropical climates are known to produce most fatal malaria and fever.
That if the country was planted to such an extent as might be supposed likely to be productive of rain, the result in a sanitary point of view might be more pernicious on the climate of India in which there are already so many noxious effluvia' (24).

With such rationality as the environmental principle, deforestation gained a new legitimacy.

The wars waged by the British, French, and earlier by the Portuguese in different parts of India led to frequent widespread plunder and chaos. During 1750-1800 many of India's rulers saved their people and territories by offering such amounts of money to the British and the French which the invaders claimed they would have had from the plunder of the particular territory. Others who got subordinated to the conquerors, but not yet formally dispossessed of their territories, were made to pay for the conqueror's armed forces, and further were expected to keep the commanders, other officers and influential British and French persons in good humor. As and when such rulers had no cash resources left they were made to borrow cash from the commanders and other men who had amassed large wealth or wielded political power for defraying such imposed expenses. The borrowed sum was repaid with interest of around 50 percent per annum. For repayment of these sums such subordinated rulers had either to greatly enhance the rates of taxes, especially the tax on land, in their territory, or made to surrender particular areas to the respective lenders, so that the latter could extract the maximum from the area towards the amount which he claimed was owed to him.

Backed by the organizational skills of Europe, and helped by the breakdown of the morale and institutions of the conquered, the society of India tumbled down in time in most parts of India. Most of the sources which had maintained the institutional structures of India through manyams, large allocations from the gross agricultural produce, and in other ways were in time taken over by the conquerors. The principle was that only that much must be left with the producer which would allow mere subsistence and that the complex Indian infrastructure must get disbanded. It was decided that not more than five percent of the cultivated land should be treated as manyam, and no more than five percent of the gross produce should be left with communities to be disposed of as allocations to institutions and persons. As institutions appeared to be a greater threat to British dominance, these were treated far more harshly and attempts were made either to dismantle them through neglect and coercion, or to convert them into personal estates. Such a message from the highest British authority of India got conveyed even to the new Maharaja of Mysore, soon after the restoration of the ancient Mysore kingship in 1799. Such approach was further accompanied with the enhancement in the rates of tax on land, and taxes on trades, occupations, and commodities. During the initial 100 years of British rule in most parts of India, the tax on land was enhanced to 50 percent of the gross agricultural produce. Till then those who had received the tax from manyam l a n d s (or chakeram a n d bazee zameen) had been receiving no more t h a n 12 to 16 percent of the gross produce as their share. Matters however did not stop at the fixing of 50 percent as tax on the gross agricultural produce. The decay of the political economy produced a long depression and the tax on some of the most fertile lands in time was much more than the value of their agricultural produce. Similar changes happened in industry and trade. In the meanwhile as the resources for maintenance were terminated or greatly reduced public works, temples, mathams, chatrams, well, tanks, in fact the whole irrigation system of India, collapsed by about 1840. Only when such a collapse began to substantially affect the receipts of the land tax, some repairs were started, largely through forced local labor, and some new irrigation works also began to be constructed. At this stage it was decided to reduce the land tax from the theoretical 50 percent to 33 percent of the total gross produce. Such a step began to be implemented in most regions of India only sometime after 1860 A.D.

Indian Responses: Gandhi and Nehru

With the collapse of the political economy and the social infrastructure, learning, sophistication, frequent public celebrations and festivals also went under. Literacy also declined. Even in the relatively decayed 1820s the number of school-age boys going to school in southern India was at least 25 percent and many more were educated in their homes. This proportion was no more than one-eighth sixty years later in the 1880s. Scholarship and higher learning decayed even more. The process of alienation which by stages began to take hold of the literati of India, from about 1820, well nigh eliminated most such scholarship and learning by about 1890 or 1900. By then it seemed that the soul of India had been fully entrapped. Such a situation of physical emaciation and economic deprivation on the one hand, and the breakdown of institutions and the alienation of the literati and the relatively prosperous on the other, led to a major split in Indian society. Prolonged subjugation produced a deep sense of inferiority amongst the conquered. Its consequence was the romanticisation of certain aspects of their own past and a misreading of what made Europe dominate them and their neighbors.

Initially the romanticisation of the past was a sheer necessity for the survival of Indian civilization and the concepts which most Indians still held to. Further, amongst the ordinary people economic and cultural depression led to widespread mental confusion and rigidities, whilst amongst the literati and the prosperous it led to the acquiring of such images of themselves and their civilization as European scholarship on India endowed to them. It is possible that given a historically widespread literate intelligentsia such an impact has been much more pronounced in India than elsewhere in the non European world. However amongst the well known persons in the l9-20th century public life of India one person, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, seems to have remained unaffected by such an impact. In contrast the post-1947 India's first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, seems to represent this impact at its highest. The following is an illustration of the contrast.

From 1930 to 1947 Indian nationalists observed January 26 as the day dedicated to the achievement of complete freedom of India. Since 1950 this day has been observed as the Republic Day. During the pre-Independence period a long pledge was taken on this day by all those who observed it. The pledge said that. The British Government in India has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally and spiritually'. Further it added,' we hold it to be a crime against man and God to submit any-longer to a rule that has caused this fourfold disaster to our country'. Regarding India's cultural ruination it stated that, ' the system of education (established by the British) has torn us from our moorings and our training has made us hug the very chains that bind us'. Like most other resolutions of the Indian freedom movement this pledge also had been drafted by Mahatma Gandhi (25). Earlier, in January 1928, Mahatma Gandhi had also suggested that India's freedom would lead to the freedom of the other colonized and enslaved people of the world and had stated that, India's coming to her own will mean every nation doing likewise' (26). As we all know, most other subjugated areas of the world in South-East Asia, Africa, etc., also in one way or another had regained their political freedom within fifteen years of the withdrawal of British power from India.

Though most Indians subscribed to the statement that British rule had ruined India culturally and spiritually as well, many disagreed with it and continued to disagree with it even more so after India had achieved its freedom in. 1947. Amongst these latter was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. While publicly he did not wish to challenge such a categorical statement, privately he expressed a strong dissent from such an approach as early as January 1928. In a letter to Mahatma Gandhi he wrote,' you have stated it somewhere that India has nothing to lean from the West and that she had reached a pinnacle of wisdom in the past. I certainly disagree with this viewpoint. I think that western or rather industrial civilization is bound to conquer India, may be with many changes and adaptations, but none the less, in the main, based on industrialism. You have criticized strongly the many obvious defects of industrialism and hardly paid any attention to its merits. Everybody knows these defects and the Utopias and social theories are meant to remove them. It is the opinion of most thinkers in the West that these defects are not due to industrialism as such but to the capitalist system which is based on exploitation of others. I believe you have stated that in your opinion there is no necessary conflict between capital and labor. I think that under the capitalist system this conflict is unavoidable' (27). A similar view on western modernism was expressed by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in reply to a letter of Mahatma Gandhi on the same theme some fifteen years later (28). In his reply, Jawaharlal Nehru had also remarked, 1 do not understand why a village should necessarily embody truth and non-violence. A village, normally speaking, is backward intellectually and culturally and no progress can be made from a backward environment. Narrow-minded people are much more likely to be untruthful and violent (29).

On the Nature of Western Knowledge and Theorization

All modern western knowledge and theorization about phenomena may be assumed to be derived from the same roots. This could be said not only about the disciplines included in the humanities and the social sciences, but also those included in the physical sciences. Of these anthropology or ethnography is the science which is exclusively concerned with the non-European conquered people. It is anthropology, and its allied disciplines, which grade non-European man and make him into a mere object. Professor Claude Levi-Strauss explains the nature of anthropology in the following words: 'Anthropology is not a dispassionate science like astronomy, which springs from the contemplation of things at a distance. It is the outcome of a historical process which has made the larger part of mankind subservient to the other, and during which millions of innocent human beings have had their resources plundered and their institutions and beliefs destroyed, whilst they themselves were ruthlessly killed, thrown into bondage, and contaminated by diseases they were unable to resist. Anthropology is daughter to this era of violence: its capacity to assess more objectively the facts pertaining to the human condition reflects, on the epistemological level a state of affairs in which one part of mankind treated the other as an object. A situation of this kind cannot be soon forgotten, much less erased. It is not because of its mental endowments that only the Western world has given birth to Anthropology, but rather because exotic cultures, treated by us as mere things, could be studied accordingly as things. We did not feel concerned by them whereas we cannot help their feeling concerned by us. Between our attitude toward them and their attitude toward us, there is and can be no parity' (30).

What Professor Claude Levi Strauss said was not wholly new about the science of anthropology or ethnography. Some eighty years earlier Sir Edward Burnett Tyler, acclaimed by some as father of anthropology, had in fact defined the role of anthropology as that of destruction of the old cultures. Concluding his Primitive Culture he had said, 'It is a harsher, and at times even painful, office of ethnography to expose the remains of crude old cultures which have passed into harmful superstition, and to mark these out for destruction. Yet this work, if less genial, is not less urgently needful for the good of mankind' (31).

The above definitions of anthropology and thus of European approach to matter and men naturally had an impact on the alienated in the non-European world.

Towards a Return to Sanity

The non-European societies which came under the dominance of Europe seem to have shared a marked characteristic. All these societies may be said to have maintained a balance with the Gods or spirits they prayed to, as well as with the flora and fauna and human groups and individuals which constituted them. This seems to be as much true of the pre-1492 societies of the Americas, as of the societies of Africa, South East Asia, or India. In the case of India this characteristic is perhaps even more pronounced given the complex nature and vastness of India and the variety of climate and landscape India had. Such balance is any of these societies need not have been a static phenomenon. It could have had, especially in the case of India, a flowing and dynamic quality of its own. It is not only the accounts of Indian society at different times which seem to suggest it but also India's vast literature and India's concepts of kala and chitta. Over a long, period a society like that of India seemed to have moved from one balanced state to another balanced state but much more slowly. In contrast Europeans societies from early times till the present seem to have lacked such balance and appear to have within them as in-built tension and a pronounced hierarchical structure. In addition the aim of European civilization seems to be to emphasize the partial at the cost of totality, with the result that European society seldom seems to acquire balance at any particular point of time. If so this possibly could explain the aggression and the killer instinct of Europe.

It is possible that the world is now emerging perhaps haltingly with a newer vision and with greater feeling about the world-wide fraternity of human beings and has begun to realize the autonomy as well as unity of all creation. If so, such vision has to become more manifest and compelling. It will also require a sense of introspection in individuals, societies and states in the world of Europe as well as in the world of the non-European. Introspection and self-reflection may also help achieve the necessary state of repentance for the havoc of the past five centuries as well as lead to appropriate steps in putting an end to and setting right the accumulated damage.

Finally, while the worldwide havoc was started and fuelled by the skills of Europe, the non-European world by aping Europe made its own situation much worse. Till the European impact the non-European man believing in the autonomy of all reation, and thus not treating himself, as the master or controller of others had developed a relation of co-existence with the other constituents of creation. This attitude possibly did get converted at some stage into a state of indifference. The aping of Europe however made him into a mindless plunderer and torturer. The
return to sanity therefore requires not only the introspection and repentance of Europe, but also of the non-European world.

References

In, David B. Quinn, New American World: A documentary history of North America to 1612, five volumes, 1979.
Sir John Davies, A discovery of the true causes, why Ireland was never entirely subdued, and brought under obedience of the crowned of England, until the beginning of His Majesty's happy reign, 1630, (Reprint 1860).
H. F. Dobyns, Estimating aboriginal American population, Current Anthropology, VoL7, No.4, October 1966, pp. 395-449.
Bernard W-Sheehan. Seeds of extinction: Jeffersonian philanthropy and the American Indian, 1973, pp.227-228.
H. C. Porter, The inconstant savage: England and the North American Indian 1500-1660, 1979, p.428.
Denton's New York: A brief description of New York, formerly called New Netherlands, 1670 (Reprint 1902), p.45.
J.C.. Long, Lord Jeffery Amherst: A soldier of the King, 1933, pp.186-187.
Amongst others, R-W. Fogel and S.L.Engerman, Time on the Cross, The economics of American Negro slavery, 1989, pp.21-22. Fogel and Engerman's figures of 95lakhs relate only to the import of slaves in the Americas.
Wd, p.l4.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, 1911, Vol.27, p.636.
Abbot Emerson Smith, Colonists in bondage: White servitude and convict labor in America, 1617-1776,1947, pp.308-325.
Victor Ehrenberg, The Greek State, 1969 (1974), p.31.
Quoted in D. G. E. Hall, Early English intercourse with Burma, 1928, p.250.
There is vast archival material on such resistance and protest during the latter part of the 18th and in the 19th centuries, in the various British created archives in India and also amongst private papers relating to India in Britain. The details of the 1810-1811 resistance against the imposition of the house tax are given in Dharampal, Civil disobedience and Indian tradition, Sarva Seva Sangh Prakashan, Varanasi, 1971.
The details of the 1843 Surat resistance against the enhancement of the tax on salt are given in the Bombay Presidency Records of that year.
There is much British material on the pre-British ruler-ruled relationships in the records of the Political Departments of the Governments during the late 18th and 19th centuries. Such material is also to be found amongst published British state papers on India pertaining to this period. One such particular statement is by the historian James Mill in his evidence to a select Committee of the British House of Commons.
There is a large amount of material on the relationship between the ruled and the rulers and on gift giving and receiving in the archival material relating to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Much of it is also to be found in the records pertaining to the Madras Presidency.
The Madras Presidency archival records pertaining to the collection of the Moturpha and Veesabuddy taxes include district-wise details of the number of people employed in non-agricultural professions and trades. It also includes the data on looms in various districts. Similar data is also available in the records relating to various other areas of India in the archival records and the early census reports for 1871, 1881, 1891.
The late 18th and early 19th century archives on India as well as European private papers contain much material on the circa 1800 Science and Technology of India. Some of this information is also included in Dharampal, Indian Science and Technology in the 18th Century: Some contemporary European accounts, Biblia Impex, New Delhi, 1971, and Dharampal, Indigenous Indian technological talent and the need for its mobilization (text of a talk delivered in Calcutta in 1986), published in the PPST Bulletin, No.9, December 1986, pp.5-20.
Some data on the extent and methodology of indigenous Indian education around 1800 is given in Dharampal, The Beautiful Tree Indigenous Indian Education in the 18th Century, Biblia Impex, New Delhi, 1983.
Tamil Nadu State Archives (TNSA), Madras Board of Revenue Proceedings (BRP), Volume 2025, proceedings 8/6/1846, p.7457, for consumption data for Cuddapah District Volume 2030, proceedings 13/7/1846, pp.9031-9247, for consumption data for Bellary District.
The information in this section, and the information on agricultural yields given above, is based on material written in English pertaining to a survey of around 2,200 localities in the District of Chengalpattu during the period 1767-1774. This material is held in the Tamil Nadu State Archives in Madras. Many more details relating to a number of these localities are still available on palm leaf manuscripts now kept at the Tamil University at Tanjore in Tamil Nadu. A detailed analysis of this data is presently being carried on under the auspices of the PPST Foundation and the Centre for Policy Studies, Madras.
E. P. Stebbing, the Forests of India, Volume 1, 1922.
TNSA BRP, Volume 2212, proceeding 1/10/1849, pp.14224-14260, especially para 54.
Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG), Volume 42, pp.384-385,10th January 1930.
CWMG, Volume 35, p.457,12/1/1928.
CWMG, Volume 25, p.544, J. Nehru to Mahatma Gandhi, 11 /l /1928.
CWMG, Volume 81, p.319-321,5/10/1945, Mahatma Gandhi to J. Nehru.
J. Nehru, Selected Works, Volume 14, pp.554-557, J.Nehru to Mahatma Gandhi, October 4, 1945.
Remarks of Prof. CIaude Levi Strauss at the bicentennial celebrations of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA, November 17, 1965, published in Current Anthropology, Volume 7, No.2, April 1966, p.126.
Quoted in S. J. Tambiah, Magic, Science, Religion and the Scope of Rationality, 1990, p.44.

Author: Dharampal

Acknowledgement: The origin of this paper is in a short note which I had prepared on the subject in 1988.

Note: The note was seen by several friends including Dr.Claude Alvares and Sri Sundarial Bahuguna. The preparation of: the present paper has greatly been helped by the discussions I have had with Dr.M.D.Srinivas, Dr.J.KBajaj and Sri T.M.Mukundan. I am grateful to them all for their advice, help and interest.

ON THE FUTURE OF THE EARTH: AN AMERICAN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

2011-10-24T21:36:00.001-07:00

In a speech given in South Dakota during the summer of 1979, Russell Means, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, spoke to several thousand people who had assembled from all over the world for the Black Hills International Survival Gathering. Held for ten days in July on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the gathering was a protest against the rape of American Indian lands throughout the West. Means' speech has been fiercely praised, condemned and talked about since it was given. It is a searing cry of protest against the desecration of American Indian lands and an affirmation of the native cultures whose survival is threatened. It was also a strong attack on the leftists of the world, who, he says, are just as complicit in all this destruction as the capitalists. Certain statements that he has made about the theory and practice of Marxism may not be very relevant any more in view of the momentous changes that have taken place in the (erstwhile) Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. However, his description of the American Indian perspective on Human Beings and their relationship to the Earth is vivid and moving. We feel that this would be of great interest to our readers in view of the striking similarity of this view, with the Traditional Indian viewpoint.

A member of the Ogallala Lakota tribe, Russell Means has for long been a major figure in the American Indian Movement. He has been shot, injured and jailed during the state of near war that has long existed between militant American Indians on the one side and government forces on the other.

The only possible opening for a statement of this kind is that I detest writing. The process itself epitomizes the European concept of legitimate' thinking; what is written has an importance that is denied to the spoken. My culture, the Lakota culture, has an oral tradition, so I ordinarily reject writing. It is one of the white world's ways of destroying the cultures' of non-European peoples, the imposing of an abstraction over the spoken relationship of a people. So what you read here is not what I've written. It's what I've said and someone else has written down. I will allow this because it seems that the only way to communicate with the white world is through the dead, dry leaves of a book. I don't really care whether my words reach whites or not. They have already demonstrated through their history that they cannot hear cannot see they can only read (of course, there are exceptions, but the exceptions only prove the rule). I'm more concerned with American Indian people, students and others, who have begun to be absorbed into the white world through universities and other institutions. But even then it's a marginal sort of concern. If s very possible to grow into a red face with a white mind; and if thefts a person's individual choice, so be it, but I have no use for them. This is part of the process of cultural genocide being waged by Europeans against American Indian peoples today. My concern is with those American Indians who choose to resist this genocide, but who may be confused as to how to proceed.

It takes a strong effort on the part of each American Indian not to become Europeanized. The strength for this effort can only come from traditional ways, the traditional values that our elders retain. It must come from the hoop, the four directions, the relations; it cannot come from the pages of a book or a thousand books. No European can ever teach a Lakota to be Lakota, a Hopi to be Hopi. A master's degree in Indian Studies' or in 'Education' or in anything else cannot make a person into a human being or provide knowledge into the traditional ways. It can only make you into a mental European, an outsider.

I should be clear about something here, because there seems to be some confusion about it. When I speak of European or mental Europeans, I'm not allowing for false distinctions. I'm not saying that on the one hand there are the by-products of a few thousand years of genocidal, reactionary, European intellectual development which is bad; and on the other hand there is some new revolutionary intellectual development which is good. I'm referring here to the so-called theories of Marxism and anarchism and leftism' in general. I don't believe these theories can be separated from the rest of the European intellectual tradition. It's really just the same old song.

The process began much earlier, Newton, for example, 'revolutionized' physics and the so-called I natural sciences by reducing the physical universe to a linear mathematical equation. Descartes did the same thing with culture. John Locke did it with politics, and Adam Smith did it with economics. Each one of these 'thinkers' took a piece of the spirituality of human existence and converted it into a code, an abstraction. They picked up where Christianity ended; they 'secularized' Christian religion, as the 'scholars' like to say - and in doing so they made Europe more able and ready to act as an expansionist culture. Each of these intellectual revolutions served to abstract the European mentality even further, to remove the wonderful complexity and spirituality from the universe and replace it with a logical sequence one, two, and three - Answer This is what has come to be termed 'efficiency' in the European mind. Whatever is mechanical is perfect; whatever seems to work at the moment - that is, proves the mechanical model to be the right one - is considered correct, even when it is clearly untrue. This is why 'truth' changes so fast in the European mind; the answers which result from such a process are only stop-gaps only temporary, and must be continuously discarded in favor of new stop-gaps which support the mechanical models and keep them (the models) alive.

Hegel and Marx were heirs to the thinking of Newton, Descartes, Locke and Smith. Hegel finished the process of secularizing theology - and that is put in his own terms - he secularized the religious thinking through which Europe understood the universe. Then Marx put Hegel's philosophy in terms of 'materialism', which is to say that Marx despiritualised Hegel's work altogether. Again, this is in Marx' own terms. And this is now seen as the future revolutionary potential of Europe. Europeans may see this as revolutionary, but American Indians see it simply as still more of that same old European conflict between being and gaining. The intellectual roots of new Marxist form of European imperialism lie in Marx' - and his followers' -links to the tradition of Newton, Hegel and the others.

Being is a spiritual proposition. Gaining is a material act Traditionally American Indians have always attempted to be the best people they could. Part of that spiritual process was and is to give away wealth, to discard wealth in order not to gain. Material gain is an indicator of false status among traditional people, while it is 'proof that the system works' to Europeans. Clearly, there are two completely opposing views at issue here, and Marxism is very far over to the other side from the American Indian view. But lefts look at major implication of this; it is not merely an intellectual debate.

The European materialist tradition of despiritualising the universe is very similar to the mental process which goes into dehumanizing another person. And who seems most experts at dehumanizing other people? And why? Soldiers who have seen a lot of combat learn to do this to the enemy before going back into combat. Murderers do it before going out to commit murder. Nazi SS guards did it to the workers they send into uranium mines and steel mills. Politicians do it to everyone in sight. And what the process has in common for each group doing the dehumanizing is that it makes it all right to kill and otherwise destroy other people. One of the Christian commandments says, Thou shall not kill', at least not humans, so the trick is to mentally convert the victims into non-humans. Then you can proclaim violation of your own commandment a virtue.

In terms of the despiritualisation of the universe, the mental process works so that it becomes virtuous to destroy the planet. Terms like progress and development are used as cover words here, the way victory and freedom are used to justify butchery in the dehumanization process. For example, a real-estate speculator may refer to 'developing' a parcel of ground by opening a gravel quarry; development here means total, permanent destruction, with the earth itself removed. But European logic has gained a few tons of gravel with which more land can be 'developed' though the construction of road beds. Ultimately, the whole universe is open - in the European view to this sort of insanity. Most important here, perhaps, is the fact that Europeans feel no sense of loss in all this. After all, their philosophers have despiritualised reality, so there is no satisfaction (for them) to be gained in simply observing the wonder of a mountain or a lake or a people in being. No; satisfaction is measured in terms of gaining material. So the mountain becomes gravel, and the lake becomes coolant for a factory, and the, people are rounded up for processing through the indoctrination mills Europeans like to call schools.

But each new piece of that 'progress' ups the ante out in the real world. Take fuel for the industrial machine as an example. Little more than two centuries ago, nearly everyone used wood - a replenish able, natural item - as fuel for the very human needs of cooking and staying warm. Along came the industrial Revolution and coal became the dominant fuel, as production became the social imperative for Europe. Pollution began to become a problem in the cities, arid the earth was ripped open to provide coal, whereas wood had always simply been gathered or harvested at no great expense to the environment. Later, oil became the major fuel, as the technology of production was perfected through a series of scientific 'revolutions'. Pollution increased dramatically, and nobody yet knows what the environmental costs of pumping all that oil out of the ground will really be in the long run. Now there's an 'energy crisis'; and uranium is becoming the dominant fuel.

Capitalists, at least, can be relied upon to develop uranium as fuel only at the rate at which they can show a good profit. That’s their ethic, and may be that will buy some time. Marxists, on the other hand, can be relied upon to develop uranium fuel as rapidly as possible simply because if s the most 'efficient' production fuel available. That’s their ethic and I fail to see where it's preferable. Like I said, Marxism is right smack in the middle of the European tradition. It's the same old song. There's a rule of thumb which can be applied here. You cannot judge the real nature of a European revolutionary doctrine on the basis of the changes it proposes to make within the European power structure and society. You can only judge it by the effects it will have on non-European peoples. This is because every revolution in European history has served to reinforce Europe's tendencies and abilities to export destruction to other peoples, other cultures and the environment itself. I defy anyone to point out an example where this is not true. So now we, as American Indian people are asked to believe that a 'new' European revolutionary doctrine such as Marxism will reverse the negative effects of European history on us. European power relations are to be adjusted once again, and that’s supposed to make things better for all of us. But what does this really mean?

Right now, today, we who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation are living in what white society has designated a 'National Sacrifice Area'. What this means is that we have a lot of uranium deposits here, and white culture (not us) needs this uranium as energy production material. The cheapest, most efficient way for industry to extract and deal with the processing of this uranium is to dump the waste by-products right here at the digging sites. Right here where we live. This waste is radioactive and will make the entire region uninhabitable forever. This is considered by industry and by the white society that created this industry; to be ah 'acceptable' price to pay for energy resource development. Along with this they also plan to drain the water table under this part of South Dakota as part of the industrial process, so the region becomes doubly uninhabitable. The same sort of thing is happening down in the land of the Navajo and Hopi, up in the land of the Northern Cheyenne and Crow, and elsewhere. Thirty percent of the coal in the West and half of the uranium deposits in the U.S. have been found to lie under reservation land, so there is no way this can be called a minor issue. We are resisting being turned into a National Sacrifice Area. We are resisting being turned into national sacrifice people. The costs of this industrial process are not acceptable to us. It is genocide to dig uranium here and drain the water table - no more, no less.

Now let's suppose that in our resistance to extermination we begin to seek allies (we have). Let’s suppose further that we were to take revolutionary Marxism at its word: that is Intends nothing less than the complete overthrow of the European capitalist order which has presented this threat to our very existence. This would seem to be a natural alliance for American Indian people to enter into. After all, as the Marxists say, it is the capitalists who set us up to be a national sacrifice. This is true as far as it goes. But, as I've tried to point out, this 'truth' is very deceptive. Revolutionary Marxism is committed to even further perpetuation and perfection of the very industrial process which is destroying us all. It offers only to 'redistribute' the results - the money, may be of this industrialization to wider section of the population. It offers to take wealth from the capitalists and pass it around; but in order to do so; Marxism must maintain the industrial system. Once again, the power relations within European society will have to be altered, but once again the effects upon American Indian peoples here and non-Europeans elsewhere will remain the same. This is much the same as when power was redistributed from the church to private business during the so-called bourgeois revolution. European society changed a bit, at least superficially, but its conduct toward non-Europeans continued as before, you can see what the American Revolution of 1776 did for American Indians. If the same old song.

Revolutionary Marxism, like industrial society in other forms, seeks to 'rationalize' all people in relation to industry - maximum industry, maximum production. It is a materialist doctrine that despises the American Indian spiritual tradition, our cultures, our life ways. Marx himself called us 'pre-capitalists' and 'primitive'. Pre-capitalist [simply means that, in his view, we would eventually discover capitalism and become capitalists; we have always been economically retarded in Marxist terms. The only manner in which American Indian people could participate in a Marxist revolution would be to join the industrial system, to become factory workers, or 'proletarians' as Marx called them. The man was very clear about the fact that his revolution could occur only through the struggle of the proletariat, that the existence of a massive industrial system is a precondition of a successful Marxist society.

I think there's a problem with language here. Christians, Capitalists, Marxists. All of them have been revolutionary in their own minds, but none of them really mean revolution. What they really mean is a continuation. They do what they do in order that European culture can continue to exist and develop according to its needs. So, in order for us to really join forces with Marxism, we American Indians would have to accept the national sacrifice of our homeland; we would have to commit cultural suicide and become industrialized and Europeanized. At this point, I've got to stop and ask myself whether I'm being too harsh. Marxism has something of a history. Does this history bear out my observations? I look to the process of industrialization in the Soviet Union since 1920 and I see that these Marxists have done what it took the English industrial Revolution 300 years to do; and the Marxists did it in 60 years. I see that the territory of the USSR used to contain a number of tribal peoples and that they have been crushed to make way for the factories. The Soviets refer to this as The National Question', the question of whether the tribal peoples had the right to exist as peoples; and they decided the tribal peoples were an acceptable sacrifice to industrial needs. I look to China and I see the same thing. I look to Vietnam and I see Marxists imposing an industrial order and rooting out the indigenous tribal mountain people.

I hear a leading, Soviet scientist saying that when uranium is exhausted, then alternatives will be found. I see the Vietnamese taking over a nuclear power plant abandoned by the U.S. military. Have they dismantled and destroyed it? No, they are using it. I see China exploding nuclear bombs, developing uranium reactors and preparing a space program in order to colonies and exploit the planets the same as the Europeans colonized and exploited this hemisphere. Ifs the same old song, but may be with a faster tempo this time.

The statement of the Soviet scientist is very interesting. Does he know what this alternative energy source will be? No, he simply has faith. Science will find a way. I hear revolutionary Marxists saying that the destruction of the environment, pollution and radiation will all be controlled. Arid I see them act upon their words. Do they know how these things will be controlled? No, they simply have faith. Science will find a way. Industrialization is fine and necessary. How do they know this? Faith. Science will find a way. Faith of this: sort has always been known in Europe as religion. Science has become the new European religion for both capitalists and Marxists they are truly inseparable; they are part and parcel of the same culture. So, in both theory and practice, Marxism demands that non-European peoples give up their values, their traditions, their cultural existence altogether. We will all be industrialized science addicts in a Marxist society.

I do not believe that capitalism itself is really responsible for the situation in which merican Indians have been declared a national sacrifice. No, it is the European tradition; European culture itself is responsible. Marxism is just the latest continuation of this tradition, not a solution to it. To ally with Marxism is to ally with the very same forces that declare us an acceptable cost.

There is another way. There is the traditional Lakota way and the ways of the other American Indian peoples. It is the way that knows that humans do not have the right to degrade Mother Earth, that there are forces beyond anything the European mind has conceived, that humans must be in harmony with all relations or the relations will eventually eliminate the disharmony. A lopsided emphasis on humans by humans - the Europeans' arrogance of acting as though they were beyond the nature of all related things - can only result in a total disharmonious readjustment which cuts arrogant humans down to size, gives them a taste of that reality beyond their grasp or control and restores the harmony. There is no need for a revolutionary theory to bring this about; if s beyond human control. The nature peoples of this planet know this and so they do not theories about it. Theory is an abstract; our knowledge is real.

Distilled to its basic terms, European faith-including the new faith in science - equals a belief that man is God. Europe has always sought a Messiah, whether that be the man Jesus Christ or the man Karl Marx or the man Albert Einstein. American Indians know this to be totally absurd. Humans are the weakest of all creatures, so weak that other creatures are willing to give up their flesh that we may live. Humans are able to survive only through the exercise of rationality since they lack the abilities of other creatures to gain food through the use of fang and claw. But rationality is a curse since it can cause humans to forget the natural order of things in ways other creatures do not. A wolf never forgets his or her place in the natural order. American Indians can. Europeans almost always do. We pray our thanks to the deer, our relations, for allowing us their flesh to eat; Europeans simply take the flesh for granted and consider the deer inferior. After all, Europeans consider themselves Godlike in their rationalism and science. God is the Supreme Being all else must be inferior.

All European tradition, Marxism included, has conspired to defy the natural order of all things. Mother Earth has been abused, the powers have been abused, and this cannot go on forever. No theory can alter that simple fact. Mother Earth will retaliate, the whole environment will retaliate, and the abusers will be eliminated. Things come full circle, back to where they started. That's revolution. And that's a prophecy of my people, of the Hopi people and of other correct peoples.

American Indians have been trying to explain this to Europeans for centuries. But, as I said earlier, Europeans have proven themselves unable to hear. The natural order will win out, and the offenders will die out the way deer die when they offend the harmony by over populating a given region. It's only a matter of time until what Europeans call 'a major catastrophe of global proportions' will occur. It is the role of American Indian peoples, the role of all natural beings, to survive. A part of our survival is to resist. We resist not to overthrow a government or to take political power, but because it is natural to resist extermination, to survive. We don't want power over white institutions: we want white institutions to disappear. That's revolution. American Indians are still in touch with these realities - the prophecies, the traditions of our ancestors. We learn from the elders, from nature, from the powers. And when the catastrophe is over, we American Indian peoples will still be here to inhabit the hemisphere. I don't care if s only a handful living high in the Andes. American Indian people will survive: harmony will be reestablished. That’s revolution.

At this point, perhaps I should be very clear about another matter, one which should already be clear as a result of what I've said. But confusion breeds easily these days, so I want to hammer home this point. When I use the term European, I'm not referring to a skin color or a particular genetic structure. What I'm referring to is a mind-set, a world view that is a product of the development of European culture. People are not genetically encoded to hold this outlook; they are acculturated to hold it. The same is true for American Indians or for the members of any other culture. It is possible for an American Indian to share European values, a European world view. -We have a term for these people; we call them 'apples' - red on the outside (genetics) and white on the inside (their values). Other groups have similar terms: Blacks have their 'Oreos' Hispanos have coconut and so on. And, as I said before, there are exceptions to the white norm people who are white on the outside, but not white inside. I'm not sure what term should be applied to them other than 'human beings'. What I'm putting out here is not a racial proposition but a cultural proposition. Those who ultimately advocate and defend the realities of European culture and its industrialism are my enemies. Those who resist it, who struggle against it, are my allies, the allies of American Indian people. And 1 don't give a damn what their skin color happens to be. Caucasian is the white term for the white race European is an outlook I oppose. The Vietnamese Communists are not exactly what you might consider genetic Caucasians, but they are now functioning as mental Europeans. The same holds true for Chinese Communists, for Japanese capitalists or Bantu Catholics. There is no racism involved in this, just an acknowledgement of the mind and spirit that make up culture. In Marxist terms I suppose I'm a 'cultural nationalist'. I work first with my people, the traditional Lakota people, because we hold a common world view and share an immediate struggle. Beyond this, I work with other traditional American Indian peoples, again because of a certain commonalty in world view and form of struggle. Beyond that will work with anyone who has experienced the colonial oppression of Europe and who resists its cultural and industrial totality. Obviously, this includes genetic Caucasians who struggle to resist the dominant norms of European culture. The Irish and the Basques come immediately to mind, but there are many others.

I work primarily with my own people, with my own community. Other people who hold non-European perspectives should do the same. I believe in the slogan, Trust your brother's vision', although I'd like to add sisters into the bargain. I trust the community and the culturally based vision of all the races that naturally resist industrialization and human extinction. Clearly, individual whites can share in this, given only that they have reached the awareness that continuation of the industrial imperatives of Europe is not a vision, but species suicide. White is one of the sacred colors of the Lakota people - red, "yellow, white and black. The four directions. The four seasons. The four periods of life and aging. The four races of humanity. Mix red, yellow, white and black together and you-get brown, the color of the fifth race. This is a natural ordering of things..It therefore seems natural to me to work with all races, each with its own special meaning, identity and message.

But there is a peculiar behavior among most Caucasians. As soon as I become critical of Europe and its impact on other cultures, they become defensive. They begin to defend themselves. But I'm not attacking them personally I'm attacking Europe. In personalizing my observations on Europe they are personalizing European culture, identifying them with it. By defending themselves in this context, they are ultimately defending the death culture. This is a confusion which must be overcome, and it must be overcome in a hurry. None of us have energy to waste in such false struggles. Caucasians have a more positive vision to offer humanity than Europe culture. I believe this. But in order to attain this vision it is necessary for Caucasians to step outside European culture - alongside the rest of humanity - to see Europe for what it is and what it does. To cling to capitalism and Marxism and all the other 'isms' is simply to remain within European culture. There is no avoiding this basic fact. As a fact, this constitutes a choice. Understand that the choice is based on culture, not race. Understand that to choose European culture and industrialism is to choose to be my enemy. And understand that the choice is yours, not mine.

This leads me back to address those American Indians who are drifting through the universities, the city slums and other European institutions. If you are there to learn to resist the oppressor in accordance with your traditional ways, so be it. I don't know how you manage to combine the two, but perhaps you will succeed. But retain your sense of reality. Beware of coming to believe the white world now offers solutions to the problems it confronts us with. Beware, too, of allowing the words of native people to be twisted to the advantage of our enemies. Europe invented the practice of turning words around on themselves. You need only look to the treaties between American Indian peoples and various European governments to know that this is true. Draw your strength from who you are. A culture which regularly confuses revolution with continuation, which confuses science and religion, which confuses revolt with resistance, has nothing helpful to teach you and nothing to offer you as a way of life. Europeans have long since lost all touch with reality, if every they were in touch with it. Feel sorry for them if you need to, but be comfortable with w h o you a r e as American Indians.

So, I suppose to conclude this, I should state clearly that leading anyone toward Marxism is the last thing on my mind. Marxism is as alien to my culture as capitalism and Christianity are. In fact, I can say I don't think I'm trying to lead anyone toward anything. To some extent I tried to be a leader, in the sense that the white media like to use that term, when the American Indian Movement was a young organization. This was a result of a confusion I no longer have. You cannot be everything to everyone. I do not propose to be used in such a fashion by my enemies I am not a leader. I am an Oglala Lakota patriot. That is all I want and all I need to be. And I am very comfortable with who I am.

Author: Russell Means

NATIONAL CONGRESS ON TRADITIONAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGIES

2011-10-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

TPST Foundation in collaboration with CTARA, HT Bombay, will be organizing a 'Congress on the Traditional Sciences and Technologies of India' at HT, Bombay. This congress scheduled for May 1993, will be the first one of its kind to be held on this topic, and the organization of it would involve the collaboration of a large number of agencies and individuals based all over the country. A meeting organized at IIT, Bombay during 3-4th April, was attended by about 50-60 people representing various organizations and volunteering to take up specific responsibilities towards organizing this congress. Apart from the faculty of IIT Bombay and people associated with FPST Foundation, those present at the meeting included representatives from Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay, Madras and Delhi), Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Lok Swasthya Parampara Samvardhan Samith Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), Gandhigram Trust and Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India. Several Universities including Benaras Hindu University and Madras University and large number cf voluntary agencies were represented and also many others attended in their individual capacity. The first day of the meeting was spent discussing the various suggestions which came up regarding the purpose, form and content of the proposed Congress. A rich variety of suggestions were put forward by people working on diverse topics. The second day was spent thrashing out the various organizational tasks for the congress and delegating responsibilities to various groups and individuals and these are briefly summarized at the end of this report.

Inaugural Session

The meeting was inaugurated by Prof. Kudchadkar, Deputy Director, IIT Bombay and he was proud that IIT, Bombay would be hosting this unique congress and promised full cooperation and help of the administration and faculty of IIT, Bombay in holding the congress. Prof.C.V.Seshadri, President of PPST Foundation, outlined the importance of the congress, coming particularly at a juncture when complete marginalization of the Indian population is taking place. The liberalization' of economy that is being carried out will completely remove the liberty of the people, and 'globalization' of economy simply means globalization of poverty. He pointed out that the western knowledge base is a culture laden artifact. People living in tropical countries lead completely different life styles. The work undertaken by PPST on Indian Mathematics opened up the vast possibilities that exist in traditional Indian Mathematics. Similarly, the work done by LSPSS has shown the possibilities that exist in the traditional systems of medicine. The forthcoming congress would be the fruition of over a decade of work done by PPST on various issues relating to traditional Indian Science and Technology.

Prof.CN.Krishnan, Director PPST, summarized the document earlier circulated to the participants. This document gave an outline of the purpose of the congress and the various organizational aspects of it. The main points of his talk were

The aim of the congress is projecting to the modern audience, only a cross section of the traditional Science and Technology (S&T) (since the extent is too large), specifically those areas of traditional S and T which are still there in existence and thriving, those that are just about existing but not thriving and those that are not existing but have a potential to come back.
This congress is being held to increase the interaction and bring about a dialogue between the personnel involved in the modern (western) S and T sector and the practitioners of traditional, S and T. The intention is not to raise fundamental questions as to whether to go in for modern S and T or for traditional S and T but to make optimum use of both. The holding of the congress wll enhance the contemporary value of the traditional S and T and also enhance the support and patronage it receives from the state.
The details of the areas have been listed in the document and the main job that needs to be taken up now is that of data generation ultimately leading to the reparation of a series of books and monographs. Also the job of collecting and preparing of as many photographs and video films on as many topics as possible should be taken up immediately.

Mr.Prabhakaran of KVIC (Khadi and Village Industries Commission) was the next speaker and his talk was mainly concerning the work carried out by KVIC in the area of textiles. He cited various traditional methods of producing yam and the involvement of-KVIC in keeping at least some of them alive. It was pointed out that all the technological products of KVIC are eco-friendly. He suggested that other activities of KVIC can also be made use of for the congress and all aspects of the industries under the purview of KVIC will made available for the congress. During the discussion following Mr.Prabhakaran's talk, the following points came up:-

Whether there was a need to confine only to ancient Indian Traditional Technologies or whether one could also include traditional technologies which have been modified by inputs from the modern sector.
Only those technologies that have a contemporary relevance and those that do not displace labor must be represented at the congress.
Textiles industry is unique to India and there are so many offshoots to it like the manufacture of charkas, dyes etc. and all of these technologies must find a place in the congress.

Health Care

The next presentation was the proposal by A.VBalasubramanian for coordinating the work for the congress in the area of Health and Nutrition. This work was being undertaken in consultation with LSPSS (Lok Swasthya Parampara Samvardhan Samithi). The task for the congress would be primarily collecting and putting together the work that has already been done by LSPSS, which was primarily aimed at strengthening and revitali2ing the traditional health practices. Specifically, the work for the congress would be aimed at:

Making a statement on the current state of art in this area by compiling a catalogue of diverse cultural practices as well as the resources of materials and manpower in both the formal and no formal sectors of traditional systems of Indian Medicine.
Providing an introduction to the basic principles of ISM's and their methodology.
In order to show the potential of ISM's, the geographical experiences of a few voluntary health organizations will be presented. Experiments carried out in other third world countries like China and countries in Latin America may also be presented.
Giving live demonstrations of some of the techniques associated with this system of medicine at the Congress. Public lectures on specific areas could be organized.

An interesting discussion followed this talk and the main suggestions and points which came up were:

A short note on the contributions made by ISM's into Allopathy must be presented at the congress.
The practices for keeping oneself healthy (like Yogasana) must also be included at the congress.
People who come to the congress must be shown video films on a wide range of traditional specialties - like orthopedic skills.
The misconceptions about traditional systems (like reservations regarding the use of metals etc) must be addressed at the congress.
Raw materials (herbs) have become a big problem and the agronomy of herbs is to be highlighted at the congress.
Justification for the various widely prevalent practices like massaging, oil bath etc. must be provided at the congress.
Highlighting of the various aspects of Dai Parampara must be done at the congress. Every village has this tradition of midwifery and 99% of the normal deliveries are handled by them.
The tradition of bone setting is very rich and widely prevalent. Modern allopath has no way of training 100,000 bone setters and also distributing them to remote parts of the country. So, it will be a great loss to the country if this tradition is not revitalized and nurtured.

Agriculture

The next presentation was in the area of agriculture and the presentation on behalf of Prof.Anil Gupta of IIM, Ahmedabad was done by Mr.Kirit Patel. The speaker presented the details of the material available with the Centre for Management of Agriculture.at IIM Ahmedabad. The following points summarize his presentation.

A survey of about 500 practices from.Gujarat state alone is available with the Centre. The findings of this survey would be presented at the congress. Also available with the Centre is a catalogue of innovations in traditional agriculture.
Video films and publications on various aspects of Indian agriculture and a collection of various agricultural implements is also available with the Centre. A documentation of the various varieties of plants can be undertaken for the congress.
Responsibility can be taken for organizing debates at the congress on topics like Traditional Knowledge Systems' and Traditional Gene Banks'. The implication of Intellectual Property Rights' (IPR) on traditional knowledge systems must be debated at the congress.
The question of inviting innovators from Pakistan and Bangladesh must be considered.

A large number of points were raised in the discussion following this presentation. Some of these points are:

We must show at the congress that modem agriculture cannot bring self sufficiency to Indian needs. Also, the needs of the country are too diverse and the various practices that evolved were in response to these needs.
We must relate the environment friendly nature of the traditional technologies. The enormous drain in the country's resources due to the use of fertilizers must be pointed out. In this context, the importance of organic fanning must be high-lighted at the congress.
The commercialization of agriculture has led to shifting to cash crops in a big way) It was pointed out that today, agriculture is secondary and only cash crop is primary. In the case of Maharashtra, the cultivation of sugarcane crops needs enormous quantities of water with the result that the water table of Maharashtra is coming down. Since sugar is primarily cultivated for export, it amounts to export of the water table of Maharashtra.
Another important point raised was the tendency today of destroying local names and teaching only botanical nomenclature. The importance of local names of each area must brought out at the congress. An interesting example cited was that of a boy in Coimbatore who could identify 300 different plants with then uses.
On the topic of water harvesting and management, it was suggested that the congress must highlight the limitations of the present water management system. Maharashtra is the biggest dam owner in the country and 70% of water in Maharashtra goes to sugarcane cultivation. Maharashtra also happens to be under severe draught and the Government has allotted Rs.700 Corer to combat draught. It is essential in this context to highlight the traditional aspects of water management.
It was pointed out that it was not just a question of choosing between two technologies. In traditional agriculture, the peasant, as an individual chooses and decides, while in modern agriculture the peasant is reduced to a mere laborer and the decisions are taken elsewhere.
In Punjab, with the introduction of rice crop, the water table has gone down. The cultivation is mainly for export, and the cropping patterns have changed. Study of changes in water levels, quality etc. must be presented.
There must be a stall explaining obsolescence. Something could be quite obsoles-cent, but may have a high ecological value.

The above discussions were followed by a series of small presentations by the faculty associated with CTARA. These talks briefly described the work that is being carried out at CTARA under the various projects. Prof.Shah briefly touched upon the traditional practices for ground water resources, maintenance of tributaries, maintenance of ponds etc. Mr.Subbaraju, talking on behalf of U.S.Bhawalkar, spoke about the shift to organic farming and the emerging scenario of agriculture and water management. Prof.Shankar spoke about organic waste recycling. He stated that it would be possible to set up a demonstration garden where recycling is done. Cleansing of water by biological means can also be demonstrated. The next speaker, Mr.Winin Periera had worked for a number of years with the tribal in Maharastra region. He was of the opinion that all traditional technologies are sustainable and also incorporate social justice. The Research and Development (R and D) in traditional technologies was done on the fields by the practitioners themselves. He stated that for the congress, the data available from advises and also from other relevant literature will be made available. A catalogue of 30,000 Indian names correlated to their botanical names is also available. Data is also available on traditional water purification methods. The next speaker, Dr.Uma Shankari, spoke on the issues involved in water management. She stated that the congress should show the limitations of modern technologies, for instance bore well technology. With the increase in population, the demand for water resources has increased. At the same time privatization of water resources has taken place on a big scale. She also stated that for the supporting social structures of the traditional technologies, have almost collapsed. There is also a complete collapse of social leadership. In order to revitalize the traditional technologies, is essential to wrench out the control from a small section of people. Social benefits must be introduced as against the personal benefits. For the congress, low priced descriptive pamphlets on traditional technologies will be made available. The congress must highlight technological, social and economic impact of traditional methods. Success stories need to be propagated. The importance, of Varahamihira's text on water divination and management needs to be highlighted. The next speaker, Prof.Dubey from Benaras University stated that serious research on traditional agriculture is being carried out in UP, Bihar and Orissa and that he would be able to bring out monographs on these topics for the congress. He stated that it would be possible to present good quality video films and slides. Panchang predictions will be correlated and presented. A compilation of agricultural proverbs is being carried out and will be presented at the congress.

Architecture and Housing

There were two short presentations on traditional architecture. One was by Prof.Sahu of IIT Bombay, highlighting the importance of rock as constructional material. The other one was by Prof.CN.Krishnan, talking on behalf of Shashikala Ananth who has the responsibility of coordinating the area of traditional architecture for the congress. The scientific basis of traditional architecture will be presented at the congress. It was felt that the presentation on the materials part of technology would be a difficult task.

Metallurgy

Professor Ballal of IIT Bombay was the next speaker covering the area of metallurgy. He stated that a monograph on Indigenous Iron and Steel Technology will be brought out for the congress. Video films/slide shows including social aspects will be presented. The monograph would contain: - A brief history of the technology, Techniques of manufacture of Indian Iron and the reconstruction of the science behind it Properties of this unique product 'Wootz' (Indian Steel). The video films worm contains material on monuments, implements, artifacts and social organization of the industry. A furnace will be set up for exhibition. A.V.Balasubramanian made a presentation on what can be presented under Non-ferrous metallurgy-including

The steel wires used in Veena were made exclusively in a town called Chennapatna near Mysore. This practice should find a place in the congress.
A place called Aranmula in Kerala is exclusively known for mirrors made out of an alloy of copper and tin. This should also be brought and displayed at the congress.
Artisans, even if they do not practice now, must be brought to the Congress. May be, artisans from fifteen different areas must be brought together in order to generate confidence in them.

During the discussion, it was pointed out those two communities (somewhere in UP) make alloys from only two particular clays. One community makes saltpeter and the other community makes tools like nut crackers etc. Deviating a bit from metallurgy, it was strongly felt by the participants that there must be a common theme in all pavilions at the congress. Finding this common thread is essential. We must be able to articulate it at a preliminary level at least. For instance, linkages between traditional agriculture and traditional logic, linkages between agriculture and architecture and so on must be brought out. It was also felt those scholars who represent excellence in different areas must be honored.

Village Industries

This presentation was followed by a few short presentations. One was, by Dr.Swamalatha, who has the responsibility to coordinating the area of textiles for the congress. The next presentation was by Dr.Narendra Shah of CTARA on the various aspects of charcoal industry. There was also a brief presentation by Mr.Karmakar of KVIC on brick industry of Raigarh. KVIC volunteered to take the responsibility for presenting the area of traditional brick making industry at the congress.

North-Eastern Region

The next speaker Mr.BerBarua, was the lone representative from Assam and the North-Eastern region. His talk was basically outlining the various traditional S and T areas in which either he could take responsibility for the North East region or he could find appropriate persons for the purpose. The various areas mentioned were:

Bell metal making industry in Assam and North East
Vegetable dye making in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh
Silkworm cultivation
Herbal Medicine
Animal Husbandry
Recovery of gold in the rivers of Sobarnasiri
Building materials and housing
Bridges (very good ones are surviving)
Agricultural practices
Traditional Psychology and Psychotherapy
Traditional alcoholic liquors.

Mr. BerBarua also raised a point as to whether it would be possible to formulate acts and policies which would safeguard these practices. He also pointed out whether it would possible to include at the congress the traditional technologies from Thailand and Burma as well, as these would be related to the practices of Assam and North East. The next speaker, Mr.Venkateswaran from KVIC, stated that KVIC can arrange demonstrations at the congress on pottery, match industry and paper making industry an interesting point mentioned by him was the existence a traditional family of paper makers (called Kagazis). But however, they were no longer practicing this profession.

Social Organisation

The next speaker Mr.Banwari has the responsibility of coordinating for the congress in the area of social organization. He stated that we have now created a political and economic system which is quite autonomous and self serving. The western experience of social organization is a very recent one, being a post World War II experience. For the congress, it would be possible to bring out books outlining, Various social institutions and power structures in the society. A survey of some villages in UP can be done and compared with an industrial set up in urban areas and a video film can be made along these lines. A video film on the panchayat system can be made. (A Khap in Muzaffarriagar had records from 9th century onwards). Presentation at the Congress of the Analysis of Chengulpet District data collected by PPST Foundation which throws light on the Political Economy and Social Structure of the region as it prevailed before the British conquest of this area. Presentations were also made of the work to be undertaken in two other major areas namely in Education and in Village Industries. Coordinators were identified for each of these areas and suggestions were made regarding individuals who could be indented as members of each group. A Congress Management Committee, A National Organizing Committee, A National Advisory Committee and a Program Committee were also constituted. A Coordination Committee was formed to do the necessary follow up work. It was also decided to set up secretariats at various places. The list and addresses of various secretariats are given in Appendix I. Various persons have been identified as coordinators for different areas and their names and addresses are given in Appendix n.

APPENDIX I

List of Secretariats

Dr.H.S.Shankar
CTARA
IITPowai
Bombay - 400 076.
Dr.CN.Krishnan
School of Instrumentation and Electronics
M.I.T. Campus of Anna University
Chromepet
Madras -600 044.
Dr.G5.R.Krishnan
Dept.of Sociology
Bangalore University Jnana Bharathi,
Bangalore - 560 056.
Dr.Rajendra Prasad
Centre for RD & AT IIT,
Powai, Bombay 400 076.
Sri .Sunil Sahasrabuddhey
Gandhian Institute of Studies
P.B.No:1116
Varanasi-221001.

APPENDIX II

List of Coordinators

1	Architecture & House Building	Mrs.Shashikala Ananth N4AITRI 4th Cross Street Natesan Colony Kottivakkam Madras -600 041.
2	Agriculture & Forestry	Sri.Kisan Mehta 123, Mahatma Gandhi Road Bombay - 400 023.
3	Health & Life Sciences	A.V.Balasubramanian Sree Chakra Foundation 14, Second Street Gopalapuram South Madras - 600 086.
4	Metallurgy & Materials	Prof.N.B.Ballal Dept.of Metallurgical Engg., UTPowai Bombay - 400 076.
5	Water Management	Dr.Uma Shankari Venkataramapuram Village VallivaduPost Chittoor District Andhra Pradesh - 571152.
6	Theoretical Sciences	SriNavjothiSinth NISTADS Dr.K.S.Krishnan Marg New Delhi-110 012.
7	Social Organization	Mr.Banwari Jansatta Express Building 9-10, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg New Delhi-110 002.
8	Education	Dr.Bhartendu Prakash Vignyan Shiksha Kendra 52, Civil Lines Lajvantika, Banda Uttar Pradesh-210 001.
		Dr.Rajendra Prasad Centre for RD & AT "IIT,HauzKhas New Delhi-110 016.
		Dr. P.Swa ma la tha Reader, Dept.of History University of Hyderabad Hyderabad-500 134.

Author: P.V.Ramakrishna

SEMINAR ON CURRENT RESEARCH IN INDIAN MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY

2011-10-24T21:33:00.001-07:00

Back Ground

In 1991, a major effort had been initiated to investigate the Foundations of Indian Theoretical Sciences'. At the initiative of the PPST Foundation, this has been taken up as a multi centered effort comprising of sixteen projects in which there are eleven participating institutions from all over India. As part of this effort, projects on various aspects of traditional Indian Mathematics and Astronomy are being carried out in different institutions in Madras. The titles of the projects: (with the names of the coordinators and institutions in parentheses) are:

Proofs in Indian Mathematics and Astronomy (K.V Sharma and M.D.5rinivas, PPST Foundation, Madras).
An analysis of the accuracy and optimality of the algorithms of Indian Astronomy (M.S.Sriram, Madras University).
Study of optimality of Indian Numerical Algorithms (CN.Krishnan, M.I.T., Anna University and Ashok Jhunjhuhwala, LIT. Madras) and
Design and testing of hardware for optimal algorithms with suggestions for applications (to be taken up later by Ashok Jhunjhunwala, LIT. Madras).

The projects have been in progress for about a year now and are of three years duration. From July 1991, there have been seminars/colloquia at fairly regular intervals on topics of current interest in mathematics and astronomy. The idea of holding a national conference involving persons actively engaged in research in traditional Indian mathematics and astronomy grew out of these discussion-group meetings.

Organization

The Seminar was organized by the PPST Foundation in collaboration with the School of Instrumentation and Electronics) Anna University, on March 6 and 7 and held at the MIT Campus of Anna University. It was funded by the Department of Science and Technology. Apart from lectures by the project personnel in Madras, there were lectures by other, researchers from institutions in Madras as well as outside. Here a special mention must be made of Sri A.B.Managoli, an 80 year old ex-school teacher from Karnataka who made it a point to attend the Seminar despite his advanced age and delicate health. He has worked on the 'Chakravak method' all on his own for many years. The audience consisted of teachers, scientists, research scholars and post graduate students. The total number of participants was over sixty.

Inaugural Function

In the inaugural function, Dr.CV.Seshadri, President, PPST Foundation and Director, Murugappa Chettiar Research Centre, Madras gave the background of the PPST Foundation and its activities and spoke about its relevance. Delivering the inaugural address, Dr.M.Anandakrishnan Vice Chancellor, Anna University emphasized the importance of comprehending our traditions in Science and Technology and taking them forward. (He said that we. would be rootless without them. There is need for good quality work in this area and he lauded the efforts of the PPST Foundation in this direction. He suggested that the Ramanujam endowment in Anna University can be utilized to invite scholars of high standing in traditional sciences.

Before the formal sessions, Sri Navjothi Singh, National Coordinator of the project gave an introductory lecture on the DST-funded research program on Foundations and Methodology of Theoretical Sciences in Indian Tradition'. Until now, most of the work in this area had been confined to cataloguing and glorifying (or denigrating) the achievements of India in various disciplines. Not enough attention has been paid to the methodology of the theoretical sciences in our tradition or to their foundations which are quite distinct from those of the Western tradition. Navya nyaya, Vyakarna and Ganita traditions have possible applications in natural language processing, numerical methods and algorithms. Their revitalization is necessary for the generation of new contemporary research problems and insights.

Mathematics

The first lecture in the Mathematics section was by Dr.M.D.Srinivas, who gave an overview of Indian mathematics. He traced the history of the development of Mathematics in India and pointed out how the problems that were dealt with arose in practical contexts. For instance, the Kuttaka algorithm for solving linear indeterminate equations is useful in solving problems in astronomy. There are different ways of expressing a number but the place value notation and the use of zero developed by Indians is the best method for most practical calculations. Various short cut methods in computations based on the place value system were devised by Indians and widely used by the common people like vegetable vendors, carpenters etc. 'Vedic Mathematics' by Jagadguru Sri Bharathikrishna Thirtha, a book which has become popular recently, makes use of the place value system in simplifying various kinds of manipulations like multiplication, division, squaring, extraction of square root etc. He felt that the possibilities of the place value system are still not exhausted and more research needs to be done in this direction. He introduced the problem of quadratic indeterminate equations (Varga Prakrithi) which were handled by Indian Mathematicians from the time of Brahmagupta (7th century A.D.) culminating in the 'Chakravaht method perfected by Bhaskaran. The Europeans could handle this sophisticated problem only in the eighteenth century.

Some of the papers presented in the mathematics session were pertaining to the 'ChakravaW ethod. Other topics covered were Aryabhata algorithm {Kuttaka), division algorithm based on Urdhya-Tiryak Sutra', algorithm for extraction of higher roots and analysis in Indian mathematics. The list of papers and a brief summary of each is given below:

'A new variation in the Aryabhatta algorithm for finding modular inverses' was presented by B.R.Shankar, S.Jegannathan and Ashok Jhunjhunwala, of the Department of Electrical Engineering, LIT. Madras. A unique feature of the new algorithm is that it facilitates parallel computation.
'Computer implementation of a simple division algorithm based on Urdhva-Tiiyak Sutra' was presented by Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Ranjani Parthasarathy and SJegannathan, of the Department of Electrical Engineering, LIT. Madras. In this algorithm, division involving a divisor of arbitrary size is performed in a simple manner using a small-number multiplier and divider. The implementation of this algorithm on a PC-AT shows an improvement in the time taken for computation by a factor of ten over the conventional method.
'A generalization of the root extraction algorithm of Jagadguru Bharatikrishna Thirthaji' was presented by K.Ramasubramanian, M.D.Srinivas and M-S.Sriram of the Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Madras. It delineated a procedure for the calculation of cube roots, which is close in spirit to the Dwandwa Yoga of 'Vedic Mathematics'. The method can be generalized to find the nth root of a number.
'A paper on the Optimality of the Chakravak algorithm for the solution of
or- Dif = 1' was presented by M.D.Srinivas, Department of Theoretical Physics,
University of Madras. Preliminary numerical estimates on the optimality properties of the Chakravak algorithm in relation to the Euler-Lagrange algorithm were presented. The estimates indicate that the Chakravak algorithm on the average needs only 69.4% of the number of steps in the Euler-La grange algorithm.
T.S.Bhanumurthy, of the University of Madras, presented a paper - 'On the Brah-magupta-Bhaskara equation Dxr-T= ± l.The Chakravak method may be described as continued fractions with reference to quadratic irrationalities. It ex¬ploits the direct use of the multipliers in preference to the coefficients of the expansion of root D and the proofs get considerably simplified. It does not need as prerequisite even the first lesson on continued fractions.
A.B.Managoli, Belgaum (Ex-School teacher, Kamataka) presented a paper - 'Chak- ravala method'. Consider the equation N ;r+ M~ y . The modern method for the solution of the equation requires quadratic expansion of root N. But the Chak- ravala method does not require expansion of root N. The old method has a vast range of applications and is not lacking in any way compared to the modern method.
M.S.Rangachari of Ramanujam Institute for Advanced Studies in Mathematics, University of Madras, presented a paper on Analysis in Indian Mathematics. The seeds of analysis were sown in India several centuries before Newton and Leib-nitz, in the works of Bhaskara II. Many texts of the medieval period have not been thoroughly studied e.g. Sadratnamala which contains traces of the bisection method, differentiation using power series and improvement of sine and cosine values.

Astronomy

On the second day of the Seminar, the proceedings began with an introductory overview of Indian Astronomy by Dr.M.S.Sriram. The history of Indian Astronomy from the Vedic times to the modern period was briefly outlined. There was a systematic lunisolar calendar in India even during the 'Vedanga Jyotisha' period (probably 1200 B.C.). Detailed mathematical treatment of astronomical problems begins with the Siddhanta texts, the earliest available of which is Aryabhatiya (499 A.D.) though according to traditional accounts there were Siddhanta texts even prior to that period. Some of the outstanding texts were Surya Siddhanta, Brahmasphuta Siddhanta, Khandakhadyaka, Laghumanasa, Siddhanta Shiromani etc. The essential features of the Siddhanta texts were outlined. In particular, the procedure for the calculation of the true longitudes of the sun, the moon and the planets was discussed. One calculates the mean longitude first using the sidereal period of the planet and the Ahargana and applies two corrections, namely the Manda correction (which takes into account the eccentricity of the orbit),and the Shighra correction (equivalent to conversion from the helio-centric system to the geo-centric system). The continuity in Indian astronomical tradition from the Vedic period to modern times was pointed out.

In the discussion that followed Dr.A.K Bag emphasized the necessity of making a comparative study of astronomy in India and other civilizations (Greek, Babylonian etc). Dr.C.V.Seshadri was struck by the concept of a Maha Yuga of 43,20,000 years (something peculiar to India) and felt that one should have a better understanding of the concept of time in .Indian tradition. The papers that followed dealt with a variety of topics such as - Mean and true longitudes in Indian astronomy, Spherical trigonometry, a novel approximation for the sine function due to Bhaskara, an outline of Ganita Yukthibhasha and algorithms in traditional Indian mathematics. The papers were:

'Computations of mean and true positions of planets in Indian Astronomy' by S.Balachandra Rao, Department of Mathematics, National College, Bangalore. The Methodology of finding the positions of planets as discussed in the Madhyamaadhikara and Spashtadhikara sections of various Siddhanta texts was considered. The significance of the manda-phala and sigra phala in obtaining the true positions was discussed. A comparison of retrograde motion of planets as in the Siddhantic texts with modem results was made.
George Abraham, formerly of the Department of Mathematics, Madras Christian College, Madras, presented a paper titled 'Billiard's astronomies Indien'. Published in 1971, Roger Billiard's book sheds new light on Indian astronomy. In this paper an attempt has been made to assess the accuracy of mean motions calculated by some-leading Indian astronomers.
V.S.Narasimhan, of Vivekanda College, Tiruvedakam presented a paper titled 'Tantra Sangraha of Neelakanta Somayaji (AD 1444-1545)'. Tantra Sangraha gives simple trigonometric formulae and procedures for finding the site of an angle. It gives the equivalent of many modern results in astronomy. For any celestial body five coordinates are defined and the method of finding two of them given the other three is discussed. This is a novel result.
CN.Krishnan, A.Muthulakshmi and V.Srividya, of the School of Instrumentation and Electronics, M.I.T, Anna University, Madras presented a paper titled 'A-study of the rational approximation for the sine function due to Bhaskara I'. The rational approximation to sin theta due to Bhaskara I was examined from the point of view of accuracy and computational speed. Where small word lengths are used or high computational speeds are required, the Bhaskara approximation may be a useful alternative to the series summation technique.
K.V.Sharma, of PPST Foundation and Adyar Library and Research Centre, Madras, gave an outline of Ganita-Yukti Bhasha. There are several commentaries and full-fledged texts in Sanskrit which give the rationale of the various formulae and procedures used in Indian mathematics and astronomy. One such text is the Ganita Yuktibhaha ofjyeshta Deva of Kerala (A.D. 1500 - 1610). In this paper an outline of this highly important work was given.
A.K.Bag of Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi presented a paper on
Algorithms in traditional Indian mathematics. He said that it was very important to investigate systematic 'steps' or 'phases' in the methods and their logical sequence in the development of specific results or discoveries. This will be useful for comparison of a method with methods in other cultures, for retrieval of results and estimation of the efficiency and limitation of a discovery.

Panel discussion

After the paper presentations, there was a panel discussion on the contemporary relevance of research in Indian theoretical sciences'. The panelists were: Dr.Rajiv Sangal, HT, Kanpur, Prof.M.Seetharaman, Madras University, Prof.Ramakrishnan, M.I.T. Madras, Prof.V.BJohri, IIT Madras and Dr.AXBag, INSA, New Delhi who chaired the session. Dr.Rajiv Sangal was positive in his opinion that an in-depth research in various theoretical disciplines is very essential and fruitful. He cited the example of Paninian grammar being used in machine translation and possible application in artificial intelligence. Dr.Seetharaman felt that a good result here and there in the traditional disciplines would be no match to the enormous modern knowledge system. There was also the problem of convincing youngsters of the desirability of studying Indian methods. Prof.Johri felt that the lectures in the two day seminar were revealing to him in many ways and made a strong plea for I highlighting Indian achievements in various areas to, our children. Prof.Ramakrishnan agreed with him and made out a case for including traditional Indian Science and Scientists in the text books. Dr.A.K.Bae stressed the need for vigorous research in the area of traditional science, done with a historical perspective. There are a lot of commentaries on important texts which are yet to be studied thoroughly.' He strongly felt that comparative studies of traditional sciences like mathematics and astronomy in different civilizations should be taken up. There was a general consensus that there should be institutions and scholars exclusively devoted to the study of traditional sciences and that our heritage in science and technology should be disseminated among the younger generation.

Author: M.S.Sriram

Note: The proceedings of the seminar are being published as a book. Details can be obtained from Dr.M.S.Sriram.

ASKING THE EARTH: THE SPREAD OF UNSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

2011-10-24T21:32:00.001-07:00

This book is an angry exhortation against the Western model of development - its theory and practice. But anger has not blunted the authors' sense of humor. The book is marked with numerous punch lines which serve simultaneously to highlight and mitigate the anger and exasperation. It tries to demonstrate that the Western model of development cannot be sustained except by eating away the resources of the Earth far beyond its capacity for regenerating them and polluting it to an extent that survival itself would become problematic. It seems there is a little girl in Bombay who had never seen a live butterfly. The author says 'if the Western system of 'development' is permitted to endure, of one thing we can be sure: soon, not only will butterflies vanish, but little girls too'.

The different chapters of the book elucidate the above thesis in various spheres of life -agriculture, health, forestry. It begins with history and shows how the colonial government of the British undermined and impoverished every aspect of Indian life. On the other hand, Indian society is shown, with reference to the lifestyle of the Warlis, a tribal people of Maharashtra, to be simple and self-sufficient but at the same time dynamic and creative. For example, Warlis' way of catching fish is so delightfully simple and efficient! The authors move on from Warlis to record the shattering impact of modern development, some of it irreversible, on agriculture, health and forestry. They show through examples how the colonial exchange of wealth for poverty is continued after independence through the agency of the trans-national corporations whose means to get rich is nothing short of the immoral. They also explicate the hidden violence in the praxis of modern development-violence against plants, animals and fellow human beings. In each of the chapters practices which are based on renewability and which promote sustainability are described in some detail. The chapters contain a lot of useful information complete with references for those interested in developing sustainable alternatives.

The book has undertaken another major task - arguing that models of 'sustainable development' as proposed by the West, for example, in Pearce Report, are not so much about sustainability as about 'acceptable rate of economic growth', or worse, 'sustaining the Western economic system'. The interesting point about this exercise is that it uses the conceptual framework of the Pearce Report itself to argue against its conclusions - concepts like intergenerational equity, intra-generational equity Pareto optimality, benefit –costing the environment, etc.

The last few chapters of the book indicate some of the philosophical principles which can become the bases for disengaging ourselves from the harmful developmental path on which every nation in the World has set out. While admitting that it is not an easy task to do it, the authors urge individuals to start with themselves. The West has successfully persuaded the whole world that the monster of development is an economic necessity. To try to change this stream of opinion would be to confront vested interests at every turn. The magnitude of the task is enormous but the authors urge that individuals start with their own lives, by reducing the purchase and use of non-necessities. ‘Reducing one’s consumption need not wait for politician's pronouncements or economists' encouragement. The problems have global dimensions but they work through, individuals, and this gives each of us the power to exert a decisive influence on the world'.

Author: Uma Shankari

AN INDIAN PHILOSOPHY OF (WHAT) SCIENCE ?

2011-10-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

It was with a great deal of interest and anticipation that I read Dr.S.G.Kulkarani's article Towards an Indian Philosophy of Science' in your journal of March '92. Fascinating though it is, I shall not in this note concern myself with the substantive proposal that the author makes Le of employing various notions of Indian aesthetics in an effort to create an Indian philosophy of Science. The basic question which I would want to pose through the Journal to the author and other readers pertains to the very notion of an Indian Philosophy of Science. It could mean one of at least three things which are:

An Indian Philosophy of Indian Science.
An Indian Philosophy of Western Science
An Indian Philosophy of what is essentially Universal Science.

(There is of course the problem of what is Indian Philosophy - must it be classical Indian thought - which I leave untouched). Dr.Kulkarani makes no explicit statement of his views regarding science, but from what he does say I must conclude that he favors the last sense of the term. He says in this context:

'One of the underlying reasons for the absence of any sustained attempt to develop an Indian perspective in Philosophy of Science is the belief that both Science and the philosophical reflection on Science are somehow alien to our philosophical culture. They are believed as being exclusively the products of a revolutionary transformation in thought that occurred in Europe. Ridding oneself of such a belief is the first task facing the Indian intellectual to da (p-18).

As one who fully subscribes to the view he rejects, l am anxious to see if Kulkarni presents arguments which would make me revise my view. Frankly, I find none and am forced to conclude that we are simply being asked without argument to 'rid' ourselves of the notion that the history of science and its origins in a socio-historical and geographic cultural setting has any significance. Dr.Kulkami however clearly does not take the same Universals tic view regarding the philosophy of science. If he did then the expression Indian Philosophy of Science' would make little sense). In fact he argues that the very gap that exists between the Indian and the Western Philosophical perspectives can be made to yield an in-depth perception of science quite analogous to the phenomenon of binocular vision. At the same time he takes all his cues from Western philosophy of science. Thus even in arguing that Indian aesthetics provides a rich interpretive model for the philosophical understanding of science he falls back on the (western) historical fact that with the collapse of positivism in philosophy of science, a proximity between philosophy of science and aesthetics is established' (p.20). One can't help wondering whether for the author it is only in the light of this collapse that Indian aesthetics illuminates. I raise this question in all seriousness because the answer to it reveals the degree of the autonomy of interest with which we approach Indian thought. I myself believe that it is time we studied Indian theories without looking for parallels, justifications and finally certification from across the seas.

Moreover I am strongly inclined to believe that Dr.Kulkami would agree with me on this. Why is it important then to show 'how Indian epistemology can shed light on one of the important problems that has been revived in recent times' (23)? Isn't it more important to notice which problems an Indian philosophy of Science would, or does, generate? Indeed how can one square all these claims with the thesis of the great differences that separates the Indian and the western perspectives?

Which brings me to a more serious objection to position (c)? On p.25 Dr.Kulkami takes pains to emphasize the contrasts between Indian epistemology and its western counterpart that liars given answers which are dichotomous and single valued'. The question is: Did science arise, in either culture, outside the pale of epistemological concerns? Did the understanding of what can be known, how it can be known validated and what purposes such knowledge can serve, not have any effect on the nature of the 'scientific' explanation of the universe? Indeed, on the very constitution of that Universe? Can knowledge be universal and its self understanding alone be related to civilization concerns? To put it concretely can science be universal but only its positivistic self understanding is western? If not, then the author must give up either the notion of a universal science or that of an Indian philosophy of science in it is sense.

Towards the end of the paper Dr.Kulkami does reflect on his own exercise he himself raises the question of its authentic Indianans. He indicates the possible need for an alternative more radical approach to the problem of his paper. What I have sought to show in this note is that the more radical approach is not a matter of political choice as he suggests on p. 15; it is a theoretical necessity.

Author: Mohini Mullick

MORE ON THE JAPANESE MIRACLE

2011-10-24T21:05:00.001-07:00

Dear Sir,

The Japanese Miracle interview seemed to be very confusing both factually as well as in its tenor. GN.Krishnan asks a question to Prof. Takeshi Hayashi about their (Japanese) refusal to invest substantially in R and D. I do not know where from he got this information. Let me refer to one area about which I have some knowledge namely 'Advanced Ceramics'. A study was undertaken (1985) to compare the R and D efforts in this area by Japan, Western Europe, and U.S.A. Japan spent nearly $ 50 million / year compared to $ 35-40 million / year by U.S.A. and much less by Western Europe. SONY spends 6% of its turnover on R and D which for a company of SONY'S size is very big money if we compare globally. Japanese got the Nobel prize in Physics in recognition of the work he did in the R and D division of SONY. All this is not Rand D in the typical Western style.

The question put by the interviewer to Prof.Hayashi on Japanese Iron and Steel industry as also the answer gives a very wrong impression. Japan, at present (assuming CIS to be one country) - is the third highest producer of steel in the world over 100 million tones. The production varies, according to the demand but this is the maximum that they can produce. Nippon Steel has a steel plant which is nearly two decades old and can produce up to 9 million tons of steel per year. The plant in any one shift is run by less than 100 persons. I mention this to slow the extent of 'modernization' in the 'Western' sense of the word. Japanese now a day’s boast of the most stringent specification for their steel products. For the production of these grades you need all kinds 'modern' units. There is a debate whether we need such stringent specification for large variety of applications. To sum up - the traditional sector in iron and steel industry plays a very insignificant role both quantitatively and qualitatively. Does one get this impression by reading the interview? The title given to the interview was The 'Japanese Miracle and it is a miracle in the 'Western' sense. There were oxygen booths on the footpaths of Tokyo for people to breathe; the city had such terrible pollution. As the interview progresses it seem the interviewers carefully avoided the 'Western' characteristics of the 'miracle'. We all try to look for data for supporting our view points. But too many omissions make the purpose self-defeating.

Barundeb Muldterjee Calcutta.

(We have forwarded the letter of Sri Barundeb Mukherjee to Prof.Hayashi for his response. The response of the two interviewers C.N.Krishnan and A.V.Balasubramanian is published below - Editor).

Your interview with Prof.Takeshi Hayashi in the Issue No: 22 (March 1992) of the PPST Bulletin has elicited some amount of response from our readers. Some of the responses have been appreciative and laudatory many others have been quite sharp, disapproving and even outright condemning. Most of these have been communicated orally the only written comment expressing very serious disapproval has been from Shri.Barun Deb Mukerjee of Calcutta. As Sri Barun's letter alone does not cover all points of disagreement expressed by many of the readers, we are taking the liberty of summarizing below, in our own words, the main points brought out against the interview:

Some statements are factually wrong and misleading. For example, Sri Barun Deb Mukerjee challenges the statement that Japan had not been investing in R and D as much as some other Western countries. Japan has actually done the same thing in this regard as the West and nothing different or original according to him.
It is a myth to claim that any significant amount of industrial production in Japan today is being done by the 'traditional' techniques as against the 'western' techniques. The discussion of steel industry gives a very misleading impression in this regard. There is nothing 'Japanese' as distinct from 'western' in any of their industrial organization.
The interviewers have carefully and consciously avoided any reference to the 'seamier' side of the 'Miracle' story the social, psychological, emotional ecological cost at which the 'Miracle' has been made possible. No reference at all to the widespread practice of drinking, widespread prostitution and poor status of women, high levels of psychological disorders and suicide rates, high levels of political corruption, lack of democratic and working class consciousness and movements, high levels of pollution and environmental degradation, unscrupulous and exploitative trade and commercial practices with other nations (particularly of the Third world), etc. The entire interview was an effort to whitewash the true story of how Japan achieved power and wealth, and hold it out as an example for others to follow.
The interviewers have tried to conjure up a myth that what Japan has done is not 'westernization', but that they have evolved a 'Japanese path' to modernization quite distinct from that of the west. And also that the 'Miracle' has been achieved with the Japanese soul intact! The mischief here is in the suggestion that we can also become 'modem' keeping our Indian’s intact.
The interview is a clear pointer that the PPST is now saying things quite different from what it was doing earlier. (To quote Sri.Barun again, 'we all try to look for data for supporting our viewpoints. But too many omissions make the purpose self-defeating). To want to promote Japan (the crassly imitative Westernizer, if ever there was one) as a model for development is indeed as far as one can possibly get from the days of uncompromising anti-modernism and anti-westernism.

Now, that indeed is quite a bit we would like to respond to them as best as we can within the constraints of space available to us:

While the factual inaccuracies, if any, have to be corrected, we have largely gone
by the opinion of Prof.Hayashi on many matters pertaining to Japan. It is our understanding that the concept and organization of industrial R and D in Japan is not a mere imitation of the western model, and that the Japanese have evolved an approach that is original and unique to them. Greater expert analysis and deliberations on this theme would be most welcome.
It has not been the idea of the interviewers at all to suggest that Japan is still running its industry using its traditional technologies. What was coming out of the discussion with Prof.Hayashi was that
1. The modem industry in Japan did not imply a complete break or discontinuity with their traditional industries (as it did in our case) it absorbed much of the resources, skills and tools from the traditional after modifying them suitably.
2. The modern industry in Japan was not hoisted on an artificial and non-existent social base it was largely mapped on to the traditionally existing industrial social base, in some essential continuity with it; this resulting in evolution of managerial and administrative principles and practices quite distinct from those of the west.
It is thus that while the modern steel mills of Japan have little resemblance to their traditional iron and steel works, the modern and the traditional Japanese industry are not the works of two different (and disjoint) sets of minds there is an essential connectedness and evolution from the latter to the former.
The purpose of our interview was not to bring out (to 'expose') what all is wrong in the Japanese 'model' it was not even to give a 'balanced' picture of Japan, with all its 'pros' and 'cons' in place. The purpose of the exercise was to understand and identify the essential sources of strength of modern Japan; to understand how it could acquire so much strength and power in spite of so many obvious disadvantages and disabilities. The luxury of dwelling upon the 'seamier' side of Japan is probably not permitted to us the privileged and the elite of this nation that even after forty five years of independence, has no clues as to how to feed, clothe and shelter half of its population.
It is a fact that there is very little Indian learning, scholarship and interpretation of the Japanese society and nation; our image of Japan is largely what is picked up from the western media and their interpretation. It is thus undoubtedly not easy to conclude emphatically as to what exactly has been the nature of transformation that Japan has been undergoing. It is however not correct to conclude that Japan has merely copied everything from the west just because their dresses, cars, highways and cities do not look much different from those of the west. It does appear that certain core aspects of their society, language, education, family, social norms and customs, forms and modes of organization, public life and polity - have retained their uniquely Japanese character with the result that the modem Japanese person and society are quite distinct from their western (or any other) counterparts. The issue here is not one of whether such a thing is good/bad, desirable/undesirable etc it is not even one of whether this is a lasting phenomenon. The Japanese case only seems to suggest that the choice is 'not necessarily limited to either staying totally traditional or totally westernizing. Put more explicitly, it is not obvious from the Japanese example that our attachment to many of our civilization norms and values is what is stopping us from becoming strong in the modern context.
Now: to the 'charge' that the interviewers where implying things quite contrary to what the PPST has been saying for long. To put things in perspective, the main thrust of the PPST's efforts so far have been to show the following:
1. The need for us to evolve our own understanding and evaluation of the west ' and not accept the claims of the west about itself and its role in the world during the last 500 or so years. We should not lose sight of the hard core of power, control, intolerance, violence and domination that lie behind the 'soft exterior of 1 the west decorated with words like 'enlightenment', 'democracy and equality', 'development and progress', 'pursuit of knowledge and truths', etc.
2. The need for us to evolve our own understanding and assessment of our civilization core, and not blindly accept the interpretations about ourselves offered by the West or anyone else. While there is need for us to weed out whatever weaknesses and short comings that exist, there has to be an understanding and appreciation of the essential soundness of our civilization core.
3. The essential reason for the large scale failures in all our post-independence efforts at social reconstruction and nation building has been that we were following models, concepts, tools and techniques blindly borrowed from the West, and quite unsuited to us. For us to achieve success in our efforts, they will have to be based upon and consistent with, the living core of our own tradition and civilization and any borrowing of tools and techniques from outside has to be done with great discretion and discrimination.

Having spent about ten years trying to establish the above viewpoint, the PPST has been of late attempting to work out some details of what follows from it. To the interviewers of Prof.Hayashi, it is clear that the prime task before us all is one of nation-building. The task initiated during our independence movement of putting together a nation that is strong, sound and viable in this modern context, has to be carried forward to completion in as short a time as possible. To those who feel this is a dilution of the lofty civilization concerns displayed earlier, it should be said that the tallest personality that our civilization had produced in a few centuries, viz. Mahatma Gandhi himself had deemed it fit, to spend much of his life in putting a nation together. (He is called the Father of the Nation). While we believe as strongly as ever that there is much that our civilization can contribute to the world, none of that is possible as long as we, as a nation, are a picture of poverty, weakness, strife, disarray, subjugation, disharmony and discord. With all our undoubted wisdom and insight, we indeed cut such a sorry figure in today's world. In fact it is as though that the world is slowly passing us by while we stay caught in a hole as it were; we as a nation are slowly acquiring the status of the largest slum in the world It is indeed the 'Indian Miracle' that we could manage to bring about such a situation despite so many favorable and positive things going for us - a bountiful and benevolent nature, a highly cultured and skillful people, and a great tradition of glorious attainments in all domains of life.

Our talk with Prof.Hayashi had the prime objectives of comprehending how that country went about the task of nation building and effecting the transformation from tradition to modernity - its version of modernity. We were interested in the Japanese Miracle' as we have to put an end to the. Indian Miracle at the earliest. Having said that, it should also be added that perhaps there is not much that one can learn from others experiences. Probably the most important thing that one can learn from the 'success-stories' of others is that none of it can be duplicated by anyone else, and that each nation has to evolve its own unique path according to its own tradition, history and genius.

We are told that 8.5 percent of a motor car is made here, but the other 15 percent is the most important. Unless we can make a cent percent motor car, I prefer to go back to the Ox-cart age, rather than go in an imported car.

Author: Mohini Mullick

WHAT ARE THE LARGER ISSUES?

2011-10-24T21:00:00.001-07:00

Much has been said and written on the Bhopal disaster and its aftermath. While issues such as the nature and extent of the tragedy, it’s possible long-term effects, the culpability of the multinational Union Carbide Corporation and its cohorts in India, the bungling by our Government, scientists, technologists and other professional elites, the need for massive relief operations etc., have been widely dealt with, many of the larger issues that really come to the fore in the context of Bhopal disaster have not yet found adequate expression. What is distressing is the total lack of sensibility and utter callousness displayed so far by most of our scientists, technologists, administrators and other professionals and their professional bodies, in even refusing to start a debate on what happened at Bhopal, what we must do to ensure that such disasters do not recur and what we learn from all this in formulating our S&T and other policies in future. We believe that such issues can no longer be shirked any more. The following collection of articles on the 'Lessons from Bhopal' is to precisely focus on several of these larger issues that have come to the forefront in the context of the Bhopal disaster. Whether our professional elites want it or not, the debate on these issues is going to start and perhaps take onto still larger issues concerning the entire reconstruction of Indian Society.

While the Government and the official machinery has reacted to the Bhopal disaster, as though it ware just one more natural calamity like an earthquake or a cyclone, the event has brought forth arid mare probing responses from a number of non-official groups as well as individuals. Finding expression in the form of articles in the press meetings and seminars, processions, demonstration, and signature campaigns, these groups and individuals have attached great significance to the tragedy and raised a wide range of questions and issues. Some of the important issues raised in this context have been the following:

The functioning of the multinational, corporations in our Country their greed, callousness and double-standards while operating in the thirdworld countries. It has been demanded that their operations be closely scrutinized and curbed, and. even that they as completely thrown out of the country.
The poor safety standards prevailing in the industrial units in our .country": It is being pointed out that the Bhopal disaster is far from being an isolated incident and that observance of safety regulations is woefully inadequate or even non-existent in many industrial' units in our country, be they foreign owned, Indian or Government run. It is being urged that the existing conditions in the various industrial establishments in the country be thoroughly investigated, more stringent safety regulations be passed and strictly enforced.
Environmental hazards being posed by the industrial units and other projects in the country: It is being increasingly brought out that many of our developmental schemes such as large scale industrial units, dams, canals etc., are steadily disrupting and destroying the environment and eroding people's health and means lot livelihood. Demands are being raised that a thorough environmental impact assessment be carried out before any such scheme is sanctioned and taken up, and that steps be taken to reduce the environmental hazards of the existing units. The right to safe environment should be recognized as a fundamental and enforceable right of the people.
People’s right to know: Very little information is ever made available to them. Public regarding the nature, functioning and problems of most of our developmental projects. This is particularly so in the case of industries, many of which are located in densely populated areas. People are denied access to basic information like what the plant is producing, what are the processes and materials being used, in what ways these are likely to affect the life and ecology of the locality, what are the hazards involved, and in the event of an accident, what are the people expected to do, etc. In many cases, it is not even known whether such, information even exists. In the case of Bhopal, the situation had gone to such an absurd extent that, even after the disaster, the people were kept totally in the dark as to what had happened and what needs to be done. The demand that has been put forward is that the people should have an absolute right to know what is going on inside all the plants and projects, and this right should be enforceable by law.
The role of the Government and bureaucracy in the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster has been attracting severe criticism for its failure to provide adequate relief and rehabilitation to the affected people, its failure to identify and proceed firmly against those responsible for the disaster, and in general, for its total lack of appreciation of the feelings of the people. It has been criticized for having .been under various influences and pressures to such an extent that all the earlier warnings about the possibility of such a disaster were totally ignored, and after the occurrence, 4he culprits were being even shielded and protected.
The role of the S&T Community in the Country : How its conduct both before and after the disaster has totally belied the responsibility entrusted to it by the society, and how its conduct has been unbecoming of the moral, ethical and professional standards expected of any self-respecting S&T Community. It has been pointed out that, disregarding all the norms worthy of the members of such a Community, our S&T personnel have conducted themselves merely as the spokesmen for politicians, bureaucrats and foreign capital.

As can be seen from the above, the range of issues raised in the context of Bhopal has been quite wide and of far-reaching significance. The central concern expressed has-been on preventing another Bhopal from happening, and the many suggestions and demands, if accepted and implemented, would doubtless go a long way in reducing such a possibility. It is essential that a concerted nation wide effort be organized in this direction.

At the same time, one cannot help noticing that much of the debate and discussion seems to be sharing a common premise characterized by a belief that : (i) If only we are more cautious and take the necessary measures, then it is possible for us to 'tame' the modern S & T (whose end results are the plants like the one in Bhopal) and make it serve the people of our country in a safe manner, and (ii) We really have no choice in the matter but to have more and more of such plants, if we are to develop and progress as a nation. Foreclosing options at this level, we believe, is both premature as well as unnecessary. Firstly, it should be remembered that if the West today appears to have acquired reasonable mastery and control over this S & T, it is only after going through a process very costly and painful not only to themselves but perhaps more so to other peoples. Even then, it is far from true that this S&T has been made 'safe' in the West. It is a serious and open question as to what price we will have to pay if we as a nation under the condition existing today, have to learn to use this S&T. In a widespread and larger scale manner, even assuming that such a thing is possible.

The second aspect, viz. that we really have no choice in the matter, also needs a careful re-examination. It is true that the issue is often. Posted in this manner: If we have to have development and progress, then we must be prepared to have more and more of the Bhopal-type plants, and all those who are opposed to such plants are actually opposing all development and progress. This position, however, becomes highly questionable especially in the case under consideration. After all the "plant in Bhopal was supposedly producing highly toxic chemical pesticides. As is well known chemical pesticides became an essential input to agriculture only with the adoption of the Green Revolution package. It became essential because of the use of the so called high yielding variety (HYV) seeds that have been evolved in short periods of time in artificial environments and hence have no natural immunity to pests; because of the exclusive use of chemical fertilizers that disrupt the soil chemistry and the biological environment of the plant; because of the poor water-management associated with large dams, canals and large-scale destruction of the forests, etc. So, to say that we have no alternative to increasingly producing and consuming chemical pesticides is correct only if it is accepted that we have no alternative to the Green Revolution package for increasing our food production. And this is far from being the case. On the one' hand, it is being increasingly Recognized that, apart from destroying the soil and poisoning the food and the environment, the Green Revolution technology of agriculture is also highly wasteful of all resources and energy, and is indeed a very inefficient way of producing food. And then, it can also be confidently asserted that the science and technology of agriculture evolved and. perfected by our farmers over thousands of years, an agriculture that did not need chemical pesticides, is more than adequate to meet all our needs, if only we are prepared to learn from them. The existence of such alternatives to the Green Revolution package has never been seriously considered. Without exploring this possibility seriously and sincerely, it is quite premature and unnecessary to conclude that we have no alternative but to rely increasingly on chemical pesticides, and thus have more and more of the Bhopal type plants.

It is not being suggested that we can abruptly stop using all chemical pesticides and that all the pesticide plants can be immediately shut down. What is needed is an effort to reduce our total dependence on such pesticides, and explore ways and means of eventually phasing them out altogether. The Chinese experience seems to be significant in this regard. Starting from a position of total dependence on chemical pesticides, like what we are doing now, the Chinese agriculture seems to have soon realized their harmful effects and adopted a variety of means whereby they have been able to reduce the use of chemical pesticides significantly, at least in a few selected areas. In a similar way, now that we are becoming increasingly aware of the problems involved, it should be possible for us to check and reverse the trend. Without attempting this, to blindly believe that all that we can do is to try to make the Bhopal type plants safer, is far too feeble a response to the tragedy of Bhopal.

It may be safely asserted that what has been said about pesticides and agriculture is also true, to varying degrees, in other areas like health, housing etc. A much wider range of alternatives are in fact available to us and that they should all be explored seriously. This ought to form an integral part in any effort to make sure that Bhopal’s do not recur. In fact, the most significant lesson that we should learn from Bhopal is the need to reconsider our S & T options at a fundamental level in all the sectors.

A certain analogy between Bhopal and Jallianwalla Bagh seems inescapable. The massacre at Jallianwalla Bagh permanently and drastically changed our perception of the British rule. It revealed in a flash as it were, the true nature of the British rule and drove home the lesson that if further Jallianwalla Baghs are to be prevented, then there is no alternative but that the British must leave India. In a similar way, the Bhopal disaster must make us all see the true face of the path of development that is being pursued in our country. It must make us see that Bhopal’s are an integral part of this path and that all attempts to prevent further Bhopal’s must necessarily include searching for alternatives to this path of development.

Author: Madras Group