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This paper analyzes the basic issues and concepts concerning
the knowledge-centered tradition of Indian philosophical
quest. As a matter of fact, the present millennium is different
from all other such epochs of human history. There is a
strong impression that we have failed in making use of `information'
and `knowledge' hidden in ancient scriptures for the benefit
of humanity. It is in this context that knowledge-centered
tradition in the Indian philosophy can be of immense help.
This kind of study can properly be done in the light of
the intellectual traditions of the Western thinkers along
with globalization and postmodern developments.
The subject is no doubt too vast and is worthy of further
research and studies. It provides us enough scope for rediscovering
the wealth of knowledge in the light of new thought processes.
This paper discusses the basic features of India's intellectual
traditions; analyzes the characteristics of European modernity;
and concludes with an Indian perspective of postmodernity,
globalization, human rights and the changing world reality
with certain recommendations to overcome the gaps between
the East and the West. The whole postmodern enterprise is
still a child of the European modernity especially the enlightenment
rationality; it may question the overuse of rationality,
but it retains the fundamental assertion of the Enlightenment
that humanity is totally autonomous, supreme and sovereign,
neither responsible to nor dependent on any one or any thing
else besides his/her mind and libido, always living by one's
own resources, whether it be of rationality of libido, the
rational mind or fertile imagination. To that extent postmodernity
is a rewriting of modernity. For Indian minds, puzzled about
post-modernity, I humbly recommend a change of perspective.
Let us leave Descartes, Kant and Hegel, Marx and Freud
for a while, get out of the enlightenment frame of mind
and go to the Upanishads. There is no other way of detoxifying
ourselves from the fumes of Enlightenment Rationality because
the western way is not the only way of thinking and experiencing.
Let us, as Indians, focus on our own rich Indian Heritage,
especially before its breaking up into Buddhist, Jaina and
Hindufor example, the Samkhya-Yoga heritage common to all
three traditionsthe great philosophical perspective that
underlies all Upanisadic, Vedic, Buddhist, or Jaina thought
and experience. Keep your painfully acquired critical rationality,
but do not get tyrannized by it. Stay critical, but do not
reject out of hand what seems strange at first. Expose yourself
without hesitation to a system of thought and experience,
which has endured for millennia. Look also at the heritage
of the first Veda, before it became totally distorted in
the Purva-Mimamsawith the noble actions of Yajna from which
all creation originated (Yajno bhuvanasya nabhi, Prajapati's
sacrifice of oneself in order to engender the created order)
and Rta which holds all things together in a transcendent,
but comprehensive dynamic harmony with enough room for creative
disharmony within it. Then come back to the models of plurality
in the Vedas; you may include Jains and pick up their Anekantavada,
which can inoculate you against all dogmatisms including
that of rationality. The postmodern failure to grasp the
transcendent is to give up the quest for a world with peace,
freedom, joy, dignity and fulfilment, just because they
know both that they cannot do it on their own and that they
cannot be at the centre of such a world.
One of the basic questions that is to be addressed is what
is it to be an Indian? Or in other words, in what way does
an Indian way of thinking differs from that of the Western
or European way? Couple of years back, I came across the
book by Professor Daya Krishna, India's Intellectual Traditions:
Attempts at Conceptual Reconstructions and at the same time,
another book, The Western Intellectual Tradition. It was
quite an experience going through these two books. I felt
strongly to locate ourselves in our own intellectual tradition.
More so, for the last two decades, I have been teaching
and guiding research students on different aspects of modern
and postmodern Western thinking. Bhartrihari (5th century
AD), in his Vâkyapadîya, at the end of his second
book, said, "What does he know who knows only his own
tradition?" This was the period of confident India
with collaborative and contending Buddhist, Jaina and different
Brahmin schools of thought - the Sampradayas - that have
emerged, defined and established them. They were also interacting
with China, with the Middle East and with all other civilized
centers of learning. So Bhatrihari's statement that one
has to know other traditions was quite relevant. But today,
we have to say another thing - what does he know who does
not know his own tradition? This is a tradition in a bad
way. This tradition is historically rooted in the 300 years
of colonial India. The ideas of the dominant class, the
imperialist forces, became the ideas of the people under
domination and subjugation - the colonial subjects. Even
in the postcolonial India, under the garb of neo-imperialism,
the same tradition in a bad way continues. We have to be
vigilant. A re-awakening to this effect came up during the
Indian Renaissance, which got its revival during the movement
for the independence of India with the revitalization of
the Vedantic thought. It gave rise to generations of intellectuals
who have been trying to define India's intellectual traditions
within and outside India.
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