(Excertps of talk delivered by Prof. Avijit Pathak at JNU on 14th October 2011)
Modernity is confluence of ideas. It is symbolic, meaningful, experimental and universal generalization, narratives, poetics, subjective. Especially in the context of interdisciplinary, it is the cross disciplinary idea and culture. Experiences with modernity and landscapes of modernity are vast and complex. There is no singular way to approach the modernity. There is historical and cultural memory—historically unique and culturally specific. Multiple experiences of modernity are not binary expressions of tradition and modernity. It is legacy of historical heritage. Traditionalisation of modernity and modernization of tradition are in a way indicating past being recalled, reinvented so as to redefine modernity.
Who reinforced this modernity vision? Voltaire, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Kant and likewise. The events of industrial capitalism, secularism, epeistological optimism of science, political democratization, rationalization. All of these contributed to enlightenment. The universes of experiences and critically dissenting voices also contributed to scientificity of culture. When Manchester was symbol of industrial capitalism, then it was also epitome of romantic ideology depicting the transition on the agrarian economy to industrial economy and the pains inherent in it. Also group of intellectuals led by Freud on one side and by Marx on other side developed the critic of enlightened modernity.
Then came the fission of enlightened modernity and colonization with reference to the engagement with the west. Establishment of modern university, scientific education and arrival of modern communication systems and philosophers like John Sturart Mill and Bentink shaped the modern thought. Proponents of European modernity happened through reason, science. Therefore meaningful dialogue with west also brought huge influences from their culture, lifestyle and progressive democratic ethos. This process of engagement with the past also gave rise to the deep reflection on the past, leading towards glorification of certain convenient aspects of it. Debate with the western enlightenment, industrial capitalism and notions of progress can be traced by four reminders who are deeply rooted in Indian freedom movement and nation building. Aurbindo Ghosh, Mahatma Gandhi, Ravindranath Tagore and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar invented the interpretations of the western modernity.
Aurbindo, a saint philosopher advocated and radiated intuitive reasoning to support Darwinian survival instincts as against instrumental rationality. He envisioned the world beyond physical manifestations for quest of deeper and subtler layers of universal mind. Gandhi`s Hind Swaraj protested against aggressive project of colonialism and violent aggressive impulses of modern development. It advocated a paradigm shift required from brute force to soul force. This soul force will help us to look inside for solutions, where really they are located. It has critic of Parliament and modern systems.
Tagore observed crisis of collapsing civilization but had great hope for modernity. He saw great danger in acceleration of nationalism and consolidation of nation-state. Rationalization of nation state may lead sometimes to narcissist state. Ambedkar`s commentary on Hinduism not only gave us new frame of religion but also of making justice with economic and social inequality. Buddhism provided counter culture. He embodied the universal values of liberty, equality and fraternity oriniginally espoused in French revolution. He made those values as permanent feature of Indian constitution legitimized by struggle of social movement. But tragedy of modernity is that country is not able to forget the caste. Caste continues to acquire new logic and avatar as we go ahead in modern life. This also implies for secularism. Both majority and minority forces have been communalized beyond civilized limits. Kinship identity has crept in politics and films to migrate to other professional fields.
History of India is not only political history of country in making. It is history, rather, histories of everything. Rather it is part of larger civilization heritage—through oceanic flow of which multiple currents of ideologies and maternities pass simultaneously. Thus during this flow the process of becoming is always taking shape. So, today we are witnessing historical, multiple and post-colonial modernities.
