The Humanities and the Social Sciences in Indian Universities

Excerpts from article
“The Disciplinary formations initially borrowed from Great Britain in the 19th century continue to be the basis of the faculties in Indian universities.

It is easy to see that the social sciences in India are losing their definition, their connectivity with the felt needs of society. Under the term ‘the humanities’, we count philosophy, literature, languages, aesthetics, music, drama, dance and folk arts, and other performances. In Indian universities, in the study of these disciplines too there is a disjunction between the actual life of people and academics.

Therefore, when we uncritically adopt Western theories, we are unwittingly undercutting India’s unity as well as alienating ourselves from our own thought. This intellectual subordination of the Indian academy to the Western by establishing a recipient-donor, data-theory relationship is facilitated and strengthened by the complete exhaustion of Indian knowledge systems from main stream syllabi. The humanities and social sciences are no exception.

Is everything lost? Perhaps no. The solution lies in the breaking of this monolithic mainstream government-controlled educational system”.

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This article is courtesy and copyright Prabuddha Bharata (www.advaitaashrama.org). I have been reading the Prabuddha Bharata for years and found it enlightening. You can subscribe online at www.advaitaashrama.org. Cost is Rs 100/ for one year, Rs 280/ for three years, Rs 1,200/ for twenty years and Rs 2,000 for twenty five years.

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