World of Philosophy

SR No.: 007005
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
Publication Year: 2011
Total Pages: 1002
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 30 MB

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INDIAN IDENTITY AND CULTURAL CONTINUITY (A philosophical Analysis)
- Professor S.R. Bhatt The present paper attempts to understand the notion of 'Indian-ness' or 'Indian Identity' in terms of its cultural continuity from the hoary past to the eventful present. It is a philosophical task to understand a culture, to evaluate its ideas, practices and norms of living and then to undertake an inter-cultural dialogue for mutual understanding, mutual appreciation and mutual supplementation. This is possible if one is steeped in one's own culture and is also sympathetically exposed to other cultures.
The East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, with its avowed objective of promotion of such dialogues, has contributed quite a lot in this regard under the able direction of Late Professor, Charles A Moore. His following very perceptive remark is worth notice. He writes, "Understanding is a very complicated matter. Genuine understanding must be comprehensive understanding. It must include a knowledge of all the fundamental aspects of the mind of the people in question. Philosophy is the major medium of understanding, both because it is concerned deliberately and perhaps uniquely with the fundamental ideas, ideals and attitudes of a people, and also because philosophy alone attempts to see the total picture and thus includes in its purview all the major aspects of the life of a people". Concerning Indian philosophy he writes, "...there are very significant ideas and concepts thereno matter how old they are to which the rest of the world may well turn for new insights and perhaps deeper wisdom". He further writes, "As said before philosophy is our concern here. But philosophy is not merely an (or the) indispensable medium of understanding and of knowing a people or a culture. Philosophy is also and more basically, of course-the search for knowledge, for truth, for wisdom. In this respect, India provides the basis for a potential philosophical renaissance, if only the rest of the world, especially the West, will search out the new insights, the new intuitions, the new attitudes and methods which might well at least supplement if not replace or correct and at least enlarge-the restricted perspective of the Western mind"3.
In fact Professor Moore is echoing what the Yajurveda averred long back as "Sa prathama samskrti visva vara" i.e. "It is a culture which is primeval and yet worthy of preference by the world because of its perennial relevance"
A question is often raised, more by Indian scholars than by non-Indian scholars, as to what is meant by the expressions 'Indian philosophy, 'Indian culture' etc. They argue that philosophy, as a discipline does not admit of geographical confinements. Likewise because of heterogeneity there is no such thing as Indian culture. This in fact raises the problem of 'Indian Identity' in particular and 'Identity' in general.
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