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The Culture of Indian Politics: A Stock Taking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Ashis Nandy
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Abstract

Political culture in India is not merely a reflection of community life-style. It is also the link between historical experiences of politics and model identities, on the one hand, and the needs of new political forms, on the other. Defined thus, it becomes not only an emergine national idiom, but also a cultural vector diat is gradually entering the community's life-style as a legitimate force of social change.

There are four historical stages in the development if the culture of Indian politics. The contemporary political culture also consists of four strands, each with its own psychological problems of adaptation and their typical cultural expressions. These strands are related, on the one hand, to the four corresponding historical stages and, on the other, to different levels of personality functioning in the model Indian. Within this framework, a new approach can be taken to the analysis of the major themes and symbols in Indian politics. It is possible, for example, to decompose some of the major themes into their stage-specific contents which, again, can be related to the larger adaptive problems faced by the community at different historical phases.

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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , November 1970 , pp. 57 - 79
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1970

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References

The author is grateful to D. L. Sheth and Rajni Kothari whose reactions have structured this paper to a great extent.

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26 The concept of dharma is almost impossible to translate. “Duty” is a very inadequate rendering. The best description the concept is of course in Kane, P. V.'s History of Dharmashastra, (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1946), Vol. 3, pp. 241, 825–829Google Scholar. More sociological analyses are available in Karve, Irawati, Hindu Society: An Interpretation, (Poona: Deccan College, 1961)Google Scholar; and Prabhu, P. H., Hindu Social Organisation, (Bombay: Popular, 1954)Google Scholar. On the influence of the concept on traditional power structures and jurisprudence, see Bendix, R., Nation-Building and Citizenship, (New York: Wiley, 1964) pp. 215–298Google Scholar. The concept of nishkama karma of Geeta has also been repeatedly given new meanings by different commentators. Some of the most influential of the reinterpretors have been Vivekananda, Tilak, Aurobindo, and Gandhi. Personality correlates of the theme have been mentioned by Taylor, W. S., op. cit., passimGoogle Scholar; Carstairs, , op. cit., pp. 137–169.Google Scholar

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34 See the papers in Kothari, R. (ed.), Caste in Indian Politics, op. cit.Google Scholar; also Bailey, F. G., Tribe, Caste and Nation, (Manchester: Manchester University, 1960).Google Scholar

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48 On the relative autonomy of politics from society see Weiner, M., “India's Two Political Cultures,” in Political Change in South Asia, (Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1965)Google Scholar; “India: Two Political Cultures;” Morris-Jones, , “Behaviour and Idea,”Google Scholar and “Stability and Change;” Srinivas, M. N., Caste in IndiaGoogle Scholar; Eisenstadt, S. N., “Transformation of Social, Political and Culutral Orders,” American Sociological Review, 30 (1965) pp. 659–673CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Smith, , op cit., pp. 57–62.Google Scholar

49 Chaudhuri, , Autobiography, pp. 214–215Google Scholar; Schweitzer, A., op. cit.Google Scholar See a review of this argument in Goodwin, W. F., “Mysticism and Ethics: An Examination of Radhakrishnan's Reply to Schweitzer's Critique of Indian Thought,” Ethics, 67 (1956) pp. 25–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Brief discussions of this subject are available in Mahadevan, T. M. P., “Indian Ethics and Social Practice,” in C. A. Moore, op. cit., pp. 476–493Google Scholar; also Keith, A. B., The Religion and Philosophy of Veda and Upanishads, (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1925) pp. 584–586Google Scholar; Hume, , op. cit., pp. 58–66.Google Scholar

50 Lamb, , op. cit., p. 113.Google Scholar

51 On the lack of mutuality and interpersonal distrust, see Chaudhuri, , Autobiography, pp. 212–213Google Scholar; Carstairs, , op. cit.Google Scholar, Chapter 3, particularly.

52 Reincourt, , op. cit., p. 400Google Scholar; Panikkar, K. M., A Survey of Indian History, (Bombay: Asia, 1963) pp. 18–20.Google Scholar

53 Mujumdar, , op. cit.Google Scholar, Chapter 1; Mishra, , op cit.Google Scholar, passim.

54 John, and Useem, Ruth, The Western Educated Man in India, (New York: Dryden, 1955)Google Scholar; Narayan, Dhirendra, op. cit.Google Scholar; Chaudhuri, , The Continent of Circe.Google Scholar

55 Some of the studies which provide empirical basis of the observations made in this section are Carstairs, op cit.; Rudolph and Rudolph, op. cit.; Hitchcock and Mintern, op. cit.