Abstract
Psychology and Developing Societies enters its Silver Jubilee year with this special thematic issue on ‘Indian Cultural Concepts’. The journal was launched with Professor Durganand Sinha as its founding Chief Editor. Writing the first editorial of the journal, Sinha (1989) made the following observations that ring true even today. He said:
Modern psychology-often referred to as scientific psychology-is a recent phenomenon in the developing countries. It has been introduced at different times since the turn of the century in countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America more as a readymade intellectual package than as a natural growth from the native soil. In most parts of the developing world there existed for centuries indigenous views, often very complex, elaborate and sophisticated, about the nature of man, human mind and its functioning, and human behaviour and interactions. These two systems, traditional versus modern, indigenous versus imported, have tended to exist as parallel systems of psychological knowledge with hardly any assimilation or integration. (p. 1)
He went on to suggest that there was a need to ‘outgrow the alien framework’ in countries of the developing world, because as he put it,
modern psychology has not yielded knowledge which is of much relevance to the problems being faced by these countries. Not only the social context which generated this knowledge is different but also the underlying philosophy and beliefs about human nature are at variance. (p. 2)
Psychologists with preference for indigenous cultural approaches may find it satisfying that there has been a definite shift away from acultural Euro-American kind of psychologies in the last three decades. It is evident in various forms. American Psychological Association (APA) and International Union of Psychological Sciences (IUPS) now have ‘Task Forces for Indigenous Psychologies’. APA covers indigenous psychology under its Division 32. The University of Gadjah in Indonesia has a full fledged centre devoted to Indigenous and Cultural Psychology. There are now active groups of Psychologists in almost all the continents who are contributing through research and teaching to development of indigenous and cultural psychologies. Several major books devoted to Indigenous and Cultural Psychology have been published (Hwang, 2012; Kim, Yang and Hwang, 2006; Rao, Paranjpe and Dalal, 2010; Ratner, 2008; Valsiner, 2007, 2012). Apart from Psychology and Developing Societies, several new journals have been launched which focus on research studies employing indigenous and cultural concepts. Mainstream psychologists also have started to recognise that cultural variables have a critical role in shaping and mediating psychological processes and in effecting behavioural outcomes. They also concede that such an understanding is necessary if one needs to understand problems in their contexts and find solution for them.
There is, of course, the other side which we hope now will be addressed on a priority basis by all of us. Alternative theoretical frameworks, which one expected, have not emerged. One possible reason for this is that indigenous psychologists have focused on cultural concepts in a piecemeal basis. The researchers too, by and large, have not used methods which derive from the epistemological approaches coming out of indigenous psychologies (Shams and Hwang, 2005). Such studies have not been able to find convergence with other studies employing the indigenous approach nor with those of mainstream psychology. Part of the reason for this may lie in the diversity of languages in which concepts are rooted which makes generation of common semantic space and meaning making processes difficult within and across cultures.
Another problem with some of such studies has been that they have focused more on historicity of concepts and cultures forgetting that cultures are not static entities. Contemporary cultures are connected with the past but never in the idealised form in which they are conceived. They unfold and evolve over a period of time. They are what Hermans and Kempen (1998) call ‘moving cultures’. Even so, ‘moving cultures’ too retain their core values and evolve around them, although, their representation and meanings may undergo change. Behaviour within a cultural context is influenced by the meaning that people give to values, social rules and norms contemporaneously. Researchers need to focus on understanding meanings given to such cultural concepts which serve as the substances from which mindsets of people within a culture come to be created, rather than base their understanding on meanings drawn from the ancient texts and cultural material. This is not to suggest that such an understanding of concepts is not needed. It is, because people attempt to make sense of their own lives in terms of concepts that have been passed on to them through socialisation. But, they are of limited use if they are not understood in their evolved forms which can help them to understand self, self and other relationships and their own lives better. Social and mental representations that concepts carry from the past are not of much use when individuals engage in comparisons in the present context.
Psychologists from developing societies have often voiced their dissatisfaction with acultural psychological theories which seek to discover universal ‘scientific truths’ which they call ‘western’ or ‘Euro-American centric’. The response of Indian Psychologists to presenting an alternative indigenous psychology has been in terms of digging deep into old Sanskrit texts and our ancient culture and tradition. They identify concepts that are of psychological import and seek to apply them to understand behaviour and psychological processes in the present day context. This approach is limiting, just as contemporary psychological approaches and paradigms are, because it assumes that the Indian society has remained unchanged and rooted in the past and, therefore, the theoretical frameworks and concepts can be used in the same manner as they were in the past. Our view is that all cultures have concepts which enable them to maintain their unique identity but such concepts also undergo change as a result of historical experiences and also when they come into contact with other cultures. To understand behaviour and situated cognitions (sense making processes) of people within a culture, one needs to focus on what one may call as the essence of a concept, and also on how people use it in their day to day lives.
About This Issue
The present thematic issue is the first of several issues that are to follow on cultural concepts from other cultural regions. The planning for the issue began about a year back when a large number of psychologists in India were contacted through emails and asked to give their views on what they considered to be certain ‘master’ or ‘core’ Indian cultural concepts which uniquely explain social relations in Indian cultural context. Although, the mails were sent out to psychologists professing different religions, replies were received only from those professing Hinduism. (There are some scholars from India who hold that the essential character of Indian culture is based on Hinduism, although, this may be disputed.) Scholars suggested over 50 concepts, most of which were taken from the ancient philosophical and scriptural texts in the Sanskrit language. They belonged largely to religious, moral, social and spiritual spheres. The tilt appeared due to the fact that these scholars who have been contributing to Indian Psychology have been primarily Hindus. A Retreat was organised at Allahabad with a view to exchanging perspectives and views of the scholars. Scholars from other disciplines, such as, indology, culture, philosophy, history and literature were invited to comment on papers developed by psychologists on some of the cultural concepts which had surfaced through brainstorming. They presented papers on concepts that they considered unique to Indian culture and critical for understanding psychological processes and behaviour of the Indian people in the present day context. Our brief to them was to see these concepts in historical context and examine how they were understood by the Indian people and used by them in their day to day lives. The present thematic issue includes six papers from scholars who had participated in the Retreat organised by the Department of Psychology at the University of Allahabad. Articles from Anand C. Paranjpe and Usha Menon in the issue were specially invited to add breadth.
The first article in this thematic issue by Anand C. Paranjpe attempts to explicate one of the central concepts of Hinduism, dharma, which as he points out is often wrongly connoted as ‘religion’. The term, he explains, has multiple meanings but it primarily connotes performing one’s duties in line with one’s position and standing in the society. According to him, ‘the twin goals of dharma include the promoting of prosperity (abhyudaya) on the one hand, and spiritual uplift (nishreyas) on the other’. Dharma is also one of the four cherished goals (purusharth-chatushtaya) for the humans. From the point of view of understanding behaviour within the Indian cultural context, it is the twinning of the two goals that provides it a distinctive character. Paranjpe also explains how these features of dharma are different from what is found in case of the Abrahamic religions. Dharma’s primary role is in establishing order in social relations.
The second article by R.C. Mishra builds on the concept of dharma by focusing on another life goal of the Hindus which is categorised under purusharth, namely, moksha (liberation). While explicating the concept, he relates it to the world view of the Hindus. Mishra discusses how it is understood within the Indian cultural tradition and the meaning it has gained in contemporary times. He also discusses the significance of moksha in the lives of the Hindus and the manner in which it expresses itself in cultural practices and behaviour of the Indians.
The article by Tripathi and Ghildyal on ‘Selfhood in Search of Godhood’ discusses the philosophical bases of belief of Indians that all living beings are emanations of God. Such a belief leads Hindus to seek close personal relationship with God. For this, however, a transformation of self is necessary so that communicating with God may become possible. This motive underlies various religious and pooja (worship) rituals of Hindus. The authors discuss in this context the nature of selfhood of Indians and relate it to their cultural practices and day to day behaviour. It is argued that spiritual or divine self is an important facet of self and conditions the expression of different types of self in a variety of realtionships. The article draws from available historical narratives, social events and personal experiences to build a case for search for Godhood by the Hindus.
A number of major studies have pointed out that the thought systems of Westerners differ markedly from the Asians (Nisbett, 2003). It is in this context that Minati Panda’s article may be found pertinent. Panda takes up the concept of madhyam marg (middle path) which is rooted both in the Buddhist and in the Hindu cultural traditions. She analyses folk stories from these two cultural tradtions as well as data collected from students and others to show how what is communicated through the folk stories go in the making of minds of Indians and help them to avoid extreme polarities. She suggests that while facing moral or other kinds of dilemmas, Indians use the madhyam marg dialectic along with patrimony.
Namita Pande’s article takes up the concept of kartavya, which roughly translates into ‘duty’ in English. She has attempted to draw out nuanced of meanings of the concept based on three life narratives. An essential feature of kartavya, the author points out is that action based on kartavya springs from an internal desire to be righteous and responsible in relationship. The three narratives she analyses show actors engaging in selfless acts. In all three cases, the acts were directed at members of their own family. This is not surprising in India, where agency of family, generally, has primacy over personal agency. The concept is distinguished from duty because kartavya driven performance is seen as having a spiritual component. Kartavya, as a concept, also is seen as a part of the nomological networks of anāsakti (detachment) and dharma.
Mala Sinha and Vishal Chauhan’s article focuses on understanding the concept of LajjA which largely relates to emotions of shyness and modesty women experience in relationship with men and their elders. They also point out that the concept is also used to describe certain experiences which result from the experience of shame but more in case of men. LajjA is seen as a desirable quality in Indian women. Sinha and Chauhan have attempted to understand its meaning in terms of its depiction in popular culture, such as in Indian films and also through personal interviews of students and working adults. They argue that the meaning of lajjA is context specific and depends upon the relational attributes of woman vis-à-vis the other person who is involved in the act.
The article in the issue by Rekha Sharma Sen and Shilpa Pandit focuses on an emotion which is quite typical of Indian culture. It focuses on the emotion of love, called vātsalyam that is felt not only by parents but also by others for a child. Although, such an emotion is universal but the manner in which it shows up in the relationship between the child and mother in the Indian culture differs quite a bit from the western cultures. Sen and Pandit ferret out its various attributes and expressions by analysing how it is depicted in literature of four mainstream languages of India in order to understand its manifestation in various relationships, between, mother and child, mother and child God/Goddess, father and child and generally in the Indian culture.
Menon’s article brings together many cultural concepts including that of purity and auspiciousness to understand the beliefs, customs and rituals of Hindus with the purpose of self-refinement at the mundane and spiritual levels. Her paper is based on extensive fieldwork carried out in a temple town in Odissa. She focuses on rituals of daily life as well as those connected with changes in life cycles. She also looks at how Odia women seek to attain dharmik shakti (moral authority) by associating with Goddesses and how the old seek disengagement with the world.