Contours of Post-colonial Comparative Philosophy: Modernity, Philosophy and Science

With the arrival of colonialism in India, the term ‘Comparative philosophy’ gained a new momentum. Comparative philosophy in colonial India acquired a different connotation, different from the comparative philosophy that has been there in practice in classical period. One of the far reaching consequences of colonial regime is manifest in its implementing English education. Due to various socio-political reasons, India that the East India Company met was in a mess. The social cohesiveness and the state power were in a dire state. Many people in India at that time saw the arrival of the East India Company as a blessing. Soon the weighing scale of the business man turned into the sceptre of a ruler and both the ruler and his subjects thought it to be prudent to introduce the English education. With fast speed the millennium old indigenous learning system collapsed making room for institutions imparting European education bringing along with it its philosophy, culture, religion etc. The civilizing role of the English education system overwhelmed the vast majority of the people. This complete rupture in the age old traditional knowledge system has got some interesting consequences for the Indian academic scenario, especially with regard to philosophy. The present essay is an attempt to focus on how the very concept of philosophy is being debated on by some contemporary Indian philosophers. I shall try to highlight how in this debate the participants freely use ideas and debates found in European philosophical tradition, but give these a very distinctive traditional Indian colour. Comparative philosophy gives rise to a Cosmopolitan philosophy in the sense that different philosophical traditions converge and this convergence could be said to be inclusive in nature. This inclusiveness moves beyond mimicking the other. Internalizing the insights of both the classical Indian and contemporary European philosophical traditions a novel creative philosophical repertoire has been generated. This post-colonial Indian philosophy defies any geographical labelling.