“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet…”
- Rudyard Kipling, “The Ballad of East and West”
It is taken almost as a self-evident truth in contemporary Western public discourse to talk about the Western way as embodying the values of rationality, truth, and of course, democracy. This is then held in juxtaposition against the Eastern way, which conveniently comprises everything that the West is not – intuitive, spiritual, and irrational. Even ardent admirers of the East – philosophers like Thoreau or scientists like Jung, have subscribed to this view, even if their position was one of admiration.
One manifestation of this supposed stranglehold of the East on philosophical pursuits is the periodic flowering of Godmen, much like mushrooms in mold. If there is one industry that has survived the vagaries of economics, it is this. It is always on an upswing, and there is never a shortage in demand for the next shaman from the East. India in particular has catered admirably to this demand, from genuine philosophers like Tagore to flamboyant glamor-gurus like Rajneesh or Mahesh Yogi to unapologetic charlatans like Deepak Chopra or Bikram (of hot Yoga fame). Yoga in particular presents an interesting sub-culture within Western society, and some of the same attitudes may be glimpsed among Yogis, though in this case usually couched in uncritical admiration. For example, a Yogi in San Francisco would consider his education incomplete, unless he has made at least one trip to India – the purpose of which is unclear. Perhaps to breathe the enlightenment-laden air. I was once asked, without a trace of irony, whether my soul took flight like a dove when I stepped on Indian soil. My bemused response was that I was too busy with my feet stuck in the dirt to notice.
Recently, I happened to read a book by Amartya Sen, the noted economist and Nobel laureate, on Indian history and traditions. It talks about this entirely fictitious dichotomy which has been foisted on any dialog on East vs. West. The constraints of a blog entry do not permit a detailed critique, but let us consider just one aspect of the supposed East-West divide, perhaps the most important one – the importance of the scientific method. It is accepted, again as an apparently self-evident premise to many an ensuing argument, that the rational scientific method is exclusively a Western invention. Yet how true is this assertion? Science, as any scientist worth his salt will tell you, progresses in increments. The work of scientists today reaches far, because they stand on the shoulders of giants. Each new invention, each new discovery, pushes the boundaries of the known universe, but no scientist is an island. Each one’s work builds on the ground laid by his predecessors. With that in mind, let us take a look at the history of invention.
The following entry in the Wikipedia shows the chronology of all known inventions in history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_historic_inventions
It shows that right from antiquity all the way down to the Renaissance in Europe, all the significant inventions were made in Mesopotamia (modern Iran, Iraq, Syria), China, and India. This includes the fundamental underpinnings of entire modern sciences such as Chemistry, Astronomy, Architecture, and Medicine. When we talk about the middle-east today, the average Westerner conjures up images of a barbaric and backward society, relying entirely on its oil wealth to prop up radical theocracies. Yet, how many know of the scientific works of Geber or Al-Jazari? Thoreau has waxed lyrical on the beauty of the Bhagavad-Gita, but how many (even in India) know of the Sarvadarsanasamgraha (Collection of All Philosophies) and its analytical defense of atheism and materialism? For all of you readers out there to whom the list above is a surprise, I urge you to read some of the entries in greater detail. More surprises await you. East may be East, and West well be West, but under the skin, the twain ain’t so different after all.
Posts
Interesting post. I am still digesting and crunching all the facts. I absolutely loved Amartya Sen’s Argumentative India. I learned quite a bit about India from this book.
But, somewhere down the time line, something must have happened in India. India did not contribute much in the last 10 centuries.
India is referred as people with the oriental mindset in the book that I am reading right now. It is called “A search in secret India”. This book was written in 1931 and the author is an English man. The general population that he comes across tell him all sorts of weird things, like yogis and rishees having super powers and living up to 400 years or more in some part of Himalayas/Tibet. People that the author meets tell him things that sound quite unreal and yet people say it like facts. That is what the author refers to as the oriental mindset.
This is exactly the kind of dangerous juxtaposition that I was talking about in my post. We’re talking about a trained analytical mind in conversation with superstitious lay people, and from that unequal conversation, extrapolating about the larger cultures that spawned them – a completely unjustified comparison. It would be like Amartya Sen conversing with some Bible-literalists from the American Bible belt and then saying on that basis that the ‘American mindset’ tends to overblown religiosity while the ‘Indian mindset’ is one of dispassionate analysis.
I take your point about the lack of Indian scientific contribution in the recent past. Certainly, since the Renaissance, the West has been the center of scientific advancement, but we need to put that in historical context. Simplistic notions of the Eastern and Western mindset merely muddy the waters.
“a Yogi in San Francisco would consider his education incomplete, unless he has made at least one trip to India – the purpose of which is unclear.”
_________________________________________________________
I quite see the point in a Yogi in SF wanting to visit India. If I were a fan of Sri Aurobindo, I would want to visit Pondicherry. It would give me satisfaction to see the place that he lived, to get an understanding of his surroundings, the people and the history. It would definitely deepen my practice.
In a similar vein, a yogi visiting India where it all began, makes sense to me.
I was reading about Sankya or Samkhya philosphy. Yoga for most part is based on this philosophy. The books that I have read say the concept of god was not accepted in Samkhya. Although there are conflicting reports on the internet which say that Samkhya went through different phases where for some time, it was theistic and then atheistic.
Yoga which is derived from Samkhya does accept concept of god or Ishvara. It is interesting to see how the concept of god was being questioned that early on, it was not a straight win for god : )
Yes, the strains of atheism run throughout Indian philosophy, though often cleverly concealed. One of my favorite poems comes from the earliest of Indian holy books – the Rig Veda. I quote from the song of creation, which deals with the creation of the universe:
There is a sense of wonder and mystery here, but also fearlessness, and a thirst for knowledge without dogma. There is courage to look God in the eye, and not blink. Where was this lost, where did it go? I do not know.
This is really a bit off topic, but it’s an interesting bit of trivia related to a metaphor I used in the post.
The original quote I was referring to above was one by Newton who said – “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” He was referring to the work of scientists before him, and this is the most commonly used source of the metaphor. However, I was recently at the cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, and came to know that the original quote on this is by a theologian from Chartres – Bernard of Chartres, which in turn was recorded by John of Salisbury, the bishop of Chartres. Looks like the metaphor itself has been passed on through many giants.