Colonial Syndrome: The Videshi Mindset in Modern India

By K. Ramakrishna Rao

Two centuries of British rule crystallized in the minds of English educated Indians a peculiar mindset that tended to undervalue their native ethos and moorings, and make English culture more attractive. This tendency is called the “colonial syndrome”. This syndrome has infected the modern Indian elite, who abandon their cultural roots and imitating the Western ways. This situation has drained them off their intrinsic creative capabilities and rendered them less likely to make any significant original contributions to nation building.
Two centuries of British rule crystallized in the minds of English educated Indians a peculiar mindset that tended to undervalue their native ethos and moorings, and make English culture more attractive. This tendency is called the “colonial syndrome”. This syndrome has infected the modern Indian elite, who abandon their cultural roots and imitating the Western ways. This situation has drained them off their intrinsic creative capabilities and rendered them less likely to make any significant original contributions to nation building.
This book, an outcome of Prof. K. Ramakrishna Rao’s work as a National Fellow of Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), attempts to define and elucidate this syndrome and its ill effects on the modern Indian mindset, and suggests means to contain and overcome it. It alerts people and the leadership about the negative and cascading effects of colonial syndrome, and pleads for Indianization of education, philosophy and psychology, among others in the country. Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of svadeśī is the driving force here. It has no negative attributes, only positive self-assertion for common good.
Colonial Syndrome goes on to analyses Gandhi’s concept of svadeśī, and attempts to make clear the difference between education in India and Indian education, Indian philosophy and philosophy in India, and psychology in India and Indian psychology and emphasizes that India had its own unique standing on education, philosophy and psychology which needs to be revived and nurtured for fast social and economic development.
About the Author:
Professor Koneru Ramakrishna Rao is currently Chancellor of GITAM (deemed to be) University. He has the rare distinction of being National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research and the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, and Distinguished Honorary Professor at Andhra University. His earlier academic appointments include Professor of Psychology and Vice-Chancellor at Andhra University; Executive Director, Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man, USA; Chairman, A.P. State Council of Higher Education, and Advisor on Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh. He published 25 plus books and nearly 300 research papers.
Prof. Rao received numerous honours that include the national award Padma Shri from the President of India and Honorary Doctoral degrees from Andhra, Acharya Nagarjuna and Kakatiya universities. He was elected as the President of the US-based Parapsychological Association three times, the only Asian to be so honoured.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D.K. Printworld
• Release date: Feb 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9788124609798

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About the Book

Two centuries of British rule crystallized in the minds of English educated Indians a peculiar mindset that tended to undervalue their native ethos and moorings, and make English culture more attractive. This tendency is called the colonial syndrome. This syndrome has infected the modern Indian elite, who abandon their cultural roots and imitating the Western ways. This situation has drained them off their intrinsic creative capabilities and rendered them less likely to make any significant original contributions to nation building.

This book, an outcome of Prof. K. Ramakrishna Rao’s work as a National Fellow of Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), attempts to define and elucidate this syndrome and its ill effects on the modern Indian mindset, and suggests means to contain and overcome it. It alerts people and the leadership about the negative and cascading effects of colonial syndrome, and pleads for Indianization of education, philosophy and psychology, among others in the country. Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of svadeœÁ is the driving force here. It has no negative attributes, only positive self-assertion for common good.

Colonial Syndrome goes on to analyses Gandhi’s concept of svadeœÁ, and attempts to make clear the difference between education in India and Indian education, Indian philosophy and philosophy in India, and psychology in India and Indian psychology and emphasizes that India had its own unique standing on education, philosophy and psychology which needs to be revived and nurtured for fast social and economic development.

About the Author

Professor Koneru Ramakrishna Rao is currently Chancellor of GITAM (deemed to be) University. He has the rare distinction of being National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research and the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, and Distinguished Honorary Professor at Andhra University. His earlier academic appointments include Professor of Psychology and Vice-Chancellor at Andhra University; Executive Director, Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man, USA; Chairman, A.P. State Council of Higher Education, and Advisor on Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh. He published 25 plus books and nearly 300 research papers.

Prof. Rao received numerous honours that include the national award Padma Shri from the President of India and Honorary Doctoral degrees from Andhra, Acharya Nagarjuna and Kakatiya universities. He was elected as the President of the US-based Parapsychological Association three times, the only Asian to be so honoured.

Colonial Syndrome

Colonial Syndrome

The Videshi Mindset

in Modern India

K. Ramakrishna Rao

Cataloging in Publication Data – DK

[Courtesy: D.K. Agencies (P) Ltd. ]

Rao, K. Ramakrishna, author.

Colonial syndrome : the videshi mindset in modern

India / K. Ramakrishna Rao.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 9788124609798

1. India – Colonial influence – Psychological aspects.

2. Psychology – India. 3. Philosophy, Indic.

4. Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948 – Political and social

views. I. Title.

LCC DS463.R36 2018 | DDC 954.03019 23

ISBN: 978-81-246-0979-8

First published in India, 2018

© K. Ramakrishna Rao

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior written permission of both the copyright owner, indicated above, and the publisher.

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To

Shri Venkaiah Naidu

Who Reflects in His Appearance,

Attitudes and Aspirations,

a Genuine Svadeshi Spirit,

Contrary to the Colonial Syndrome

Foreword

Written word has the potential and possibility to become a statement, document or a treatise. The book Colonial Syndrome: The Videshi Mindset in Modern India implies all these. An outcome of Prof. K. Ramakrishna Rao’s work as a National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), it has a special place and unique status at this juncture, when Mahatma Gandhi and svadeœÁ have increasingly become very important symbols as well as instruments of change.

In many ways, the book is path-breaking. It breathes new life into Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of svadeœÁ. The make in India campaign of the present Government of India, as I see it, is an adaptation of Gandhi’s svadeœÁ. The colonial syndrome represents the contrary notion of svadeœÁ. By focusing on the ill effects of the colonial syndrome on the intellectual climate of India and what it portends to the study of philosophy and psychology and educational practices in the country, Prof. Rao highlights the importance of nativity, one’s cultural roots, for making significant original contributions, whatever may be the field.

Mahatma Gandhi used the svadeœÁ campaign as an important tool for unsettling the British colonial rule in India. However, the concept of svadeœÁ itself is a broader and more inclusive principle governing Gandhian thought. In the campaign against the British Raj, Gandhi used it as an economic instrument to fight the British, who came to India primarily for economic reasons. They bought cotton grown in India at very cheap prices and exported the cloth made out of it in the British Isles back to India, gaining in the process extensive monetary benefits. Gandhi by awakening Indians to the use of carkhÀ and wearing khÀdÁ sought to minimize the British economic exploitation and to encourage them to take pride in what is made in their own backyard. He felt on the one hand that svadeœÁ movement would help public awakening for the country’s Independence and on the other hand it would also economically weaken the British Empire and empower rural Indians. Further, Gandhi attached to svadeœÁ a greater and far more profound meaning. SvadeœÁ in its fundamental sense in Gandhi refers to self-reliance. As early as in 1909, Gandhi wrote: "SvadeœÁ means reliance on one’s own strength" in addition to referring to what is made in one’s own country. Gandhi saw in SvadeœÁ, first, the "hidden secret of swarÀj" and, second, a gateway to reaching out to the villages and rejuvenating their economies.

Prof. Ramakrishna Rao coins the term colonial syndrome to carry the contrary meaning of svadeœÁ. He expounds the view that though India was politically decolonized seventy years ago, it still continues to suffer from the colonial mindset, which overvalues the things and ideas from outside and undervalues one’s own. This, he believes, has crippling effects on originality and creative thinking of the victims of that syndrome. This seminal thought has profound implications for policy making and educational reforms in the country.

Prof. Rao himself is an educator of eminence. Not only has he written extensively on matters of education, he himself has been actively involved in educational practices as a teacher of many years standing, Vice-Chancellor of a major university in the country, Educational Advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the founder and Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education. Currently Chancellor of GITAM (Deemed to be University), he continues to be active at eighty-five with tireless body and an ageless mind, expounding timeless ideas.

The creative mind of Prof. Rao is backed up by deep and extensive scholarship in diverse areas that include consciousness studies, Gandhian studies, yoga and Indian psychology. A review of his book Cognitive Anomalies, Consciousness and Yoga by David Lorimer published in the London-based Journal of Consciousness Studies notes:

The journey through this book is an epic one covering a vast territory. It is hard to imagine that any other scholar could have written this book, which also means that there are very few people qualified to review it in full. The reader is hugely enriched by the author’s extensive and profound learning but also by his passion for human potential and transformation represented in the yoga strand of his argument. This book is sure to remain a classic in its field for many years to come and will be profitably studied by new generations of students, hopefully from the West as well as the East.

The book Colonial Syndrome: The Videshi Mindset in Modern India begins with a masterly summary of Gandhian thought and practices. It goes on with an insightful introduction to and a critical appraisal of the development of education in India from cultural and historical perspectives. The chapter Education in India and Indian Education provides a vision to guide the future policies of the Government of India. Undoubtedly the present book is a document to be understood and used for preparing the agenda for the future of Indian education. As a former Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, in his chapter on Indian Philosophy and Philosophy in India, he provides an agenda to be taken up by future philosophers in the country.

Psychology in India and Indian Psychology is a remarkable appraisal of the psychologists who are rewriting psychology from the native Indian point of view. Prof. Rao is certainly a pioneer among them. However, a large amount of research in psychology in India today continues to be in the Western mould. This needs to be discussed at another forum.

In an inspiring way, Prof. Rao delves into the Colonial Syndrome and the Indian Mindset which to some extent was challenged and reset by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Ambedkar. Perhaps the political as well as moral philosophies of these two eminent leaders need to be considered for a fuller appreciation of the modern mindset of India. Also, the events as well as the thoughts of the modern mindset have been impacted by the advances in science, innovative technology and the demands of globalization during the second decade of the twenty-first century.

Way back in 1975 when I met Prof. Rao during an International Conference on Humanistic Psychology held in Visakhapatnam, I found him very attractive as a person and a scholar. As time passed, my respect for him kept on increasing. When he delivered a keynote address during the 3rd World Congress on Excellence in October 2015, all of us felt he is the best we have.

The present book incorporating his work as a National Fellow of ICSSR has enhanced my esteem for him. I consider that his work and life are such that they set a benchmark for future generations. I wish him a life full of success and glorious contributions.

25 December 2017

Jitendra Mohan

Preface

Two centuries of British rule crystallized in the minds of Indians, educated in English, a peculiar mindset that tended to undervalue their native ethos and make the English culture more attractive. We call this the colonial syndrome. The colonial syndrome infected the modern Indian elite, resulting in the neglect of their own cultural roots and encouraged the tendency to imitate the Western ways. This drained them of their intrinsic creative capabilities and rendered them less likely to make any significant original contributions. This is a frightening situation that stirred up my interest in understanding this syndrome and finding ways of containing it. This has led me to fall back on my studies of Gandhi.

I have been a student of M.K. Gandhi for over sixty years. Mahatma Gandhi and his writings have been a source of great inspiration in my work. I did my doctoral work on Gandhi nearly sixty years ago. With continued interest in Gandhi, I published since several papers and a few books that include Gandhi and American Pragmatism (1968), Gandhi and Applied Spirituality (2011) and Gandhi’s Dharma (2017) by Oxford University Press.

I happen to think that violence has become increasingly irrelevant to make and keep peace on the planet. War is no longer limited to countries waging it. Terror groups exist and operate not only within but also across states. The Middle East, as we all know with deep anguish, is now a hotbed of terrorism. The horrors of terror are exported to other countries and continents with impunity. It is now generally recognized that terror may not be contained or countered by counter violence alone. No less important are non-violent ways of pre-empting and limiting terror. In this context, the philosophy of non-violence propagated by Mahatma Gandhi and the practices he championed have become more relevant now than during his lifetime. The crucial result of practising non-violence consists in boosting one’s self-confidence and self-esteem without the burden of the ego. All these thoughts are embedded in Gandhi’s concept of svadeœÁ.

Gandhian way, it appears to me, is no longer an option but a necessity. We attempt in this book not only to define and describe the colonial syndrome and its ill effects on the modern Indian mindset but also make an attempt to find ways of containing it. This exercise has the objective of alerting our countrymen and leadership to the negative effects of the colonial mindset in undermining the creative contributions of Indians and pleading for Indianization of education, philosophy and psychology among others in the country. There is no chauvinistic motivation behind this, just as Mahatma’s svadeœÁ has no negative attributes, but positive self-assertion for common good.

This book is an outcome of the work I carried out during the period when I was the National Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). I am grateful to the ICSSR for their initiative, which started me on this project. The work was carried out at GITAM (Deemed to be University), Visakhapatnam. I had the benefit of enjoying the facilities and services available at GITAM. I was greatly encouraged by its President Dr M.V.V.S. Murthi. The staff of the School of Gandhian Studies, especially Dr Rositta Joseph, who did much of the copy-editing and the Librarian, Ms Ramalakshmi were of much help. I am grateful to all of them. I also record my thanks to my secretary Smt V.K.V. Prasanna Kumari for her assistance.

If there is any merit in this work, most of it is what I learned from others. Any shortcomings that exist are entirely my own. If this modest contribution could bring some awareness among the Indian academia about the colonial syndrome its adverse effects, and how we may overcome it. I would consider it worth the effort.

Contents

Foreword

— Jitendra Mohan

Preface

1. Introduction

2. Gandhi’s Way: A Bird’s Eye-View

3. Education in India and Indian Education

4. Indian Philosophy and Philosophy in India

5. Psychology in India and Indian Psychology

6. The Colonial Syndrome and the Indian Mindset

Afterword

— Anand C. Paranjpe

Bibliography

Index

1

Introduction

India has been a pluralistic society and home for many people who came from different parts of the world. Some settled and became an integral part of Indian society. Some others came and left; but they left the imprints of their culture on the Indian soil and carried back with them some significant aspects of the native Indian ethos. The British came to India to trade; and eventually became her rulers for a significant period of time. Their occupation changed the history of the subcontinent. Unlike the previous invaders, they did not settle down and become a part of the Indian mosaic. Nor did they simply rob the country and return to England with the loot. Rather they changed the political and cultural history of India as no others had done before them. The political dominance was accompanied by a determined effort to culturally infect the country so that she would suffer from what we call the colonial syndrome that helps to create a mindset that would undermine the native ethos and overvalue the borrowed. The colonial syndrome affected most of the Indians who learned English language and were exposed to Western culture. As it happened, they constituted, thankfully only a small percentage of the population of the country. The majority of the people were fortunate at the time to be deprived of English education and were in that sense illiterate. The illiterate Indian masses kept their native ethos alive. That is the reason why the rural landscape remained Indian, while the urban elite tended to become Western oriented.

However, the consequences of the spread of Western education among the educated elite of the country have been quite disturbing, if not disastrous, because it is the English educated who played the leadership roles after India’s Independence. The national system of education was displaced by the European system, which took strong roots. Even seventy years after Independence, education in India continues the model the English left behind. This is so despite the fact that India had her own rich culture and strong educational tradition. Ancient India can boast of outstanding literary and philosophical treasures, which were left buried under the debris of colonial dominance. Worse is the segmentation of the colonial syndrome in the captive minds of Indians. This has led to progressive denigration of native ethos and preference for the borrowed. English language not only gained prominence but it also tended to undermine the native tongues, and thwarted their growth and development. As the Indian population became increasingly literate, with the British model intact, the colonial syndrome became more and more entrenched and widespread. It would soon reach such a point that it would become a norm rather than an aberration. As a consequence, the people living in India would lose their identity as Indians. English has now become lingua franca of international science and technology. It has consequently a distinct place in our educational system; but it cannot be at the cost of mother tongue and regional languages. These are indeed matters that need to be addressed earnestly.

We explore in this book, first the present state of education in the country in relation to the native educational ethos and the lack of consistency between them. We note how ancient Indian education involved search for truth and self-realization, and how it served to preserve the past culture and at the same time encourage adaptation, creativity and innovation. The objectives included (a) formation of character with emphasis on ethical living, (b) building up of personality, and (c) training successive generations in the performance of their social and religious duties.

We then go on to examine the state of philosophy in the country in relation to classical Indian thought. Philosophy has a special niche in the Indian psyche. However, during the colonial rule, Western philosophy found a dominant place in Indian universities and the native philosophical traditions tended to be neglected. It led to a kind of student famine in the departments of philosophy in the country. Further, it deprived Indians during the colonial period from making any significant original contributions. We attribute the lack of creativity and original philosophical contributions during the colonial period almost entirely to the neglect of native traditions. The singular exception to this is K.C. Bhattacharyya, who pleaded for svadeœÁ ideas. Things changed somewhat since then. We now find, however, a somewhat changing scenario. We examine the noteworthy trends towards finding their native roots by a few Indian philosophers. We briefly discuss in this context the philosophical contributions of some of the notable persons including Satchidananda Murty, Daya Krishna and J.N. Mohanty.

We then go on in the following chapter to describe briefly the current state of psychological teaching and research in India and examine at some length the psychological ideas in classical Indian thought. We again find a misfit between current psychological practices and classical thought. We then note the emergence of a new discipline under the rubric of Indian psychology – a psychology with its roots in native traditions, which appears to have the potential to bridge the gap between tradition and modernity in psychology in India.

The last chapter is devoted to examining the reasons for the unsettling state of affairs as discussed in the previous chapters and to finding ways of overcoming the hurdles in the way of promoting study of and research in social sciences in India. This leads us to examine at some length what we label as the colonial syndrome, its characteristics and how it affects our perceptions, thought process and actions, and to discuss the ways of dealing with them. In this context, we find M.K. Gandhi’s concept of svadeœÁ and some elements in B.R. Ambedkar’s later writings very helpful not merely to understand the colonial syndrome but also to find ways of containing it.

The objective of our exercise is to identify the factors that may be responsible for the relative lack of original and creative contributions by Indians at this time. It is our contention that the continued presence of the colonial syndrome is the main culprit. In this context, we repeat, Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of svadeœÁ and his emphasis on self-help and self-esteem appear to be eminently relevant. Therefore, there is need for studying Gandhi, contextualizing his ideas, and adapting and developing them further. Similarly, the work and writings of B.R. Ambedkar appear to be quite relevant. Gandhi and Ambedkar together cover the entire spectrum of native Indian ethos, Hinduism (in Gandhi; it includes Jainism) and Buddhism, the two faces of classical Indian tradition.

With her teeming millions and their glorious centuries-old tradition, India should be at the forefront of opening up new frontiers of knowledge and new fields of action. If this is not happening now it is because of the lack of proper fit of the current state of education with native tradition. Our intellectual tools are in large part borrowed, imitative and alien. It is not the national pride that calls for a change. It is dire necessity. In the pages to follow we make a modest attempt to focus and reflect on this problem.

2

Gandhi’s Way : A Bird’s Eye-View

M.K. Gandhi’s was a life of struggle. He sought freedom through self-realization, and self-realization by means of self-effort. Self-support, as implied in his concept of svadeœÁ, was the means as well as the principle behind his practices. SvadeœÁ is what grows out of one’s culture. At the same time it enables the person to adapt herself to the demands of changing circumstances. SvadeœÁ is Gandhi’s mantra to counter the videœÁ (colonial) mindset that distorted and dwarfed for centuries India’s progress, both economic and social.

Mahatma Gandhi attained his martyrdom soon after India became a free and self-governing country, the goal he sought for nearly one half of a century. However, Gandhi’s death came before the country could take up his constructive programme he so carefully crafted and to which he was so deeply committed. His mind was pregnant with enormous possibilities for economic development and educational reforms in the country. It continues to have relevance even today when there is such ever-growing globalization in every conceivable sphere. We discuss briefly in this chapter some aspects of Gandhi’s economic thought, his scheme of basic education and his concept of satyÀgraha as an instrument of socio-political change. Then, we go on in the following chapters to examine how the Mahatma’s spirit of svadeœÁ (Indianness) is lost in the post-Gandhi period, dampening creativity and originality in the intellectual climate of the country.

Gandhian Economics

Some scholars such as B.N. Ghosh (2012) asserted that Gandhian ideas do not belong to the domain of pure economics (p. xi). The so-called Gandhian economics, says Ghosh, is a conflation of many heterogeneous ideas including those of sociology, politics, economics, morality and culture. Such a type of interdisciplinary study falls within the domain of political economy and not pure economics (p. xv). This may be so, but it will not make Gandhi’s ideas any less relevant to economics. We will have a little more to say on this later. Gandhi was not of course an economist by training or by vocation; but his writings on economic matters have profound implication to the study as well as practice of economics. His thought is markedly different from Marxian theories as well as the laissez-faire capitalist economics of Adam Smith and the neoclassical economists. Gandhi was not in favour of indiscriminate industrialization, free play of market forces and total private ownership. He was equally against governmental control. Free trade for India, Gandhi wrote: has proved her curse and held her in bondage (CWMG, 21: 547).

From the Gandhian perspective, there is a dire need to reconstruct the very foundations of modern economics. One of the central principles of current economic theory is maximizing behaviour, which is none other than what Francis Edgeworth described over a hundred years ago as promoting self-interest. It is the maxim, which states that every person functions to promote his self-interest. Economics driven by such a principle is better described as egonomics (Diwan and Lutz 1985: 14). Gandhi squarely opposed such utilitarian notion of self-interest driving economic thought, which he saw as something that cannot in principle promote consummate, common good.

Further, economics has suffered from the syndrome sometimes called physics envy. This has resulted in taking a somewhat contortionist positions and engaging in convulsive actions. Economics tended to be treated from the time of John Stuart Mill as if it were a positive science. The principal characteristic of positive science, as distinguished from normative science, is that it is presumed to be value-free. As a consequence, economics has increasingly distanced itself from ethics. However, it has not succeeded in delivering on its promise to become a science with laws that can predict and control economic behaviour, locally and globally. This has not happened at the level of microeconomics with all kinds of tools available for mathematical modelling. Macroeconomics has obviously failed in giving us the laws that help us in achieving high-growth economics without inflationary pressures. Again, in global economics, I see no satisfactory mathematical logic or quantification of economic equations between states to predict and control economic events. Are economists losing faith in economics? Economists like Joseph Stiglitz have called for alternative models that would serve us better than the ones before.

There is good reason to think that the divorce between economic theory and moral philosophy, coupled with the utilitarian and hedonistic conception of human nature, emanating from Western thinkers like Jeremy Bentham and Thomas Hobbes, are at the root of current human predicament and the existential value crisis. Gandhian thought appears to serve as a much needed corrective to this. First, the new paradigm behind Gandhian economics makes economics more humane and less actuated by ego-driven self-interest. Second, economics can no longer be regarded as a value-free enterprise, but a normative discipline, in which morality plays a crucial and decisive role. Man may