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Pragmatism went to India

 


Aeon published a story recently about American pragmatism's influence and evolution in India. The story, written by Scott Stroud, condensing Stroud's recent book on the theme, centers on Bhimrao Ambedkar, a man who had returned to India after studying philosophy under John Dewey at Columbia in the 'teens of the 20th century.

 Ambedkar is a fascinating figure -- of the "untouchable" or Dalit caste, he became one of the framers of the new Republic of India's constitution in the 1940s. That is him (standing and dressed in black) in the photo, when he formally presented the final draft of the new constitution to the president of the Constituent Assembly. 

He was already then a member of the first cabinet upon Independence, Nehru's cabinet. Ambedkar's title was Law Minister. 

What had he learnt from Dewey? Certainly one great theme of Dewey's writings, around the time that he would have been teaching young Bhimrao, was his unhappiness with the "quest for certainty" that he saw as dominating western metaphysics since Plato. Give up trying to be so certain about everything and you might actually be of some pragmatic value! he was telling the young intellectuals-in-training.

This resonated with the young man. Dewey (at least in print) limited his critique of the Quest for Certainty to western texts, but Bhimrao saw it as central to the Hindu scriptures as well, and as something that had to be abandoned, especially by the lower caste folks, who were getting the sharp end of the certitude stick! 

By the end of Ambedkar's life, as Stroud puts the point, Ambedkar had "channeled his frustration at the prevailing caste consciousness within Hindu society into a conversion effort that tried to convince his fellow Dalits to convert away from Hinduism and into a more egalitarian Buddhism." He was exercising a very American-pragmatist sense that your religion must serve your needs. 

In some archival material Stroud discovered in researching his book, Ambedkar describes his political efforts as "a battle for the reclamation of human personality, which has been suppressed and mutilated by the Hindu social system." [Ambedkar's words, not Stroud's.]

I found it fascinating and I recommend the article to which I have linked you above. 


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