Why has India stopped producing great thinkers and philosophers?

The great Indian philosopher S. Radhakrishnan raised the same question in one his books on philosophy about eighty years ago: why has India stopped producing great thinkers and philosophers in spite of being the birthplace for some of the greatest philosophers and thinkers in the world long ago?

Radhakrishnan reasoned that it probably was due to the foreigners, followers of strict and exclusionist dogmas who showed little tolerance and acceptance for other ideologies, taking over and ruling India during the last millennium which perhaps impeded free thought and curtailed new ideas.

Unfortunately, even though India gained independence in 1947 and implemented a democratic system of government, things don’t appear to have changed much as far as great new ideas and thinkers are concerned.

Perhaps there is a different reason for it now and it might be related to the choice of courses taken by students in schools and colleges. It seems the best students after high school these days undertake studies in engineering and medicine rather than philosophy and sociology etc. where they are needed most and which require great creativity to solve complex social problems. Thus as the caliber of students going into philosophical studies etc. in colleges seems to have fallen, the quality of work produced by these graduates afterwards also is down. Moreover, the education in philosophy etc. in colleges and universities remains substandard and majority of the ancient Indian knowledge (available mostly in Sanskrit until recently) is still waiting to be incorporated into the educational curriculum.

These types of career choices by the young and bright, mainly into engineering and medicine, appear to be shortsighted and they usually offer limited challenging opportunities to them afterwards. While there is a great need in the country for engineers and doctors, the same is also true for those specializing in other fields, including humanities and arts. Thus, why should the best students choose careers only in engineering and medicine and not in philosophy and sociology etc.? In any case, what is so great and challenging in terms of creativity for a good student to join an engineering college (e.g. IIT etc.), get a technical degree and spend his / her life working mostly on jobs which usually require writing computer codes or doing engineering tasks using standard design methods and manufacturing techniques? Hardly anything!

In addition, the same type of lack of challenging and creative opportunities in life (as in the case of engineering) usually appears to come across if someone chooses medicine as a career.

Perhaps the time is here now for students, parents and teachers to think more broadly and recognize the importance and challenges in education and careers related to humanities and arts (philosophy, sociology etc.).

By: Dr. Subhash C. Sharma
Email: [email protected]
Date: June 4, 2009

link to: Related topics by the author