In Search of Indian Modernity

<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences </strong> <strong>CSSS Colloquium </strong> <strong>Prof. Vivek Kumar </strong> (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) a talk on <strong>In Search of Indian Modernity</strong> Date :<strong> April 9, 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract:</strong> The paper makes a modest attempt to problematize the way modernity has been defined in Euro-Americo centric notions. The cardinal elements of such modernity are individualism, egalitarianism, historicism, and this worldliness. Some social scientists have highlighted objective conditions of modernity as industrialization, urbanization, economic affluence and high level of literacy. The problem with such formulation is that there is only 'a type and source' of modernity. Moreover, the aforesaid perspective analyzes modernity in terms of rupture between tradition and modernity. Indian Social Scientists have readily accepted this euro-americo centric formulations of modernity by declaring Indian society as traditional. In this context this paper tries to evolve a working definition of modernity. Second, it makes an attempt to understand different sources and spaces of modernity. Further, taking clue from the available literature the paper makes a claim for an alternative source of modernity in India. <strong>Bio:</strong> Prof. Vivek Kumar (Ph.D.) is Professor at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems. As a recipient of Fulbright Teacher's Fellowship, Prof Kumar was Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and a resident at The South Asia Institute, Columbia University, New York, USA during the spring semester 2012. He also taught a course 'Social Exclusion and Inclusion in Indian Society' in the Department of Sociology Columbia University, New York. In May and June he also went to teach and research in Humboldt University, Berlin in Germany. Earlier, he has been Lecturer at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Pune, Jammu, and Mumbai. His publications include, Caste and Democracy in India: A perspective from Below (2014), the edited volume Dynamics of Change and Continuity in the Age of Globalization: Voices from the Margins (2009), India's Roaring Revolution (2006), and Dalit Leadership in India (2002). He has also contributed many articles in edited books, journals and periodicals and is the author of four published working papers. He has recently completed a research project, "Social Status and Social Attitudes in India: A Study of Indian College Students," with Harvard University and University of British Columbia. Earlier he was involved in a project 'Building Global Democracy: Including the excluded' with University of Warwick, UK and eight other institutions located in different continents of the world.