Reclaiming Modern Science for Third World Progressive Social Movements Metro Nanda It is precisely the critical dimension of science movements in India which has been silenced by the new critiques of science, Modern science has been given a middle name - 'westen' - which casts a long shadow of doubt on its validity and usefulness. There are three basic issues which are basic to the understanding of Indian science 'wars': one, the flawed logic of treating the criteria of validity of all knowledge as internal to the cultural context; two, the location of postcolonial intellectuals in the transnational academic networks that have given epistemological anti-imperialism so much respectability, and finally, the necessity of a scientific worldview for the advancement of equality and justice for all.

ON behalf of all progressive science move- But before I get to all that, I first want to seen as constitutive of science. The whole ments in my native India and elsewhere that clear up a misconception widely shared by exercise of detecting bias makes sense only dare to question the inherited traditions of left-inclined intellectuals and activists. It is if there is a possibility of correcting these their own society in the light of a modern generally believed that to see truth as a social biases and reaching at more objective, less scientific worldview, I want to return to their construct of powers-that-be is somehow biased knowledge. postcolontal sponsors the cluster of theories progressive, that it is a gift to the poor, the This change in the project of the left that go under the name of 'ethno-sciences,' disenfranchised and the non-western 'others.' intellectuals is most sharply critiqued by 'standpoint epistemologies', and "situated The idea seems to be that once it can be none other than Noam Chomsky. There was knowledges' - theories that claim that modem shown how power creates truth, the a time not too long ago, Chomsky reminds science is simply an ethnoscience of the disenpowered will no longer feel compelled us, when left intellectuals many of whom west, its truths not any more rational and to live by the dictates of the powerful. They with training in natural sciences, took an universal than any other local knowledge of will create their own truths, and actually active part in the working class culture of any other culture. On behalf of all those challenge the scientific objectivity with the day and wrote books on science, dogged rationalists in the third world who presumably 'stronger' objectivity that seeks mathematics, philosophy and other topics refuse to forswear the Enlightenment's truths grounded in their own lives. (The idea for the general public. The point behind promise of arbitrary authority giving way to knowledge from the standpoint of the these efforts was to compensate for the class publicly testable reasons, I want to return oppressed leads to strong objectivity is from character of the cultural institutions; to make to their postmodern authors the theories that Sandra Harding.) Seeing "truth" as a cultural up for the opportunities for intellectual growth claim that reason itself is constituted by construct amounts to, as one anthropologist that were denied to working people. But arbitrary authority and Enlightenment itself put it, giving 'permission' to the other to be today. Chomsky points out, and I quote, "the a ruse for western colonialism. On behalf of different, to live by their own lights. left intellectuals deprive the oppressed people all those critical intellectuals who hold on But there is poison in this gift. For all its not only the joys of understanding and insight, to their traditional mission of telling the truth radical bluster, the permission to be different but also tools of emancipation, informing behind ideological appearances, I want to is a big cop out for left intellectuals, for it them that the project of Enlightenment is return to the relativists the theories that deny frees them from the hard, slow and patient dead, that we must abandon the illusions of that there is any truth to be found behind task of helping the underprivileged 'others' science and rationality - a message that will appearances, and that truth itself is an to critically examine and revise their own gladden the hearts of the powerful, delighted ideology, a label that the powerful attach to common sense taken-for-granted assump- to use these instruments for their own use". their own self-serving perspectives in order tions in the light of better, less false and yes, The powerful, moreover, will also be to normalise them. scientific knowledge. The idea that truth delighted to know, Chomsky continues, that These ideas - one, that modern science is itself is a social construct undercuts the very science is inherently a knowledge of those an ethno-science of the west, and two, that grounds for any progressive social critique in power, as the constructivist critics insist, scientific reasoning and the very content of of the status quo. By making the shared for then any challenge to the authority of the science are Eurocentric constructs complicit prejudices and passions of any society as boss becomes a violation of rationality itself. in western imperialism - derive from the constitutive of not only the questions a society Indeed, if any evidence of the slide in the new, 'strong' social and cultural studies of can ask, but also of the answers that are self-understanding of left intellectuals as science that have to come to dominate the possible, all the way down to the very educators to defenders of ignorance in the academic left thinking on these matters. This conceptual structures, reasoning and methods name of popular culture is needed, one has logic relativises the validity of scientific on which the answers are based upon, social only to go through say, the contributions of knowledge of the natural world, and even construction is a recipe not for a progressive Andrew Ross in the recent issue of Social the kind of objects that exist in the natural critique of the prejudices and passions, but Text made famous by Alan Sokal. Or check world itself, to the prevailing social relations a means of actually privileging, legitimising, out a recent issue of New York Review of and cultural meanings. Instead of critically or at the very minimum, not challenging Books in which Richard Lewontin dismisses understanding how social institutions, power these prejudices and passions. There is a late Carl Sagan's life long passion for relations and cultural meanings bring us name for such a project, it is called treason popularising science. Lewontin, one of the closer or farther from facts of the matter, the of the intellectuals, treason against truth and left's own, sees Sagan's scientific expla- constructivists claim to study how the social universalism in favour of familiar, comforting nations of the cosmos to be as much a prejudices of the day make up the so-called and parochial stories which are useful to construct of the elite culture of physics which, 'fact'. The social does not interact and believe in. Lest I be misunderstood, let me he claims, is based as much on blind, untested shape the scientific, but the social con- emphasise that I am not saying that science faith in the authority of the experts, as the stitutes the scientific method, the scientific should not be scrutinised for its ideological crtationism of Arkansas dirt-farmer is based is social. biases, but only that biases should not be upon untested faith in their own non-elite

Economic and Political Weekly April 18, 1998 915 organic experts, the church/the media and intellectuals, more than a decade ago, that postcolonial friends have taken: that is to so on. So, on Lewontin's reading, when I first heard the ideas that are now exercising say, we never confused science as a social science enthusiasts like Sagan try to exorcise the New York science warriors. institution for science as a method of arriving the demons, the witches and UFOs, they To get a fuller flavour of how the debates at partial and provisional but the best only think they are replacing ignorance with over science and rationality have played out corroborated accounts of reality. Because truth, but they are actually only imposing in third world, come with me to New Delhi. we did not make the very criteria of truth physics' elite culture on popular culture. Pan of what I am going to say is as emerging out of the admittedly patriarchal, Regardless of how scientists and science autobiographical. I generally don't like to western-colonial and capitalist institions in educators themselves see their own work, dwell upon personal experience but I do which modern science was born and raised, regardless of how much they want to ally believe that this experience captures an we were able to retain the critical potential themselves with the disadvantaged masses, important turning point in the history of of science, they cannot but be carriers of elitism, for the Indian left when the earlier belief in the value It is precisely this critical dimension of validity of their knowledge derives from of science for progressive change began to science movements in India that has been certain elitist assumptions and their own give way to a suspicion of science. silenced by the new critiques of science. elite position in the society. I bring up It was in 1978 that I moved to New Delhi Modern science has been given a middle Lewontin here because, as we will see, a very from a smaller and rather provincial city to name- 'western' - which casts along shadow similar reasoning operates in third world do my PhD in biotechnology at Indian of doubt on its validity and usefulness: the context where scientists are accused of Institute of Technology. In Delhi I found project of critically evaluating our own social- bringing western, elitist ideas to the authentic many like-minded socially concerned culural realities has given way to glorifying culture of non-western people. scientists who were disturbed by the elitist non-western, traditional knowledges, Lewontin is a representative - a very nature of Indian science and society, and regardless of how objectively false and moderate representative, I must add - of the exactly as Chomsky describes it, tried incomplete these knowledges may be. As far current mood of suspicion against science earnestly to compensate for the class and as I can tell, the current phase of uncritical, which writes off any attempt to bring science caste character of our social and cultural almost celebratory nativism began way back back into the public discourse as illegitimate institutions. I joined a group that called itself in early 1980s when a bunch of modernist violation of people's 'epistemological rights' Society of Young Scientists which was based intellectuals put together a Statement on to know the world from their own standpoints. in the nearby All-India Institute of Medical Scientific Temper. The Statement reaffirmed This suspicion lies behind this curious Sciences. Depending upon our area of Nehru's views on the need to bring scientific phenomenon of giving modern science a expertise we did whatever we could to connect rationality to bear upon traditional cultural middle name: modern 'western' science, with the world around us, including running norms, something groups like SYS were modern 'patriarchal' science, modern science (and general) literacy programmes doing, Bland and unoriginal though the 'bourgeoisie' science, or 'Indian' science, for children and adults. statement was, it evoked a passionate and 'Islamic' science, or what have you. These All of this was perfectly commonplace angry repsonse from some well known New middle names are so many no-confidence - there were similar groups in most Delhi intellectuals, including stalwarts, votes in science's ability to tell us something educational institutes, many of them linked Ashish Nandy and Vandana Shiva. They that is valid across cultures. This insistence to a couple of very well known and innovative published counter-statements on 'humanistic on a middle name amounts to an insistence science for people groups (especially Kishore temper' - setting up scientific temper as the that science confesses its culture, and after Bharati and Eklavya) that produced excellent anti-thesis of humanism - in which they having confessed it, remain corralled in that teaching methods and cultural means for viciously attacked science, modernity, west, culture. popularising new knowledge, India is pretty reason, Nehru and Nehruvian intellectuals near the top in the world ranking in the as agents of a western colonial ideology that II number of professionally trained scientists disparaged the consciousness of the Indian Now, if these issues are important for the and engineers. Some of us were bound to masses. health of the left in the west, they are literally start questioning the cultural norms of our Big seminars were held, a couple of which a matter of life and death in India and other society that allowed and justified terrible I attended with my comrades from SYS. It rapidly modernising non-western countries. inequities. Indeed, a critical attitude toward is in these seminars where the basic anti- In these countries, the questions of science, the traditional cultural explanations about science and anti-modernity themes were first rationality, progress are deeply intertwined social inequities was an article of faith for laid-out, themes that have come to dominate with highly charged issues of nationalism some of us. We believed that the findings the Indian left thinking on science. The and anti-imperialism, religious and cultural of modern science had the potential to proceedings of one such seminar were later identity. Science wars in such situations demolish the traditional justifications for published as a book that some of you may cannot be quarantined in symposia and caste, for inferiority of women and the belief be familiar with - Science Hegemony and learned journals but they have a habit of in after-life, cultural attitudes that are deeply Violence : A Requiem for Modernity, they spilling out into the streets, with horrifying engrained in Indian society and contribute were ready to bury science and dance on its results. to injustice and oppression in our society. grave way back in early 1980s. This particular Not to take anything away from the Unlike the cultural critics of today, who for book, incidentally, has become the most importance of Alan's 'transgression' in the most part are content to reveal, over and highly acclaimed, most widely quoted making a case for science in the so-called over again, the play of power behind all 'postcolonial text' by science studied scholars 'science wars,' I suggest that these 'wars' knowledge, we were committed to a rational here in the US. It was in this seminar that currently shaking up the American academe critique of all oppressions. Scientific Nandy laid down the new law: only those be renamed the second science wars. The knowledge was not just a target for decons- intellectuals who spoke in the categories of first science war began almost as soon as truction, but served as a vantage point for thought shared by the subaltern masses were decolonisation began in third world, and critical evaluation of our social context. Of to be seen as progressive, only they had the even sooner in some countries like China course we were critically aware of the western right to speak for the masses. Any time any and Japan, Indeed, New Delhi and not New origins of science, and its role in legitimation idea clashed with the indigenous culture, the York has been the site of many more of colonialism, racism and militarism. But indigenous culture was to have the upper skirmishes in battle over the nature and we had not taken the next self-defeating step hand. It was in this seminar that I first heard meaning of science. It was from New Delhi that our social constructivist and postmodern/ Vandana Shiva quote western intellectuals,

916 Economic and Political Weekly April 18, 1998 chiefly Sandra Harding and Thomas Kuhn, of Vandana Shiva's book, Staying Alive, itself and suggest that the third world needs to insist that there were no criteria left to which as we know, has become the bible of to cultivate science and retain a realist distinguish between the myths of traditional North American science critics and philosophy of science, while the western thought and the metaphors of modern science, ecofeminists. I remain convinced that Shiva's world reeds to deconstruct science and reject between supernatural entities presupposed ideas, if they were ever to be put in practice, realism. I have even run into some culturalists by traditional communities and theoretical would drive Indian women back a few who end up subjecting the third world critic entities presupposed by modem scientists." centuries and ruin the productive base of of post modernity to cultural and rhetorical It was in this seminar that I first heard Claude Indian agriculture. After these two landmarks, analyses. But none of them appear willing Alvares defend, much like Richard Lewontin I became convinced that the patriotic rage to look at the underlying issues that some and Andrew Ross, the 'epistemological right' against reason and the west are no mere third world critics of anti-Enlightenment ideas of ordinary folks to believe in their village academic fashions, but had the potential for are trying to raise. tantrik, a right that popular science legitimsing reactionary political currents in Let me give you a concrete example. A movements were stamping upon. India. For that reason, I became convicned couple of years ago, I read a paper at a Though you will never know it from this that Indian science critics and the western feminist epistemology conference where f book, these ideas were resisted. My SYS anti-Enlightenment philosophies they derive argued that to present ecofeminism as a comrades and I, and many scientists who inspiration from, must be philosophically feminist standpoint epistemology of third participated in the scientific temper debate refuted and politcally challenged. world women, as Vandana Shiva does, is that raged on in the pages of Mainstream, contrary to feminist interest in well-being tried hard to defend our right to use modern III and equality of women. As it happened, science as universally valid knowledge that Let us move from the postcolonial New Sandra Harding was the chair of my panel can help our country. But we could not Delhi of the 1980s to the postmodern New and I had an opportunity to discuss in depth match the Nandy-Shiva combine, either in York of the 1990s, A shock of recognition how standpoint epistemology in the hands rhetoric or in numbers. We were told, in awaits anyone who steps from the rough- of Shiva, Maria Mies and others ends up effect, that we had contaminated minds, that and-tumble of social movements in India strengthening some worn out, traditional by all this science talk, we were only into the beautiful, ivy-covered seminar halls ideals of womanhood in the Indian context. legitimising our own comprador-elite status. in the humanities in North American Harding admitted that an uncritical, We were, in short, declared traitors from our universities, especially women's studies, ahistorical use of standpoint epistemology own civilisation. cultural studies and my own discipline, is problematic, but immediately distanced But it is not because of our bruised egos science studies. Such a visitor will recognise herself form Shiva saying that 'ideas are like that I continue to rail against those who sing right away that there is a symbiotic children and their parents cannot always requiems for science. Rather, my anitpathy relationship between the critics of the west control where their children go and what to these 'patriotic' critics of science stems back home and the postmodern critics of they do.' I agree; the author cannot be held from the cultural nationalism, reverse- modernity and Enlightenment in American accountable for how others use her or his ethnocentrism and a pseudo-radical third universities. In this symbiosis third world ideas. But is it too much to expect from a worldism they have encouraged in the Left. critics have put to work the anti-Enlighten- wise author to reflect on how hers are After I finished my PhD, I found employment ment theories coming out the west, from playing out in the real world? In this case, as a science reporter with The Indian Express. Heideggar and Nietzsche, Foucault and a I can see how Shiva overlooks Harding's From my perch as a social observer and badly misunderstood Kuhn to the well known cautions against seeing the immediate commentator, I could see the rising tide of feminists, Sandra Harding and Donna experience of women as a feminist standpoint. cultural nationalism among the Indian left Haraway, This is not to deny that a handful But even there, the fault is not entirely Shiva's: Many of the new social movements in of postcolonial theorists- say, Gayatri Spivak Harding herself inflates the role of the environmentalism, ecofeminism, appropriate or Homi Bhabha - have made some original immediate social position to such an extent technology, etc, that bloomed during the theoretical contributions to postmodern ideas. that it permeates all aspects of science so that 1980s followed Nandy's law: they were to, But by and large, post-colonial science critics it is hard to understand how a feminist truth first and foremost, kowtow to 'local justify their opposition to western science can ever be found that is free from the knowledges', regardless of how outdated, in terms of theories developed by the western feminine consciousness of women under objectively false and subjectively dis- critics of science. For their part, the patriarchy. But let us grant, for the sake of empowering these knowledges' may be. postmodern or constructivist theorists, argument, that Shiva has totally They were, above all else, to ritualistically located mostly in American and French misappropriated Harding, or for that matter, damn the Enlightenment and western universities use the post colonial critiques of all third world critics have thoroughly scientific rationality as the source of all our science as case studies of the supposed misunderstood the complexities of anti- problems, from the green revolution to you disaster Enlightenment has been for the west's Enlightenment philosophies. Then my name it. Aijaz Ahmad is right on the mark supposed victims, question is: why, then, do the constructivist critics continue to approvingly cite precisely when he says that for the anti-Enlightenment/ But curiously enough, when the anti- those who are supposed to have post-marked intellectuals, colonialism has Enlightenment theorists in the west are misunderstood them? Why don't they came to be held responsible not only for its confronted with some problematic effects of critically engage with the post colonial critics own cruelties, but for ours too. Likewise, this symbiosis on the progressive movements in order to set the record straight? Isn't that 'modern western science' has come to be in third world - say, the appropriation by what we all normally do with those who held responsible not just for legitimising the Hindu right of the constructivist logic misunderstand us? colonialism, but for legitimising the idea of to agitate for Vedic mathematics, or the use development or modernity, which is itself of relativism by third world states to attack They cannot for there is no mis- seen as nothing more than a new colonialism. the notion of universal human right - the understanding: the postcolonial critics of For me personally, the lowest point of western theorists either deny that their ideas science have understood the postmodernism- the cultural nationalists came in 1987 when have any bearing on these third world affairs, influenced critiques of science only too well. Nandy came out with this sophistry justifying or claim that the third world intellectuals So I'll only offer a brief summary here the 'authentic' sati, and attacked Indian have gotten carried away by their anti- [Nanda 1997a, 1998]. Both hold as their first feminists as westernised elites for opposing imperialist fervour and have misunderstood principle that the standards of evaluation of satii Nandy was followed by the appearance theirideas.Some,historicise science critique truth and rationality of knowledge, and

Economic and Political Weekly April 18, 1998 917 indeed, reality itself, is constituted by a of the west to the champions of "patriotic The postcolonial science critics, to their culture's assumptions and ways seeing the science. credit, have changed all that: they have world Cultural meanings are unique and Hardly anyone but a few diehard positivists insisted that the voice of the displaced and incommensurate, that is they cannot be deny that science has cultural roots. But I the traditional be heard, that culture not compared to each other, ergo, different don't see that that realisation must lead to always give way to technocratic reason. knowledges are incommensurate, that is, are cultural relativisation of sciences. I believe Likewise, their insistence that traditional valid only relative to their own cultural a critical realism that can account for the meanings that people live with have assumptions. Culture, on this reading, lies cultural biases is perfectly viable. I have legitimacy that cannot always be overwritten at the heart of our most reliable, most well written a detailed defence of a critical by scientific reason. For all my criticism of justified knowledge. This view of science contextual realism in the recently published their excesses, I applaud the science critics clearly goes against the belief of most working issue of Socialist Register [Nanda 1997b]. for bringing the repressed other of modernity scientists and traditional philosophers of Basically, I am arguing for a gradual and to the centre stage. science that science, as it grows puts relentless revision of our conceptual I am all for challenging technocracy and increasing distance between its truths and categories in the light of new evidence scientism and surprising though it may sound, the cultural common sense of a society. They obtained from controlled experiments, which even for defending traditional ways of relating believe that science, unlike say, witchcraft, are simply not as question begging and to the world against scientific rationality. can break through the prevailing cultural circular as social constructivist make them But I don't see why we have to reject science assumptions and common sense, and give out to be - for the results of the experiments in order to do that? The constructivists have us reliable knowledge of the real world are justified in the lights of other theories assumed that because of its western origins, justified by independent evidence sought with independent empirical support. While technocracy and hubris is inherent' in the with openness to potential refutation. If there constructivist critics of science have explored very conceptual categories of modern science, is anything that is absolutised by scientific the influence of culture on our perceptions, and that an indigenous science will reflect reasoning, which the critics ridicule as big- they have not paid equal attention to the the traditional and putatively kinder, gentler R-Reason, it is this demand for a scrutiny- processes through which these cultural ways of relating to each other and nature and by-doubt, a demand that we subject our categories are themselves revised through thus will not be as arrogant as western science. beliefs to tests not under the control of these our changed perceptions of the natural reality The problem with this reasoning is that same beliefs. - a reality that is independent of our it leaves no grounds for resisting illegitimate It is precisely the possibility of such perceptions. Seen as a continuous mutually and oppressive demands of the indigenous scrutiny by doubt that the constructivists of self-correcting dialogue between an culture. Take a concrete example: The both western and postcolonial variety independent reality, and our stock of postcolonials have successfully opposed expressly deny. They believe that science's knowledge at any given time, science can construction of big dams in the name of claim to go beyond the social biases and give us not absolute truths but pictures of people who would be evicted - they have, cultural meanings to bring us closer to the the world which are closer approximations that is spoken up for the situated lives and reality as-it-is is a myth, and scientific truth, to the facts and a picture which is more cultures of living communities against the like any other traditional ethno-knowledges, reasonable to believe. Seen thus, science is demands of progress. But what happens when is nothing but consensus that obtains around not inherently western, patriarchal or a politician uses precisely the logic of dominant cultural meanings. Following this inherently anything, but simply as the best traditions and local knowledge to evict a logic, the supposed universality of scientific mechanism that we have developed so far people from a slum in order to build facts derives from the hegemony of western to constantly learn from experience by something that has a religious meaning. If culture which forecloses other ways of confronting experience, by challenging it they are consistent in giving priority to local looking at evidence and coming up with with theories, biases, prejudices, conjectures knowledge, the postcolonials cannot oppose alternative universalities. Theories to that and guesses. Sure this method of learning that move. Or take another example: effect are commonplace from the strong can be obstructed by not allowing challenges postcolonials have insisted that traditional programme of David Bloor and Barry Barnes from socially powerless groups, But the way cultural symbols and religious texts be seen to the actor network models of Bruno Latour out is not to give up trying, but to try harder. as legitimate sources of indigenous and his Paris School, and the cultural studies knowledges. What happens when the of science associated with Donna Haraway, IV religious right uses the exact same reasoning Sarah Franklin and other anthropologists of In the heat of the current science wars there to reinterpret cultural symbols to fuel science, and of course Sandra Harding, who is a danger of forgetting the pre-postmodern sectarian violence, as has been happening has increasingly come to emphasise cultural intellectual and political scene. We forget in India? What if women, in the name of the meanings over social relations in her that technocracy and scientism were the their traditional roles as powerful mothers standpoint epistemology. The feminist and dominant trends in the advanced capitalist celebrated by ecofeminists, turn on the other postcolonials accept these highly contentious societies, the communist bloc and the community in order to protect and nurture assumptions and take the next logical step: modernising third world. Modernising states, their own, as happened recently in the anti- if culture is constitutive of what we see, then for instance, did not think twice before Muslim riots in Bombay and Ayodhya? let us seek our own knowledge based upon evicting masses of people from their homes I believe that science understood not as our own authentic cultural assumptions. Thus for the sake of building dams, highways and capital S science as a dogma but as scientific the cultural absolutism of the postcolonial other infrastructure of modern life. If progress temper which John Dewey once described science is build upon the foundations clashed with an older, settled way of life, as 'an attitude to inquire, to discriminate, provided by the postmodern critiques of progress always won and there was hardly to draw conclusions on the basis of science. The Nandy-Shiva-Alvares agitation anyone to even register the pain inflicted on independent evidence', is the best antidote for ethno-knowledge becomes a patriotic the losers. Top heavy, technocratic deve- not only to scientism and relativism, but also act, a call for 'authenticity', an act of anti- lopment agencies did not give the folk to the tendency of social movements to get imperialism only against the constructivist expertise accumulated over centuries any caught in their own rhetoric. It is a legitimate assumptions that science as a power-backed benefit of the doubt. Young, brash modern task of science critics to critique, on a case consensus around alien cultural values. Only experts could and did have a tendency to by case basis, any social forces and prejudices against the constructivist assumptions I and ridicule traditions as superstitions. Scientific blocking the full flowering of this spirit of my scientist comrades could look like toadies truths were accepted as dogmas. science. It is however, not legitimate toelevat e

918 Economic and Political Weekly April 18, 1998 prejudice and brases as founding principles Note what is common to all these fabrication - the only difference is that they of science. That way lies disaster. A disaster affirmations: a priority of context over believed in their assertions with apparently that those of us in the third world can least content, and belongingness (whose know- genuine earnestness! If these theories can afford. ledge it is) over truth (what is being asserted). lend themselves - without any contradictions This is justified by the proponents of that could be detected by the editors of Social V epistemological rights by citing what has Modern Science Without Apologies Text - to Sokal's 'critique' of quantum become the new social constructivist and gravity, is it not reasonable to wonder, at the 2 I want to take this opportunity to do some feminist orthodoxy, namely, that the content very minimum, if these theories are not plain talking about three issues that I believe and the context are inseparable; that the missing something important about the nature are basic to understanding the Indian science social context of inquiry and the social of scientific knowledge? By insisting upon wars: one, the flawed logic of treating the identity of the inquirer (in terms of race, class the dependence of truth, in the final instance, criteria of validity of all knowledge as internal and gender) make a difference to all levels on social context and political ideology, are to the cultural context; two, the location of of scientific inquiry - 'all the way down', these theorists not encouraging an 'anything postcolonial intellectuals in the transnational as the popular phrase would have it - from goes' attitude, as long as a politically academic networks that have given the kinds of questions that can be asked, to progressive gloss can be put on different epistemological anti-imperialism so much the kind of theories that can be produced, 'knowledges'? respectability, and finally, the necessity of down to the very criteria for assessing if the But Sokal is only one among a host of a scientific world view for the advancement evidence warrants our accepting a hypothesis. critics of the radical claims for social/cultural of equality and justice for all in our country. In other words, scientific knowledge does constructedness of the content of science. The first two points are meant to clarify not bring us any closer to empirically adequate Some of the finest analytical philosophers potential sources of misunderstanding and logically coherent and universally valid of science in the world (including Larry between those who believe that doing science facts about a given piece of reality, but only Laudan, Philip Kitcher, Susan Haack, explicitly and self-consciously as memebers to what are taken as facts in any given social/ Richard Boyd), prominent natural scientists, of a distinct social/cultural groups (say, as cultural context. It is obvious that only if one including Nobel laureates (Dudley third world women) makes for more accepts this logic of constructedness of Herschbach, Barbara McClintock, Abdus objective, politically progressive and race/ knowledge, that the content and rationality Salaam and Steven Weinberg) and well- gender/culture sensistive science, and those of modem science itself comes to be seen respected Marxist philosophers (Roy who - like myself - believe that dispassionate as colonial and alien - and all those insisting Bhaskar, Christopher Norris, Alex striving for the ideal of objective truth and on the relevance of modern science to Callinicos) have argued, with great rigor and rigorous attempts to empirically test for and contemporary India come to be seen as passion, against the thesis that the criteria root out all possible influences of social apologists for colonialism. of truth are social conventions. These critics location and personal/cultural identities from The claims and counter-claims about the have pointed out that the radical social the practice of sciecne is the best epistemology alleged western-colonial-patriarchal nature constructivist arguments do not adequately for the left. The third and the final point is of scientific knowledge and method cannot explain the other side of scientific inquiry more in the nature of an appeal to my be resolved without first asking if the when inquirers change their preconceived comrades in the Indian left to supplement underlying social constructivist logic itself assumptions, including theories they have our pre-occupation with the crimes of the is sound. Do social constructivist theories devoted their entire careers to, in the face 'west' with some degree of honest self- of science explain adequately how science of overwhelming evidence which they cannot critique of our own cultural values and is actually done in institutions, which - interpret to keep it consonant with their practices. The need for a critical introspection however imperfectly - are designed to biases and interests. It is true that individual was never more acute than it is today, when encourage scepticism and in the process - scientists, or some influential schools we are faced with the rising cultural and again, however imperfectly - are capable of themselves, may be influenced by the 3 religious chauvinism. empirically testing the effect of social bias? conscious and unconscious biases and What are the critics affirming when they Do they explain how scientific knowledge cultural assumptions to accept evidence when reject modern science as a violent and grows, and puts increasing distance between it is not warranted, as indeed happened in oppressive western ideology? They claim to its theories and the social context from which racist anthropometric studies of skull size affirm the 'epistemological right' of non- they admittedly arise? Do they explain and intelligence and in some other episodes western civilisations to understand the world adequately how and why our confidence is in the history of science. But science being in their own terms, from their own standpoint, justified that corroborated scientific theories a fundamentally social, and increasingly rooted in their own cultural and metaphysical do bring uscloser-provisionally and partially, global and cross-cultural activity, there are assumptions. Such an epistemological right, but closer nevertheless - to understanding pressures within the community of science they claim, is not only politically desirable the mechanisms that actually operate in any itself to challenge unwarranted knowledge claims. In other words, while these scholars (that is, good for the people), but epistemo- given aspect of the natural world? admit of the need for greater vigilance, social logically necessary (that is, good for science) This is where the crucial importance of responsibility and self-critique among the as well. The reasoning goes as follows: the the 'Sokal affair' begins to become clear. members of the scientific community, they egalitarian agenda will be strengthened by Sokal has never claimed to have shown that do not accept the radical claim that social recognising the hitherto marginalised all critiques of science are invalid (in fact cultural biases are built into the very criteria knowledges of women, peasants and he has been at pains in recognising the of validity themselves, and that, indigenous peoples as valid in their own contributions by AnneFausto-Sterling, Ruth consequently, the experimental methods and terms.' In the process, the existing stock of Hubbard, Steven Jay Gould and others). But institutional structures of science are in scientific knowledge will be improved, for recall that the logic of his intentionally principle incapable of correcting these biases. the marginalised, having suffered more, will ludicrous assertions about the denial of replace all hierarchical and bipolar models objective reality and the social-political nature Now, the social constructivist and other and theories that presumably pervade modern of quantum gravity was constructed out of radical critics are correct in insisting that the science with more egalitarian, holistic and direct quotes from major social constructivist purely internal dynamic of science is not less deterministic models which leave more and feminist theorists who have used the sufficient to root out cultural biases in room for human agency, co-operation and quoted arguments in very similar contexts scientific inquiry. The critics are correct in equality. to make assertions very similar to Sokal's insisting that science is simply too important

Economic and Political Weekly April 18, 1998 919 - and powerful - to be left to scientists alone. Constructivist science critics have not science critics, which he is presumably There is no doubt that radical social bothered to answer these questions with even intellectually incapable' of comprehending. movements for civil rights, feminism and minimal rigour and honesty. Their response Chadha can read Sokal's intervention as an anti-colonialism- in which, let us not forget, has not been very different from the reception attack of old-fashioned science-boosting left a large segment of the scientific community I got from my compatriots at the Socialist against the more sceptical, science- actively participated - have been crucial for conference, that is. label all those who questioning new left only because she challenging the cultural biases of established disagree with them as 'positivists' and unquestioningly accepts the latter as having science. But this dynamic between scientific ' reactionaries' who want to subject the whole produced a better and potentially more knowledge and social movements only world to the authority of science. Philo- progressive account of science - even though warrants demands of openness of scientific sophically , the critics have chosen to discredit she acknowledges that the new critiques of institutions to scientists from diverse cultural/ any concern about truth and objectivity by science can be readily appropriated by social backgrounds so that such biases are uncritically accepting the post-structuralist reactionary, Hindu-revivalist critics of more easily detected and challenged, and theories of radical contingency between modernity. secondly, responsibility of scientists to take representations and their referents.The y have Sokal's and other scientists' intervention criticism from social critics seriously enough denied the very possibility and desirability can be read not as an attempt to censor or to test their theories for the presence of the of disinterested pursuit of truth even as an silence the non-expert postmodern/feminist biases alleged by the critics. ideal, choosing instead to redefine 'truth' critics in the humanities, but as a challenge The critics err grievously in jumping from (always already in scare quotes) as consensus to them to rethink their understanding of these justified demands for institutional of an interpretive community, with no source science so that some notion of non-relative changes and social oversight to demands for of justification other than the culturally and truth can be salvaged from their critiques. 'alternative epistemologies' which would politically contaminated conventions about For if truth, in the final instance, is decided explicitly bring their progressive social values what is certified as valid knowledge and by social power, the powerless and the and their gender/race/class identities to bear what is left out. All 'truth', the critics claim marginal do not have much of a chance for upon how they classify the world, what in a classic relativist vein, is truth from some questioning and combating the dominant models they use to design their experiments perspective. portrayals of reality. Relativism of truth is and how they assess the evidence of their But then, why should the alternative a very comfortable position for American experiments. The crucial point is not that epistemologists expect 'truth' from, say, a and other first world intellectuals, for it such explicitly politically-motivated and self- feminist, or a third world perspective, to be allows them to feel good about their consciously 'situated' epistemologies cannot accepted as true by everyone, including generosity and open-minded toward non- be designed and made to construct some mainstream scientists? The most common western others. But the stakes are simply too kind of knowledge-claims. Of course these reason given for why 'truths' generated by high for us in India to be satisfied with this epistemologies 'work':Lysenko is an 'other ways of knowing' are true for kind of third worldism on the cheap. example, Shockley's eugenics is another, as everybody is this: because they are produced Gita Chadha and other third world are our own eco-feminists and 'patriotic' either by politically marginalised groups intellectuals who are interested in the science scientists who claim to bring Indian cultural (peasants, workers, women, etc), or by question from a progressive political ethos to bear upon scientific knowledge. politically progressive groups (eg, feminists). perspective can play a positive role in the Such 'alternative science' is not only possible; This is simply another way of saying that ongoing debate by persistently questioning it has, unfortunately, become quite social location and/or political beliefs are the the relativism that lingers in all constructivist commonplace. ultimate arbiters of validity. While all this and postmodernist critiques of science. But But the crucial point is: what is the status may sound 'liberatory' to some, what this in order to play that role, they will have to of this knowledge? The proponent of position overlooks is that two can play the read these radical critiques from their own alternative epistemologies insist that the same game: What resources are we left with third world standpoint, determined not by knowledge claims generated by 'other ways to combat the 'truths' that are true from a primary interest in defending some of knowing' are at least as true, if not truer communal or fascist perspectives? purported situated ways of knowing of the and more objective, than science as-we- If the leading western theorists of radical subaltern, but by a concern for creating a know-it. They claim that alternative constructedness of science have evaded these just, equitable and free society. It is the epistemologies not just study different part questions, Indian critics of science have necessity (though not the sufficiency) of of the natural world, but produce more shown no sign of even the awareness of these better, truer knowledge for advancing social adequate and truer answers to the questions long-standing debates. (One hopes that justice that has to be our ultimate criteria for researched by conventional sciences. This Sokal's intervention will wake them up from preferring modern scientific knowledge over claim raises many operational and their dogmatic slumber). Most Indian critics far less rigorous and less self-reflexive pre- philosophical questions. What happens when simply assume that the post-Kuhnian scientific epistemologies. There may of there is a contradiction between, for instance, developments in philosophy, sociology and course be situations where traditional peasant women's understanding of, say, history of science have established, beyond knowledge and social practices are adequate causes of crop failure, and the understanding a reasonable doubt, the fundamentally social to the task - (although do we really want obtained by using conventional scientific and political nature of the content and logic to believe that traditional knowledge is perfect methods? Does the fact of the former being of all science. Vandana Shiva's and her as it is, and has nothing to learn from modem more grounded in everyday experience make followers' portrayal of traditional knowledge science?) But then there are also many it truer and preferable? Why? Why should systems as a standpoint epistemology of aspects of social life in India where human explicitly and self-consciously political third world women, providing a better, relations and cultural practices are legitimated epistemology lead to 'truer' science? This stronger, richer arid more self-reflexive by objectively false beliefs about the natural leads to even bigger questions: What if the objectivity than the supposedly reductionist, world. These beliefs need to be revised in world itself is such that it may not comply patriarchal and of course imperialist modern the light of the scientific knowledge about with our politically informed categories and science is a case in point, A more recent the natural world accumulated over the last models? What is the aim of science, to know example is Gita Chadha, (EPW, August 30, five centuries. This latter task of questioning the world as it exists apart from and 1997) taking Sokal to task, among other and revision tends to get lost when our independently of us. or to fit it into our own things, for his 'attack' on 'complex systems progressive intellectuals unquestioningly aspirations and political schemes? of thought' of feminist and cultural studies embrace the near-total critiques of natural

920 Economic and Political Weekly April 18, 1998 science that reduce it to just one more ethno- The rising tide of superficial, feel-good oppressive. Their major concern seems to be science, at par in its epistemic status with varieties of multiculturalism has created the the relative lack of opportunities to join the any other local knowledge. conditions for a symbiotic relationship modern mainstream). Presenting the Let us move on the next question and ask between the western critics of science and everyday lives and travails of Indian people why affirmations of culture and identity as the intellectuals of third world origin, living as if they are still fighting the British raj in arbiters of knowledge have become so loud and working fully or partly in the west. Of the name of their venerated traditions does and intense among the left inclined the latter, intellectuals of Indian origin have get our intellectuals standing ovations - and intellectuals, both in the west as well in the been highly influential. Taking their cue cushy teaching positions - in American third world? Why now? from the postmodern turn in social theory universities. But does it advance, even in the in the western academe, Indian intellectuals slightest, the struggle of ordinary people for CONSCIOUSNESS OF IDENTITIES increasingly began to frame the dynamic of a better life? To a large extent, the resurgence of modernisation primarily in terms of cultural Furthermore, a little bit of introspection consciousness of identities is a result of the meanings and worldviews. They presented should reveal that all of us who are in this actual thinning out of the local content of modernisation as a David and Goliath privileged position to write learned tracts identities. The insistence on recognition of struggle between the presumably humane denouncing Enlightenment and modernity minority ethnic and third world cultures is and whole local and situated ways of are beneficiaries of the very ideas that we only partly a reaction to past or present bias; knowing, and its exact opposite, the so blithely critique. How many of us, it is also a result of the fact that these cultures presumably totalitarian, imperialistic especially women from not privileged upper are no longer self-sufficient and taken for 'metanarrative' of modern Science and class/caste backgrounds, can truly claim that granted by those living in them. The relative Reason. In study after study - the green our ancestral traditions would have given us fading of cultural and ethnic differences revolution, the Chipko movement, the elbow room to discover and expand our caused by the forces of global modernity has indigenous vs modem medicine, popular intellectual potential? Is it not true that our created a politics of nostalgia. While I do religiosity vs secularism, village republics political consciousness as feminists, as left sympathise to some extent with concerns vs individual freedoms-the two were painted intellectuals and activists was born out of about the loss of cultural identity (although in a stark contrast, as if the sole aim and result a confrontation with the injustices and I believe that these concerns deny the of science-based development and modernity everyday cruelties of our own vaunted simultaneous synthesis of new cultural was to annihilate all local traditions, and as traditions? And is it not true that we were meanings which are not mere copies of the if the biggest problem facing the majority enormously enabled in our own personal west), I am convinced that turning inward of Indian people stemmed from excesses of growth by ideas of equality, liberty and the and pinning all our hopes on ourown 'situated a scientific worldview and a completely rights of citizenship we gleaned from western knowledges' is the wrong response to the rationalised life. By ignoring the differential political philosophy and literature - ideas problem. Situated knowledges, as Alan Sokal effects of modem ideas and modernisation which are conspicuous in our own cultural correctly says in his talk, can often be another of the productive forces on different classes repertoire more by their suppression than name for plain prejudice and ignorance. and castes - which would have shown the their expression? Can any one in any honesty liberating force of modernising ideas as well The same forces of globalisation that have call these ideas of equality and liberty for the disadvantaged groups - these critics brought a concern with identities to the ' western' ? Did we not rediscover these ideas have painted a grossly exaggerated picture foreground have also created an institutional through our own struggles with our own of unremitting and total doom, with the climate in the global network of universities, patriarchs and our own ideologues? entire Indian civilisation facing a crisis of research centre and activist groups which If our left intellectuals were half as much meaning before the forces of 'western' encourages and rewards identity- and culture- in tune with local realities and needs as they science. Such 'analyses' were eagerly pressed based explanations and solutions. As Arif are with the twists and turns of postmodern into service by postmodern theorists as Dirlik and Aijaz Ahmad have recently pointed theory, they would have refrained from evidence of the depredations and out, the culturalist trends in postcolonial indulging in a wholesale, total critique of totalitarianism of modernity. criticism resonate with the cultural require- scientific rationality that leaves no theoretical ments of transnational corporations which It does not take any great genius to see justification for atrans-cultural appropriation make use of the cultural idiom of different the glaring disjuncture between the anti- of science. Even though self-defeating and groups in order to market their products. western, anti-modernity harangues of Indian cynical, the postmodern critique addresses Multiculturalism may have been spearheaded intellectuals and the desperate struggles of some real contradiction in the advanced by radical and feminists but has found a ordinary working people to obtain for their capitalist societies where scientific insti- comfortable home in the business schools children the benefits of modern education tutions and knowledge have become close in academic institutions. including, above all, trainingin sciences and partners of the state and the big capital. In In response to my critics who appear to engineering. Even the much ballyhooed India on the other hand - science still has have read my defence of universalism of children of Bharat Mata - the farmers, the an enormous untapped potential for a science as opposing all references to cultural tribals and the women presumably living in progressive social change. Those who claim differences, I want to emphasise that I firmly harmony and love with nature - are hardly to attribute all our social problems, from sati believe that a greater and more refined averse to modern ideas and modern to communalism to 'hyperrationality' of understanding of non-western histories and technology. On the contrary, a good part of modernity have only given us their own cultures is a legitimate end of scholarship, their struggles are motivated to get a fair idiosyncratic and highly debatable neo- and that it is useful in combating the often share of modernity. (Of course not all of Gandhian-postmodernist interpretations that hidden ethnocentric assumptions of grand them, not even a significant majority, seek seem designed to find colonialism responsible social theory. Such studies are valuable for out modern science because they are not just for its own sins, but for our own they can lead to genuinely universal social consciously rebelling against traditions or as well. They have yet to offer any science that can identify differences between are troubled by the implausibility and sociological evidence of these 'excesses' of reason, of all things, in the public or private societies and yet explain those differences narrowness of traditional knowledge. They sphere or in India. in terms of general concepts. But the entire seek out modem knowledge and institutions thrust of postcolonial project has been to for more mundane interests in getting Be that as it may, these critics tend to turn professional jobs and the like. But the point exalt differences over any universal expla- a blind eye to the fact that for a large part, is that they do not seem to find modern nations. This can only encourage paro- our personal relations - with our family institutions culturally alien or particularly chialism and identity politics. members, with our subordinates and our

Economic and Political Weekly April 18, 1998 921 superiors - are embedded in a largely Hindu possibility and desirability of the third should not play the same secularising and metaphysics which, for all other virtues that possibility - of a reinterpretation and liberalising trend in our culture as they did it may have, lacks any legitimation for delimitation of religion from social life - the in Europe during the Enlightenment. equality between human beings in life or traditionalists treat religion as if it were a even in death. Any such equality would trans-historical, immortal force, beyond the Notes contradict the rest of the cosmology which pale of rational critique and change. I am assigns all objects, human beings included, not suggesting that a rearrangement of [Paper read at the Socialist Scholars Conference, New york City, March 30. 1997.) their own place in a hierarchy of purity. This religious meanings and traditions will pre-scientific cosmos is run by capricious themselves, or even primarily, lead to a just 1 The whole debate is centred around recognition gods and goddesses, who can only be society - that requires a radical redistribution of local knowledge in their own terms and propitiated through obedience and worship, of wealth and social power. I am only urging at par with scientific knowledge. Modern but cannot be understood and never tamed. that a critical and a scientific engagement scientific enterprise may have been negligent I hasten to add that these ideas are not unique with religion must be on the agenda of of traditional knowledges but in principle it to Hinduism: closed, hierarchical and progressive social movements. is open to accepting those elements of traditional knowledge systems that can survive supernatural cosmologies were indeed the It is a well known fact that the same anti- a rigorous empirical examination. The norm in premodern, feudal societies, modernist intellectuals who have led the postcolonial science critics object to this including Europe, which have a systemic charge against science, have also vigorously demand of subjecting traditional knowledge need to secularise inequality and hierarchy. critiqued all modern ideas, including, to scientific standards of testing, for these The defenders of our native local know- secularism, liberal democracy, standards themselves are seen as no less ledges, of course, try all kinds of scholarly industrialisation, urbanisation, etc, as western culturally constructed and no more capable stratagems to minimise the oppressive habits imports, unsuitable for India's civilisational of bringing us closer to truth than the rules of the heart legitimated by India's dominant ethos. As many eminent Indian intellectuals, of evidence and logic used in folk sciences. metaphysics. Any critical examination of the including Sumit Sarkar, Achin Vinaik, Aijaz 2 Associated with major schools of sociology socially oppressive aspects of Hindu Ahmad and K Balgopal have pointed out, of scientific knowledge, including the Strong cosmology, even by those born into the the uncompromising opposition of our Programme of David Bloor and Barry Barnes and the related studies by Steve Shapin, Harry religion, is immediately pounced upon as nativists to all ideas modern implicitly, if not Collins, Andrew Pickering and others. The orientalist and elitist. Of course, the religious explicitly, legitimises the agenda of the Strong Programme has been overtaken by an metaphysics provides a meaning and structure reactionary Hindu fortes. even more radical constructivist Actor- to everyday life, and all of us carry those The self-described postcolonial or Network theory of Bruno Latour and his meanings within us with varying degrees of subaltern intellectuals (Partha Chatterjee and colleagues in France. Actor Network theory comfort. But let us not ignore the fact that Dipesh Chakrabarty, for instance) in their is becoming influential in the cultural studies the kernel of inequality and injustice in our turn plead either a theoretical of science. Feminist critiques of science, most dominant cultural traditions has habituated incommensurability, a radical prominently by Sandra Harding, Helen our society to a high level of everyday ' mistranslation'betwee n the modem and the Longino, Evelyn Fox-Keller, Donna Haraway violence and cruelties to our fellow beings. traditional, western and eastern cultural are the other major stream of radical science scholarship. Harding and Haraway have also And that is where natural sciences have meanings. Others like Nandy justify their been very influential in the cultural/ a job to do in our culture. The historic role own deliberate under-emphasis on the anthropological studies of science. of scientific ideas has been to replace hierarchical structure of our own cosmology 3 There are, admittedly, many well documented metaphysics with physics, to demolish the on the grounds of India's victimhood, so historical case studies showing that the existing closed, hierarchical world and reveal the that, in Nandy's words 'there is a need to institutional controls were insufficient for pre-social equality of all human beings, and be more protective and respectful toward the checking for social biases, especially against to free the mind from fear of gods and djinns. faith held by those defeated and marginalised women and against non-White races. It is a The ability to rationally understand the natural by the dominant global consciousness.' legitimate and a vitally important role of and social forces that impact our lives frees What these arguments overlook is that the social critics to reveal these lapses and to insist the individual from the cruel obligation to true victims of the Indian civilisation, the on inclusion of all classes, gender, races in live according to norms set by a dalits, not only have had no problems of the enterprise of science, so that the predetermined and immutable cosmic order. mistranslation or incommensurability, but international scientific community becomes more and more vigilant against conscious and A desacralisation of consciousness and have actively welcomed scientific knowledge unconscious bias. What is however not secularisation of social relationships is a pre- and modern outlook that can shake up the legitimate, nor theoretically sound, is for the requisite for a truly democratic civil society caste Hindu cosmology. Rationalism, critics to elevate biases into the founding to emerge in our country. Without a headlong Newton's physics and Thomas Paine's ideas principles of science. challenge to the traditional social order and of natural rights were the weapons of choice its cosmology, all the "new social movements' of the low caste social reformers including References cannot together give us a just and democratic Dadoba Pandurang, Jotirao Phule and Nanda, Meera (1997a): 'Against Social civil society; rather there is a serious danger Ambedkar, These organic intellectuals of De(con)structionof Science: Cautionary Tales that they themselves will become the bearers the down trodden were perfectly comfortable from the Third World' in Ellen M Wood and of traditional patriarchy and caste hierarchies. with the ideas emerging out of the Scientific John Bellamy Foster (eds), In Defence of I am fully aware how terribly old-fashioned Revolution and the Enlightenment. A similar History: Marxism and the Postmodern all this will sound to those whose sensibilities story will hopefully be written someday of Agenda, Monthly Review Press, New York, have been shaped by populist nostrums about innumerable Indian women who found in 1997, the wisdom and goodness of the traditional modern 'western' world view legitimation — (1997b): 'Restoring the Real: Rethinking masses. The trouble with these populist for their own personal struggles for a right Social Constructivist Theories of Science,' defenders of traditional India is that they to write the script of their own lives. The Socialist Register, 1997, 302-52. — (1998): 'The Epistemic Charity of Social equate secularisation of consciousness and experience of oppression and the desire for Constructivist Theories of Science and Why social relations with irreligiosity or even civic and, yes, individual freedoms, is not the Third World Must Reject the Offer' in atheism; either the 'authentic' traditions as a peculiar feature of the western culture that Noretta Koertge (ed) A House Built on Sand?: practised by the masses, or the specter of a is incommensurable with Indian ideas about Critical Perspectives on Postmodern Studies forced and total evacuation of religion and freedom and rights. There is, then, no reason of Science, Oxford University Press, values from social life. By denying the to suppose that scientific ideas cannot or (forthcoming).

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