Sikhism and Islam: A Structural Analysis

This chapter outlines the author’s structural definition of the problems involved in the theoretical and practical relations between Sikhism and Islam in terms of religion, history and society since the time of Guru Nanak through the various vicissitudes that were to follow. It contains a synchronous analysis of the structure of the discourse of religion as well as an analysis of the structure of the discourse of history, that is, the diachronous political aspect of the relation. The issues of the unity and duality of the religious and political aspects of life in both the medieval and the contemporary world are a central theme and lead to the more fundamental question of plurality in Indian modernity. Also included is a discussion on non-Sanskritic sects and the relationship between the Mughals and the Sikhs.

New Outlines of Structural Sociology, 1945–70

This chapter presents a discussion of international intellectual trends in the social sciences, theoretical and empirical studies in India, the question of independence of mind or home rule in intellectual institutions. Following the swarajist project outlined earlier of viewing Europe and its systems of knowledge and practices from an independent Indian point of view, this chapter is in effect a research outline for a new structural sociology in India. We are introduced to structuralism as it exists in the world, its scope and definition and as a methodology for the social sciences. This is followed by the approach to structuralism as scientific theory, method and as philosophical world view. Finally discusses are the principles of structural analysis, structuralism in language, literature and culture, in social structure, with regard to society and the individual, religion, philosophy, politics, sociology and social-anthropology.

Metaphysics of the Indian Modernity

The final chapter of this volume is a study of the theory of the name as it appears in various religions and cultures. Starting with a section on Bhakti and the Indian modernity it goes on to expound various Western theories of the name moving through philosophers, linguists and social scientists, through Judaism, theosophy, Buddhism, Confucianism and finally leading up to Sikhism and an analysis of nam, shabad and Bani in the Sukhmani. It is the latter that forms the core of the content. There is discussion of the relation between sound and sense, vibration and invocation and the object of the liturgy of the name in modern Indian religions of Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam and the contribution of Sikhism to the quest for an Indian modernity.

Marxism of Labour or Property?

Beginning with an exposition of Marx and Engels on questions of labour as laid out in their various writings about this subject this chapter discusses the problems of, and raises questions about, the free peasantry class, the yeoman farmer or husbandman of Central Asia, Russia and Europe from the perspective of the organization of labour rather than of property which is the more common approach to these issues. It illustrates capitalism and socialism as two ideal types in eternal antagonism or contradiction and suggests a third way of reuniting the problems of labour and property. There is a discussion of the nature of work and ownership I modern industrial production as opposed to the ecological farmer with a household economy.

On Civil Society

This chapter is a discussion of approaches to civil society from the opposed aspects of power and culture within the context of God, man and nature; the history, origin, meaning and effect of civil society in Europe and in India; the division between sacred and secular power; questions of vernacularism, pluralism, the varieties of mediation of the one and the many, reciprocity, conformism and transgression; civil society as mediator between the priest and the prince or between household and state; civil society as a category of historical civilization; approaches to its study; civil society as the sphere of a concrete person, vernacular democracy and society without the state.

Mind and the World in Modern European Sociology

This is a chapter that comprises an analysis of modern Western sociology and philosophy. It opens with a discussion of systems of knowledge as rulers of the world as opposed to systems of politics or religion and goes on to discuss modern ways of knowledge as they are institutionalized in the university, the structure of knowledge that emerged from the modern positivist dualism of the Enlightenment; the shared dualisms of fact and value, theory and practice, ends and means; the hierarchy of the sciences, the opposed sides of the European brain, empiricism, rationalism and dialectics in modern Western thought. There is extensive discussion of the three main streams of modern Western sociology as represented by Marx, Weber and Durkheim.

Right, Left and Centre in the Sciences of Nature

This chapter continues with the author’s critique of modern Western science. It traces the inherent dualisms of the modernist approach to spheres of thought, nature and society whether they be of the right, left or centre in the political spectrum. The question of dualism and non-dualism is discussed in relation to Marx, Engels, Hegel, Lenin, Goethe, Christianity, Soviet Marxism and Chinese Maoism, and the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe. The final section of the chapter deals with the relation between science and politics outlining the alliance between the science of the expert with the military industrial complex that makes impossible a praxis of Gandhian non-violence, a centrist position that has its reflection in the non-dualist streams of the European underground.

Religion, Civil Society and the State in India

This chapter is a detailed analysis of the relations between religion, civil society and the state within the context of both medieval Hinduism and Islam in India. It considers the relations between Brahmin, King and sannyasi in the Hindu context and ethos and the concepts of sharia’t, tariqat, and hukumat within the Muslim one including the points of view of its various schools. The parallelism in the underlying structure of the two systems is clearly highlighted. The whole discussion is set in the context and concept, as generally agreed, of India today as multi-religious nation, a modern plural society and a federal secular state. Indian modernity is considered as a transformation of medievalism that finally led to the constitution of the Indian federal state.

Work Study and the Industrial Worker in Post-war Britain and the West

This is an introduction to the sociology of work, to human work, worship and play viewed as separate and autonomous spheres of life; the scientific or experimental study of work in the factory; industrial sociology, sociologie du travail, scientific management and the human relations school; newer and more comprehensive approaches to the study of work; the history of work study in British industry; the components of industrial engineering; the managerial and working classes; and work study as a short-term approach to production The final section is on the attitudes of the manager, the supervisor and the trade union official; on work study and the worker, innovation and social structure and the nature of the industrial system.

The Three Lives of Things in a Post-modern Economy

This is a study of the material aspect of modern and post-modern Western civilization. After first laying out the problem and perspective this chapter goes on to discuss the relation between commerce and industry; the measurement of innovation as a cycle over time; social facts or the sociological phenomena of military–industrial scientific progress, innovation and diffusion worldwide; methods of estimating the life-cycle of innovation, manufacture, use and obsolescence in a world of production, development and progress; innovation and armaments; the underlying structure of the post–Second World War global system and its arms race; self and the world: prospects for the future and finally, the technology of obsolescence and the science of vivisection.