Philosophy of Social Change: Need of an Indian Model
Dr Desh Raj Sirswal
Social change is a structural transformation of political, social and economic systems and institutions to create a more equitable and just society and it is a universal phenomenon and it occurs in every society. Technically said that social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a social group or society; a change in the nature, social institutions, social behaviours or social relations of a society. As we know Change is inevitable and it takes place in all fields. The term “social change” is often used to describe variations in, or, modifications of any respect of social process, social patterns, social interaction or social organization. Great thinkers emerged from various societies induce social change in different times.
In our Indian tradition too, we can find a lot of discussion and many thinkers as we are see our historical perspective and also diversity of thoughts in our literature. There are many concepts available for social change. We always discuss about Gandhi, Ambekar, Bhagat Singh, Marx etc. in this respect. But the problem is that they always try to drag the society towards their fundamental aim. If we see our situation we can easily find diverse ideologies with different interest and aims, also its effect to our national integrity and social security. India has seen many reformers from time to time since the Scholastic Period, Bhakti movement to technological movement in present time. Some of them have been from intellectual front and others from religious realm but there is a need of political front too. Which ideology or theory is more relevant in today’s world ?
When we see discussion from political parties about Gandhi, Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh and Marx, it become vain when we see their practical character in our day to day discourse, newspaper etc. The present world has become a global village due to the growth of information technology, but Indian intellectuals are somewhat infant in their side as they are not using their skills to think something better. Intellectuals feel comfortable to get a discussion in seminars; conferences, workshop etc. and nothing produce socially relevant material. So, we need to find a common, universal, integrated philosophy to guide the entire Indian society and global village.
It is true that individual societies might have their own dogmas, which cannot be replaced by another societies thought. But when they interact with a global surface they need to accept the need of an integral theory and practice. How many thinkers become national ideals after independence for youth and new generation? This is a matter of thinking.
In their academic life students are struggling with lots of questions, they might to answer about their future life. Reports on Higher Education performed their duty well but when the time of their implementation come lots of problems come around. It is Integral philosophy envelops multiple endeavors of promoting physical, intellectual, moral spiritual and social values as many thinkers discussed in present time too. For this society must be able to cover the entire human condition and the totality of the human personality. Then the discussion about theories of social comes to its relevance in present time.
Social change is a very basic term and must be assigned further context. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution; the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic structure, for instance a shift away from feudalism and towards capitalism. Accordingly it may also refer to social revolution, such as the Communist revolution presented in Marxism, or to other social movements, such as Women's suffrage or the Civil rights movement. Social change may be driven by cultural, religious, economic, scientific or technological forces.
In the West we can find Hegelian, Marxist, Kuhnian, Heraclitan, Daoist (The Chinese philosophical work Dao De Jing) and Resource-based economy(Jacque Fresco's concept of a resource-based economy) models for social change. Now it is time to develop an Indian model of social change which can be helpful to get a integrated conception of social, economical, political and religious progress as our general Indian philosophy want to develop.
References:
(i) Need of an Integral Philosophy for Social Change
http://allphilosophy.com/topic/1224
(ii) Social change From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_change
(iii) What is Social Change ?
http://www.fundforsouth.org/social_change.htm
