Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya
Encyclopedia
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (November 19, 1918 – May 8, 1993) was an eminent Bengali
Marxist philosopher from India
. He made extensive contributions to the exploration of the materialist current in ancient Indian Philosophy
. His most outstanding work in this regard was the compilation and exposition of the ancient philosophy of Lokayata, liberating it from distortions that it had suffered at the hands of its opponents. He is also acclaimed for his researches in the history of science and scientific method in ancient India, especially his work on the ancient physicians Caraka and Susruta.
family. His father was a devout Hindu
and a supporter of India's freedom struggle. It was probably his influence that intitiated Debiprasad to two major passions in his life - Indian philosophy and politics; however, he quickly progressed towards radical streams in both fields, developing a lifelong commitment to Marxism and communist movement. At a very early stage of his life Chattopadhyaya immersed himself in the left nationalist movement by joining the Association of Progressive Writers
, which was formed in 1936.
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya obtained his academic training in philosophy
in Calcutta, West Bengal
under eminent philosophers like Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan and S. N. Dasgupta. After standing first in philosophy at University of Calcutta
both in B.A. (1939) and M.A. (1942), he did his post-graduate research work under Prof S. N. Dasgupta. He taught philosophy at the University of Calcutta
for two decades. Subsequently, he was appointed a UGC Visiting Professor at the universities of Andhra Pradesh
, Calcutta and Poona. He remained associated with the activities of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPHR) and the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research
(CSIR) under various capacities. His second wife was the renowned educationist and Tibetologist, Dr. Alaka Majumder Chattopadhyaya ( 1926-1998 ).
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya's work on materialism and scientific method led to his active interactions with the international community of philosophers, historians and Indologists. He collaborated with some of the outstanding western scholars of the 20th century, like Joseph Needham
, George Thomson, Bongard Levin and Walter Ruben. He was fellow of the German and USSR Academies of Sciences.
As mentioned above, since his youth, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya remained active within the communist movement of India in a very non-sectarian manner. Despite being a life-long member of the Communist Party of India
(CPI), which he joined in 1944, he interacted with all the Marxist segments in India, within and without the communist movement. Along with his professional writings, he was a regular contributor to party and allied journals on ideological and philosophical issues.
He died in Calcutta on May 8, 1993.
This study questioned the mainstream view that Indian philosophy's sole concern was the concept of Brahman
. From the scattered references in the ancient philosophical literature which were completely hostile to the ancient materialist schools, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya reconstructed the philosophy of Lokayata, which consistently denied the existence of brahman and viewed pratyaksa (perception) as the sole means of knowledge. He demolished the so-called "interpretation of synthesis" which sought to combine the diverse philosophical traditions of India to form a ladder that leads to the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta
.
Being a Marxist, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya's uses the method of historical materialism
to study "the ultimate material basis of the primitive deha-vada and the primitive rituals related to it" and to reveal how "could these be connected with the mode of securing the material means of subsistence". He also traced "the course of development this archaic outlook eventually underwent".
to later Buddhism. In this introductory study, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya targets another important myth that overshadows the study of Indian philosophy - that of the presupposed predominance of shastrartha
or textual interpretation. He views the development of Indian philosophy as the consequence of real clash of ideas - "contradiction constituted the moving force behind the Indian philosophical development".
Prof Dale Riepe in his review of this book says that Chattopadhyaya "combines the analytic sagacity of Hume with the impatient realism of Lenin".
The book also endeavours to demonstrate how Indian philosophy was not any exception to the sharp conflicts between idealism and materialism, which are universally evident in the philosophical traditions of other regions. Further, it considers the role of the law-givers like Manu
in establishing the supremacy of the idealist traditions, and how due to the censor and censure anti-idealists like Varahamihira
and Brahmagupta
worked out their philosophies in distinctive Aesopian language
, developing their own modes of camouflaging their ideas.
Like elsewhere, in India too anti-idealists and materialists took practice as the main criterion of truth. Nyaya
-Vaisheshika
s were most outspoken in this regard - "after a knowledge is proved true in practice, there remains no doubt about the proof; hence the question of proving does not arise". On the other hand, the idealists believed in complete separation between theory and practice. They adhered to, in the words of Kumarila Bhatta
, the principle of bahyartha-sunyatva (the unreality of the objects of knowledge), which, according to Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, formed "the real pivot of idealism throughout its Indian career".
The main concentration of the book is to present an analysis of Caraka Samhita, the crucial source book in Indian medicine. According to Chattopadhyaya, "discarding scripture orientation, they [the Indian physicians] insist on the supreme importance of direct observation of natural phenomena and on the technique of rational processing of the empirical data. They go even to the extent of claiming that the truth of any conclusion thus arrived at is to ne tested ultimately by the criterion of practice". For them, "everything in nature occurs according to some immutable laws, the body of which is usually called svabhava in Indian thought" and "from the medical viewpoint there can be nothing which is not made of matter". They even say that "a substance is called conscious when it is endowed with the sense-organs". Further, Chattopadhyaya shows:
Chattopadhyaya also tries to show in the book, how societal divisions, especially the caste system, which was enforced by the law-givers and their justificatory idealist ideologies, formed obstructions in the way of scientific development in India.
declared by Indira Gandhi
, on the one hand, and the upsurge of rightist forces in the form of Jan Sangh, Shiv Sena
etc., on the other. Chattopadhyaya opined "that in these grim and anxious days through which India today is passing, that which holds hope for our future is the growing awareness of our people of socialism being the only way out". And, "an essential pre-condition for moving forward to Socialism is the consolidation of Socialist consciousness in its right sense among the Indians today", for which "it is imperative to understand and absorb the philosophical views of Lenin".
This book is meant to be a "guide or introduction" to Lenin's philosophical writings. It seeks "to lead the readers to the actual study of Lenin, providing them with some clarifications, annotations and summations that they may be useful only for the limited of a preliminary acquaintance with Lenin's philosophical ideas".
However, Communist leader E.M.S. Namboodiripad in his overall appreciative review of the book criticised Chattopadhyaya for not able to "explain in a sufficiently convincing way as to why Lenin thought it necessary to go to Hegel in his later years", as evident from his Philosophical Notebooks of 1914.
Bengali Brahmins
The Bengali Brahmins are those Hindu Brahmins who traditionally reside in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, currently comprising the Indian state of West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Bangladesh...
Marxist philosopher from India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He made extensive contributions to the exploration of the materialist current in ancient Indian Philosophy
Indian philosophy
India has a rich and diverse philosophical tradition dating back to ancient times. According to Radhakrishnan, the earlier Upanisads constitute "...the earliest philosophical compositions of the world."...
. His most outstanding work in this regard was the compilation and exposition of the ancient philosophy of Lokayata, liberating it from distortions that it had suffered at the hands of its opponents. He is also acclaimed for his researches in the history of science and scientific method in ancient India, especially his work on the ancient physicians Caraka and Susruta.
Biography
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya was born on November 19, 1918 in Calcutta into a brahminBrahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
family. His father was a devout Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
and a supporter of India's freedom struggle. It was probably his influence that intitiated Debiprasad to two major passions in his life - Indian philosophy and politics; however, he quickly progressed towards radical streams in both fields, developing a lifelong commitment to Marxism and communist movement. At a very early stage of his life Chattopadhyaya immersed himself in the left nationalist movement by joining the Association of Progressive Writers
Progressive Writers' Movement
The Anjuman Tarraqi Pasand Mussanafin-e-Hind or Progressive Writers' Movement was a progressive literary movement in the pre-partition British India, consisting of a few different writers groups around the world....
, which was formed in 1936.
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya obtained his academic training in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
in Calcutta, West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
under eminent philosophers like Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan and S. N. Dasgupta. After standing first in philosophy at University of Calcutta
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta is a public university located in the city of Kolkata , India, founded on 24 January 1857...
both in B.A. (1939) and M.A. (1942), he did his post-graduate research work under Prof S. N. Dasgupta. He taught philosophy at the University of Calcutta
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta is a public university located in the city of Kolkata , India, founded on 24 January 1857...
for two decades. Subsequently, he was appointed a UGC Visiting Professor at the universities of Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
, Calcutta and Poona. He remained associated with the activities of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPHR) and the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research
CSIR India
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research established in 1942, is an autonomous body and India's largest Research and Development organization, with 39 laboratories and 50 field stations or extension centers spread across the nation, with a collective staff of over 17,000...
(CSIR) under various capacities. His second wife was the renowned educationist and Tibetologist, Dr. Alaka Majumder Chattopadhyaya ( 1926-1998 ).
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya's work on materialism and scientific method led to his active interactions with the international community of philosophers, historians and Indologists. He collaborated with some of the outstanding western scholars of the 20th century, like Joseph Needham
Joseph Needham
Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, CH, FRS, FBA , also known as Li Yuese , was a British scientist, historian and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, and as a fellow of the British...
, George Thomson, Bongard Levin and Walter Ruben. He was fellow of the German and USSR Academies of Sciences.
As mentioned above, since his youth, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya remained active within the communist movement of India in a very non-sectarian manner. Despite being a life-long member of the Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India
The Communist Party of India is a national political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 December 1925...
(CPI), which he joined in 1944, he interacted with all the Marxist segments in India, within and without the communist movement. Along with his professional writings, he was a regular contributor to party and allied journals on ideological and philosophical issues.
He died in Calcutta on May 8, 1993.
Lokayata (1959)
Throughout his philosophical and historical writings, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya had the singular aim of reconstructing the scientific ideas and materialism in ancient India, and to trace their evolution. While commenting on his work on Lokayata, German indologist Walter Ruben called him a "thought-reformer", who was "conscious of his great responsibility towards his people living in a period of struggle for national awakening and of world-wide fighting for the forces of materialism, progress, humanism and peace against imperialism. He has written this book Lokayata: A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism against the old fashioned conception that India was and is the land of dreamers and mystics".This study questioned the mainstream view that Indian philosophy's sole concern was the concept of Brahman
Brahman
In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...
. From the scattered references in the ancient philosophical literature which were completely hostile to the ancient materialist schools, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya reconstructed the philosophy of Lokayata, which consistently denied the existence of brahman and viewed pratyaksa (perception) as the sole means of knowledge. He demolished the so-called "interpretation of synthesis" which sought to combine the diverse philosophical traditions of India to form a ladder that leads to the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta
Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...
.
Being a Marxist, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya's uses the method of historical materialism
Historical materialism
Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...
to study "the ultimate material basis of the primitive deha-vada and the primitive rituals related to it" and to reveal how "could these be connected with the mode of securing the material means of subsistence". He also traced "the course of development this archaic outlook eventually underwent".
Indian Philosophy: A Popular Outline (1964)
It was probably the first introductory book that examined Indian philosophy through interdisciplinary lenses, drawing on anthropological, economic and philological studies. The book traced the philosophical development in India from the Vedic periodVedic period
The Vedic period was a period in history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. The time span of the period is uncertain. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the Rigveda, the oldest of the Vedas, was composed roughly between 1700–1100 BCE, also...
to later Buddhism. In this introductory study, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya targets another important myth that overshadows the study of Indian philosophy - that of the presupposed predominance of shastrartha
Shastrartha
Shastrartha was a kind of philosophical and religious contests in ancient India in which scholars participated to reveal the inner meaning of scriptures ....
or textual interpretation. He views the development of Indian philosophy as the consequence of real clash of ideas - "contradiction constituted the moving force behind the Indian philosophical development".
Prof Dale Riepe in his review of this book says that Chattopadhyaya "combines the analytic sagacity of Hume with the impatient realism of Lenin".
Indian Atheism (1969)
This is yet another provocative critique of the standard accounts of Indian philosophy and religion. This book brings out a coherent historical account of atheism in India. In fact, according to Chattopadhyaya, "an unbiased survey of the Vedas clearly shows the total absence of religious consciousness in its earlier stage and the Rgveda is full of relics of this stage of thought. Even the world polytheism is misapplied to such an early stage of the Vedic thought".What is Living and What is Dead in Indian Philosophy (1976)
In the Preface, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya says his purpose in this book is to present "an analysis of our philosophical traditions from the standpoint of our present philosophical requirements. These requirements, as understood here, are secularism, rationalism and science-orientation". He once again finds the philosophical development - debates and clashes - in ancient India embedded in the class struggles of the time. He discusses the materialist foundation of Vedic rituals, which he finds similar to the magical belief of controlling the natural forces through yajnas, etc. He shows how these rites and rituals that evolved as primitive scientific endeavours were transformed into superstitions and monopolies in the hands of the oppressors with the advent of class divisions.The book also endeavours to demonstrate how Indian philosophy was not any exception to the sharp conflicts between idealism and materialism, which are universally evident in the philosophical traditions of other regions. Further, it considers the role of the law-givers like Manu
Manu Smriti
' , also known as Mānava-Dharmaśāstra , is the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of Hinduism...
in establishing the supremacy of the idealist traditions, and how due to the censor and censure anti-idealists like Varahamihira
Varahamihira
Varāhamihira , also called Varaha or Mihira, was an Indian astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer who lived in Ujjain...
and Brahmagupta
Brahmagupta
Brahmagupta was an Indian mathematician and astronomer who wrote many important works on mathematics and astronomy. His best known work is the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta , written in 628 in Bhinmal...
worked out their philosophies in distinctive Aesopian language
Aesopian language
Aesopian Language is communications that convey an innocent meaning to outsiders but hold a concealed meaning to informed members of a conspiracy or underground movement. For instance, Person X is known for exposing secrets in an organization, so the organization leaders announce, "any members who...
, developing their own modes of camouflaging their ideas.
Like elsewhere, in India too anti-idealists and materialists took practice as the main criterion of truth. Nyaya
Nyaya
' is the name given to one of the six orthodox or astika schools of Hindu philosophy—specifically the school of logic...
-Vaisheshika
Vaisheshika
Vaisheshika or ' is one of the six Hindu schools of philosophy of India. Historically, it has been closely associated with the Hindu school of logic, Nyaya....
s were most outspoken in this regard - "after a knowledge is proved true in practice, there remains no doubt about the proof; hence the question of proving does not arise". On the other hand, the idealists believed in complete separation between theory and practice. They adhered to, in the words of Kumarila Bhatta
Kumarila Bhatta
' was a Hindu philosopher and Mimamsa scholar from Assam. He is famous for many of his seminal theses on Mimamsa, such as Mimamsaslokavarttika. Bhatta was an staunch believer in the supreme validity of Vedic injunction, a great champion of Purva-Mimamsa and a confirmed ritualist...
, the principle of bahyartha-sunyatva (the unreality of the objects of knowledge), which, according to Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, formed "the real pivot of idealism throughout its Indian career".
Science and Society in Ancient India (1977)
This book is about scientific method in ancient India and how societal divisions of the time shaped the development of science. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya chooses the field of medicine for the purpose, because, according to him, "the only discipline that promises to be fully secular and contains clear potentials of the modern understanding of natural science is medicine".The main concentration of the book is to present an analysis of Caraka Samhita, the crucial source book in Indian medicine. According to Chattopadhyaya, "discarding scripture orientation, they [the Indian physicians] insist on the supreme importance of direct observation of natural phenomena and on the technique of rational processing of the empirical data. They go even to the extent of claiming that the truth of any conclusion thus arrived at is to ne tested ultimately by the criterion of practice". For them, "everything in nature occurs according to some immutable laws, the body of which is usually called svabhava in Indian thought" and "from the medical viewpoint there can be nothing which is not made of matter". They even say that "a substance is called conscious when it is endowed with the sense-organs". Further, Chattopadhyaya shows:
- "If anywhere in ancient Indian thought we are permitted to see the real anticipation of the view that knowledge is power - which, when further worked out, assumes the formulation that freedom is the recognition of necessity - it is to be found among the practitioners of the healing art".
Chattopadhyaya also tries to show in the book, how societal divisions, especially the caste system, which was enforced by the law-givers and their justificatory idealist ideologies, formed obstructions in the way of scientific development in India.
Lenin, the Philosopher (1979)
This book was written in the context of growing state authoritarianism during the Indian EmergencyIndian Emergency (1975 - 77)
The Indian Emergency of 25 June 1975 – 21 March 1977 was a 21-month period, when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on her the power to rule by decree,...
declared by Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
, on the one hand, and the upsurge of rightist forces in the form of Jan Sangh, Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena
Shiv Sena , is a political party in India founded on 19 June 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray. It is currently headed by Thackeray's son, Uddhav Thackeray...
etc., on the other. Chattopadhyaya opined "that in these grim and anxious days through which India today is passing, that which holds hope for our future is the growing awareness of our people of socialism being the only way out". And, "an essential pre-condition for moving forward to Socialism is the consolidation of Socialist consciousness in its right sense among the Indians today", for which "it is imperative to understand and absorb the philosophical views of Lenin".
This book is meant to be a "guide or introduction" to Lenin's philosophical writings. It seeks "to lead the readers to the actual study of Lenin, providing them with some clarifications, annotations and summations that they may be useful only for the limited of a preliminary acquaintance with Lenin's philosophical ideas".
However, Communist leader E.M.S. Namboodiripad in his overall appreciative review of the book criticised Chattopadhyaya for not able to "explain in a sufficiently convincing way as to why Lenin thought it necessary to go to Hegel in his later years", as evident from his Philosophical Notebooks of 1914.
Books
- 1959 Lokayata: A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism: People's Publishing House, New Delhi
- 1964 Indian Philosophy - A Popular Introduction: People's Publishing House, New Delhi
- 1969 Indian Atheism - A Marxist Analysis : Manisha, Calcutta
- 1976 What is Living and What is Dead in Indian Philosophy: People's Publishing House, New Delhi
- 1977 Science and Society in Ancient India: Research India Publications, Calcutta
- 1979 Lenin, the Philosopher: Sterling Publishers, New Delhi
- 1986 History of Science and Technology in Ancient India: Firma K.L Mukhopadhyaya, Calcutta
- 1989 In Defence of Materialism in Ancient India: People's Publishing House, New Delhi
- 2002 Musings in Ideology- An Anthology of Analytical Essays by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya: G. Ramakrishna and Sanjay K. Biswas - Editors; Navakarnataka Publications Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore.
Anthologies
- 1982 Studies in the History of Science in India (2 Vols; Edited): Editorial Enterprises, New Delhi
- 1994 Carvaka/Lokayata : An Anthology of Source Materials and Some Recent Studies (Edited): Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi
External links
- Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Lokayata
- Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Science and Philosophy in Ancient India