Abstract

LOPEZ AREU, Mario. Historiographic reception and approaches to political thought in contemporary India. Estud. Asia Áfr. [online]. 2018, vol.53, n.3, pp.571-599. ISSN 2448-654X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/eaa.v53i3.2343.

Contemporary political theory is dominated by the ideas and values of modern Western thought. However, following the decolonization process in Asia and Africa an important debate is taking place regarding the continuity and legitimacy of those same concepts in postcolonial societies. This paper analyses that debate within Indian political science, examining how Western ideas have interacted with those from the Indian tradition to shape modern-day Indian political thought and the contemporary Indian state. The paper presents the main historiographical approaches present in this debate through an analysis of their main authors and works: the hermeneutic approach, which defends the notion that modern Indian political thought derives from a process of encounter between Western and Indian traditions, and the indigenist approach, which advocates for the development of an Indian political science discipline autonomous of Western ideas and values.

Keywords : India; modernity; post-colonialism; Cambridge School; subaltern studies.

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