Research & Publications
Research & Publications
‘A combination of timidity born out of careerism and an ignorance born out of overspecialization combine to form a vacuum at the heart of academic life.’ –Nietzsche
In 1842, at the age of 24, a young man received his Phd in Greek philosophy from the University of Jena, in Germany. He tried for an academic job and found that he was banned from all further career opportunities in academia. This was because he had been a member of the radical Young Hegelians group during his student days. This proved to be a blessing in disguise for him and for the world. If not for this ban, he might well have ended up a nondescript academic in the German university system, instead of the revolutionary genius who gave a new philosophical direction to humankind to move on to the next, higher phase of existence. The name of that young man was Karl Marx.
It is common knowledge that in a country like India, questions about an academic job (such as its not-soglamorous pay and prestige) are linked to broader structural issues. This topic cannot be debated in this limited space. But we can discuss questions such as: What exactly is a career in academics all about? What are its limitations? What is the social role of an academic? What should a young mind prepare itself for before deciding on a career in academics?
What exactly is an academic supposed to be? The foremost duty of an academic is to strive to give an intellectual justification for human existence per se. This is easier said than explained. An observation of Kautilya that is echoed in the philosophy of Plato is that an intellectual or a philosopher, which is what an academic is supposed to be, should have the quality of saatva or refined spiritualism, which transcends the material and social trappings of a normal human existence. But we realise that this remains a utopian state. If an academic wants to overcome the limitations of her career and become a real intellectual, she should strive to develop three aspects of her career. These are:
This should be the primary identity of an academic. At the risk of sounding careerist, this dimension is necessary as an academic has to be a part of a formal academic institution involved in the production and reproduction of knowledge. This is needed for the academic not so much to fulfil her biological and social needs but because being a part of a formal academic system may be the only way of ensuring that she remains in appropriate social practice. Of course, one might argue that being a part of formal academia was not necessary for an intellectual like, say, Gandhi. But Gandhi had the advantage of being associated with a mass movement of huge social relevance. Not all of us are fortunate enough to have such a meaningful association with a mass movement, and that too at such an intense level, so as to give us our primary identities.
Within an academic set-up, an academic should strive to transcend narrow disciplinary boundaries. Disciplines rule by controlling belief systems. They exercise control by defining reality, by devising ontological frameworks, and by giving guidelines for academic action and practice. The need for conforming to a particular discipline as well as transcending its confines is a classic dialectic that is the wellspring of all kinds of academic creativity.
2. Organic intellectual
It was the Italian communist, Antonio Gramsci, who, writing from a fascist prison cell, coined the phrase organic intellectual. An organic intellectual is someone who is an organic part of the masses whose frustrations and aspirations she voices through erudite, intellectual forms. For example, Ambedkar being a Dalit had the right to claim the mantle of an organic Dalit intellectual. But then caste need not be the only identity that an intellectual can claim in order to represent the masses. The need for being an organic intellectual arises from the fact that the intellectual source from which an academic gets her ideas and inspirations cannot only be a scientific laboratory or a research library or an electronic database of e-journals. It also has to be, as C. Wright Mills, one of the few career academics who had a mass following in the United States, says, one’s own life experiences, which have to be continually examined and interpreted. In order to maximise one’s own life experiences, it is in the fitness of things that one should be able to relate to at least a section of the masses at the practical level.
3. Public intellectual
The best example of a public intellectual currently is Noam Chomsky. His area of expertise is the rather rarified field of linguistics. But he also relates to a general audience across the world on subjects as diverse as the future of capitalism and the current state of neo-imperialism. Let us presume that over the course of an entire academic career, an academic gets to teach a total of 3,000 students. This means that the narrow conduits of academic communication may not be adequate if an academic wants to relate to a wider audience. Hence the need to reach out to a larger audience through whatever channels are available, such as newspapers, blogs, public speeches, and at any fora.
There is one other aspect of academic life that the academic needs to understand. The cause of furthering truth is seldom served by conformity in thought. And non-conformity causes conflict. Conflict or struggle is the basis of all social change. What should be the role of an academic? She should initially facilitate conflict at the ideational level. She should facilitate the asking of questions, especially uncomfortable, probing, conflict-provoking questions like ‘why?’ and ‘why not?’, rather than comfortable questions like ‘how?’ This is possible because the university is a refined cultural space, which provides a simulated space for enacting social conflicts of different kinds. And if the academic is both a public as well as an organic intellectual, she can help to take the ideational conflict to the real world wherein it can be transformed in a productive and practical manner and lead to some meaningful social change.
Perhaps all these expectations are too much for a budding academic to shoulder in one short lifetime. But then we live but once, and this one and only life of ours has to be lived in the most meaningful way.