MODULE 5 - INDIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Indian context -Psychology in ancient history
Indian psychology refers to the rich body of knowledge that we have inherited from our ancient
thinkers about consciousness, mind, and behaviour embedded in the three major traditions viz.,
Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. Since most of the material related to the nature of
consciousness, self, and mental activities emerged and developed as part of religious and spiritual
teachings and practices in these traditions they are viewed either as religious or as
[Link] terms like Vedic Psychology, Buddhist Psychology, Yoga Psychology, Hindu
Psychology, Jaina Psychology, and Dravidian Psychology have been used by some, all of which
are part of Indian thought traditions and reflect Indianness.
There are five different ways of understanding Indian psychology given by Salagame (Salagame,
2001; 2011).
a) Psychology in India – Many writers particularly those who are not professional psychologists
like travellers, scholars from other disciplines, and a few foreign psychologists use the term Indian
psychology in a general way to refer to the academic and professional status of the psychology
discipline in India. All the other usages listed below can also be included here.
b) Indian psychological thought – This is the primary sense in which the term is used for over a
century. It refers to the psychological insights that are available in the scholarly literature
produced by thinkers in the Vedic, Jaina and Bauddha traditions, which are the most ancient and
indigenous to our country. Many people are actively involved in developing them. They include
Indians as well as foreigners.
c) Psychology with an Indian identity – The terms like Vedic Psychology, Buddhist Psychology,
Yoga Psychology, Hindu Psychology, Jaina Psychology, and Dravidian Psychology have been
used by some, all of which are part of Indian thought traditions and reflect Indianness. Here also
we find the contributions of people from all over the world.
d)Psychology developed around the philosophy of an Indian thinker – Though modern
psychology is an outcome of the collective work of many scientists, we often come across different
schools whose foundation was laid by the philosophical vision of one particular individual. In
India, a contemporary example is that of Integral Psychology that was inspired by the integral
vision of MaharshiAurobindo. We find both Indians and foreigners who are followers of Sri
Aurobindo’s vision and teachings contributing to the development of Integral Psychology.
e) Psychology of Indian people – Those who adhere to socio-cultural viewpoint primarily
emphasize on understanding the behaviour of Indian masses. They are not very particular about
employing Indian indigenous concepts and theories. They use Western ideas and methods also.
For example, Sudhir Kakkar, an Indian born psychologist trained in Psychoanalysis under Erik
Erikson has applied psychoanalytic theory to understand the Indian psyche and has published
several books and articles.
What is not Indian Psychology?
Indian psychology is not the indigenous psychology of a specific group or tribe living in India. It
is not indigenizing psychology, which means to adapt Western psychological theories and models
to suit the Indian context. It is not limited to the people living within the geographical boundaries
of India. While it helps to understand the behaviour of Indian masses, it is not the psychology of
Indian [Link] term Indian only highlights the unique and distinctive insights on consciousness
and the nature of mind discussed and described in our ancient texts and treatises.
Indian Psychology
Initially, when Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Jadunath Sinha, and others wrote about Indian
psychology, their inspiration was nationalistic. They wanted to highlight the uniqueness of Indian
culture and traditions. They wanted to emphasize the indigenous perspectives, and in the context
of modern scientific developments and materialistic worldview, they wanted to highlight the
importance of spiritual worldview of India. They focused on how our ancient thinkers understood
the nature of consciousness, mind, self, and other related topics and how they are different from
the understanding of Western psychology. Indian Psychology is not limited only to spirituality and
religion. Glimpses of social psychology could be found in Dharmashastra and Neetishāstra.S. K.
Ramachandra Rao wrote in his classic book Development of Psychological Thought in India
(1962) that though the study of mind was not an independent branch of knowledge in ancient times,
in India, there was enough “psychologising.” Indian thinkers dwelt on almost all the aspects of
behaviour as and when it was necessary, in different contexts. They discussed the nature and
functions of mind and differentiated it from consciousness in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the
Ramayana and Mahabharata, in the Yogasutras, in Dharmashastras, in the Natyashastra, and so
on.
Some modern authors suggest that Patanjali’s Yoga Sūtra is a classical text on Indian
[Link] Swami Vivekananda noted Patanjali brought together all the ideas related to Yoga
- its theory and practice - that existed in his lifetime and wrote his sūtras to help those who wish to
go beyond mind and all states of consciousness to reach what is called kaivalya. He has termed it
as “practical psychology.” (Vivekananda, 2003).
S. K. Ramachandra Rao wrote in his classic book Development of Psychological Thought in India
(1962) that though the study of mind was not an independent branch of knowledge in ancient times,
in India, there was enough “psychologising.” Indian thinkers dwelt on almost all the aspects of
behaviour as and when it was necessary, in
different contexts.
The term manashastra must have been coined as a Sanskrit/ Hindi equivalent of Western
Psychology after its introduction in our country first in the University of Calcutta in 1906. Some
have used the term Bhāratīya manah shastra. Otherwise, to the best of our understanding, there is
no reference to this field of study in our [Link] scholars used the term Indian psychology
th
since the beginning of the 20 century. So far it is not sure with evidence which scholar first used
this term and when. But we find this term being explicitly used by Swami Vivekananda in the year
1900 in his lectures in the United States of America. He has drawn the attention of his audience to
the differences between ‘Indian Psychology’ and ‘Western Psychology’ in those lectures
The credit for collecting all the diverse viewpoints scattered in different sources and bringing them
together goes to Jadunath Sinha. He was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calcutta
between 1933 and 1969. Three volumes, of books namely, Indian Psychology – Cognition, Indian
Psychology – Emotion and Will and Indian Psychology – Epistemology of Perception eto cover
almost all the topics of importance and also those not commonly discussed in the text books of
modern psychology. Subsequently, many other scholars and psychologists wrote about Indian
Psychology of which Raghunath Safaya’s book Indian psychology: A critical and historical
analysis of the psychological speculations in Indian philosophical literature provides a
comprehensive idea in a concise way.
Differences between Indian and Western Psychology
The more significant differences are fundamental issues of philosophical significance or the
worldviews underlying Indian and Western psychology. Worldview is a way of describing the
universe and life within it, both regarding what is and what ought to be. Indian culture is
characterized by spiritual worldview. Two terms darśana and dharma are used in India which refer
to many elements included in the definition of worldview.
Human Nature: Western traditions agree that humans have specific instinctual or biological needs
for food, security, sexuality, and sleep like other animals. But a person can sublimate or conquer
his/her basic needs, emotions, passions, and desires. According to Indian Psychology along with
the needs as mentioned by western thoughts, humans have the potentiality to actualize and develop
capacities which are extraordinary that transforms her/him into a superhuman being, who may be
called Divine or God. Such persons can go beyond the barriers of space-time and experience
connectedness with the whole of the universe.
Life and Death: Western psychology having been influenced by Darwinian evolutionary theory
treat humans as superior primates and hence the further evolutionary possibilities available for
humans are not considered.
According to Indian Psychology, life and death is a cyle and a continuous process. All organisms
pass through this cycle. Humans undergo such repeated sequences, and bodily death is not the end-
of-life force (jiva). The results of actions performed in one particular life time accumulate creating
certain tendencies, impressions, habit patterns and constitute what is known as karma. The
cumulative karma of several life times is the force that keeps the cycle of birth and death going.
But humans can consciously choose to break this cycle in a particular life period and put an end to
this process through liberation or moksha.
Goals and values of life: The ideas such as cycles of birth and death, life after life, rebirth and
reincarnation are not part of Western culture as much as they are of ours. However, in the Indian
culture, from ancient times four life goals are recognized, they are purushārtha, what human beings
consciously chose as worth pursuing. They are dharma, artha, kāma, and moksha. They refer to
leading a virtuous life, acquiring wealth, fulfilling desires, and aspiring to get liberated from the
cycle of birth and death. While in all countries across the globe the other three goals are defined
and pursued, we do not find moksha.
Consciousness and states of consciousness: In modern psychology, only three states are accepted
and studied viz., waking, dream, and deep sleep states. In the waking state, we usually recognize
ourselves as the subject/person experiencing a world which is outside through our sensory organs
and understanding them with the help of memory of past experiences and reasoning. In the dream
state, we are not in direct contact with the outside world and hence sensory awareness is very
limited to some light or sound or touch or temperature variations in the environment, but there is
no perception of a physical world as such. However, in a deep sleep state, both the sensory
awareness from outside and also the activities of mind stops functioning, and we are left with a
feeling of peace and rest.
In the Upanishads,there is a fourth stage called turiya (consciousness), in addition to jāgrat
(waking), swapna (dream),and sushupti (deep sleep). This turiya is considered to be ever present,
and we undergo all our experiences in the backdrop of this.
Western thinkers do not speak of consciousness and mental activities as distinct. The terms
consciousness and mind are used interchangeably. But in Indian traditions, the mental action is
separated from Pure Consciousness on the one hand and physical body on the other. We use the
terms chetana, chaitanya, prajňa to refer to consciousness and manas and chitta to refer to mind.
Yoga, Meditation and other indigenous systems
Today the terms yoga and meditation have become very popular all over the world. United Nations
st
declared 21 June as “International Yoga Day” on 11 December 2014 and it is celebrated from
the year 2015 across the globe in nearly 200 countries. Current understanding of popular yoga is
often limited to practice of certain body postures (āsana), breathing exercises (prānāyāma) and
meditation (dhārana and dhyana). Some early researches showed that practise of yoga can bring
about reduction in stress, anxiety, and depression at psychological level and blood pressure, heart
rate, muscular tension and so on at physiological [Link] National Institute of Health of the
United States ofAmerica consider Ayurveda, Acupuncture, Yoga, and many such methods of
intervention under the heading “Complementary, Alternative and Integrative Health
Approaches”.In India, the Government of India has established a separate ministry to encourage
different systems other than Allopathy, which include Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and
Homeopathy (AYUSH). There are many central government schemes to encourage these systems.
In psychology, psychiatry, and other related mental health disciplines, Yoga and a variety of
meditation techniques from different traditions are approached primarily in three different ways:
(a) as a stress reduction strategy; (b) as a therapeutic adjunct and as a growth promotion and
technique and c) as a technique to induce an altered state of consciousness.
The growing realization among psychologists about the limitations of modern psychology
regarding its generalizations across populations within the Western world and outside of it has
resulted in the need for “rethinking of psychology” and “rethinking of methods in psychology”.
All these developments gradually led to what is now known as “indigenous psychology movement.
Psychologists from all over the world took an interest in developing the psychological insights and
perspectives available in their respective cultures. The rationale behind such attempts is to develop
a ‘truly universal psychology,’ by deriving common insights and understandings obtained in
culture specific indigenous psychologies. In this context, development of Indian psychological
thought is important from the socio-cultural view point, that can provide valuable insights for the
development of truly universal psychology. Thus, both from a consciousness perspective and from
a socio- cultural viewpoint Indian Psychology is contemporarily relevant.
History of modern Psychology in India
In the western context, beginning of scientific psychology was marked with the establishment of
psychological laboratory in Leipzing by Wundt. In Asia, Japan was the first country to start the
Psychology progrm. Coming to the Indian context, University of Calcutta became the first
university to offer Psychology course in 1916. The term manashastra must have been coined as a
Sanskrit/ Hindi equivalent of Western Psychology after its introduction in our country first in the
University of Calcutta. In 1916 the first Master’s Programme in Psychology was started at Calcutta
University where the Department of Experimental Psychology was established. N.N. Sengupta,
who chaired this department, had his education with Hugo Musternberg, a student of William
Wundt. Inspired by the European ethos, laboratory research at Calcutta was in the areas of depth
perception, psychophysics, attention and motivation, which became a model for other institutions
to follow. Acknowledging the scientific nature of psychological research, it was inducted as an
independent section in the Indian Science Congress in 1923. The Indian Psychological Association
was founded in 1924 and the Indian Journal of Psychology, the first psychology journal in India,
appeared the very next year. He challenged the concept of ‘group mind’ in social psychology and
had anticipated some of the aspects of Hawthorne Studies. One of the relevant works by him was
on, “Mental work in isolation and in group”. He coauthored one of the first books in social
psychology with Radhakamal Mukherji in 1929. He also founded Indian Psychological
Association and Indian Journal of Psychology. Some of the early Indian psychologists who worked
in the area of social and industrial psychology are M N Bannerji, K C Mukherji, S K Bose, A
Dutta, and D Ganguly.
When Sengupta left Calcutta, he was succeeded by Girindra Shekhar Bose. Bose was a medical
doctor and a psychiatrist, and was keen to promote psychoanalysis in India. Soon Calcutta became
an important centre of training in psychoanalysis. Bose’s thesis on repression was much
appreciated by Freud. In 1922 Bose founded the Indian Psychoanalytic Society and also
established the Lumbini Park Mental Hospital in Calcutta in 1940. The Department started an
Applied Psychology Wing in 1938, when Jung, Meyers, and Spearman were invited to the Silver
Jubilee Session of the Indian Science Congress.
University of Mysore is the second university in India to start a course in Psychology in [Link]
the time of India’s independence there were only three universities (Calcutta, Mysore and Patna)
in the country having psychology departments. Until then psychology was mostly part of the
course curriculum in philosophy and education departments. After Independence in 1947, the
National Government recognised the importance of social science teaching and research in
attaining the objectives of national reconstruction and social development. Psychologists began to
realise that they have a responsibility to engage in socially relevant research. As an example,
concerned with the wide-spread Hindu-Muslim riots during the partition of India in which
thousands died, many psychological studies were initiated. With the help of UNESCO, a major
research project was developed to find the causes of communal violence. Many Indian and Western
psychologists collaborated on this project which culminated in the book edited by Gardner Murphy
in 1953, entitled In the Minds of Men.
The ministry of Defense, Govt. of India made psychological screening of officers in the three
branches of services as part of the second world war efforts, under charge of a psychiatrist in the
services selection boards. Sohan Lal a psychometrician trained in UK was the first Indian to take
charge of the psychological testing program. Later M Adisheshiah took over and initiated work on
vigilance functions related to defense requirements. S K Mitra, organized and supervised
educational psychological research and counselling and guidance programs at the National Council
of Educational Research and Training. Different government, industrial and educational concerns
like The National Carbon Co., The West India Match Co., The Chittaranjan locomotive works.,
The Saxby Farmer and Co., took the help of psychology department in University of Calcutta. In
collaboration with Indian Council for Medical Research the department also undertook a study on
accident proneness among the tram and bus drivers of Calcutta.
Indigenization of psychology
Indigenization of psychology calls for rendering the basic concepts, theories, and models, and
measures of modern psychology suitable to a local socio-cultural context. Those who advocate
indigenization strongly hold on to the idea of scientific psychology that aims at universal laws and
principles. Foundation for the modern psychology in India was laid by the philosophical vision of
Maharshi Aurobindo. Indian psychologists were not very particular about employing Indian
indigenous concepts and theories. They use Western ideas and methods also. But there are also a
few attempts to employ Indian insights and concepts to understand the behaviour of Indian people.
For example, a psychiatrist, Prof. Neki, found that a “guru-chela” kind of relationship works better
in psychotherapy situations with Indian clients and patients. An organizational behaviour
specialist, Prof. J.B.P. Sinha coined the term “nurturant task leadership” to suggest that with Indian
employees those who are in their leadership position can achieve best results when they show
nurturing attitude to get the work done. Both of these examples illustrate that we Indians carry
some dependency attitude with elders. Kamala Chaudhuri adapted the Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT) by changing the pictures to suit the Indian social context. Binet-Kamat test of intelligence
is another example where items are changed from the original to suit the Indian setting. In both of
these adaptations, the basic ideas of projective psychology and that of IQ assessment remain
without any [Link] (1982, 1991) studied the role of traditional healers in maintaining
mental health in traditional societies. Ramchandra Rao (1983) developed a concept of stress based
on ancient scriptures. Pande and Naidu (1992) developed a research programme to study the
concept of detachment and its mental health consequences.