Chinese Civilisation

Abstract

Civilisation is usually not allotted the front seat in social science discourses except for being treated as a whipping boy. This is precisely what the ‘Clash-of-Civilisations’ school has done. Nevertheless, we should thank Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University for bringing ‘civilisation’ into sharp focus. Huntington and others have initiated a civilisational discourse in the world forum on international political affairs, inviting much echo and more critique on their Great Divide between ‘us’ (the Western Judaic-Christian liberal-capitalist mainstream) and ‘them’ (all non-Western, non-Christian, particularly the Islamic and ‘Confucian-Chinese’ traditions) in the comity of nations and peoples. In anthropology, the ‘culturalists’ have been challenging the sociologists for many decades. I worked exactly throughout this challenging period as a culturalist or civilisationalist in a small circle of Chinese studies in Delhi from the mid-sixties up to 1999. My most enthusiastic sympathiser and supporter is the very person whom we are remembering today. How I wish Giri Deshingkar were standing here in my place, instead of dedicating this talk to his memory!