INTRODUCTION

India is certainly one of the most important social experiments in the world today. It is testing out whether a highly diverse people, increasingly aware of it freedom, can manage to live, and indeed to thrive, together.

At the present time this question is even more specific, for the world is completing a long rationalist cycle in which the potentialities for strong centralism have been implemented not only practically, but theoretically. The result has been the development of crushing totalitarian ideologies, so onesided and oppressive that they toppled either from external power (Fascism) or internal weakness (communism) within decades of their origin.

India then becomes a testing ground for the other major alternative approach which has been proposed for our times, namely a social dynamic which comes not from the top down, but from the bottom up; and not from the center to the periphery, but from the periphery to the center.

The chapters of this work analyze this both as problem and challenge, as possibility and hope. In the end the verdict is still out, but the reader can understand the issues much more clearly and draw upon the Indian -- especially the Bengali -- experience.

Part I concerns the principles of civil society and includes in Chapter III by G. Pattery the related proposal of swadeshi and sarvodaya by M. Gandhi which are not far from the notions of subsidiarity and solidarity in the modern Catholic social documents now central to the contemporary political theory of the European Union.

Chapter I by K. Bagchi, "Civil Society and Reason, Culture and Dissent," begins the work with considerable hesitation regarding civil society. He understands it more in an ideological sense as a new creation of abstract reasoning which would not allow for personal freedom. This concern regarding the depersonalizing effects of reason is shared broadly today. But the renewal of attention to civil society would seem to reflect the effort to reground social life in the concrete groupings of people as they face existential challenges. In this light Professor Bagchi joins the call for an expansion of the notion of reason by addition of further forms of awareness. This paper then is rightly placed first as it presents a critique of the notion of civil society and begins to point to way to elaborate the notion and the practice in a more adequate manner. The remainder of the work will build on this foundation.

Chapter II by Mrinal K. Dasgupta, "Pluralism vis-a-vis Cultural Conflict: an Eco-Sociological Analysis of the Future of Man," lays the foundations in biology and its lessons regarding evolution and its dynamics. This work shows how diversity is necessary and is generated from within, even as we develop common dimensions. From this he suggests the principles of such higher social unities as can constitute civil society within the Indian cultural traditions.

Chapter III by George Pattery, "Pluralist Society: A Gandhian Perspective," lays out a rich theory of civil society in the mind of Gandhi that is surprisingly contemporary. By giving priority to the village life of India Gandhi was able to conceive of small units extending indefinitely on a horizontal level in such manner that not only was there not a strong vertical line of power from above, but even horizontally there need not be a strong center controlling all the rest. Hence freedom or swaraj means on the social level rather self-reliance and self-sufficiency (swadeshi) for the welfare of all (sarvodaya). (It is indeed the theory of the internet.) In addition this chapter develops the significance of the body and of suffering in the thought and life of Gandhi and in social renewal.

Part II moves from principles to the vision of the ancient schools of Buddhism and Jainism to the horses and fears of Rabindranath Tagore.

Chapter IV by S.K. Pathak, "Models of Civic Awareness in Ancient India," looks back into the roots of Indian culture for the materials for such a construction. Especially, he reviews the pre-Buddhist and Vedic roots followed by the Buddhist, Jain and Tantric.

Chapter V by Sibnarayan Ray, "Pluralism and Cultural Conflict: Rabindranath Tagore," begins with Tagore very high poetic vision which he expressed with great and inspiring beauty. This was the picture of a peaceful world to which the Indian experience would make a decisively constructive contribution. The chapter notes, however, that in the last ten years of his life the looming conflicts within Indian and throughout the world turned Tagore's bright hope into dark foreboding. Chapter VI by Shyamal Sarkar, "Rabindranath Tagore's Concept of Social Integration," continues the themes of Chapter V so that the two constitute a real pair.

Part III turns to political practice of modern India during both the colonial and the post Independence periods. Here the tendency toward centrism belies earlier traditions, but is being rapidly transformed in this post cold war era.

Chapter VII by Anupam Gupta, "Civil Society and Basic Needs in the Public Sector: Economics in India," takes a new turn. Where the previous chapters had stated the problem and the theory, this and the following chapters look more to concrete realizations. They note in particular that India has been strongly centralized, not only by the colonial powers for the purpose of ruling but by the post Independence power as well. Thus while there are local groupings these are held close by pervasive political powers so that they reflect not the varied local realities of their members, but national strategic goals and concerns.

Chapter VIII by Sanjeeb Muirerjee, "Civil Society and Western Societies: Tradition, Modernity and Communism," is a history of modern Bengali political movements. It shows the effort to achieve a politics that would have room for all as being less than successful. This is not only because of the classical stratification of the society, but because of the compromise of the socialist party which, though proposing the people as the legitimate source of power, in fact manipulates them in a way coherent with the centralist character of the nation.

Chapter IX by Dikshit Sinha, "Pluralism and Cultural Conflict in India," is concerned with the horizontal and vertical organization of Indian social life. In this context the importance of civil society emerges for assuring the bond between communities. In this regard the Pancheat system of old would appear to possess important lessons for contemporary life.