Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's speech at the Conferment of ICPR's Lifetime Achievement Award

"I am very happy to participate in this unique function to honour two of India's most distinguished philosophers. Let me begin by congratulating Prof. Chattopadhyaya and Prof. Balasubramaninan for being conferred with the lifetime achievement award of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research. I am sorry that Prof. D.P. Chattopadhyaya is not here amidst us. He is in indisposed. I join all of you in sending our best wishes for a most speedy recovery to Prof. Chattopadhyaya. The scholarship and the intellectual accomplishments of both of these eminent philosophers are truly outstanding. Prof. Chattopadhyaya is a former Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research. One of his exemplary achievements is the mammoth project on the History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture that he initiated. He has also contributed to public life as a Minister in the Central government and I have the privilege of working with him when he was the Commerce Minister. He has also been Governor of Rajasthan. Prof. Balasubramanian is an equally distinguished philosopher whose scholarship in classical Indian thought and modern interpretation of Advaita philosophy have received world-wide acclaim. I am sure that the work of Prof. Chattapadhyaya and Prof. Balasubramanian would be an abiding source of inspiration to young scholars in our country.

India has a glorious philosophical tradition. Philosophers have been the architects of our ancient civilization - a civilization that has been continuous and unbroken for thousands of years, despite the remarkable demographic, political and economic changes that have taken place in our country from time to time. Our country is characterized by enormous diversity. We are blessed with a multitude of languages. All major religions of the world are represented in India in good numbers. There are numerous ethnic groups with their own distinctive identities. Yet, we are one nation, one people, sharing the same spirit of Indianness. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wrote in his Discovery of India: "The tremendous and fundamental fact of India is her essential unity throughout the ages." The kaleidoscope of coexisting identities makes India distinctively beautiful. It makes our country a showcase of sustainable pluralism. Indeed, that is our strength.

We need to preserve this essential unity, this Indianness that has been strengthened and enriched by the various strands of thought that constitute the great Indian philosophical tradition. It is a major challenge for all of us and especially our intellectuals, to ensure that the richness of our diversity and our multi-culturism is preserved and nourished.

Classical Indian thought subscribes to the ideal that the world is one family (vasudhaiva kutumbakam). As brothers and sisters, we should be bonded by love and compassion for each other. The father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, articulated so well the intrinsic altruism and the abiding spirituality resident in all human beings. He emphasized on truth and non-violence as the guiding principles to govern our thought and action. His thought is quite the opposite of the Hobbesian thesis, which characterizes much of western socio-philosophical thought. According to Mahatma Gandhi, man is not a power hungry, amoral, self-serving, and hedonistically driven animal held back from his instinctual urges by reason and fear of violence. He went on to say that "man is worse than the brute, so long as he is selfish and indifferent to happiness of others...man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the well being of his fellow-men." In many ways, Mahatma Gandhi's teachings carry forward the ideas of our ancient philosophical tradition. It is my firm belief that we need such guiding principles today more than ever before. It is the special responsibility of our thinkers, our intellectuals and philosophers to contribute to the rich legacy of tolerance and brotherhood that we have inherited. I am, therefore,very happy to learn that the Indian Council of Philosophical Research is taking special steps to promote Gandhian thought.

Some times, philosophers are seen as mere arm-chair speculators, who have the luxury of leisure. This, I believe, is a misconception. Philosophy is not removed from living but organically related to it. At a practical level, we need to break the artificial barrier between theory and practice. As Lenin reminded us, "there is no good theory without good practice and no good practice without good theory". Philosophical thought, therefore should be ever evolving and relevant to its time. Therefore, I am happy that the Indian Council of Philosophical Research is looking beyond the traditional contours of classical philosophy to make this unique discipline more contextual, focused on contemporary issues and relevant to our national needs.

With the rapid expansion of the knowledge frontier and the consequent multiplication of areas of specialization, there is an increasing need for interdisciplinary studies and for unified knowledge. Philosophy can play a pivotal role in ensuring this outcome. As the mother of all sciences, philosophy is necessarily inter-disciplinary. Therefore, it should be pursued not merely as a separate discipline, like economics or political science, but as a trans-disciplinary subject taught along with other subjects. Ethics should be an important element in the curriculum of professional schools. Again philosophies of law, education, history, politics, and science need to be studied for consummate and all-round preparation of our students enrolled in those respective fields. I sincerely hope that the Indian Council of Philosophical Research will encourage efforts in that direction.

Let me end by once again congratulating Dr. D.P. Chattopadhyaya and Prof. Balasubramanian. I also wish the Indian Council of Philosophical Research the very best in its programmes.

May your path be blessed."