Academic Dependency on Western Disciplinary Knowledge and Captive Mind Among South Asian Sociologists: A Critique

Abstract

This paper examines how academic dependency of South Asia on the West has resulted in what has been termed 'captive mind', and its impact on the knowledge production process of South Asia. To this end, it observes that the relationship between Western centres of Social Science teaching and learning vs. those of the global South, in particular Asia, is an unequal one that stems from the colonial past, leading to the treatment of Western methods and types of knowledge production as superior and therefore worthy of imitation. The application of American and European methods of studying the Social Sciences to Asian settings without due adaptation, it argues, has rendered South Asian Sociology largely incapable of generating original knowledge to contribute to the growth of an emancipatory sociological imagination that will function for the benefit of the populace. Therefore it appeals to South Asian Sociologists - and other Social Scientists - to abandon the practice of studying regional social institutions as if these are exotic phenomena, practices, norms and ritual, and evolve their disciplinary framework in more critical, creative, and relevant ways.