Anlage Publishing

Radhakamal Mukerjee

"The evolutionary career of man, indeed, holds in its bosom the transcendent possibilities of cosmic evolution itself."

Radhakamal Mukerjee was a great pioneer of Sociology in the early 1900’s. Born in India, he went on to develop an inter-disciplinary approach to the study of society using the many fields of economics, biology, sociology, psychology, ecology, religion, spirituality and art.

The economic values in India should be understood with reference to social norms. Sheer biological or physical drives do not generate economic transactions. Religious or ethical constraints have always given a direction to economic activities.

Mukerjee began his career doing educational work in the slums of Calcutta. He went on to lecture in Economics and made extensive tours of the Indian villages bringing him to appreciate the special nature of rural economy of India. Eventually, Mukerjee took a permanent position at Lucknow University where he delivered lectures in Economics, Sociology and Political Philosophy for thirty years. He also became the Director of the J.K. Institute of Social and Human Relations and served as Vice-Chancellor at Lucknow University.

Mukerjee sought to break the barriers between physical or natural sciences and sciences relating to person’s social and psychological aspects.

There should be constant interaction among various social sciences. Mutual exchange of ideas between physical and natural sciences is necessary to adequately appreciate the multiple dimensions of human personality and its interaction with the natural environment and social environment.

In two of his works Dynamics of Morals and Dimensions of Human Evolution, Mukerjee discusses evolution from a “field perspective” which suggests greater harmony and integrity as the field advances.

First, the classical model of fixed human impulses and dispositions is replaced today by a dynamic model in which human nature is considered as a "field" function of both genotype and physical and social environment… The "field" in organic evolution in general envisages a complete living, growing and functioning system that achieves basic constancy and integrity in its environment. As evolution steps forward, new patterns of stability and balance emerge adding new features and new directions of organization.

Mukerjee was also greatly impressed by Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and how their influence had shaped production and society as a whole. He noted the importance of ultimate truth as transcending the particular beliefs and rituals of the various religions. He went on to propose a model of human evolution which placed great value on truth, wholeness and ultimate reality or Being.

Man has become the symbol-and-value-using animal, and in the ‘model’ of human evolution proposed, human values should not only include ‘self-actualization’, ‘creativity’ and ‘psychic integration’, as suggested by several modern psychologists, but also wholeness, communion and self-transcendence as defined by the fulfilment of his as yet unrealized nature and potentialities… These follow their own autonomous laws of spherical unity, continuity and identity, and are derived from man's essential being that his mind identifies with the ultimate reality or Being. The truth, goodness and transcendence of Being embody themselves as laws, directives and imperatives of evolution.

Today, Radhakamal Mukerjee is recognized as one of the great pioneers in Sociology as well as a great writer on mysticism and Indian philosophy. His books include The Destiny of Civilization, The Indian Philosophy of History, Theory and Art of Mysticism and Bhagavad Gita: Beyond the Religions.

References

Mukerjee, Radhakamal, Dynamics of Morals