Is There An Indian Way Of Thinking by A K Ramanujan - Part 5 - Summary and Analysis

         In the fifth part of the essay, Ramanujan continues his debate over the context-sensitivity of Indian society and he compares it to that of the western countries. He says that largely and on the surface level all societies are context-sensitive. Meaning, each society will have its own codes and context that are exclusive to only that part of the world or only to that specific community. But, Ramanujan argues, even though all societies in some sense or another, are context-sensitive, still, the larger or the dominant idea is always context-free.

                                 He later explains societies that are context-free have movements that are context-specific in nature. For example, the suffragette movement in Europe was a movement that talked about the voting rights of women in Europe. The movement was context-specific as it specifically talked about the problems that women in Europe faced. The same movement cannot be replicated in India without adjusting it according to the needs and problems of Indian women. Hence, although European society is largely context-free, still, in specific movements it has its own context that is specific to Europe.

                                 But, in societies like India, people dream of becoming context-free, as we are heavily loaded with all kinds of contexts even in the simplest tasks of daily life. And as Ramanujan points out, this urge to break free of the contexts has given rise to the theories like "Rasa" in aesthetics, "moksha" in the aims of like, and "Sanyasa" in the end stages of life. 

                                To put it more simply, the concept of Sanyasa is nothing but to do away with all the worldly and material things, in a way, to break free of all contexts and Moksha is nothing but breaking the cycle of birth and death and liberating the soul to become one with God. Hence, this urge of Indian societies to become context-free is easily observed in the philosophy and mythology of India.