Religion and Social Change in India: The Max Weber Thesis, Phase Three Author(s): Milton Singer Reviewed

work(s): Source: Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Jul., 1966), pp. 497-505 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1152154 . Accessed: 30/07/2012 16:01
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AND SOCIALCHANGE IN INDIA: RELIGION PHASETHREE* THEMAXWEBER THESIS,

Milton Singer The University

of Chicago

of the influence of religion on social change are largely domiContemporary discussions nated by Max Weber' s thesis on the role of the Protestant ethic in the rise of capitalism. In fact, this thesis, in one form or another, has been the point of departure for analysis of the conditions of economic growth in those countries outside of Europe which have launched on modernization programs since Weber wrote. We have gone through two phases in the non-European application of Weber's argument. In the first phase, illustrated by Weber' s own studies of Asian religions and of the sociology of religion generally, as well as by those of many of his followers, the thesis was applied negatively. It was contended that Asian religions lacked certain critical elements present in the European case-a Protestant that the absence of these elements explained ethic, or rationality, or secularization-and backward economic development. Weber himself did not stop here, but went on to analyze in informed detail the ideologies and social organizations of certain Asian religions and to for everyday life. trace their consequences It is a tribute to his scholarship that much in his studies remains valid and valuable, even if his basic thesis should be untenable. A second phase of the argument developed when students of specific Asian religions found counterparts to a Protestant ethic, rationality, profit-seeking motivation, hard work, and thrift, entrepreneurial groups, bureaucratic organization, in these religions and sociand some were imports from the outeties. 1 Some of these counterparts were indigenous, side, but their presence, it may be argued, should either trigger the kinds of changes that came with European industrial capitalism or cast doubt on the general validity of Weber' s Weber was too thorough a scholar to have overlooked the presence of these counterthesis. He notes and discusses parts to Protestantism and rationality in Asian religions. many of them, but he did not give them much weight, either in his ideal typical construction or in of their influence on everyday conduct. his assessment The trend of social and religious change in the last fifty years compels us to revise some of Weber' s interpretations of the importance of these counterpart elements. Robert Bellah' s paper, in the symposium on "Psycho-Cultural Factors in Asian Economic Growth, "' opens a third phase of the Weber argument; he writes that it is not the mere presence of this or that component of motivations, institutional arrangements, or entrepreneurial group that constitutes a proper analogy to the Protestant ethic in Asia. The analogy must be in the transformation of the basic structure of a society and in its looked for, he suggests, Such a transformation is really what Weber was analyzing in the underlying value-system. European case, according to Bellah. And the problem is to find out whether a similar transformation is taking place in Asia. Rapid economic growth is not an automatic index of its
* A review article of K. William Kapp, Hindu Culture, Economic Development and Economic Planning In India. AssociaNew York: Asia Publishing House, 1963, 228 pp. First presented at the meeting of the American Sociological tion, Los Angeles, August 1963. I am grateful to Elizabeth Nottingham and Robert Bellah for helpful comments. 1. See the references cited in R. Bellah, XIX, No. 1 (1963), 53, note 2. 2. "Reflections on the Protestant Ethic Analogy in Asia," XIX, No. 1 (1963), 52-60. Journal of Social Issues,

Edited by Manning Nash and Robert Chin for Journal of Social Issues,

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occurrence, for in the case of Japan, where economic growth has been rapid, Bellah finds that Japanese intellectuals feel strongly that the transformation is far from completed. He also cites recent studies, using the "structural approach, " of religious movements and reformulations in Indonesia, Ceylon, and India, which tend to support social reform, but he of these movements and reformuis not prepared to say whether the social consequences lations will add up to a total structural transformation. Since Bellah was himself a major contributor to the second phase argument with his we may suppose his own investigations Tokugawa Religion, compelled him to go beyond this phase into a third phase, where the total structural and ideological transformation of a society becomes the problem for investigation. Such a reformulation of the Weberian thesis has much to be said for it: the entire discussion is thus brought into the broader At the same time, this shift perspective of the analysis of social and cultural change. can easily lead to a loss of specificity and cogency. Instead of considering a specific kind of religious ideology which may or may not affect economic development, we are now asked to consider total ideological and structural transformations, designated as "modernization, " within which economic development and some kind of "Protestant ethic" may or may not be associated. Considered as a prelude to investigations of actual instances of "modernizing" transformations in social and cultural context, this third phase of the Weber discussion is most welcome. Intellectual traditions, however, no less than social traditions, have a way of I wonder persisting into new eras and resisting displacement by innovation. Specifically, whether phase one and two of the Weber thesis will not continue to haunt the discussions of phase three. It might be desirable to abandon the earlier phases and to formulate the problems of the relation of religion to social change in more general terms as a problem in I do not think, however, that the earlier foundations social and cultural transformation. will be so easily sloughed off. They are likely, on the contrary, to turn up as sources of "distortion" in the more general discussion. One of these "distortions" is the risk of using Weber's thesis as a basis for quick diagnoses of the ideological and structural factors inpeding or facilitating economic development, and then translating such diagnoses into policy recommendations for far-reaching This would short-circuit the careful research and analysis necessary to transformations. validate any theory of social and cultural change. Another less obvious "distortion" would be to confuse Weber' s ideal-typical definitions of the comprehensiveness and completeness of the ideological and social system and their transformation with the ideologies developed by leading reformers and intellectuals. speaks of "Japanese Bellah, e.g., who feel as acutely as Weber did the failure of modern Japan to carry through intellectuals certain critical structural transformations which are associated with modern society. " and reformers share Weber' s definition of modern Surely not all Japanese intellectuals I assume that in Japan, as society or of what would constitute a complete transformation. there is a wide spectrum of opinion on these questions, and that these vary elsewhere, in their effects on the course of events. Bellah or any other investigator is free to simbut once having plify and abstract from such variability in his ideal typical constructions, made his constructions, he is not free from the consequences of his definitions. If he makes his constructions too simple and abstract, his analysis may fail to have relevance and realistic consequences for the society he wishes to study. These remarks are not intended to characterize or to criticize Bellah' s application of phase three of the Weber thesis to Japan. That application has yet to appear, and when it does, it may avoid the pitfalls noted. For those of us interested in the application of Weber' s thesis to Asian religions, however, there remains the dilemma of how to combine
of Weber's the specificity thesis with a general analysis in modernization. involved The latter requires formations of the social the narrative and cultural transand descriptive

SINGER whereas the former moves in the hypothetapproach of the historian and anthropologist, ical realm of ceterus paribus reasoning of the economist. Perhaps the two kinds of approaches will eventually complement one another. In the studies of religion and social change in India, where discussion also seems to be entering phase three, we have at least one recent example of the application of the Weber thesis in the perspective of a general analysis of social and cultural change: K. W. Kapp's Hindu Culture, Economic A consideration of this example will Development and Economic Planning in India. illustrate how difficult it is to prevent the earlier phases of the Weber discussion from intruding into phase three. Kapp follows Weber in conceiving of Hinduism as a particular set of beliefs and valThe beliefs and values inues articulated with a particular set of social institutions. clude a belief in rebirth; in the law of karma, linking actions in a past life to present rewards, and present actions to a future life; in cyclical time; in the supremacy of the as an values of release and duty over profit and pleasure; in the ideal of non-violence expression of the doctrine of the oneness of life; and in asceticism and austerity as ends in themselves. The major social institutions included are the caste system, the joint family, and the village. Kapp seeks to systematize this conception of Hinduism by reference to the anthropological concept of culture, which he interprets as "a generalized image of behavior from which, in fact, it is inferred" and as "those uniformities of behavior which find expression in an essential core of traditional (i. e. historically derived and selected) ideas, beliefs, concepts, and values which are acquired in the course of a prolonged process of enculturation and are transmitted by symbols" (p. 7). Although Kapp' s interpretation his application of the culture concept conforms to the usage of many anthropologists, of a does not follow the usual anthropological method for arriving at a characterization He has obviously selected those features of Indian culture which he particular culture. believes are most relevant to economic development, has taken them to define "Hindu defined Culture, " and has then tried to relate them causally to an equally selectively "Hindu Social System" and a "Hindu Personality. " He has, in other words, followed method of the economist, rather than the inductive generalithe hypothetico-deductive zation more commonly used by the anthropologists. of "Hindu Culture, " such as belief Kapp postulates certain general characteristics in cyclical time and in cosmic causation, and then tries to derive, more or less deductThe which are significant for economic development. ively, a series of consequences belief in cyclical time and in cosmic causation, e. g., lead, in his opinion, to increased to fatalism and reliance on magic and astrology; to mysticism, feelings of helplessness; and withdrawal; to a denial that history, social reform, and economic contemplation, development depend on human will and social action; and to the belief that human exas Kapp interprets istence is transitory, illusory, and unimportant. Hindu metaphysics, it, "thus stands in the way of the emergence of one basic prerequisite of economic development, namely, the conviction that man does make his own history" (p. 43). follow logically, Kapp does not demonstrate that such consequences psychologically, or culturally from these metaphysical beliefs. Nor are there any empirical studies cited to show that Hindus who profess such beliefs have become fatalistic and other-worldly and as a result do not arrive on time for appointments, have a high frequency of absences from their jobs, do not work hard, cannot save or invest their savings, do not know how to organize their lives according to methodical schedules, lack a drive for achievement and mastery of this world-in short, do not have those character traits which modern were supposed to have derived from a Protestant ethic. European capitalists
We do not have the empirical information about the distribution studies of these

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that begin to give us definite and quantitative traits among Indians. The few scattered studies

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that have been made indicate that many Hindus do work hard, save, invest, try to improve their position, discipline their behavior in the most exacting ways, and arrive on time for appointments. 3 These very same people may also believe in karma and in mysticism A very successful Brahmin and have a fatalistic attitude toward their own condition. industrialist I interviewed in Madras not only professed all the character traits of the spirit" (do your job well; don't be lazy and waste time; depend on yourself, "capitalistic not on others' charity; be truthful; use your wealth for the community, and not for selfenjoyment; and don't harm others), but he also regarded these maxims as an ethical code of Hinduism. Asceticism, he said, was a matter of mental attidefining the essentials tude: he could be an ascetic sitting right in his office, by putting more in than he took out. He did not believe in birth as a basis for choice of occupation, because children had different ambitions from their fathers, and the conditions they would have to face would be different, too. He also believed in hiring the best qualified man for the job, mixed castes freely in his offices and factories, and expected intercaste marriages to become more common, as the disparities in ways of life among different castes decreased. Yet this industrialist considered himself a good Hindu, was active in Hindu philanthropies, and was a staunch supporter of the leaders of orthodox Hinduism in South India. He also believed in karma and rebirth: when I asked him whether, if reborn, he would prefer he replied that he might not have much choice, since another occupation to business, certain things followed from past actions. This industrialist epitomizes the difficulties in trying to relate Hindu metaphysics to economic development, not because he is a common type-although there are probably but because he demonstrates many more Hindus of this type than is generally supposedhow a successful, energetic, entrepreneur may at the same time be a good, believing Hindu. If his belief in karma and his fatalistic attitude have not prevented him from working hard and effectively; why should it prevent others ? Perhaps there is a fallacy in assuming that a belief in karma creates a man's condition, whereas it only "explains" and "justifies" it. Whatever a man can or cannot do he may explain by reference to a law of karma but this explanation does not determine what he will or will not do. If a farmer's crops fail, he may invoke karma but if they prosper he will also invoke it, so the belief in karma need not act as a discourager of effort and enterprise, although a crop failure may well do so. It is generally those who have worked hard and have experienced misfortune who may find the appeal to karmic law most satisfactory as an exAnd planation, but the belief is equally available to those who work hard and succeed. it would be interesting to know whether it is actually used more often to explain failure than to explain success. Two leading official interpreters of orthodox Hinduism in South India, the Sankaracarya at Kanchi and the Sankaracarya in Sringeri, both insisted during interviews that a belief in karma did not prevent a Hindu householder from the performance of his worldly duties or even, in the case of merchants, from the pursuit and accumulation of wealth. Both pointed to past achievements of Hindus in building empires, trade, and cities as counterevidence to the notion that Hinduism was excessively other-worldly in its effects. Kapp himself notes that if Hindu metaphysics and moral theory were as other-worldly as he suggests, could hardly have survived" (p. 17). But instead "Indian civilization of using this consideration to question his interpretation, he concludes instead that there in one culture system of contradictory value orientations is "a paradoxical coexistence and actual behaviour patterns" (p. 18).
3. McCrory, Small Industry in a North Indian Town; J. J. Berna, Industrial Entrepreneurship in Madras State (New York, Determinants of Savings and Investments in Developing Society," 1960); R. D. Lambert, "The Social and Psychological in B. F. Hoselitz and W. E. Moore, eds., Industrialization and Society (UNESCO, 1963); and D. M. McClelland, The Achieving Society (1961), pp. 217-18, 271-73, 378-81, 413-14.

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On prima facie grounds, one could make a pretty plausible case for the thesis that Hindu metaphysics should produce just those kinds of "character" and "character traits" a belief in an orwhich Weber regarded as necessary for a modern industrial society: derly universe subject to deterministic laws; the ability to anticipate a course of events with the possibility of control based on knowledge; a strong and to behave accordingly, and a capacity to orfor one's actions and their consequences; sense of responsibility ganize one' s life under a systematic methodical discipline which will maximize the goals one has set oneself. It is also plausible to argue, as I have elsewhere, that these secular character traits are given a religious and transcendental sanction, not unlike that of a Protestant ethic, in the Bhagavat Gita and in other Hindu scriptures. And there is for the actual existence of devout Hindus who manifest as I have suggested, evidence, these traits in different roles and occupations-business, industry, farming, government, education, religion, and elseWvhere.4 But I do not think that such a prima facie argument is any more conclusive than the opposite argument, which holds that Hindu metaphysics cannot produce a "capitalistic spirit" in a good Hindu. My scepticism about both arguments does not rest on those refined rebuttals which urge that the profit motive among Asians is not really like the profit motive among Europeans; that the Asian ascetic's discipline is not really "rational;" or that if there is any Protestant ethic in Asian religions, it must have been imported use from the West; etc., etc. It is rather two limitations of the hypothetico-deductive In the first place, I do not believe we can of ideal types which arouse my skepticism. from basic beliefs, values, ormotives postulated in isodeduce realistic consequences The influence of such beliefs, values, lation from concrete social and cultural contexts. and motives on behavior depends on what they mean in a particular context, and this in turn depends on how particular actors in that context define the situation. Talcott Parsons has recently pointed out5 that one serious weakness in Weber' s method was his tendency to reify single motives, like the profit motive, into atomistic traits linked to rigid ideal types, and that in this tendency he was probably influenced by the faculty utilitarianism and classical which in turn was inpsychology of classical economics, mechanics. Unfortunately for this analogy, so far as fluenced, I believe, by classical social science is concerned, classical physics did not have to worry about how any particular collection of billiard balls would apply the laws of motion in their particular situation. Followers of Weber, especially among some economists and some psychologists, seem not to have taken this difficulty seriously, although it has been a commonplace and anthropologists for the last thirty or forty years. The latter among sociologists would not, I think, ask such questions as whether Hindus have a generalized profit moor are rational, etc., but would rather ask how these tive, or a need for achievement, and and other motives and beliefs function in particular kinds of specified situations, why they function as they do. There is no doubt, e. g., that Indians have, as do other remote, or interpeople, the generalized capacity to anticipate future events-near, We cannot, mediate-and tend to act in the present in the light of such anticipations. however, explain by reference to such a generalized capacity why particular classes of Nor will people will save for a daughter's dowry and others for starting a new business. the postulation of such a capacity explain the failure of other classes of people to anof their decisions, These are specific ticipate the consequences say, to have children. linkages of present and future behavior which are connected not only by a generalized of present action, but by specific kinds of customs, capacity to anticipate consequences
Annals of the American Academy of Political and 4. M. Singer, "Cultural Values in India's Economic Development," Social Science CCCV (1956), pp. 81-91; review of M. Weber, The Religion of India; The Sociology of Hinduism and "The Great Tradition in a Metropolitan City: Madras," in American LXIII (1961), 143-51; Buddhism, Anthropologist, in Traditional India: Structure and Change (Philadelphia: American Folklore Society, 1959); and "The Radhakrishna Bhajans of Madras City," in History of Religions, II (1963). 5. Introduction to Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963), pp. lxiii-lxvii.

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etc.; in other words, values, knowledge, ignorance, skill, alternative resources, particular social and cultural context of action as it looks to the actor.

by the

A second deficiency in the hypothetico-deductive approach to the Weber thesis is related to the preceding, but perhaps is not inherent in the method. This is the failure, when deducing general tendencies, to specify conditions and magnitudes under which It is common, e. g., to argue that, because Hinduism prothe conclusions are valid. duces ascetics, it is therefore other-worldly and apt to retard economic development. How many ascetics would retard growth by how much under what conditions is a question never even considered in such arguments. On the other side, it is no more enlightening to argue that, because Hinduism also encourages the trading and business communities to pursue wealth, it does after all facilitate economic growth, unless one could say how many, what kind, where, etc. A less obvious example of this defect is Weber's argument that the caste system, and particularly the belief in ritual pollution associated with it, has acted to restrict occupational and social mobility. As a general tendency, this is no doubt true, but does it follow from this, as Kapp and many others assert, that these restrictions have prevented economic change and growth ? Many traditional occuand some are not, and many "new" occupations are either pations are caste-restricted, or are ambiguous. not caste-restricted When new economic opportunities appear, they may be assimilated by a particular caste to its traditional occupation; they may tempt a caste to move away from its traditional occupation; or they may be seized upon by several different castes at once. In historical and contemporary studies, all of thise possibilities can be found, even at the village level. 6 None of the studies known to me, however, offers statistics to show that in the most extreme case of caste restrictions, the available opportunities exceeded the supply of caste members available to take advantage of them. The demonstration, in other words, that the caste system may restrict certain kinds of mobility does not prove that the opportunities available at a particular time and place were not fully and efficiently exploited. Within economics, the deductive analysis of general tendencies has been buttressed by a growing body of statistical data on minor economic magnitudes. But in discussions of the relation of economic to cultural and social factors, the relevant empirical content has yet to be accumulated. I do not deny that there may be differential responses to available opportunities along caste or regional lines, with some castes quick to exploit an opportunity, while others in the very same area will respond much more slowly or not at all. Kusum Nair has described some striking examples of this phenomenon in her book, Blossoms in the Dust. This differential response, however, also suggests that the caste system is not impervious to economic change, and that those analysts who insist that the abolition of the caste system is a pre-condition for economic development are expressing an ideological commitment to social equality, rather than an empirical truth. When policymakers themselves hold such ideological positions, as many do in India, they may be unwilling to perceive or to encourage caste-differentiated responses. Hence, they tend to follow a policy in the distribution of new opportunities which neutralizes the dynamics of the caste system. In that case, these ideological commitments of a relatively small group of political and intellectual leaders may become as important a limitation on economic growth as any feature of the traditional value and belief system or of the social structure. In the long run, equalitarian policies may succeed in equalizing opportunities and upgrading skills of disadvantaged groups.
6. The articles by Ingalls, Hitchcock, Lamb, Bose, and Orans in Traditional India:. . . , op. cit.; F. G. Bailey, Caste and the Economic Frontier (Manchester University Press, 1957); Berna, op. cit.; Rao. S. C. Dube, India's Changing Villages (London, 1958); M. Singer, "Changing Craft Traditions in India," in W. E. Moore and A. S. Feldman, Labor Commitment and Social Change in Developing Areas (New York, 1960); M. N. Srinivas, Caste in Modern India and Other Essays; D. D. Karve, ed., The New Brahmans, Five Maharashtian Families (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963).

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the Kapps find Hindu alism, the joint family, personality structure, and metaphysics, culture in open conflict with "a secularized society and the scientific temper. " The great transformation from traditional to modernized industrial societies which was in Europe has not yet taken place in India, they argue. facilitated by secularization "India has never experienced the religious, intellectual and techpolitical, scientific, nological reorientation which prepared the West for the intellectual, agrarian and industrial revolutions of the last centuries" (p. 62). The many movements of social and and as never having religious reform in Indian history are dismissed as insignificant challenged the "underlying principles" of the caste system and of Hindu successfully For the Kapps, "the ultimate measure of secularization and modernizametaphysics. tion" must be "the abandonment of the concepts of cyclical time and cosmic causation and their replacement by the notions of linear historical time and natural (physical) laws" (p. 63). This reading of Indian history in itself and vis-a-vis European history is not likely to find approval from scholars of Indian social and cultural history. These scholars would not, of course, urge an exact parallelism with European history. On the other hand, their studies certainly would not support the Kapps' assumption that there is an unchanging standard of Hindu orthodoxy in Indian history, defined by definite principles of social organization and theological belief. The identification, moreover, of such an orthodoxy with the persistent core of Indian culture would be rejected generally by repof Jain, Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, animist, and secularist Inresentatives of many Hindu sects and philosophIt would also be rejected by representatives dians. ical schools, each of which has its own version of what constitutes "orthodox Hinduism. " The variety of belief and practice within Hinduism has been so great that it is safe to say that there are probably Hindus who hold the position which the Kapps characterize. It would be premature, however, to conclude, without further empirical investigation, that this is in any sense a dominant position. Every single belief or practice in Hinduism has probably been regarded as "unessential" by some Hindu group at some time and has This is not necessarily as a consequence been modified or abandoned. " "secularization, since what survives this process may still contain a heavy load of religious belief and There are also groups who have rejected Hinduism in toto to convert to another practice. religion, as in the case of Indian Christians or Buddhists, or to adopt "rationalist" and Whether it has occurred within the Hindu fold or outside it, the "secularist" ideology. is far too manifold to be subprocess of social and cultural change in Indian civilization sumed under one particular definition of "orthodox Hinduism. "7 I would also question Kapp' s denial of significant secularization in Indian culture. The most recent and comprehensive study, India as a Secular State, by Donald Eugene Smith, concludes that India is a secular state, and that "while it is far too early to dismiss the possibility of a future Hindu state, " the possibility does not appear to be a strong one and that the secular state has "far more than an even change of survival in India" (p. 501).8 The conflict which Kapp finds between Hindu metaphysics and the outlook and temFar from being "unscientific, " per of European science also seems to me exaggerated. the beliefs in cyclical time and in cosmic causality are closer to the dominant modes of European scientific thought than is the world view and cosmology of the Bible. As A. L. Kroeber has pointed out, most sciences did not seriously begin to develop a linear historical approach until the middle of the eighteenth century. 9 Previous to this
7. For an alternative approach to the problem of defining Hinduism, see M. Singer, "Text temporary Hinduism," Adyar Library Bulletin, XXV (1961), 274-303. Princeton University Press, 1963. History, and Culture," in Sol Tax, ed., The Evolution of Man, Mind, Culture and Society and Context in the Study of Con-

On the basis of their analysis of the alleged retarding effects of caste, faction-

8. 9.

A. L. Kroeber, "Evolution, (Chicago, 1960).

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In fact, the prestige and the dominant models were in terms of deterministic cycles. influence of these models was not challenged until the physicists in the twentieth century began to discover some limitations to deterministic causality in quantum meThere is less conflict in modes of thought between the deterministic causality chanics. of European science and the cosmic cycles of Hindu metaphysics than there has been beAn American physicist extween European science and European religion and philosophy. tends this even to the latest developments in modern physics. He says that "the Samkhya theory is in absolute agreement with the latest results of modern physics, " and that "the thought processes of the Western philosopher are such that he is antagonistic to the physicist whereas the Hindu philosopher is sympathetic. "'10 The Kapps assert that, so long as Indians believe in cyclical time and in cosmic they will be tempted to appeal to supernatural forces and to propitiate occult causality, powers, instead of relying on their own strength and the application of natural laws (p. 63). This seems to imply that a belief in natural laws has displaced appeals to supernatural forces and occult powers in the West. I wonder whether this is really so. Has not the development of a scientific world view in the West followed the same process of "agglomeration" that the Kapps say is characteristic of culture change in India ? It has been added to the "pre-scientific" world views of religion, philosophy, and world views. popular belief, rather than accepted as a replacement for "pre-scientific" of different levels of belief and practice is well known. In India, the coexistence The belief in cyclical time has not prevented philosophers such as Radhakrishnan or Aurobindo from developing linear one-cycle philosophies,"1 or ordinary people from or scientists and doctors from wearing thinking of the Kali age as a linear progression, amulets. of different kinds of world view and Why should not a similar coexistence different levels of belief and practice be found in the West as well ? These questions are still largely in the area of speculation and preconception and are just beginning to In the meantime, the burden of proof that a belief in cybe investigated empirically. clical time and cosmic causation is "pre-scientific", and destroys confidence and incentive in daily effort, rests on those who assert that this is indeed so. I have given so much attention to Hindu metaphysics, because, for Kapp, this is I should both the essence of Hindu culture and the greatest obstacle to modernization. mention, however, that his study also includes some discussion of Hindu social orThe retarding effect ganization and personality as factors in economic development. of these factors is traced chiefly to their conjoint operation, with the alleged debiliHis conclusions as to diagnosis and policy refer to tating effects of the metaphysics. both cultural and non-cultural factors: "In the light of the results of our analysis it can hardly be doubted that Hindu culture and Hindu social organization are determining factors in India's slow rate of development" (p. 64). His policy recommendations are "A lasting solution of the problem of economic development can equally unequivocal: be found only by a gradual but systematic transformation of India's social system, of her world outlook, and levels of personal aspirations" (p. 65). It is noteworthy, however, that these conclusions are not based on empirical studies of the Hindu "world view" and its functional relations to social organization and personality. They seem rather to represent hypothetical projections onto Indian society and culture of the kinds of connections between religious ideas, values, and behavior As such, they may of course be taken as working hypostulated in the Weber thesis. it is Until these studies are available, potheses to guide further empirical studies. perhaps best to state the conclusions as the results of a hypothetico-deductive analysis, rather than apodictically.
10. J. Kaplan, in Swami Prabhavananda, 11. Grace E. Cairns, Philosophies The Spiritual Heritage of India (New York, 1963), pp. 214, 215. 1962).

of History (NewYork,

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There is nothing wrong with using a hypothetico-deductive approach to cultural and Weber's ideal types seems to be but a special extension of it, and it social analysis. of a designated is perhaps the most appropriate method for exploring the consequences It would not appear to be very well suited, however, for arriving at genhypothesis. eralizations intended to characterize the uniformities underlying the diversities of particular social and cultural systems. By saying that he is using it for the latter purpose, Kapp lays himself open to the charge of presenting a stereotyped picture of Indian culrather than from specific empiriture and of Indian society drawn from preconceptions, He anticipates and tries to disarm such criticism by arguing that his concept cal studies. and that of culture must simplify and abstract from regional and sub-cultural variations, individual cases which do not conform to his generalized picture are not really relevant for his analysis (pp. 7-8). This would be a good defense, if "the generalized picture" were presented as a of which remain to be the consequences postulated set of characteristics, hypothetical, It is not a very good defense, if the confirmed or disconfirmed by specific observations. presumably verified by "generalized picture" is presented as a body of generalizations The observations drawn from the full range of Indian culture, society, and personality. problematic character of Kapp' s study springs from the fact that his method is hypotheticoHe has presented a collection of plausdeductive, while his conclusions are apodictic. here and there supported by an empirical study or a telling observation, ible speculations, from which far-reaching policy deas if it were a collection of proven generalizations cisions should be drawn.