Now Reading: IIM Indore study urges decolonising philosophy beyond canon
-
01
IIM Indore study urges decolonising philosophy beyond canon
The Indian Institute of Management Indore has published a study in the journal Philosophy Compass arguing that decolonising philosophy requires more than adding non-Western thinkers to syllabi. Co-authored by Prof Swati Arora,…
The Story in Brief
The Indian Institute of Management Indore has published a study in the journal Philosophy Compass arguing that decolonising philosophy requires more than adding non-Western thinkers to syllabi. Co-authored by Prof Swati Arora, the paper says the discipline’s Eurocentric foundations stem from centuries of colonial knowledge destruction, a phenomenon the authors call ‘epistemicide’.
The study introduces an ‘ignorance-epistemicide cycle’, once alternative knowledge systems are erased, later generations treat the absences as normal, and existing canons reproduce exclusions. The authors distinguish a ‘colonial intellectual’, who unintentionally reinforces Eurocentric assumptions through everyday academic practices such as curriculum design, peer review and hiring. They call for dismantling these structures, not just expanding reading lists.
The Indian Opinion
The debate on decolonising curricula often splits into two lazy camps: one that dismisses it as a fad and another that demands mere token representation. This study pushes past both. Its focus on the hidden machinery of academic practice, peer review, citation habits, hiring criteria, is bracing. The real test will be whether philosophy departments in India and abroad actually audit their own ‘ignorance-epistemicide cycles’, or treat the paper as just another citation on a reading list.
Source: freepressjournal.in
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
