Civil Society and the Calling of Self-Development

Abstract

There is an epochal need for sociology to enter into planetary conversations to overcome what Ulrich Beck calls the NA TO-like fire power of western sociology, and the theme of civil society can be a very promising inaugural starting point for such a transcivilisational dialogue. Civil society, like much social theory, suffers from an a priori binding to what can be called a post-traditional telos which, in fact, has been turned into a post-traditional theology. But dialogue with Indian history, society and social theory can help us realise that the project of civil society is not just modernistic. Civil society is also not only a space for struggle for empowerment; it is also a space for self-realisation, self-development and social transformation. Civil society is not only a space for public deliberation; it is also a space for listening, cultivation of silence and appropriate subjectivity transcending the polarity between the 'private ' and the 'public '.