Traditional Polity and the Dynamics of Change in India

Abstract

The title of this essay begins with the word traditional and it moves towards the idea of change. As is well known, these terms—tradition and change—are not opposites, nor are they to be understood in contradistinction to one another. It is important in this context to avoid the temptation to treat them as contradictory or to draw contrasts between what one considers on the one hand traditional, and on the other, changing. One cannot accurately speak of what was as over against what will be, or what is becoming. Nor can one view the ancient as opposed to that which is modern. Clearly, the opposite of change is permanence and persistence, and is not—at least not necessarily—to be couched in terms of the traditional. One need only to remind oneself that among the most compelling elements in the West's intellectual history is the idea of progress, to understand that there are indeed traditions in which the notion of change itself has played a significant role. And so it does not follow that "traditional Indian polity" is a set of concepts to be placed over against the "dynamics of change"—quite the contrary, as I shall try to show in what follows.