Debiprasad Chattopadhyay

He is also known for work on history of science and scientific method in ancient India, especially his 1977 book Science and Society in Ancient India on the ancient physicians Charaka and Sushruta. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, posthumously, in 1998.

• Era — 20th-century philosophy • Region — Indian philosophy, Continental philosophy • Name — Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya • Born — 19 November 1918 • Birthplace — Calcutta, British India • Died — 8 May 1993 • Place of death — Calcutta, India • Alma Mater — University of Calcutta • Notable Works — Lokayata: A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism • School Tradition — Lokayata Materialism Empiricism Atheism Marxism • Doctoral Advisor — Surendranath Dasgupta • Notable Ideas — Irreligiosity of Early Vedism • Main Interests — History of Indian Materialism and Science Political philosophy

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya was born on 19 November 1918 in Calcutta. His father was a supporter of India's freedom struggle. It was probably his influence that initiated Debiprasad to two major passions in his life – Indian philosophy and politics; he quickly progressed towards radical streams in both fields, developing a lifelong commitment to Marxism and communist movement. At a very early stage of his life Chattopadhyaya immersed himself in the left nationalist movement by joining the Association of Progressive Writers, which was formed in 1936. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya obtained his academic training in philosophy in Calcutta, West Bengal under eminent philosophers like Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan and S. N. Dasgupta. After standing first in philosophy at University of Calcutta both in B.A. (1939) and M.A. (1942), he did his post-graduate research work under Prof S. N. Dasgupta. He taught philosophy at the City College of Calcutta for three decades. Subsequently, he was appointed a UGC Visiting Professor at the universities of Andhra Pradesh, Calcutta and Poona. He remained associated with the activities of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPHR) and the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) under various capacities. His second wife was the renowned educationist and Tibetologist, Dr. Alaka Majumder Chattopadhyaya (1926–1998). Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya's work on materialism and scientific method led to his active interactions with the international community of philosophers, historians and Indologists. He collaborated with some of the outstanding western scholars of the 20th century, like Joseph Needham, George Thomson, Bongard Levin and Walter Ruben. He was fellow of the German and USSR Academies of Sciences. He died in Calcutta on 8 May 1993.

In his writings, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya aimed to illuminate science and materialism in ancient India, and to trace their evolution. While commenting on his work on Lokayata, German indologist Walter Ruben called him a "thought-reformer", who was "conscious of his great responsibility towards his people living in a period of struggle for national awakening and of world-wide fighting for the forces of materialism, progress, humanism and peace against imperialism. He has written this book Lokayata: A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism against the old fashioned conception that India was and is the land of dreamers and mystics". This study questioned the mainstream view that Indian philosophy's sole concern was the concept of Brahman. "From the scattered references in the ancient philosophical literature which were completely hostile to the ancient materialist schools, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya reconstructed the philosophy of Lokayata, which consistently denied the existence of brahman and viewed pratyaksa (perception) as the sole means of knowledge. He demolished the so-called "interpretation of synthesis" which sought to combine the diverse philosophical traditions of India to form a ladder that leads to the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. Being a Marxist, Chattopadhyaya's uses the method of historical materialism to study "the ultimate material basis of the primitive deha-vada and the primitive rituals related to it" and to reveal how these could "be connected with the mode of securing the material means of subsistence". He also traced "the course of development this archaic outlook eventually underwent".

This is yet another provocative critique of the standard accounts of Indian philosophy and religion. This book brings out a coherent historical account of atheism in India. In fact, according to Chattopadhyaya, "an unbiased survey of the Vedas clearly shows the total absence of religious consciousness in its earlier stage and the Rgveda is full of relics of this stage of thought. Even the world polytheism is misapplied to such an early stage of the Vedic thought".

• Making of Astronomy in Ancient India, in Cosmic Perspectives (1989) edited by Biswas, Mallik and Vishveshwara. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Philosophy, Science, and Social Progress: Essays in honour of Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (ed. Suman Gupta and Hiltrud Rustau)(1992) New Delhi: People's Publishing House. • Nyaya: Gautama's Nyaya-sutra, with Vatsyayana's Commentary. Translated by Mrinalkanti Gangopadhyaya, with an introduction by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (1982) Calcutta: Indian Studies.

It was an introductory book that examined Indian philosophy through an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on anthropological, economic and philological studies. The book traced the philosophical development in India from the Vedic period to later Buddhism. In this introductory study, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya targets another important myth that overshadows the study of Indian philosophy – that of the presupposed predominance of shastrartha or textual interpretation. He views the development of Indian philosophy as the consequence of real clashes of ideas – "contradiction constituted the moving force behind the Indian philosophical development". Dale Riepe in his review of this book says that Chattopadhyaya "combines the analytic sagacity of Hume with the impatient realism of Lenin".

In the Preface, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya says his purpose in this book is to present "an analysis of our philosophical traditions from the standpoint of our present philosophical requirements. These requirements, as understood here, are secularism, rationalism and science-orientation". He once again finds the philosophical development – debates and clashes – in ancient India embedded in the class struggles of the time. He discusses the materialist foundation of Vedic rituals, which he finds similar to the magical belief of controlling the natural forces through yajnas, etc. He shows how these rites and rituals that evolved as primitive scientific endeavours were transformed into superstitions and monopolies in the hands of the oppressors with the advent of class divisions. The book also endeavours to demonstrate how Indian philosophy was not any exception to the sharp conflicts between idealism and materialism, which are universally evident in the philosophical traditions of other regions. Further, it considers the role of the law-givers like Manu in establishing the supremacy of the idealist traditions, and how due to the censor and censure anti-idealists like Varahamihira and Brahmagupta worked out their philosophies in distinctive Aesopian language, developing their own modes of camouflaging their ideas. Like elsewhere, in India too anti-idealists and materialists took practice as the main criterion of truth. Nyaya-Vaisheshikas were most outspoken in this regard, "after a knowledge is proved true in practice, there remains no doubt about the proof; hence the question of proving does not arise". On the other hand, the idealists believed in complete separation between theory and practice. They adhered to, in the words of Kumarila Bhatta, the principle of bahyartha-sunyatva (the unreality of the objects of knowledge), which, according to Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, formed "the real pivot of idealism throughout its Indian career".

This book was written in the context of growing state authoritarianism during the Indian Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi, on the one hand, and the upsurge of rightist forces in the form of Jan Sangh, Shiv Sena etc., on the other. Chattopadhyaya opined "that in these grim and anxious days through which India today is passing, that which holds hope for our future is the growing awareness of our people of socialism being the only way out". And, "an essential pre-condition for moving forward to Socialism is the consolidation of Socialist consciousness in its right sense among the Indians today", for which "it is imperative to understand and absorb the philosophical views of Lenin". This book is meant to be a "guide or introduction" to Lenin's philosophical writings. It seeks "to lead the readers to the actual study of Lenin, providing them with some clarifications, annotations and summations that they may be useful only for the limited of a preliminary acquaintance with Lenin's philosophical ideas". Communist leader E.M.S. Namboodiripad in his overall appreciative review of the book criticised Chattopadhyaya for not explaining "in a sufficiently convincing way as to why Lenin thought it necessary to go to Hegel in his later years", as evident from his Philosophical Notebooks of 1914.

• "On the Alleged Unity of Religions" S. Radhakrishnan Memorial Lecture (1992). Indian Institute of Advanced Study.

• Lokayata: A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism (1959) New Delhi: People's Publishing House. • Indian Philosophy: A Popular Introduction (1964) New Delhi: People's Publishing House. • Indian Atheism: A Marxist Analysis (1969) Calcutta: Manisha. • What is Living and What is Dead in Indian Philosophy (1976) New Delhi: People's Publishing House. • Two Trends in Indian Philosophy (1977).Prasaranga, University of Mysore. • Lenin, the Philosopher (1979) New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. • An Encyclopaedia of South Indian Culture (1983, with G. Ramakrishna & N. Gayathri) Calcutta: K.P. Bagchi. • Knowledge and intervention:Studies in society and consciousness(1985) Calcutta: Firma KLM • History of Science and Technology in Ancient India Volume 1: The Beginnings (1986) Calcutta: Firma KLM. • Religion and Society (1987). Bangalore:Navakarnataka Publications. • In Defence of Materialism in Ancient India (1989) New Delhi: People's Publishing House. • History of Science and Technology in Ancient India Volume 2: Formation of the Theoretical Fundamentals of Natural Science (1991) Calcutta:Firma KLM. • History of Science and Technology in Ancient India Volume 3: Astronomy, Science and Society (1996) Calcutta:Firma KLM. • Musings in Ideology- An Anthology of Analytical Essays by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (2002) G. Ramakrishna and Sanjay K. Biswas (Eds) Bangalore: Navakarnataka Publications Pvt. Ltd.

• Taranatha’s History of Buddhism in India, Translated by Lama Chimpa and Alka Chattopadhyaya. (1970) Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. • Indian Studies: Past and Present, 1969-1970 (1970) Scholarly Publications. • History and Society: Essays in Honour of Professor Niharranjan Ray (1978) Calcutta • Studies in the History of Indian Philosophy: An anthology of articles by scholars Eastern and Western. In 2 Volumes. (1978). K.P. Bagchi and Company • The History of Botany and Allied Sciences in India (c. 2000 B.C. to 100 A.D.) (1982) New Delhi: Editorial Enterprise. • Studies in the History of Science in India. In 2 Volumes. (1983) New Delhi: Editorial Enterprises. • Carvaka/Lokayata: An Anthology of Source Materials and Some Recent Studies (1994) New Delhi: Indian Council of Philosophical Research.