I’ve been considering whether to go to India and potentially join its academic ecosystem. While my current research leans more towards psychology than cognitive science, I wanted to gain insight into the academic landscape of India. In the past, I used to attend NAOP for fun rather than for psychology purposes. This time, however, I was keenly interested in understanding who the players were and what they were thinking.
Before delving into psychological science, I wanted to observe how the system operates. It seems that psychology in India was at its best 20 years ago when the University of Allahabad led the charge with a few passionate individuals. However, it is now clearly in crisis, as the older generation has failed to develop leadership skills in their offspring. The offspring seem content to follow in their parents’ footsteps rather than create their own paths, reminiscent of typical old family traditions where good children are those who follow their parents’ dreams rather than discover their own.
The old guard is stuck in bringing Indian philosophy into mainstream psychology and is opposed to the Newtonian view of psychology, showing resistance to Western ways of measurement and theories. However, while their theories may be suitable in some contexts, they fall short in others.
Indian psychology has suffered as it failed to take Indian psychology to the global stage while also lagging in adopting modern tools available for studying psychology. It remains stuck in questionnaire studies, relying on them for various psychological problems, despite the world of psychology largely moving away from such studies. As far as I know, nobody talks about Indian psychology on the global stage, except for a few enthusiasts in health psychology.
However, when I see students, they seem bright but lack good teachers to guide and nurture them. It’s time to bring Indian psychology onto the stage by showcasing the failures of Western psychology rather than relying solely on ancient Indian texts. In mainstream economics, AI, and psychology, there are strong views advocating for moving away from Newtonian psychology and bringing a new perspective of relativism, emphasizing that psychology is a product of context, relative, and social, not individualistic.
If the academic systems do not use modern tools, they will live and die in the National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) and will not shine on the world stage. I can see that young people are curious, but there are not many providing the right nourishment to revitalize paralyzed psychology. I’m not sure if there is a way out sooner, but perhaps after everything settles, there might be new hope.
Indian society is fascinating for the study of psychology, as it is vast and diverse, with so many cultures. Indian psychology should be vibrant and stand on the world stage rather than being stuck in past glory with no way forward. As long as the current power structures are destroyed, there is no way to breathe new life into it. I’m surprised to see that not many people attended the conference, and there were few internationals showing their diverse perspectives, but they invited those who echoed already existing views, suggesting that the system is not open to new ideas.
Compared to a few years ago, NAOP has become much more homogeneous, making it less conducive to learning from heterogeneous individuals and groups. As individuals, countries, and nations tend not to tolerate opposing views, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to express something that doesn’t align with their views.
Another stark difference I noticed is the amount of time spent praising people on stage. The individuals on stage have heard those words thousands of times in their lives, so it’s utterly useless in my view.
After NAOP, during my visit to Hyderabad, I met a diverse set of people, including entrepreneurs who are in the prime of their lives, engineers working on innovative products, and more. All driven by passion, but their organizations may face problems in the future for not developing the next generation leaders. It seems India, individuals are focused on the stars and organization to fail develop new thinkers who can think critically and make their decisions.
Overall, I loved Vizag, and I want to spend a month exploring the city in the future.
