Ideological Crises in South Asia

Abstract

The term ‘ideology’ was coined in the eighteenth century by the French philosopher Destutt De Tracy (1754-1836). Tracy developed a new discipline that concerned with the systematic analysis of ideas and sensations. It was this discipline that he described as ideology, literally the science of ideas.1 Over the centuries, it has undergone many transformations. Today the concept of ideology is a highly contested notion, and there is no general consensus concerning the most appropriate way to define the term. Nevertheless, many commentators would agree that the study of ideology is an indispensable part of social and political analysis. Political systems, social and political movements, and relations of power domination are always interrelated in complex ways with ideas, beliefs and symbolic forms of various kinds. Power is rarely exercised without some kind of symbolic attribute or support. It is this aspect of power, and social and political life more generally that has come to define the distinctive province of the study of ideology.2