science,capitalism and islam

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Science, Capitalism and IslamAuthor(s): Vasant KaiwarReviewed work(s):Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 29, No. 9 (Feb. 26, 1994), pp. 489-500Published by: Economic and Political WeeklyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4400865 .

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SPECIAL ARTICLESS c i e n c e , Capitalism a n d I s l a m

Vasant Kaiwar'Islamic cience' is not good sciencesince neither ts premnisesor conclusionsare the least bit in doubt.Itmerelyseeks

to affirn what is knoWnthat is, maximspresentin the Qu ran)notsearchinto the unknown, hus makingafraudtulentuseof the term 'science'.At the same time, with the institutionalisation f science undercapitalisin, he notion of 'pure'or value-free science haslost some of itsforce. In the orn of endlessly multiplying ommodities,whoseproduction s mlediated hroughthe logic ofthe competitivepursuitofprofit, modern cience has become horoughlytnbricated n the existing structureofproduction,thereby osing sight of the possibility of humanemancipation hat is inherent n it.Muslim society, bullied by themilitary mightof the west, pushed into retrogradepositionsby reactionary internal forces, tornby bitterrivalries and enmities, disappointed by itshistorical fate, and culturally wedded to thepast,is in dire need of educational, social andpolitical reformif science and humandignityare to flourish.

-Pervez HoodbhoyTHE importance and timeliness of PervezHoodbhoy's Islam and Science, ReligiousOrthodoxyand the Battle for Rationality'cannot be overstated. It is an investigationof the disastrousstateof scientific educationandresearch n Pakistan andother Muslimcountries), an essay on the history of thediscoveries andinnovationsof Muslim sci-entists in the 'golden age of Islam,' and aneloquent argumentfor the universalismofscience against Islamic fundamentalistat-temptsto concoct anIslamic science vis-a-vis western science. It is also and mostimportantly pleafor a criticalcommitmentto planned,democratic modernisationwithscience as acrucialcomponentof educationand development. The preface by AbdusSamad, a Nobel prize-winning physicist,sets the tone of the book by declaring,"There is only one universal science, itsproblemsandmodalitiesareuniversal.Thereis no such thing as Islamic science, just asthere is no Hindu science, no Jewish sci-ence, no Confucian science, no Christianscience' 2 Hoodbhoyechoes this sentimentstating, "Science is indeed the intellectualpropertyof all humankind,andpartof theuniversalcultural heritage".' Modern sci-ence, Hoodbhoy explains, is a set of 'defi-nite' rules by which "one seeks a compre-hensionof thephysicaluniverse." Its powerandauthorityaresoley due to amethod thatcombines observation and inference, withexperimentand logical consistency as the"sole arbiters f truth"4To qualify as scien-tific, a theory must make predictions thatcan bechecked for correctnessagainst "ob-servation and experiment," that is, theremust beroom for falsifiability, aprinciplethatKarlPopper asserted. An unfalsifiabletheory is not a scientific theory. Againstthis criterion, what passes for Islamic sci-ence has "no epistemological standing asscience."5

Islamic science is not good science sinceneither its premises nor conclusions arethe least bit in doubt. It merely seeks toaffirm what is known (that is, the maximspresent in the Qur'an) not search into theunknown. Islamic science seeks no newmathematical principles, no new experi-ments will bedesigned for its verification,and no new devices or machines will bebuilt on account of it. It is "a fraudulentuse of the term science," sharing none ofthe qualities of the scientific workthat theM*uslim cientists of Islam's 'golden age'carried out. Pioneers like Ibn Sina(Avicenna), Ibn Rushd(Averroes), Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn Khaldun, and others weredevout Muslims who nonetheless prac-tised science of anessentially secular kind.Of course, they incurred the wrathof or-thodox elements in Muslim society, andwere most often threatened not by non-Muslims but by a "virulent anti-sciencesection" of the Muslim ulema.6 Seen inthis historical light, the Islamic funda-mentalism of the late 20th century is athrowback to medieval attitudes, singu-larly inappropriate to the challenges ofour time. Against this reactionary ten-dency, Hoodbhoy asserts that no set ofmoral or theological principles permitsone to build a new science. Scientificresearch hasonly one standardof validity:Does it, or does it not, meet the challengeof experiment?Great cientists like GalileoandNewton, devoutChristians hemselveswho hadnodesire tochallenge the religiousbeliefs of theirtime,did opt to pursuetheirinquiries houghtmeantundermining hris-tiandogma.7No less a challenge faces theMuslim scientist of today-to establish anautonomous paceforscientificwork,whilechoosing whether or not to remain true toone's religion. It is perhaps a commentaryon the sad stateof many hirdworldcountriesthat thesefightingwordsneed to be utteredand the autonomyof science from religion(andreligiously-based olitics)reasserted.

IA Critique of Fundamentalismand ParochialismFundamentalistsof all religious stripes

wish to bring science into line withi thereligious text(s) of theirrespective faiths.

All knowledge, according to the funda-mentalists, is revealed in the holy text(s);an increase of knowledge is a matter offinding new interpretations of holy writ.This position is clearly stated in MauriceBucaille, TheBible, 7he Qur'an and Sci-ence, in which the Quran is presented asthe source of all scientific facts. For eachtopic thathediscusses, he finds quotationsfrom the Quran that have some plausibleagreement with scientific facts. This,Bucaille asserts, is proof of the Quran'smiraculous nature. The problem with thisapproach, Hoodbhoy wryly notes, is thattheproof of aproposition is only meaning-ful if the possibility of disproof (a laPopper) is al-soentertained. Fora believer,the disproof of the Quran s divine natureis is unthinkable; for the non-believer theexercise is uninteresting. Science is shame-less in abandoning old theories, once fal-sified; religious texts, on the other hand,are supposed to reveal eternal truths (bydefinition unfalsifiable). Bucaille, basinghimself upon the Quran. does not make asingle prediction that could be tested onthe basis of experiment and observation.8All he can do is take existing scientificfacts and find a roughly similar statementin the Quran, leaving faith to do the rest.Nem KumarJain [Science and Scientistsin India] takes a similar approach. Quot-ing from the Bhagvad Gita 2-16 ("Whatdoes not exist cannot come into existenceand what exists cannot be destroyed"), heassertsthat he awof conservationof matterand energy was known to thie ancients,thereby positing the divine nature of theGita and concluding that nothing new hasbeen added to the stock of humanknowl-edge since thescriptureswere set down.Notonly is this sort of exercise extremely vagueand disingenuous, but, as Jayant Narlikarhascommented, IHinducriptureshave beencitedinproofof both theSteadyStatetheoryof creationand the Big Bang theory!9GeorgesSartonarguesthat n ancientandmedieval times, the artsof observationandexperimentation were so underdevelopedthat whateverpositive knowledge they re-vealed eemedvery"changeable nd haky",and tlhereforevery unreliable.In compari-son, thieological costructions appearedunshakable: "Not being based on observa-

Economic and Political Weekly February 26, 1994 489


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tion, no amount of observation could de-stroy them; not being based on deduction,no amount of logic could impugn them.They stood apart and above the world ofexperience."'" Theological 'explanation'frequentlycompleted the scientists' obser-vations." Today's fundamentalists take adeliberatelyantiquated tance;Eitherscien-tificobservationandtheorymust bemade tofit theunalterable extof thescriptures,or itmust be shown that those scripturesantici-patedmodernscientific findings. Giventhatthe Quran did not anticipate,or cannot le-gitimate, many modern discoveries, it be-comes necessary to disaffirm those discov-eries, and to divide science itself alongcultural ines; that s, to fabricateanIslamicsocieties because its epistemology is basi-cally in conflict with the Islamic view. Sci-ence and technology must be brought ntoline with 10 basicIslamic values,including,'tawheed' (unity of God), 'ibadah' (wor-ship), and 'khilafah trusteeship).Whatthatmeans is anyone's guess; readerswho seekmore thanplatitudes,Hoodbhoywarns,willbe disappointed.'2For the secular, there is 'thirdworldsci-ence' whose advocatesdeclare thatmodernscience andtechnoLogy rebasedon 'west-ern experience andepistemology', and arefor thatreason ill-suited to the needs of thethird world. They speak of the need to'debrainwash' hepeopleof the thirdworldand to fight 'foreign-trained cientists' whoare the "greatestgerm-carriers f thewest-ern virus against which our societies areseeking immunity''."' Such sentiments arefoundamongarecentcropof 'philosophersof science' like SusanthaGoonatilakewhofinds thatscience in many thirdworldsoci-eties is neitheroriginal norcreative, is iso-lated from the society at large, and is fur-thermoredivorced in spirit and substancefromtheknowledgeandphilosophieswhichexisted inpre-colonialtimes 14Goonatilake,in a profoundly anti-Whiggish move, lo-cates the sources of wisdom in the distantpast. Thus, only the ancient civilisationscontain sufficient wisdom to save thirdworld countries from their crisis. Scien-tific and medical research must seek the"rich historical, scientific andconceptualtraditions such as those of south Asia orChina." Ayurvedicmedicine, forexample,could be "screened fornew growth poi ntswhich could be married to contemporaryscientific [western?] knowledge" . IsVandana Shiva's StayingAliveadvocatesa similarposition.6 Both arepartof a largerchorus of voices raised against 'westernscience'. In some respects, they areno dif-ferent romthefundamentalistosition,sincethefountsof knowledge thatoughtto guidemodern scientific practice in non-westernsocieties are locatedin ancient texts whicharealso thesources of a people's (nation's)spirituallife and vitality.There s avolkischomanticismabout hisfeverish searchin pre-colonial archivesfor

the sources of rejuvenationof the scienceandsociety of thirdworldpeoples. By elid-ing the distinction between popularprac-tices and the elite textual tradition theproponentsof 'thirdworldscience' requireus to believe thatpre-colonial society wasanorganicunity untilthewest impingedonit, a fictionalnotion atbest.Also implicitisthe proposition that only supposedly au-tochthonous extsandpractices arecapableof developing thescientific knowledgethatthirdworld peoples require to solve theirurgentproblems.Giventhatmanyproblemsincludinghunger,famine, anddisease ex-isted long before the arrivalof thecolonialpowers, one might ask why a scientificsystem to deal withtheseproblems hadnotalreadyevolved. In general,thewhole pro-paganda of these latter-day romanticsre-quires morefaith in blood andsoil ideologythan the historicalevidence can support.'7Te rootsof thiskindof thinkingactuallygono furtherbackthanthecultural-paternalistwing of Orientalism,which posited that inthe conservative 'east' people gave "im-plicit obedience" to ancienttexts thatwentback to the dawn of their civilisation.8Ironically, Goonatilakeandotherromanti-cally inclinedpopulistshavetaken hisratherliterally, claiming implicitly that in theabsenceof western mpact,people in thesesocieties would still continue to follow theprecepts contained in their religious andmoral texts.'9ConservativeEuropean deo-logues believed that the development ofmodern science in Europewas simply theinexorablemarch of the Greekgenius viatheRenaissanceandtheEnlightenmentntothe industrialrevolutionwith a few inter-ruptions.20Similarly,populist ideologuesin thethirdworldwouldlike to believe thattheonly way theirsocieties can achieve anauthenticdevelopmentof scienceis torelinkwith theirforgottenpast, forgottennot be-cause it is irrelevantto the problems theyfacetodaybutbecause he 'west'introducedanarbitraryupture ntheprocessofculturalcontinuity.In more ways thanone, the ex-oticism of 19th centuryracialism has be-come the literal truthof late 20th centurypopulism-an indigenous exoticism as itwere. Needless to say, the recommenda-tionsofpopulist ntellectuals avenotyieldedaprogramme ndmethodologyof scientificresearch.Forthe Orientalist, slam (or some otherfaith)constituted heoverarching tructurewithinwhich social, political andintellec-tuallife was framed;yet this crudeforn ofculturalreductionismdoes not speak to therealitiesof eithermedievalor modern ife.2'Islamic fundamentalistshave given a newlease of life to this reductionistconstructdeveloped by the practitionersof the hu-manist disciplines popular in the 19tlhcenitury-the history of religionisand thestudy of historical and comparativelinguistics22-forcibly attempting o unifyaspects of life that were separate even

before western colonialism. It is in thiscontext that both the imperatives andlim-its of the attempt to develop an Islamicscience become apparent. While Islamicscience might provide a psychologicaldefence against the "insistent pressure ofmodernscience'"," thekey imperative thatsustains it is state policy, and the moneymade available as a result.24Islamic sci-ence has become linked to the materialsupport that strategically-placed ndividu-als, organisations, and governments haveprovided-Saudi money being particularlyimportant n this regard.25n Pakistan,sec-tions of the politically conservative ulemawho wished to increase their power haveseized on Islamic science to extend thedomain of religious law into the sphere ofnaturalphenomena.26 hemilitary dictator-ship thatruledPakistan rom 1977 to 1988,and ts successor governments,notwantingto set asideresourcesformoderneducation,health careand otherbenefits for its people,have found the appeasementof the conser-vative ulema a convenient way to cement apolitical alliance and devolve some of thestate'sresponsibilities oreligiousauthorities.The limits of this approach n the field ofeducation,andparticularly cientificeduca-tion, are obvious. Not only are levels ofeducational ompetenceextremely ow,evenbythirdworldstandards,butwhatpassesforscientific research n Pakistan s often ludi-crous. The appendix to Islam and Sciencegives some examples thatarebothhilariousand tragic: for example, a Pakistaniscien-tist, chairmanof the Holy Qur'anResearchFoundation n Islamabad, advocated usingfiery creaturescalled 'jinns', who presum-ablyinhabit he heavens, togeneratepower,thus solving Pakistan'senergy problem inan environmentally sound fashion. Simi-larly, othershave used Einstein's theorytocalculate thespeed of heaven andthe angleof god, andprovidedother nformationben-eficial to Pakistan's economic progress.Unlike their 19tli century counterparts,modem-day Islamists are forced to pay atleast lip-service to developing a sciencecurriculum. slamic science serves thepur-pose well enough.Theelites after all do nothave to educatetheirclhildrenn the secondrate schools that combine orthodox reli-gious instruction witlhan utterlyoutdatedanduseless scientific curriculum.The richattendprivateschools andcolleges andthengo on to American universities. When ill,theyconsult doctors,not hakims. The latterare exclusively for the poor. This repro-duces ruling class privilege, and a lack ofconcern for the well-being of the people.27Ratherthanfocus attentionon developingtheknowledge neededfor a thorough rans-formation of society, so that all may havethe benefit of modern education, healthcare, andemployment, thedevelopmentofan Islamic curriculum ensures that thosesubject to it learn nothing thlatwill enablethem to addressserious problems.

490 Economic and Political Weekly February 26, 1994


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The romantic populists (Goonatilake,Shiiva, ndahost of others) may appear obea fi)rcry fromsuch movements, but in theiressentialistportrayals f culturaldifferences,and heirattribution f theproblemsof theirsocieties to the cultural dominance of thewest, theydoshareacertain ommonground.The elite progenitorsof populist ideology,like high-level bureaucr.atsand militarykleptocrats,can ignore it in theireverydaylives for all practical purposes. They, too,have access to all the fruits of modernscience, modern education, medical care,air travel, fellowships, andsometimesjobsin the despised west.

AGAINSTAROCHIALISMHoodbhoyrejectstherivalparochialismsof east andwest. He locates the capacityforscientific thought in a humancapacity for"reasonandabstraction." nhiswords,"Ra-tional man has emerged from the realm ofbiological evolution endowed with innatemental structures capable of abstractthought" 28 Noam Chomsky's discoveryofa universal humangrammar suggests thatfundamentally "human thought andbehaviourareentirelyuniversal." That de-molishes racist theories of developmentandestablishes, "the oneness of us all' 29In thisview, itonly needs "external stimulito set cognitive and creative processes inoperation."30As anexample of the westernparochial-ism herejects,hequotesfromarecent workby Michael MoravcsikanndJohnZiman:With Europeanindustrialcivilisation comesEuropeanscience.-.the process of economicgrowth and social development is entirelypredicated on the 'rational materialism' ofpost-Renaissance Europeandits northAmeri-can colonies... Inthe presentdiscussion, it istaken for granted that European scienceshould become a dominant cultural forcethroughoutthe world.3'

Against this, Hoodbhoyasks: Could Euro-pean science havemade theprogress it did,without the availability of advances madeelsewhere,notablyin theMuslimworld?Inhis view it is 'utterlyaccidental' thatmod-ern science shouldhavedeveloped over thelast 400 years in Europe. Only with thedevelopment of an industrial civilisationdidscience becomepartof cultureandexer-cised a vital influence on everyday life.Looked at in this light, "paroclhial rideinthe historical cultures which we acciden-tally happento be associated with appearsquite irrational"."32 Ie goes on to add thatmany third world scholars have embracedmodern science andare thankful t found afertile soil in Europe.While one miglht take exception toHoodbhoy'sphilosophicalanthropology, isaccount of the development of science is arefreshing and, in many ways, insightfulblast at the rival parochialisms that appearto have settled into a comfortabledotage inour academic culture. Hoodbhoy's state-

mentsunderline hehistorical ircumstancesin which science became inked topracticalproductiveactivityinearlymodernEurope,so that it ceased to.be an esoteric activity.An eminent physicist, floodbhoy is nonaive celebrant of modern science. HIeemphasises thatmany of the promises sci-ence made for a betterworld have remainedunfulfilled. Science may have created aglobal village but the villagers have notlearnt o talkwithorcomprehend ach other.We live in a dangerouslypolluted world inwhich he "wastesof industrial ivilisation"destroy fragileecosystems. Militaristswithdangerous designs have used, or abused,science for their own ends. Our continuedexistence is in doubtdue to "Oppenheimer'ssin." Despite this, he states, without thebenefits of science, humankindwas "help-less before wind and storm, ravaged byplague anddisease, and terrorisedbymind-less superstitions." The humanmind, anincomparable nstrument,was wasted.Sci-ence liberated human beings from thoseconditions, and holds, in his opinion, thebest possibility for tackling our innumer-able problems, providedthere is also a so-cially conscious process to regulateits ap-plications. I will return o this theme below.

IITowards a More CosmopolitanUnderstanding of CivilisationThefailure of largeareasof theerstwlilecolonial worldto achieve economic devel-opment hascontributedn part o revivalistand undamentalistrends.These "politicalmovements under the guise of religion"

have in turnencourageda 'resurgenceofessentialism'.3 However, t isworthnotingthat even so confirmed a culturalist asGustaveEvonGrunebaum asstressed hatthe 'medieval eastandwest' (read: heArabworld andEurope)had at least tworoots incommon: one, the cultural legacy of thie'heathenworld' around heMediterraneani,andtwo, Judeo-Christianmonotheism, the'east' being the "more conscientious heiruntil a repentant west turnedback to itsorigins aided by Easternguidance"'.' Theidentity,ornear-identity, f the"fundamen-tal structuresof their civilisations" mayhavecontributed n no smallmeasuretothe"acrim6ny of theirrivalry," but it was ameaningful rivalry in the scnse that thecombatants ought on the same plane. The"slogans andreasoning of one partycouldbe understoodby the other".35Acrimonywas not, however,the o1y productof theirinteraction; enuinerespectexistedbetweenthe Byzantines and first the Persians andthentheArabs.Theophylactus f SimocattamakesthePersiankingKhosrauwritetotheemperorMauricius:

There are two eyes to which divinityhasconfided hetaskof illuminatingheworld:theseare he powerfulmonarchy f theRo-mans and the wisely governedcommon-

wealth of the Persians. By these two greatempires, the barbarous and war-loving na-tions are kept in check, and mankind given--betterand safer government throughout.36And when during and after the eighthcentury, the Arabs took the place of thePersians, it is they who constituted the pil-lars of civilisation. Aside from the Indians,only their nations were lettered; only they"keep aloof from the brutislhdesires of the

barbarians,such as the Turks and Chinese" .31The spell of Arabic knowledge was so strongthatmany Spanish Clhristiansneglected theirtraditions in favour of Arabic. Alvaro, aChristian zealot, writing in 854 AD de-plored this tendency:Alas! the young Christians who are mostconspicuous for theirtalents have no knowl-edge of any literature or language save theArabic... they amass whole libraries of [Ara-bic] books at a vast cost, and they every-vhere sing the praises of Arabian lore... atthe mentionof Christian books they disdain-fully protest that such works areunworthyoftheir notice.38Thomas Aquinas used the works ofMaimonides (d 1204) and Ibn Rushd(Aveiroes, d 1198) and employed a mannerof argument familiar from Muslim scholas-ticism. Dante, while consigning Muhammadto inferno, was nonetheless indebted toMuslim visionaries whose works had beentranslated into Latin. Parallel efforts inalchemy and astrology witl "Islam as teacherand Christendom a self-willed student intro-duced more concepts and associations to beheld in common".39 The Byzantines reliedon Arab medicine, and Ibn Sina's Canon ofMedicine, translated into Latin, was taught

for centuries in European universities. RogerBacon's experiments were based on al-Haytham' s treatise on optics, and Ibn Rushdbecame the first philosopher of thie Refor-mation. Indeed, for many years the Univer-sity of Paris only admitted Aristotle as ex-plained in Ibn Rushd's commentary.40Arabic civilisation itself was a rich tapes-try woven from many threads. The ArabianNights, for example, drew on Indian andPersian, Jewish and Greek, Babylonian andEgyptian sources, fusing them with "genu-inely Arabic elements". In this synthesis, itis a "small scale likeness of Islamiccivilisation as a whole". With a shift inemphasis away from the Indian, Babylonianand Egyptian towards the Persian, Greekand Judeo-Christiani, and a much greateremphasis on the genuinely Arabic, "thestructure of Islamic civilisation repeats thestructure of the Nights". Thoroughly syn-cretistic, it proved its vitality by coating"each and every borrowing with its inimi-table patina" 41 The adoption of mental hab-its that had supported Greek science helpedscientific activity: "the ability to discussproblems according to thle categories offormal logic; the appreciation of purelytheoretical speculation, and above all, theacknowledgement of a 'secular' science,



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fullyindependentof anyreligioussectarian-ism"." At the sametime,rulersandscholarsenrichedtheir field of knowledge with thescientific texts of Byzantium, Greece, Per-sia andIndia.ISLAMICCENCERMUSLIMCIENCE?

There s noquestion thatIslam played animportantrole in facilitating the develop-mentofArabicculture. tgave theArabs "anidentity, a consciousness anda worldviewtranscendingthe hitherto narrowconfinesof tribaland ethnic existence"." lTheyalsolearnt romMuhammad hat a "communityundergod was moremeaningful and thusofgreater political promise than a communityunder tribal law".4" Why did Islam itselfprevail in seventh century Arabia andthenspreadoutwards with such dazzling speed?H1G Wells offers a secular explanation:

Islamprevailed ecause t was hebestsocialandpolitical order he times could offer.Itprevailedbecauseeverywhere t foundpo-liticallyapatheticeoples, obbed, ppressed,bullied, uneducated and unorganised and itfoundselfishandunsound overnmentsutof touchwith any peopleat all. It was thebroadest,reshest, leanestpolitical dea hathadyetcome ntoactualactivityn theworldand t offeredbetter erms hananyother othe massof mankind.45Even if Islam had no direct causal roleto play in the ensuing culturalrevolution,it provided at least the ideological frame-work for the construction of a new politi-cal system, far transcendinganythingthatcontemporaryfeudal Europecould boast.The world of Islam became, for severalcenturies, the cultural heart of world

civilisation. Arabs and non-Arabs livingwithin the magnetic field of this powerfulnew culture found themselves in posses-sion of the "dazzling intellectualtreasuresof ancient ivilisations". Theirleritagecon-sisted of Greek philosophy and science,Persianiterature, ndianme-dicine ndmath-ematics, and Chinese technology. Certainaspectsof EgyptianandBabylonianscienceunknown to the Greeks were available tothem. This 'umam-al-awail'(knowledge ofantiquity)was a "vast storehouseof intel-lectualtreasures"46 VonGrunebaums un-questionablyright nstatingthatthestupen-dous rise of this civilisation between 750and950 AD wastheresult of the "spontane-ouscollaborationof thebestmindsof all thieEmpire's nationalities".'` During this pe-riod,thereweremassive translationprojectsto make available the scientific knowledgeof antiquity oArabicspeakers.TIhlieransla-torswere, for themost part,non-Muslims;thegreatestof them,Hunayn bnIslhaq,wasaNestorian Christian, othlerswere pagans,Jacobites, and Buddlhists. The projcctsundertaken at this stage represented theassimilation of importedknowledge.48Bythehigh middle ages (1000-1250 AD), thetranslation projects had been completed.Arabic,not Greek,now becamethle ehlicle

of intellectual thought.Many of -the mostimportantscientific minds were concen-tratedin the lands that came under Arabdominance.Most of the prominentscien-tists were now Muslims: Ibn al-Haytham(965-1039), Al-Biruni (9973-1051), OmarKhayyam(1038-1123), Nasir-ud-dinTusi(1201-1274), not to mention the redoubt-able Ibn Sina (980-1037), Ibn Rushd(1126-1198) and bnKhaldun 1332-1406).Thousandsflocked to the universitiesthatwere established in Baghdadandin south-ernSpain, and aspiritof freedompermittedMuslims, Christiansand Jews to work sideby side.Besides theuniversities, herewerethe 'bait-ul-hiikmah', stronomical obser-vatories,hospitals, andschools.49Europeanmerchantsand students cameintocontactwith thisbrilliantnewscientificculturemainlyinSpainandSicily, thenear-est point of contact between the twocivilisations. In 1085, when Toledo fell totheChristians,European tudents locked tothiscity to leam science as it was transmit-ted in Arabic.theyemployed Jewish inter-preters o converse andto translate. n 12thcenturySpain,Plato of Tivoli, Gherardo fCremona, Adelard of Bath and Robert ofChesterweretranslatingArabicmathemati-cal manuscripts nto Latin.Y?Contemporaries divided the fields ofknowledge into indigenous(Arab)and for-eign sciences. Yusufal-Hwarizmi'sKeysofthe Sciences written in 976 AD countedjurisprudence,c holasticphilosophy,grammar, 'kitaba' theartofthesecretary nclud-ing the terminologyof government admin-istration), prosody, and history as indig-enous sciences, while classifying philoso-phy, logic, medicine, arithmetic,geometry,astronomyand astrology,music, mechan-ics, andalchemyas foreign sciences.5" n amodern classification, most of what wecould consider science belongs to the for-eign category. Islamic fundamentalists ndwestern writers have therefore tended todismiss the- cience of Islam's 'goldenage'as no more than a "natural and logicalextension of Greekscience". Forexample,Greek myths from the time of Arius andPythagoras nspiredalchemy; while scien-tificallydubious, twastheparent cienceofmodern chemistry, producing importantknowledge of the propertiesof acids andalkalis. Similarly, the work of Ibn al-Haythamonpopticswas a logical extensionof Greek thoughton the subject. Muslimmathematicians ook upproblems thathadbeen considered by their Egyptian,Babylonian, Greek and Indian predeces-sors. Indeed,theso-called Arabicnumeralswere originally taken from Indian math-ematics, whichexercised a fundamental n-fluence in the development of algebra.52I-loodbhoy imself findsnothingunusualin this, as all science is cumulative, pro-gressing by absorbingexisting knowledgeand generating innovations. A universaldesire o ulnderstandhephysicalworlddrove

Ahegreat scientists, many of whom werepracticing, f at timesunorthodox,Muslims.Their methods were those used by goodscientists invalf-a-gv o-bservatiop, xperi-mentation, and mathematical proof." IbnRushd refutedal-Ghazzali's view of divineinterventionto explain every physical phe-nomenonbynoting:"To deny theexistenceof efficient causes which are observed insensiblethings s sophistry..Denial of causeimplies denial of knowledge and denial ofknowledge implies thatnothing nthe worldcan really be known".'. Similarly Ibn al-Hatib of Granada,a famous statesman,his-torianandphysician, bravedorthodoxy inhis study of theplague, stating: "The exist-ence of contagion is established by experi-ence, studyandtheevidence, bytrustworthyreports of transmission by garments... bythespreadof itby personsfromone housetoanother..." He went on to enunciate thedaringprinciple that, "A proof takenfromthe traditionshas to undergomodificationwhen in manifest contradiction with theevidence of theperceptionof thesenses' sTo appreciate the boldness of this thesis,vonGrunebaum emarks, t mustberemem-bered that "the Prophethad expressly de-nied theexistence of thecontagion"'5ADespite these advances, science in themedieval Muslim world was an esotericpursuit for the elites, often patronised byprogressive rulers, for example, al-Kindi(801-873) in the court of the Caliph al-Mamun, and Ibn Rushd in the court ofCaliphal-Mansur.While the elites pursuedscientific knowledge in privateacademies,such knowledge was rigorously excludedfromthecurriculum f the 'madrassas' ven-ues for religious education). The scientiststhemselvesshowedfearof andcontempt orthemasses, cheerfully advocatingone truthforthe 'ignorantmasses' andanother or theelect. Underlyingthisdualism was a fear ofthemullahswho could mobilise themassesagainst the scientists and rationalist phi-losophers.57Patronage tself was fickle. Occasionally,when conservative rulers succeeded moreenlightenedones, these eminent court sci-entistsweresubjected osevere harassment,and sometimes banishment.This is whathappened o al-Kindiwhenal-Mutawakil,a'crueldrunken ot' in league withthe qazisandmullahs,ascended othecaliphate.Therewas a round-up and exterminationof the'mu'tazilites' (mu'tazila = dissenters), Is-lamic scholastic philosopherswhose beliefin freewill andreason wasconsidereddam-aging to orthodoxy. Ahmed ibn Hanbal,aliteralist opposed to the mu'tazilites, pro-claimed a holy war on science, and de-nounced earning andrationalism.Thepul-pits of Baghdadbegan to fulminateagainstthe holdersof heterodoxviews. Rationalistphilosoplers fled Baghdadformorebenignlocations.58 ustaselitist rulers, nterested nthe pursuitof abstractrationalknowledgefor itsOWnlake,couldfosterthescienlces, o



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reactionary eaders or a populist allianceofmullahs and the uneducatedmasses-couldfoment a rebellion against the pursuit ofsuch knowledge-a potent combination.Technicalapplication was not an-induce-ment to scientific endeavour, nor was sci-ence aseparateandautonomous ntellectualactivity with its own institutionalspace. Inthis, the situationof Muslim science was nodifferent romthesituationnancientGreece;after all Anaxagoraswas driven from Ath-ens for teachinghis scientific views.59Nor,for thatmatter,was it different from medi-eval andearly modern Europe. Hoodbhoyprovides a numberof examples of inquisi-torial repression of scientific inquiry inEurope.60Ibn Khaldunperhapsrepresentedbest theambiguity in medieval Muslim science;thoughhimself a pioneerof materialistex-planation in social science, he stated that"partof thebeautyof man's Islam, resigna-tion of god" was toleavealonewhatdoes notconcern him.6" t is ironic thatsuch a greatscientific mind shouldhave voiced the sen-timents of a religious hierarchythat wascomingto establish astranglelholdn knowl-edge in the Muslim world. Ibn Khaldunwaskeenly conscious of thisdecline, remarkingthatwith the extinctionof scientific knowl-edge, civilisation had perishedthroughoutthe Muslim west (theMaghrib).The repre-sentatives of what remained of scientificerudition were forced to evade the surveil-lanceof orthodoxdoctors.The situationwasslightly better in southern Persia,Transoxania, ndEgypt.However,andmostsignificantly,he writes that n thelandof theFranks,on the northshore of theMediterra-nean, philosophical studies were flourish-ing; scientific work was revived in thoseparts and a great numberof students andteacherswere involved in its developmentand promotion.62Given this situation, the"'outstanding puzzle", according toHoodbhoy,is how individuals were able tosustain scientific thoughtover a period ofsome six centuries. About 700 years ago,however, hisgreatcivilisation ost the "willand ability" to do science, apart from anoccasional flurry n the Ottomanperiod andin Mehmet Ali's Egypt.63By 1500, the culturalinfluence of Islamon Europehad sunk to comparativeinsig-nificance. Europe "vaguely realised that ithadnothingessential to learn from its age-old opponent, and in the Muslim worldpolitical success engendered a deceptivefeeling of security andself-sufficiency'X64I think it is fair to say thatIslam itself wasnot the singularcause of either the rise andefflorescence of Muslim science or of itsdecline. Theideological and political unity,and the sense of liberationfiom tribalandethnic dentities, hataccompanied ts spreadmobilised the creative energies of genera-tions of people. In due course, it becamean obstacle in the sense that Islamic ortho-doxy provided ideological weaponry for

those who wished to combine piety withconservatism.IIISocial and Political Roots ofScientific Revolution

Given the esoteric and elite nature ofscience in the Muslim world,a conservativeruling allianceof religious and secular au-thoritiescould effectively hobble the fur-ther development of '-science by denyingpatronage o thescientists.65Didthistypeofalliance also tlhwart he development ofcapitalism?There was certainlyan exten-sive 'capitalistsector' in theMuslim worldfrom the early eighth century, the mosthighly developed nhistorybeforethe worldmarket created by the western Europeanbourgeoisie.The extent of the marketwasdue initially to "the military victories ofIslam, and the long durationof the unifiedMuslimempire." When,finally,theempirebroke up, the "power of the ideologicalbond" preventedwatertight rontiers romdeveloping.66Capitalhad achieved a highlevel of organisation,butfailedtodevelopacapitalisteconomy tout court.Why?Quot-ing Marx ("The relationshipof labourtocapital...presupposes an historicalprocesswhichdissolves thedifferent orms nwhichthe labourer is an owner and the ownerlabours",) Rodinson mplies that the struc-tureof powerwassuchthatcapitalistswere,by and arge,unable obecome theimmedi--ateownersof theprocessof labour.Appar-ently both slavery andpeasantownership,with statesupport,coincidedwitha systemin whichapraetorian lite controlledpoliti-cal power, enforced taxation and limitedcapital's intervention n the economy to alargelydistributionaryole (that s, capital-ists werefreetomake theprofitsof circula-tion and alienation but not the profits ofenterprise).Thecommercialbourgeoisie,afactorof considerable mportanceup to theearly 11thcentury,was thereafterreducedto a secondaryrole in Muslim societies, as"castes of slave soldiers,mostlyof Turkishorigin, became establishedthroughout heMiddle East". Thecapitalist ectorbegan oshrink.67Symptomaticof this political structure,and the urbanhabitation of the military-feudalpoliticalelite, was the absence fromthe Muslim worldof autonomouscities orurban uilds comparableothosethatdevel-oped in earlymodernEurope.Guildsin theMuslim world were not organisations hatworkmen reated oprotect hemselvesasndtheir craft.Rather, heywere organisationsthat the stateputin place "to supervisethecraft andworkmenand aboveall to protectthe state romautonomous rganisations'.6For a numberof reasons, tlherefore, eithera powerfulentrepreneurial ourgeoisienoran autonomousartisanalclass emerged intheMuslim world.69n practicethis meantthatpopularorces, withoutextra-economic

privileges or monopolies, were not avail-able to take up the development of scienceand technology. This seems a more aptexplanation han he fictitiousnotionputoutbySyed Hossein Nasr, an Iranian historian'of science, that Muslims while capable ofbuilding machines chose not to do so be-cause this would upset the balance betwen"manandnature, educing hespiritualqual-ityof [their]existence" 7.0The potent combination of the ulemaand authoritarianrulers thus robbed Mus-lim society of the potential benefits ofscientific and technical development. Thepower andwealth of the elites themselvesrested on neither a rational knowledge ofthe physical world nor the development ofthe technical means of production. Elitestrategy could concentrate on the elabora-tion of the structures of extra-economiccontrol and thebrainwashingof the popularmasses into a naturalisation, and indeedsupernaturalisation, f the hiierarchiesheylived under and the misery thay experi-enced.71Oneconsequence of all this was to

reinforce the resignationist, even fatalistic,aspects of Islamic ideology. In thetheologocentricview, Islam itself could thenbe held responsible for both the technicalbackwardnessand the fatalism widely ob-served in the Muslim world, effectivelyexempting the political structure rom anyresponsibility.72But, as Rodinson demon-stratesquoting Destanne de Bemis's studyof the Tunisianpeasantry, fatalism is asso-ciatedwith heenormousweightof "chancy"factorsthatcondition the success of produc-tive efforts. Resignation, on the otherhand,may be aperfectly rationalaccommodationto the futility of trying to change the statusquo under the existing conditions of thedistributionof power.Organisedreligion is,of course, diabolically clever at teachingpeople tosublimate heirdissatisfaction ntoa supplicationof forces beyond humancon-trol. Similar attitudes were widespread inmedieval Europe.73The definitive settingaside of these attitudes in western Europewas the result of many converging forces,mostcompactlymanifested n thedecline ofthe authorityof feudal lords and the churchand the rise of capitalist production. Thisprofound economic and ideological trans-formation has its roots in the social andpolitical strugglesof late medieval Europethat led to the gradualseparationof churchandstate,and the growing independenceofthebourgeoisiefromfeudalmonopolies andcontrols. It is in this revolutionarymilieuthatmodemscience comes intpexistence. Itis necessarytounderstand his so asto put nperspective the very different trajectoryofthe Muslim world.

BIRTHOFMODERN SCIENCE N EUROPEHoodbhoy correctly states that in pre-modern times there was no symbiotic rela-tkdnshipbetween science and technology.Science did not lead to notable improve-



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mnentsn agriculture,housing, clothing, oreven weapons of war. Science was "book-learming,disputatious and often abstract,withoutthe searching test of practicaluse",.Technology was empirical,ad hoc, withouttheoreticalunderpinnings.74nventionswerefew and far between. While it is truethat hesymbiosis of science and technology doesnot achieve its mature form until the 19thcentury, the beginnings of this process goback almost to the mid-16th century.Edgar Zilsel, a Germanhistorianof sci-ence, describes thecomplex processthroughwhich the practical world of the plebeianartisan came into contact with the learnedworld of the university scholars. To theplebeian craftsmen in the European owns,the "occult qualities and substantialformsof the scholastics andthe verbosity of thehumanists" were of no interest. Many ofthem, by theRenaissance,hadoutgrown heguild restrictions on craft trainihgandpro-ductionandwereexperimenting nthe fieldsof mechanics, acoustics, chemistry, metal-lurgy, geometry, and anatomy. Many ofthese pioneers were uneducatedcraftsmen,and we do not know their names. We do,however, know the names of the educated:forexample,Brunelleschi(1377-1446) whoconstructed the cupola of the cathedral atFlorence,Leone BattistaAlberti(1407-72),Leonardo da Vinci (1492-1519), andVanoccioBiringucci (d 1538) "whosebook-let on metallurgy s one of the firstchemicaltreatises reeof alchemistiesuperstition"75Though these 'superior' artisans had al-ready developed considerable theoreticalandpracticalknowledgewhichi hey appliedto the tasks of production, they had notlearned to proceed systematically; as a re-sult theirachievementsform acollection of"isolateddiscoveries' . Methodical train-ing of intellect was an elite activity, re-served for university scholars and for hu-manistic literati. Experimentationand ob-servation was left to more or less plebeianworkers.Thetwoworlds did notmeet asyet.The former did not regard the latter veryhighly.We regard hecraftsmenandartists,not the university windbags, as the trueheroesof theRenaissance andhave createdthemyththat heywereequally honoured ntheir time. Yet, in the literatureof the Re-naissance, theyrecede into thebackground;ifmentioned tall, t s in anextremely arelessway. As long as the separation f these twoworlds ersisted, cience nthe"modemmean-ing of the term was impossible".7However, starting around 1550, a fewlearmed uthorsbeganto be interested n themechanical arts, which had become "eco-nomnically so important". TIheycomposedLatin and vernacular works on the geo-graphicaldiscoveries, navigation and car-tography,mining and metallurgy, survey-ing, mechanics, and gunnery. Eventuallythe social barrierbetween the two compo-nents of the scientific method began tobreakdown. The "methods of the superior

craftsmen were adopted by academicallytrainedscholars:real science was born' 78Zilsel mentions some famous examples ofthe new scientificcultureatwork. WilliamGilbert (1544-1603), physician to queenElizabethI, publishedthe first book by anaca-demicallyrained cholarbasedentirelyon laboratory xperimentandpersonalob-servations. He attacked Aristotelianism,belief inauthorityand, humanisticverbos-ity." IHiscientificmethodderived rom hatof foundrymen,miners,andnavigatorswithwhomhe hadpersonalcontacts.Manyof theexperimentaldevices he used were takenfrom a vernacularbooklet by the compass-maker RobertNorman, a retiredmariner.Galileo (1564-1642) studied mathematicsprivately at the Accademia del Disegno inFlorence. The school was foundedin 1562foryoung artistsandartist-engineers.Zilselremarks hat hefoundingof this schoolwasan important tep in the process by which"eengineeringnd tsmethodsrosegraduallyfrom theworkshopsof craftsmenandeven-tually penetrated he field of academic in-struction."Galileo ecturedoon athematicsandastronomyat theUniversityof Pisa andprivately on mechanics and engineering.He conducted research on pumps, on theregulation of rivers and the constructionof fortresses. He liked to visit dockyardsand talk with the workmen. His greatestdiscovery-the law of falling bodies, pub-lished in the Discorsi-developed from aproblem n contemporary unnery.Galileofoundthe solution to the problemby com-biningcraftsman-stylexperimentation ithlearned mathematical analysis. In theDiscorsi, Galileo gives the mathematicaldeductions in Latin and describes the ex-periments nItalian.After1610, he gave upwriting in Latin altogetherand addressedlhimself to non-scholars.He expressed hisaversion to contemporaryprofessors andhumanists in his treatises and letters.79FrancisBacon (1561-1626) attackedbeliefin authorityand mitationof antiquitywithpassion,andsetupanalternative tandard f"'methodical cientificresearchfor the ad-vancementof humancivilisation". Ilis vi-sion of the ideal state as depicted in NovaAtlantisrests on scientific andtechnologi-cal progressviatheplannedco-operationofscientists,who use andcontinue heinvesti-gationsof theirfellow workers.These sci-entists who are herulersof theNew Atlantisare also divided into nine groupsbased otnthe principleof division of labour.Baconconstructeda model on the experience ofcraftsmenwho drewon each other's work,andon thegrowingdivisionof labour n theeconomy of hiisday.80The emergenceof science in the modernsenise equired heconvergenceof anumberof coniditions: he transcendenceof feudalextra-economiccontrolsandthe guild sys-tem, both of which limited the freedomofproducersto experimentand develop newmethods and devices. Renaissancecrafts-

men and their successors must have ex-pected to retain, and profit from, the newmethods they pioneered. At the sametime,there hadto be a closing of thegap betweenuniversity science (disputatious and scho-lastic) andpopularempiricalpractices.Theuniversity-trained cholarscouldcontribute"logical training, earning, lheoreticalnter-est", while the lowerstratumadded"causalspirit,experimentation,measurement,quan-titativerulesofoperation,disregard f schoolauthority, ndobjectiveco-operation" Thisconvergence was decisive, and representsone remarkable eatureof thesocial revolu-tion thataccompanied the birth of modernscience. It was this social revolution thatenabled western Europe to transform thetechniques ar1 cientific knowledge of an-tiquity and thb Muslim world, and in duecourse to vault over the more advancedcivilisations of the MiddleEast andAsia. Asnoted,a similarconvergence, andthesocialrevolution in both signified and heralded,did notoccur in the social formationsof theMuslim world.

HEAVY ARMLLERYOFINIPERIALISMThetransformationf theEuropean cono-mies of theAtlanticseaboard s toocomplexa phenomenon to enter into here. Suffice itto say that modern economic growth re-quiredtheestablishment of capitalistfarm-ing and industry in which not only theinstrumentsof productionbutlabourpowertoo becamecommodities. All "fixed, fast-frozenrelations, with their train of ancientandvenerableprejudices" had to be sweptaway, "allnew-formedones" had obecomeantiquated eforethey couldl"ossify. "82As

Marxpointedout, "Theneed of aconstantlyexpandingmarket oritsproductschasesthebourgeoisie over the whole surface of theglobe.''83 As dynamic competition,unhinderedby feudal or guild restrictions,spurred he search for new sources of rawmaterialsandmarkets,new devices openedupnewproductivepossibilities. Capitalism,tout court, was now areal force in the world."European apitalism"presented"in atan-gible way asuperior ormation owhich onehad to submitoradaptoneself." Most non-Europeanstates, whose internalpolitical-economic structures had resisted the fulldevelopmentof capitalismandscience,werein no position toundertakearapidtransfor-mation, especially as they now lay in the"threateningshadowof the overwhelmingsuperiority" of the imperialist nations ofEurope.'Mlearly,some rulerseitherdid notfathiomthe nature of the beast they con-frontedor foundthatcollaborationwiththeEuropean mperialistsserved theirbest in-terests.Onlythatcanexplain thepolicies oftheOttomangovernmentbetween 1818(thecommercialtreatyof 1818 andthe 'firman'of 1820 that an Ottoman minister felt wastaking "'aline more favourableto foreigninterests than native ones") to 1881 (thedecree of Muharramthat gave European



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organisation)scomplete control over theTurkishecon'my).85 Indeed, in both Leba-non and Egypt, the 'collaboration' of theOttomangovenunentwas an mportant om-ponent of European capitalist penetrationand the subsequent deindustrialisation ofthose regions. By 1913, foreigninterestsorminoritieswith close links to Europeoper-ated most of theindustrialenterprises n theOttomanempire. Capital resources in the269 nominally Ottoman enterprises wereownedas follows: 10percentby foreigners,50 per cent by Greeks, 20 per cent byArmenians,5 per centby Jews, andonly 15percent byMuslim Turks.86 he motives ofthe imperialist nations were transparentenough. What about those of the Ottomangovernment?Two motives suggest them-selves: the Ottomanrulersmay have beentrying to accommodate the insistent de-mands of the western states withoutTrans-forming heirownagrarian mpire, he ourceof their revenue and power; and thieymayhave wantedto prevent the rise of a localbourgeoisie,especially outside the Turkishheartland,that would press for indepen-dence from the feudal imperialismof Tur-key. In theevent,thisplayed nto theall-too-powerful capitalist mperialismof thewest.Elsewhere,European onquestproceededwith the Maxim gun and the Gatling gun,steamships, telegraphs, and all the para-phernalia of the modern inidustrialeconomy.87Science and technology fur-nishedthe knowledge'and the weapons forEuropeto conquer the less developed na-tions.Theagrarian ndpastoral ivilisations,with theirmoribundpolitical and deologi-cal structuresconfronting the heavy artil-lery of Europeancapitalism, were in noposition to resist. Disciplined Europeantroops,or nativetroopsdrilledandequippedby European fficers,decimatedmuch argerlocal armies "untutoredin military tech-niques." Therapidityof theseconquests eftMuslims,andothers, "numbed,disorientedand unsure of themselves".88 Reactionaryideologues, unwillingor unableto face thechallenges ahead, strove vainly to escapethemby "constructingunrealisticmodels ofa thirdpath,amythical Koraniceconomy,"finding favour not only among mysticalminds with a "fantastic picture of socialreality"butalsoamongEuropeansn"searchof asalutarymyth" 89 Third-worldismmadeits appearance.

IVModernisation from Above

Theemergingbourgeoisiein thecoloniesand ex-colonies knew very well that therewas no such thing as an Islamic economy:The fundamentalchoice confrontingthemwas whetherforeign or local agency wouldcarry out the necessary capitalistmodernisation.This gave rise to two linesofthought that Hoodbhoy characterises asreconstructionist and pragmatist. The

reconstructionistsmightbe seen as thepro-ponents of a Muslim reformation. Theirmain aim was to reinterprethe faith so astoremove obstacles to modernisation, o rec-oncile the "demandsof moderncivilisationwith theteachingsandtraditionsof Islam."This school held thatduringthe time of theProphetand the Khilafa-i-Rashidathefourrighteouscaliphs),Islam hadbeen a "revo-lutionary,progressive, iberalandrational"force. Subsequently, it became rigid as'taqlid'(tradition) riumphed ver 'ijtihad'(innovation).9 Tlhegreat achievements ofMuslim science represented, n their opinl-ion, solid proof of the harmony betweenIslam and science. They draw attention tothefact thatnearly750verses(one-eighthoftheQuran)exhort believers to studynatureandpursuescience. Fromthis, they "inferthatthepursuitof science is both areligiousduty as well as a pragmaticnecessity".9'Syed Ahmed Khan(1817-1898) wished toreintroduce ome of thatpioneeringspiritofinnovation back into Muslim educationallife. Prior to founding the MohammedanAnglo-Oriental College at Aligarh (laterAligarhMuslimUniversity) n 1877,he hadstarted chools, a 'scientific' society for thetranslation f westernknowledge ntoUrdu,and aweekly magazine n UrduandEnglishotnfacing pages. Hisrejectionof the author-ity of traditionalscholars and the sayings('hadith')attributed oMuhammad,and hisrelianceon his ownj udgment ninterpretingthe Quranshow his almost Protestantap-proach to religion."'Given his ideologicalpredilections, it was not surprising hat hefoundnocontradiction etween the worldofgod, contained n the Quran,and scientifictruths. f therewas acontradiction,he advo-cateda symbolicreadingof the former.TheQuranwas meantto be amoral guide, not ashackle on modernisation.93His discipleSyed Ameer Ali (1849-1924) wrote 77TeSpiritof Islam n 1891as achallengetoboththe Orientalists andMuslim reactionaries.He comparedthe situation of the Muslimworld nthe 19thcentury o thatof medievalChristianity,andexplicitly advocateda ref-ormation obringreligiouspractice nto inewith the needs of the bourgeois world.94Thepragmatistswere ess concernedwithanIslamicreformation hanwith bombard-ing Muslim society withenougheconomicprogress to loosen the grip of religiousorthodoxy. JamaluddinAfghani, for ex-ample,was not aboveusing a little strategicIslamicrhetoricwhen nIndia butconcededin adebatewith ErnstRenan in the Journaldes Debats) in the early 1880s that all reli-gionswereintolerant,hatIslam had ried ostifle science andstop its progress,andthatthe religious view should 'lose its power'.He saw Islam pragmaticallyas a unifyingforce against the west, but criticised theIndianulema for their division of scienceinto a Muslim science anda European ci-ence, and forbidding he latterto Muslims.In general,Afghanitook a farmoreopposi-

tional positionI to the British than SyedAlunedKhan,whomindeedhecharacterisedas a 'sycophant'.9 With the developmentof political aspirations among an emerg-ing bourgeoisie in the colonial world, thepragmatic line became incorporated nto apolitical ideology of nationalism, andmodernisation from above.ZiaGokalp' pithyaphorism,"Belong totheTurkishnation,theMuslimreligion, andEuropean ivilisation," admirablycapturesthe sentiment of this new movement. In1925, KemalAtaturkwaxed lyrical about amoderncivilisation that

.. pierces the mountains, lies across theheavens,sees everythingeven to the starsthat are nvisibleto the nakedeye, this sci-ence that lluminates nd nvestigates... thiscivilisation]to whose seethingtorrentt isvainto offerresistance.96Ilis minister of justice, Mahmud Esad,declaredayear ater hat he "Turkishnationhas decided to accept modern civilisationandits living principleswithoutany condi-

tion orreservation."97TalatI-larb, nEgyp-tiancapitalist, expressed similarsentimentsto a French ournalist:We want to follow yourexample...Ourre-quirements re modest.We merelydesireaplace in the sun, to live like otherpeople,producingand increasingour production,exportingwhatwe produce, onsuming ndincreasing urconsumption.norderto eachthisgoalwe areworkingnaccordancewithyourexample.99In a morepracticalvein, ZiaGokalp pro-nounced that 'large-scale industry' was akeyrequirementorTurkey' modernisation.He expected the state to take an active roleindevelopingthisnational ndustrybybring-ing in the "most up-to-date and advancedtechniquesfrom Europe," ratherthanwaitfor its citizens spontaneously to develop aspiritof enterprise.As a prominentTurkishofficial explained, state initiative was de-signed neithier o avoid capitalism nor tobring development into conformity withsome imaginarytradition.It had to do with"theinadequacyof initiatives andpossibili-ties on thepartof theprivatesector," and\the"weakdevelopmentof economic educationand hespiritof socialco-operation"'9Simi-lar ambitions to secure Persian national

integrity lay behind Reza Shah's vision of"modem factories,powerplants,dams,irri-gation systems, railways, highways, citiesandarmies..." lie, too, saw anactiveroleforthe statedue toa "shortageof techniciansandmanagersandbecauseprivate nvestorsare imid about ntering he industrial ield.'Only the government could launch Iran'snew steel industry.However, the policy ofthegovernmentwas "gradually ohandoverthe government's existing factories to pri-vateconcerns."01Some Europeans ndoubtedlyympathisedwiththese modernisers.The Englishnovel-ist, FreyaStark,dedicated her 1945 novel,



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ELasts West, to her "young brothers, theeffendis". In opposition to imperialist andexoticist attitudes,she saw local peculiari-ties as of secondary importance, certainlyno obstacle totheTurkishelite acquiring he"dynamic and dominating virtues of freeenterprise." As for Islam, her attitudewasimpeccably pragmatic: t could provide itsfollowers with "spiritual reasons for liv-ing," without getting in the way of theireconomic activities, and possibly protect-ing them from the "ravages of atheisticcommunist ideology.''102 But Freya Starkwas an anomaly. Self-interest and culturalexoticism caused colonial officials to scornthe modernisers as feeble imitators of Eu-rope, "driven to destroy their own heritageby abstract, ill-digested ideas." Colonialofficials preferred "indigenous conserva-tives", and considered the modernisers an"inauthentic lement,abetrayal f theeast'sindividuality.'103The process of modernisation has metwith limited success; in some cases, as inIran,it has failed miserably. This failure isnot a vindication of theexoticists, and theirpopulist followers, in the thirdworld today.It is an indictment not of the aspirationbutof the methods used. Capitalistrevolutionsfrom above in the former colonial worldhave not been successful wlhen tates haveneglected tocarryout sweeping and,wherenecessary, revolutionary land reforms,implement a comprehensive educationalsystem (includingbasic literacyandtechni-cal skills), and discipline capitalists to theneeds of dynamic competition. Very often,stateenterpriseshave been run withouttheminimaldiscipline needed to yield profits;unprofitable ndustries have received statesubsidies. For a nurnberof reasons, there-fore, state-run ndustrieshave notbeen ableto power the niationaleconomy into rapidandsustainedgrowthasearliermodlernisersexpected. Third world modernisation hasincorporatedhe worstaspectsof capitalismand statism. The result is a serious crisis.Many in the former colonies now believethatthe presentstate of affairs cannot con-tinue for long without catastrophic socialconsequences.

CRISIS NDREACrIONIt is in this contextthatsome of theattacks

on science and 'western' knowledge arebeing mounted. Hoodbhoy makes the co-gent observation that a majority of Mus-lims, and certainly a majorityof Muslimleaders, are pragmatists. Yet, they haveapparently ost the initiative to those hold-ing more fundamentalistpositions. At themost basic level, one mightsee this as asignof thefailure of pragmatism o solve thereal.economic and social crisis of the Muslimcountries today. It is not enough to urgepragmatists,as Hoodbhoy does, to "snatchback control of civil society.' "'" It is not asimple matterof fundamentalists eeking torevive a bygone era and pragmatistsrepine-

senting the future.Indeed, one might saythat the pragmatistsrepresent the failedimmediatepastand hat hefundamentalistshave successfully occupiedhigh groundbybeing able to portray themselves as thefuture of the Muslim world. And this iswherethestrugglehas to befought: to showthat fundamentalismand all varieties ofculturalist and political Islamism are, likeothervariants freligiously-based ulturalistarguments,simply illusory; that their sci-ence, economics, and the general knowl-edge of theworldhave no theoreticalcoher-ence or practicalapplicability;105hat theyrepresent"aclosingof mindsanda failure orecognise the enormity of the crisis thatenvelops theMuslim world today' ;106 thatfor all theirrhetoric he proponentsof fun-damentalist deology arefully tied into theworkings of capitalism, but one which isexceptionallybackward ndusescrude, eu-dal methodsof control.Fundamentalists all for a jihad againstsecularism,rationalism,capitalismandso-cialism. Asarticulated yMaryam ameelah,"modernist deology" is "manworslhip";modern science is "nakedmaterialismandarrogance".Asopposed oconstantprogressandchange, Islam values the "permanent,immutable, transcendental, divinely re-vealed moral, theological, spiritual valuesof the Quran and Sunnah".107 A high levelSaudidelegationto a conference n Kuwaitin 1983 declared that science led tomu'tazilite tendencies.108What does thisrhetoricreally mean?Hoodbhoy s correctto statethattheimplicit fear is of the "pro-fane attitudes that science would encour-age", among otherthings challenging theauthority f "antiquatedheocraciesordic-tatorialregimes' 109 The factis thatsciencecannot do away with questioning estab-lished theories and that means "conflictwith traditionalmodes of thought".'" 'Tneadvanced capitalist countries haveinstitutionalisedcience and hereby trippedit of its revolutionarypotential.But, in theMuslim countries, it is apparentthat thequestions modernscience poses are anath-ema to defendersof religiousorthodoxy.InMuslimuniversities,Hoodbhoy tates,Ptole-maic geometry is still taught; a modernsystem is available but presented as a"hypothesis". In 1982, Sheikh Abdul IbnBaz of SaudiArabia,winner of the Serviceto Islam King Faisal Award, authored abook whose title literally translatedintoEnglishreads,'Motionof the SunandMoonandStationarityof the Earth'."'There areapparentlystill laws in Muslim countriesagainsttheteachingof Darwin'stheoryandevolutionarybiology.In1990, theSudanesegovernmentarrestedan eminent biologist,FaroukMohammed brahimof theUniver-sity of Khartoum,or teachinghis studentsDarwin's theory.While in prison, he waswhipped,kickedandbeaten n thepresenceof a member of the regime's revolutionarycouncil. This treatment licited thefollow-

ing protest from Zaki Badawi, principalofthe Muslim College in London:"They [theSudanesegovernment]musthavegonemad....They might justifiably arrestpeople fortheir political, but not for their scientific,views. "112What anutterlyamazing statement!A K Brohi, former rector of Islamic Uni-versity in Islamabad,declared that he hadlittle sympathy for the "dubious contribu-tion of contemporary thought that is re-flected in sciences like plhysicsandchemis-try". Ile found that university textbooks"bear on their pages the indelible imprintof... outstanding irreligious thinkers likeDarwin, Freud, Karl Marx", and that thetheory of relativity, seen "from an Islamicpoint of view," is false."'3MA Kazi, formeradviser to thepresidenitonicience andtech-nology, stated that acceptable scientifictheory had to be sanctioned by additionalprooffrom theQuranandSunnah.It shouldcome as no surprise that the call for anIslamic science curriculum has failed toyield riesults.Theories thathavecome underferocious assaulthave beensimply droppedfrom the curriculum.HIoodbhoynotes thatrote learning,evenin science subjects, is the norm n Pakistan.Memorisationof facts, venerationof books,authoritarianmethods of communication ntheclassroom, theconcept of knowledge as"something to be acquiredrather han dis-covered", all reflect the "culture of thesociety"' Ziaul-Haq'sIslamisationpoliciesmade matters much worse.'14 Prayers, thereading of the Quran, extra marks formemorising the Quran, use of religiouscriteria in selecting teachers, revision ofconventional subjects to emphasise Is-lamic values have all become part of thenew education for the less fortunate. In1987 and 1988, at the Quaid-e-Azam Uni-versity, potential instructors in the sci-ences were asked the following questions:(1) Whatarethenames of theholyProphet'swives? (2) Recite theprayersDua-e-Qunoot;(3) When was the Pakistan resolutionadopted? (4) What is the differencebetween the different azans? (5) Whatdoes your [the candidate's] name mean?(6) Give the various names of god."'Violence is endemic in the universities,the Kalashnikovculturebeing more appar-ent than theintellectualculture.Hoodbhoy,in fact,relates the two; lackingall meansofcreativeexpression, "youth turn oviolenceto settle their differences'' ."l Of course, inall Muslimcountries,andcertainly n Paki-stan,therich do not have to putupwith thisnonsense. Even at the height of Zia'sislamisationof education,therewasahands-off attitude o the private educational nsti-tutionswhele therulingclass studies.Thus,KarachiGrammarSchool, Aitchison Col-lege, Burn Hall and others continued toprovidea high-qualityseculareducation tothe sons and daughters of the wealthy."-7One wonders if any of the proponentsofIslamist deologywoulddare ouchtheprivi-

Economic and Political Weekly February26, 1994


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leges of the rich, including their access towesternknowledge', or if theydid,whetherthe new regime would not be some formofclerical fascism?Of the crisis of the Muslim world, Sadikal-Azm writes, "A protracted risis obtainswhen the old is dying while the new isunable to be born.'"'18 If by new he meanssomething beyondcapitalism, thenyes, thenew is indeed unableto bornanywhereandthat s acrisis forus all.But, if he is referringinsteadto western-style bourgeois democ-racyandwestern-stylecapitalism,then onemight arguethatthe present regimes in theMuslim world and the proponentsof fun-damentalism both prefer the present im-passe. For the propertied elites in manyMuslim countries, any concession to bour-geois democracy would meanempoweringthe masses, perhaps only to a small degreebutsufficient to upset the statusquo. Capi-talist developmentmightalsobring he dan-gers of an organised proletariat. As theruling classes can now buy the technologythey need-particularly to increase thestate' s capacity for surveillance andpunishment-without under ,oing thearduousprocessofinternal transformation,perhapsthis is desirable from theirpointofview. The managementof a crisis throughforce, brainwashing,andfake solutions hasbecome an integralpartof political life inmany countries.V'e might be overstatingthe conflcit be-tween thepragmatistsand thefundamental-ists. Perhaps they need each other; theycertainly serve each other's purposes verywell. Te 'symbiotic antagonism' betweenthe two is, I believe, at the root of theprotracted risis.I"9 hecrisis itself is firmlyrooted n the global structureof capitalism.

VConsiderations on Religionand Science

Hoodbhoy sees no essential conflict inbeing a scientist and a Muslim; he wouldlike a pragmaticand civilised resolutionofthe currentembattledsituation between thetwo. Science is a secular pursuit, "reasonorganised for understandingthe materialuniverse".'20 The validation of scientifictruthsdoes notrely on anyauthorityoutsideof science itself; observation,experimenta-tion andlogic are its sole guides. Religion,ontheotherhand, s "areasonedandreason-able abdication of reason with regard toquestionsthat ie outside thecompetenceofscience: 121 These are the great metaphysi-cal questions (What is the purpose of life?Why does the universe exist?) that haveexercised philosophers since the time ofPlato. What is needed, in his view, is aframework or thoughtandactionbased onscience andreasonbut"inharmonywith theinheritedcultureof theMuslimpeoplesI .122Thus, he rejects the totalising claims ofIslamic fundamentalism to provide an

overarching piritualumbrella,a system ofknowledge, and thepractical nstruments fgovernment.Orthodoxy'sprescriptions orasociety are "an invitation ocatastrophe","a blind backtracking into the past' '3 Inother words,Hoodbhoywould like to com-bine Enlightenment-styleanti-clericalismwith an aestheticised faith, anda simulta-neouscommitment o thegoalsof capitalistmodernisation. s itpossible to arriveatthis'civilised' resolution n thepresenthistoriccircumstances?Religionhashistoricallyexisted simulta-neouslyatseveral evels:metaphysicalalien-ation, the source of which Amin considersto be the anguishhumanbeings experienceconfrontedwith theirown inevitable disso-lution; social fonn, a 'functional adjunctthatrationalised,justified, nd'naturalised'thenaked xploitation n thetributarymodesof production;'24 nd, political alienation(tocoin a phrase), he attributiono a body ofauthoritative revealed' texts a uniqueeffi-cacy to adjudicateall human affairs. Byassociation with an originalrevelation,theauthoritative authoritarian?)nterpreters fthe religious texts can claim far greaterpower thananysecularconstitution magin-able.There s nopotential or democracy nthisreligiousconstitutionof thestate.Hencethe need to invent the notion that peopleunder slam(orsome otherreligion)havenodemocraticaspirationsandwillingly alien-ate theirpolitical/socialresponsibility o theclerical state.Christianityand Islam played a crucialrole in the 'cultural onstitution'of thegreatMediterranean rc of the tributary ystemsof socio-economicreproduction.Theiruni-versalist disposition allowed them to tran-scend ethnic and tribal cleavages to the"advantageof theimperialstate" and theirconservative deology respectedsocial hier-archies(while positingan idealcommunityof the faithful).125The transcendence oftribalreligioncould takeone of two forms:inclusion/synthesis,wherebydifferent ribaltotemsymbols are takenover into a centralpantheon (as in Mediterranean aganism),orajealousmonotheism hatsmashespaganidolatry.126While at firstrepresenting pre-cocious development of the ideologicalsphere, religious universalism could also,andfrequentlydid, unleashtremendouspo-litical energyleadingto the constructionofimperial ormations, nduecourse consum-mating the marriage of religion and thestate. Moments of confrontationcould al-ways reintensify the connection: the Cru-sades, as one historian comments, werefoughtoverissues of 'feudal' accumulationbut were couched in religious terms.Rivalreligious attachmentsprovidedan "impor-tantand variablestimulant"but they were"seldomaprimecauseordominantmotive'127It took a unique concatenation ofcircumstances-the development of capi-talist production n Europe-finally to be-gin the process of snapping heintegral ink

betweenreligion andpolitics. The firststepalong the way was, paradoxically,the Ref-ormation.Al-Azm is surely righttosay that,"as Europedecatholicised,modernised,andlaicised, it was blessed with a plethoraof(religious' movements which madetheveryfulfilment of that eminently secular bour-geois historical project look like a move-ment towardsgod and a workingout of hissupreme will instead of the exact oppo-site"' 128 Te Enlightenment representedthe maturationof a long process, as capi-talist society finally burst through theintegument of the remnants of the feudalideology. TheEnlightenmentorganised ndinstitutionalised the critique of religiousthoughtso that "religious authoritiesweremore andmoremarginalised nregard otheoperations of power, authorityand legiti-macy... This [was] the raw stuff of demo-craticpractices... ' 129 Once the link betweenorganised religion and politics was broken,the power of religion gradually declined,both in its political and spiritual aspects.Religion has by no means disappearedinEurope;it is merely in a permanentreces-sion, maintained by the state either as ajunior partnern thebureaucracy theUnitedKingdom, Germany) or as a spectacle fortourists (France, Italy). For the few truebelievers, the 5 per cent of the populationthat attendschurch,it is a quiethaven fromthe hurly-burlyof industrial life, and per-haps a source of answers to the great ques-tions of life and death.The Catholicchurch understandspoliticsverywell. When tgot involved withhasten-ing the downfall of communism in Poland,or when the Pope on his visits to LatinAmericaandAfrica advocatessocialjusticefor thepoor,it is with a view not to deal withmetaphysical alienation orhigh theologicalmattersbutto position the churchin globalpolitics. The Pope is aware of the link be-tweenpoverty, despairandreligious belief.And, so for that matter, are the Islamicfundamentalists.For them, ironically, thematerial conditions aremuch morepromis-ing. In theheartlandsof Islam,more than nthe heartlandsof Christianity, there is bothmass poverty and mass illiteracy, impo-tenceandrage,the rawmaterialsof politicalreligion. Up to a point, the very unevengeography of development on the worldscale created heconditions thatdragged heMuslim world,once so proudandindepen-dent,outof its 'frozenmedievalism'into theraggedperipheries f globalcapitalism.Oncethere, a combination of imperialism andclass snobbery has served to reinforce theattachmentof the petit-bourgeois and thepoor to Islam. The poor saw in Islam "thatwhich distinguishedthem from the foreignoppressorand heeuropeansedupper trata,,disloyal in deed or in spirit". The Muslimclergy, '"largely poor and treatedwithoutrespect by the occupying power, faithful tothevalues of the society they lived in, weretheir own people' l30 They provided the

Economic anid Political Weekly February 26, 1994 497


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people withleadershipand spoketo them intheir own languagc. Colonialism and classdivisions set thestage forapopulistalliancethat came to fruition with the failureof themodernising projects, the massive corrup-tion of the post-colonial elites, and neo-imperialism.It is notsurprising hat"in thefight againstinjustice anddomination, t is theorthodoxyalonewhichhasbeen successful in translat-ingpopularresentmentsntopoliticalgains."Nor should it be surprising hat theIslamicmodernist "has been effectively banishedfrom the scene" .131But, is it therefore rue oassert, with the likes of Amar Ouzegaine,thatthe masses can only be mobilised in tthenameof Islam, thatthey arenot susceptibletobeing mobilised behindother deologies?If fact, given an opportunity the poor doshow great enthusiasm for secularprogrammesof reform.132 fter all, for allits problems, thePakistanPeople's Party nZulfikarAli Bhutto's time enjoyed unprec-edentedpopularitybehind a perfectly secu-lar slogan ("Roti, Kapdaaur Makan" orF-ood,Clothing and Shelter). l'o the extentthat secular slogans and modernisingprograntimesare successful in improvingthe lot of the poor, they weaken the holdofreligiousfundamentalists.And to theextentthatthe link betweenorganisedreligionandpolitics is broken,society itself will move ina secular direction.The religious fundamentalists,however,lhavea keen grasp of these integral links.That is why they battle so hard to gaincontrol of education and statepower itself.Anti-state Islamist forces in Algeria andEgypt aspire to state power either througlthe ballot box or a coup d'etat. In Pakistan,theJamaat-i-Islami,withvery littlepopularsupport, gained significant access to thepolicy-making organs of the state via astrategic alliance with the military. Thecurrent mpassekeeps people mobilised andimpotentatthe same time.Thleres plentytoenrage and mobilise the masses. Yet, thesheer incapacity of the Islamist politicalforces to come to grips with the realitiesofglobal capitalismmeans that they can onlypoint to the people illusory targets. This isthe nature of the crisis, and recourse to agentler,more contemplativeIslam will notresolve it.

ISLAM NDSCIENCE:INEVITABLEONTRADICnONSHoodbhoynevercomes to terms with thepotentialof modern science for undermin-ing the religious world view. This is oddbecause he cites theexampleof IsaacNew-ton who, though deeply troubled by theconflict between scientif-icworkand Chris-tian dogma, plunged ahead with the re-search that ultimately "set into motion atidal wave of scientific growth that sweptawaymuch of thepower of thechurch'.3One does not have to accept such anapoca-lyptic visiohl.Many otherthings were hap-

peniingto sweep away the power of thechurch.But conservatives are acutelycon-scious thatmodern cientists,whatever heirpersonalbeliefs, cannotprevent heirscien-tificwork"fromemptying heIslamic ntel-lectual universe of its content unless, ofcourse, this science is shornaway from itssecularandhumanisticmatrixwhere it hasbeen placed since the Renaissance","34 thatis, unless it is brought nto line with pre-scriptionsof 'Islamic science'. floodbhoy,of course, emphatically rejects any suchmerger of Islam and science. Indeed, hedisplays the ambiguityand uncertaintyofMuslim modernisers and pragmatists to-wardsthecontradictionsbetween the foun-dationsof organisedreligionand the scien-tific attitudesof query and scepticism. Heseems to think that personal faith can bereconciled with scientific work. Individu-ally thatmight be possible, but what hap-pens in asociety of believers? Is it possibleto conceive such asociety without apower-fullyorganised eligion?And snotorganisedreligion, in Muslim countries at least, thesite of opposition to scientific work,espe-cially wheretheleadersalso,aspire opoliti-cal power?If scientists in thewest canworkin an environment free from the interven-tions of religious authority,it is becausegenerationsof political struggles have es-tablishedcertainbasic freedoms.Acompre-hensive political struggle awaits the Mus-lim world.I imaginethebattle inesbetweenreligion and science will be clearly drawn.

SCIENCENDHUMAN MANCIPATIONHoodbhoy s nottaken nby thecurrentlyfashionablecritiquesof modernisation,andstates that ''modernisation is notwesternisation''.The crux of the modernapproach o life is notlhing utanorientationto the present and future, ratherthan thepast; an openness to fresh ideas and newexperiences; "acceptance of reason andcalculability rather hanfate"; the posses-sion of "a large nventoryof knowledgeandfacts",relianceonplanning ndorganisation;andlast, but not least, an "ability to relatecause to effect, to resolve conflict withoutviolence". ThegreatArab scientistsof thepast insisted on a rationalcreed, and hadthereby sown the "seeds of the modernapproacholife"M lieemphasises he needfor a "rational,egalitarian,modernsystemof education",thatwillacquaintpeoplewiththe history of science and the scientificmethod, and give them the capacity for"critical hought",employingreasonratlherthanreligious dogma."3At one level, Hoodbhoystrikes out at theright-wingLudditesof thepresentdaywhofrom theircomfortablebourgeoispositionexcoriate the evils of industrialismand ad-vocate a return o pre-industrialways. As acritic pointed out long ago, intellectualsaffect a kind of "aesthleticrevulsion" toindustrial society, a desire to escape to alatter-dayWalden,but withoutanyhistori-

cal consciousness of whatrural ife was likein theepoch before theindustrialrevolutionandwhy those "with a choice have walkedoff the land and into factor es as fast as thelattercouldtake them" "' Thisyearning oran imagined ruralpast is, as Willis Truittobserves, "at best a daydream,at worst animmoralLuddite aintasy' I."At anotherlevel, Hoodbloy is perfectlyaware of the problems of late industrialsociety as environmenital ollution, milita-rism, andeven the threatof extinction con-frontus. lIe attributes he "emotional voidin technological culture, the unbridledpur-suit of weapons of destruction,the callousdestruction of the environment..., and theimbalances in the economic and socialprogressof humanity" to a linear vision ofprogress hat "consecrates andelevates sci-ence to thelevel of an ethic andamorality",Calling this a delusion that must be "op-posed as vigorously as rationality must befought for", Hoodbhoyinsists that thepri-marystruggle n the'east' is thestruggleforrationality (that is, the scientific outlook),while in the 'west' it is over the "skewedoutlook on science' '.13 Structures ofdomination-those that permit either oneclass or one country to oppressanother-must be "dismantled". In manycountries,while tyraninicalmilitary-bureau-craticelites help themselves totheresourcesof thesociety, thepeopleareprevented rommaking any progress; "true progress to-wardsmodernity requires mass participa-tion in planning and execution".140 Thechallenge ahead for all of us is to findways to enriclh human life, uplift humandignity, liberatethe creativespirit,andvin-dicate freedom. As an idealist, Hoodbhoyportrays the struggle as one between theforces of reason and unreason, betweenthose "who seek more light and those whoareafraidof it' 141In the main, I endorse Iloodbhoy's at-tempt to see science as an integral part ofanyemancipatoryproject. I agreewith himthatnativism andculturalism have no placein scientific research.Yet, I am notentirelysure I agree with the sharp distinction bewishestomakebetween cience,that"knowsnothingofjustice, beautyorfeeling", and tsmalignanttechnological uses by vested in-terests. Like many scientists, he is con-cerned that the subordinationof science toany set of values from the outside wouldresult merely in the suppression of freescientific inquiry. 42It is truethatthelibera-tion of science fromreligion andmetaphys-ics (a process Truitt refers to somewhatproblematically s the "dehumanisationinddesocialisation" of science) that began inthe16thcenturycreated henecessary,if notsufficient,conditions forthe "possibilityofplenitude that exists today' ' . 43 But is it alsonotthe casethat,witlh heinstitutionalisationof science undercapitalism, the "myth ofvalue-freescience" or tihe mmunity of thescientist "frommoral culpability" is losing



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some of its force? The integral connectionbetween scitntific research and politicaland economic institutions, including themilitary-industrial omplex, and the abbre-viationof the time lag betweenresearchandits application n technology, blur thesharpdistinctionbetween science and ts applica-tions.The notionof value-independent ci-ence is bound to be queriedwhen the tech-nology thatgives content-to he theorycon-frontsus as an alien, frequentlydestructive,force.1"Arguably, oo,reasonmaynotbeasneutral an instrument of progress aslloodbhoy portraysit ("Reason may be asmall force but it is constant and worksalways in one direction"). Wartofskyad-vances the thesis that"science, asliberatingreason, can become transformed nto itsopposite,repressivereason"145Reason,usedsimply as "the instrumentality f conflict-ing wills becomes a threat", bound to itsrepressive uses, developing more andmoreinto"ameansofpowerandexploitation'*146When the structure f scientific productionis totallyimbricated ntocapitalism,it par-takes of some of its characteristics: the"limited rationalityof science as no morethan an instrument of dominion and ex-ploitation by one class or nation overanother laws rationality tself... andtrans-forms even its liberating features into re-pressive ones' .147 Even as 'pure method',science-severed from any intrinsic rela-tions with "nature,naturalprocesses, man,andsociety" -is atthecall of any project,the "most horrendous and feared contin-gencies can be mathematised and ab-stracted into innocuous statistics", ren-deringscience "an ideology in the highestdegree' 148

I shouldmake it clear that I am emphati-cally opposed to any kind of romanticretreat into mysticism, irrationalism, pi-etistic moralityor Luddism.Rather,I thinkit is necessary to locate science withinsome of the contradictions of capitalism,in order to seek a way out of the currentglobal impasse. The ambiguity of sciencelies in this, that itpartakesof the alienatednature of labour under capitalism but isalso an instrument for the more refinedand intensive exploitation of labour. Theproduct of scientific labour, no less sothan any other kind of labour, confrontsthe producer as an alien force. As Marxdescribes this in the Economlicand Phlilo-sophical Manuscripts:

The alienation of the worker in his productmeans not only that the labour becomes anobject, an external existence, but that it ex-ists outside him, independently, as some-thing alien to him, and that it becomes apower of its own confronting him; it meansthat the life which he has conferred on theobject confronts him as something hostileand alien.'49As science has become preoccupied or themostpartwi h technically xploitableknowl-edge, the labour of tile scientist, too, is

pulled into the vortex of this alienation.l"But, it is precisely the technically exploit-able knowledge thatscience has providedindustry,with increasingintensityascapi-talism hasmatured,that has enabled capi-tal to discipline labourand remain a flex-ible andadaptablemode of production."5'Modern science, that originated in a cre-ative symbiosis with the practical prob-lems confrontingworkingpeople, has overtime turned into an instrument of theiroppression.That is a structural mpasse. Medievalscience, like thatof the great Arab hereticsHoodbhoy cites, could actually be morepurist; it had no immediate application.Modernscience is thoroughly mplicated nthe productsgeneratedby its own research.These products take the form of the vastmultiplicationof commodities,whose pro-duction s mediatedthrough he logic of thecompetitivepursuitof profit. As we arenowaware,this structure f productionhascre-atedproblems,notmerelyof the destructiveappropriationfnature utalsoofaperduringand gross inequality in the distributionofthe very benefits of science and industryacross classes and nations. Inthe words ofJ D Bernal:

...the frustrationof science is a very bitterthing. It shows itself as disease, enforcedstupidity, misery, thankless toil, and prema-ture death for the great majority, and ananxious, grasping and futile life for the re-mainder. Science can change all this, butonly science workingwiththosesocialforceswhich understand its functions and whichmarch to the same ends.'52Thepotential for science toplay this trans-formative role certainly exists. I agreewith Marx that as "natural science hasinvaded andtransformedhuman ifeprac-tically through he medium of industry' , ithascreated hepossibilityof "humaneman-cipation, however directly and much ithad to consummate dehumanisation' .Such aprojectfor humanemancipation is,in my opinion, inconceivable unless anduntil the whole structure of commodityproductionthat sustainsscience todayandthat it so crucially sustains give-sway. Atminimum, it will take a serious commit-ment to go beyondwhatSamir Amin callsthe "stunteduniversalism" of market de-ology to a more genuine universalism, inwhich we shall go "from bourgeois de-mocracy todemocracyin politics and eco-nomics", "equalityofrights osocialequality", "polarisation to theconfraternityofthe world's people" .The slogan of theFrench revolution-Liberty, Equality,Fraternity-has not exhausted its full po-tcntial. 154

Notes[I wish to thankSuchetaMazumdar nd EleanorStein for comments on an earlier draft of thispaper. alone am responsible or errors f fact andinterpretation.]

1 Pervez Hoodbhoy,IslamandScience, Reli-gious Orthodoxy nd the BattleforRational-ity, Zed Books, London, 1991, p 134.2 Hoodbhoy, Islamand Science, p ix.3 Ibid, p 20.4 Ibid, p 145.5 Ibid, p 146. Karl Popper enunciated theprinciple of falsifiability in The Logic ofScientific Discovery, Hutchinson, London,1968.6 Hoodbhoy, Islamand Science, p 149.7 Ibid,p 78.8 Ibid, pp 67-68.9 Ibid,pp 65-66.10 G Sarton, Introduction to the History ofScience, Baltimore, 1927, Vol I,p 5, quotedGustave E von Grunebaum,MedievalIslam,Chicago University Press, Chicago; 1953,p 333.11 Hoodbhoy, Islam and Science, pp 70-72.12 This is Ziauddin Sardar's position, but itmightbe takenas fairly representative f thefundamentalistmind-set. Ibid, p 75.13 Excerpts from the Conference Report citedin Hoodbhoy,Islamand Science, p 83.14 SusanthaGoonatilake,AbortedDiscovery-Science and Creativity n the Third World,Zed Books, London, 1984.15 Ibid.16 Vandana Shiva, Staying Alive, Kali forWomen, New Delhi, 1988. MeeraNandahassubjected this book to a superb critique in'Is Moderrn cience a Western, PatriarchalMyth?: A Critique of the Populist Or-thodoxy',SouthAsia Bulletin,Vol XI, Nos 1and 2, 1991.17 I use the phrase 'blood and soil' advisedly.SumitSarkar asrecentlypointedoutthatthecombinationof aggressive indigenism andrejectionof Enlightenmentrationalism outcourt is, in certain of its manifestations,barely distinguishable from fascism. SeeS

science,capitalism and islam

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