This reflection focuses on the Introduction, Chapter 3, and Epilogue of Crisis of Global Modernity[1], in which Duara broadly discusses Asian social and cultural responses to the unsustainability of global modernity, which according to Duara, is a consequence of the neglect of the historical aspect of modernity. Duara identifies three global historical changes that have characterized the present moments: “the rise of non-Western powers; the loss of authoritative sources of transcendence; and the looming crisis of planetary sustainability”[2]. Duara believes that these changes require us to revisit Max Weber’s theory of historical sociology which is based on the premise that knowledge became universally significant because it came from the West. Weber posited that modern Western civilization was achieved through rationalization: world mastery by prediction, through the process of ‘disenchantment’ whereby science and technological knowledge gradually replaced religious and irrational knowledge. Duara argues that even this process itself developed by “Protestantism” which emphasizes “certain forms of religious knowledge, ethics and disciplines”[3]. This is to counter the singular view that only the West has influenced modernity.
Duara argues in Chapter three: “The historical logics of global modernity” that “the philosophical and sociological conditions of rational approaches to modernity”[4] alone have failed in helping us to gain a comprehensive view of the present situation; analysts of modernity from Hegel have only succeeded in leading us to historical costs, and also generated counter opinions, what Ulrich Beck describes as ‘reflexive’ or ‘second’ modernity in reference to the modernity of advanced capitalist societies and it is by “exploring the global and historical underside of modernity”[5] that we can comprehensively understand it. Also, it is “an alternative set of dynamic concepts that can lead us to recovering the neglected source of historical changes that are critical to achieving a sustainable modernity”[6]. The core theme of the chapter is the concept of transcendence, which, in the author’s view, works to direct and channel the ceaseless circulatory networks that transform society. Duara believes that it is not merely the accelerating transformations of capitalism that distinguish modernity from such earlier modes as transcendence, but also the disenchanted cosmology of linear time, that is, historical changes. Duara’s proposition is a “sustainable modernity” necessary to “restore the balance between humans and the world”[7]. The overall point is that scholars must consider the diverse, broader dynamics of modernity, including history, and not limit it to Western ontological views.
In “Reprise and Epilogue: of reason and hope,” discussing the impact of modernity on planetary crisis, Duara emphasizes that “the model of modernity and modernization that is based on conquest of nature and driven by increasing production is no longer sustainable”[8]. Further, it is a “crisis that cannot be adequately addressed by the existing system of competing nation-states”[9]. As Duara argues in earlier chapters of the book for a comprehensive approach to understanding modernity, here also, he argues that addressing planetary crisis requires a combination of modern approaches with historically inspired methods; political and economic approaches must also consider religious and cultural factors.
I find Duara’s position about the concept of modernity important; there is a need to reconsider the history of modernity and the approach to the study of modernization. The arguments in this book counter the one-sided views of Western scholars about concepts such as religion, civilization, modernization, and more. Contrary to the tendency of the West to place itself ahead of other parts of the world in terms of modern civilization, history has revealed that Africa and Asia have also significantly contributed in this regard. This underscores the importance of history, without which there is little understanding of our present, and no direction to our future; it presents us with a learning opportunity, and we should embrace it in every sphere of human endeavor.
[1] Duara, Prasenjit. The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future. Cambridge University Press, 2015. pp. 1-17; 91-118; 279-288.
[2] Duara, 2015. p. 1.
[3] Duara, 2015. p. 1.
[4] Duara, 2015. p. 91.
[5] Duara, 2015. p. 91.
[6] Duara, 2015. p. 91.
[7] Duara, 2015. p. 118.
