Indians: Portrait Of A People

by Sudhir Kakar

In this bold, illuminating and superbly readable study, India’s foremost psychoanalyst and cultural commentator Sudhir Kakar and anthropologist Katharina Kakar investigate the nature of ‘Indian-ness’. What makes an Indian recognizably so to the rest of the world, and, more importantly, to his or her fellow Indians? For, as the authors point out, despite ethnic differences that are characteristic more of past empires than modern nation states, there is an underlying unity in the great diversity of India that needs to be recognized. Looking at what constitutes a common Indian identity, the authors examine in detail the predominance of family, community and caste in our everyday lives, our attitudes to sex and marriage, our prejudices, our ideas of the other (explored in a brilliant chapter on Hindu-Muslim conflict), and our understanding of health, right and wrong, and death. In the final chapter, they provide fascinating insights into the Indian mind, shaped largely by the culture’s dominant, Hindu world view. Drawing upon three decades of original research and sources as varied as the Mahabharata, the Kamasutra, the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, Bollywood movies and popular folklore, Sudhir and Katharina Kakar have produced a rich and revealing portrait of the Indian people.

Genres: India, Nonfiction, Psychology, History, Anthropology, Cultural, Society

228 pages

First published April 17, 2009

About the author

Sudhir Kakar is a psychoanalyst and writer who lives in Goa, India.

Kakar took his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Gujarat University, his Master’s degree (Diplom-Kaufmann) in business economics from Mannheim in Germany and his doctorate in economics from Vienna before beginning his training in psychoanalysis at the Sigmund-Freud Institute in Frankfurt, Germany in 1971. Between 1966 and 1971, Sudhir Kakar was a Lecturer in General Education at Harvard University, Research Associate at Harvard Business School and Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.




After returning to India in 1975 , Dr. Kakar set up a practice as a psychoanalyst in Delhi where he was also the Head of Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology. He has been 40th Anniversary Senior Fellow at the Centre for Study of World Religions at Harvard (2001-02), a visiting professor at the universities of Chicago (1989-93), McGill (1976-77), Melbourne (1981), Hawaii (1998) and Vienna (1974-75), INSEAD, France (1994-2013). He has been a Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute of Advanced Study), Berlin, Centre for Advanced Study of Humanities, University of Cologne and is Honorary Professor, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam.
A leading figure in the fields of cultural psychology and the psychology of religion, as well as a novelist, Dr. Kakar’s person and work have been profiled in The New York Times, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Neue Zuricher Zeitung, Die Zeit and Le Nouvel Observateur, which listed him as one of the world's 25 major thinkers while the German weekly Die Zeit portrayed Sudhir Kakar as one of the 21 important thinkers for the 21st century. Dr. Kakar's many honors include the Kardiner Award of Columbia University, Boyer Prize for Psychological Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association, Germany ’s Goethe Medal, Rockefeller Residency, McArthur Fellowship Bhabha, Nehru and ICSSR National Fellowships and Distinguished Service Award of Indo-American Psychiatric Association. He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, the Board of Sigmund Freud Archives in the Library of Congress, Washington and the Academie Universelle des Culture, France. In February 2012, he was conferred the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the country's highest civilian order.

Sudhir Kakar’s twenty books of non-fiction and six of fiction, include The Inner World (now in its 16th printing since its first publication in 1978), Shamans, Mystics and Doctors , (with J.M. Ross ) Tales of Love, Sex and Danger,Intimate Relations, The Analyst and the Mystic, The Colors of Violence,Culture and Psyche, (with K.Kakar) The Indians: Portrait of a People, (with Wendy Doniger), a new translation of the Kamasutra for Oxford world Classics, Mad and Divine: Spirit and Psyche in the Modern world and Young Tagore: The makings of a genius. His fifth novel, The Devil Take Love will be published by Penguin-Viking in August 2015.


Sudhir with Katharina Poggendorf Kakar
Sudhir Kakar is married to Katharina, a writer and a scholar of comparative religions and artist. He has two children, a son Rahul who is in financial services, and a daughter Shveta, a lawyer, both in New York.

Reviews

[Rajat Ubhaykar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A revealing psychoanalysis of the archetypical Indian (or Hindu) personality, in as much as it is possible to generalize a diverse country of over a billion inhabitants. The author draws from a variety of sources, including ancient texts and modern anthropological studies, to formulate the broad contours of the Hindu character. He writes about various aspects of the Hindu character: relationships with superiors and subordinates, the inner experience of caste, the role of women in society, conflicted historical notions about sexuality, conceptualization of the “other” i.e. Muslims and vice versa, the peculiar religious and spiritual worldview, and the Hindu view of the body that encompasses allopathy, homeopathy and Ayurveda. It’s an interesting, if at times abstruse, book that offers recognizable insights into the way we think [though Pavan Varma’s Being Indian is much more readable].

[Raghu Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed reading Sudhir Kakar's insight into the Indian psyche and personality from a Freudian perspective. It has often given me a better understanding of myself, my fellow-countrymen and Indian history. This book is one more step in that process.

In this book, Sudhir and Katharina Kakar investigate the nature of the Indian identity - what is 'Indian-ness if there is one? At the outset, the question arises as to whether one can even broach the subject of 'Indian-ness'. Aren't we a nation of a billion-plus people who are Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians and Zorastrians and so on, speaking fifteen different languages? Daunting as the task may be, the authors say that from ancient times, European, Chinese and Arab travellers have identified common features among Indians, showing an underlying unity in the great diversity. It is the components of this unity that the authors seek to explore in this book.

According to the authors, the components of this unity exist in many dimensions of our everyday life. They are exhibited in our attitudes to our families, in our notions of hierarchy as experienced through the caste system, in our attitudes to gender-related issues, marriage etc, in our views on sex, in our concept of health, healing and Death, in our prejudices towards the Other (eg, Hindus and Muslims) and in our approach to material and spiritual life. In each one of these aspects, the authors throw valuable observations and insights based on our mythology, history and contemporary practice.
I found the following observations of great interest and gave me cause to ponder further:

1.The focus on the family as the exclusive source of satisfaction of all one's needs reflects a lack of faith in almost every other institution of society. The result of this is often extreme divisiveness, a lack of commitment to anyone or anything outside one's immediate family...
2. Early experiences in an extended joint family gives the child an early knowledge of when to retreat, when to cajole and when to be stubborn in order to get what he wants. This makes an Indian a formidable negotiator in later business dealings.
3.Authority relations in the Indian family provide a template for the functioning of most modern Indian business, educational, political and scientific organizations.

On the Indian attitude to sexuality, the authors say that today's India is a sexual wasteland, far from the liberal images created by our ancient texts like Kamasutra and Ananda Ranga. It is fashionable for middle-class Indians to argue that the turn towards the Puritanism of today is the result of extended rule by Central Asian Muslims and the British with Victorian values. The authors do not buy this theory. They say that India has had a long tradition of asceticism and celibacy alongside sexual experimentation and that we must seek the causes of India as a 'sexual wasteland' that it is today in our own ascetic traditions and their ascendancy.

On the seemingly perennial Hindu-Muslim conflict in India, the authors say that the conflict is actually not about religion - that is, it is not about matters of religious belief, dogmas, worship or adherence to different faiths and gods. Ordinary Indians experience the conflict differently at different times. In times of heightened conflict, for the Hindu, it is more about the long domination of the Muslim rulers in India and the purported humiliation under them. In times of relative peace, it is back to a secular vision which emphasizes common heritage and shared experiences of the past.

The final chapter 'Indian Mind' has interesting observations based on the Hindu world view of Moksha, Dharma and Karma. The analysis includes answers to perplexing questions like,
'How can a reputed astronomer working at a well-known institute of fundamental sciences, also be a practicing astrologer?' Or
How can the Western educated executive of a multi-national corporation consult horoscopes and holy men for family decisions?

I found the book very readable and providing considerable thought to the notion of the 'Indian identity'. I would recommend it for fellow-Indians to get a better knowledge of ourselves. Non-Indians too will benefit considerably if they are perplexed by the 'odd behavior' of their Indian friends, lovers, colleagues and bosses!

[Rick Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author goes to talk about, How Indian'ness is formed. I was curious to learn more about my own culture. The book talks about Hindoo majority's psyche but doesn't include other religions. This book would help someone from the outside to dive into common experiences of Hindu culture. The chapter on women, thoughts, and concerns from their perspective was valid.

On the group-thinking, every group/clan/caste might have prejudices, demarcation on the other group. My experience is limited, but it seems to be the case with rest of India. Therefore, people do not mix and stay within their limited clan/caste.

A Family is the trusted social institution, and therefore people get their identities from it.

A Well-educated Hindoo might still believe in Astrology, Yoga and the author's answer is because of the cultural world-view. I would recommend this book for anyone to get a glimpse of Hindoo's

Deus Vult,
Gottfried

[A. B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sensitive attempt to portray and pin down the defining traits of Indians as a whole, notwithstanding the astonishing diversity of the subcontinent. Much of it does not really apply to my personal context for instance, and does not apply in the 'Westernized enclaves' or culturally different regions like the North-East; but admittedly it would apply to the vast majority. Most of it is vastly repellent in its regressive traits to my own sensibilities.

A short summary of the basic tenets follows for later reference:
Indians are in general a very hierarchical people, where your rank matters a lot. Lower ranks tend to be fawning and servile, upper ranks tyrannical. The joint family is the prevalent mode of organization, especially in urbanizing contexts. Arranged marriages and chile marriage are common, and the family is frequently held to be the real domain of close relationships, with friendships held to be second-rate (very different from the West and the Westernized enclaves). There is much erotic potential between a woman and her brother in law, and the Western conceptions of 'cheating' do not really apply among brothers. This is a social practice with deep Vedic and Puranic roots, with the practice of niyoga and Draupadi's 5 husbands. An Indian is often expected to give special favours to his family or caste, and taboos around nepotism aren't really that strong. Even beyond caste, the children tend to follow their father's occupations. Indian institutions are thus agonizingly hierarchical, making working across status and powers level difficult. The model of the good leader is of the benevolent patriarch:

Although family relationships are hierarchical in structure, the mode of relationship is characterized by an almost maternal behaviour on the part of the superior, by filial respect and compliance on the part of the subordinate and by a mutual sense of highly personal attachment. We meet this kind of a superior-king, father, guru-in school textbooks where, in stories depicting authority situations, the ideal leader is a kind of benevolent patriarch who acts in a nurturing way so that his followers either anticipate his wishes or accept them without questioning.

There is a fascinating survey of cultural differences across the world which the author brings up:
South Asia has the greatest power distance, that is, the degree to which the culture's people are separated by power, authority and prestige. In other words, the difference in status between the chief executive and the office peon, the raja and the runk, is at its maximum III this region (the least is in Nordic Europe, that is, Scandinavia).....
The second dimension on which South Asia stands out in the international comparison is humane orientation, that is, the degree to which people are caring, altruistic, generous and killd. (The lowest here is Germanic Europe. Closely related to humane orientation, although as its opposite, is assertiveness, the degree to which the culture's people are assertive, confrontational and aggressive. Here, next only to Scandinavia, South Asia is the least assertive culture; Germanic Europe and Fastern Europe, in that order, are the most aggressive and confrontational.)...

South Asia also scores the highest on in-group collectivism, that is, the degree to which people feel loyalty toward such small groups as their family or circle of friends (Scandinavia, followed by Germanic Europe and North America, scores the least).




The author makes an interesting point as to how caste is predicated to faeces and the concept of dirt, similar to the apartheid regime and Nazi racial theory. Lower caste groups are held to be dirtier and more impure. There is friendship between members of a caste and much naked hatred for those below them, and servility to those above. The equation of untouchables with dirt has to do with their consumption of 'dirty' foods, as well as their on average, darker complexion. Whereas it is anti-ageing creams that are the rage in the West, it is fairness creams that matter in India. Wedding adverts put the matter very crudely, laying bare the Indian psyche. However, caste demands and the rules of commensality have been slowly getting phased out. However, the rule on marriages remains strict.

As the Marathi poet Govindraj puts it, Hindu society is made up of men 'who bow their heads to the kicks from above and who simultaneously give a kick below, never thinking to resist the one or refrain from the other.'

The discrimination against women, in a patriarchal society is deep. The girl child's birth is abhorred in most regressive sections. However, the damage to her self-esteem is repaired due to the community of women she finds herself in, or the care of an older woman relative. There is a lack of love or even an expectation of love in arranged marriages. Marriages are held to be an alliance of families, and the mother in law often interferes in her daughter in law's life; thus making marriage a living hell. The expectation is that the daughter would make her son forget her, and hence the young couple are not granted any privacy and public intimacy is discouraged. Arranged marriages do however mean that anyone and everyone can find a partner, and attractiveness is not that major a criterion.

The message transmitted to the girl is that it is she who is responsible for maintaining a distance from boys and men, thereby protecting her 'purity' which is also the honour (izzat) of the whole family. She is made to understand, undermining ,1 sense of female agency, that young women are weak and vulnerable, unable to resist determined male advances or the promptings of their own sexual nature.

Studies show that in the case of poor women in traditional India, the expectations from a potential husband are pretty basic: 'He should not drink or beat me, and support me and the family'.


The differences between ancient and modern India in sexual expressiveness could not be more different. Scenes of cavorting couples are painted openly on temples, and free love existed and was a cherished ideal. And not solely in the Kamasutra either. The Kamasutra attempted to rescue a realm of the erotic from both brute desire and repression. Unfortunately today, brute desire and repression predominate; while the erotic is dead except among enclaves of Western modernity. The terms by which women must conduct themselves in society (even forbidden from laughing openly) is regressive to the extreme.

Health and healing was the chapter I found to be most directly applicable to my urban context. Subconsciously, the precepts of hot foods and cold foods, and prescriptions for maintaing one's internal equilibrium have filtered through. The unity of body and mind, as opposed to Cartesianism; the recognition of unalterable personality traits, as opposed to a Lockean tabula rasa were interesting reflections. There is a good subsection on the beliefs of Ayurveda and the Hindu body's relation to the cosmos. Interesting too was the co-existence of many parallel and seemingly contradictory planes of thought in one mind- an ill man might visit allopaths, homeopaths, astrologers, vaidyas, hakims, and ojhas, without feeling uncomfortable with that bewildering diversity of beliefs.

The problem of Hindu nationalists whose ideals go against the ideals of tolerance and openness preached by the flexible Hindu, receptive to Western liberalism was an interesting discussion. The flexible Hindu is the biggest thorn in the Hindutvavadi's side. The roots of Hindu-Muslim conflict, as well as the interesting observation that Hindus can only define themselves against the other of the Muslim are well explored. The Hindu mind with its precepts of Moksha and Samsara are discussed, as is the importance of the community to the Indian. There is a fascinating point made, that despite the disrespect of women themselves, the feminine is widely revered, to the extent that Gandhi could say 'I am half a woman' and expect to find a sympathetic audience. This shows how ideals of masculinity differed in India from the West:

[The differences in Gender roles] becomes cIearer if one thinks of Greek or Roman sculpture which, we oelieve, has greatly influenced Western gender representations. Here, male gods are represented by hard muscled bodies and chests without any fat.One only needs to compare Greek and Roman statuary with the sculpted representations of Hindu gods or the Buddha, where the bodies are softer, suppler and, III their hint of breasts, nearer to the female form. Many Buddhist images of Avalokiteswara ('the Lord who listens to the cries of the world') are of a slender boyish figure in the traditional feminine posture-weight resting on the left hip, right knee forward; they are the Indian precursor of the sexually ambiguous Chinese goddess Kuan Yin. This minimizing of difference between male and female figures finds ts culmination in the ardhanarishvara-'half-man and half-woman'-form of the great god Shiva who is portrayed with the secondary sexual characteristics of both sexes.

A good book for realizing the nature of the Indian psyche, and a sad look at its degeneracy, repressiveness and degradation. There are some healthy aspects to the psyche too- with the good and the bad that is prevalent in every culture.

[Rahul Jangid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book is like looking into a mirror which betrays both the beautiful as well as the ugly facets of Indian psyche.

[Praveen Kishore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a wonderful book. Superbly insightful and surprisingly illuminating, it is written with verve and passion, and with all the authority and confidence. The chapters on Hierarchies, Sexuality, Caste, and on Health and Healing are excellent.
A must read for everyone, and especially for Indians.

[Siddharth Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a historical, sociological and, at times, psychological explanation of how and why society in India is the way it is. The issues it explains are so practical and ubiquitous, you might find yourself reading real quick through the 200 pages in order to know the authors’ insights (& might finish within just a day or two, or even maybe in one single stretch!). It does answer a lot of questions that you might have…

The two authors deal, objectively and in an unbiased manner, with the very everyday traits of our society and elaborate upon what makes it so, like

-the much-emphasized and deeply-valued family system, and several points of authorities in the joint families, and how these also translate into Indians’ obsession with ranks and hierarchies in their public and professional lives

-how Muslim invasions, ancient Hindu scriptures and the Victorian morality during the British colonial rule have resulted in the people shying away from having relaxed views on sex and sexuality in the land of Kamasutra

-how the Hindu-Muslim communal friction can be viewed as a result of the way Islam expanded and developed among Hindus, or simply as a Marxist phenomenon of economic struggle among different communities;

Then there are also discussions upon how nationalistic elements shape popular views towards the world, what influences people’s ideas on death and morality, food and health, marriages and family, how different women from different backgrounds feel about the life in this country, etc. etc.

In brief, if one of the reasons you read, is to make sense of world around you, then this one should be given a try.

[Arjun Ravichandran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book by the late psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar, that performs a species of cultural anthropology to extract a psychological profile from the Indian people.

The portrait that emerges is of a people deeply embedded in a thick social web, the central, repeating node of which is the 'joint family'. All the defining characteristics of an Indian 'frame of mind' stem from being born into this thick, subjective and context-riven web and the subsequent cultural reluctance to decisively transcend it.

So the author begins to reel off these characteristics, accompanied by a heady collection of folk idioms, song lyrics, more measured scholarly quips, and selections from Indian mythology. It depends on the reader's nous to extract the interdependence of these characteristics and how they reinforce each other within a web of cultural solidity.

For example, the most immediate characteristic incumbent upon being born into the mythology of the 'joint family' is a very finely modulated inner sense of hierarchy. This preverbal insertion into a hierarchy becomes an Escher staircase ; the hierarchy gives the individual his place in the joint family, but Indians transpose this hierarchy onto other more removed contexts - the workplace and politics for example. The motivation for this indiscriminate transference is to maintain the concrete, living myth of the joint family - what a classical psychoanalyst would have called a 'fantasy bond'.

This means that Indians are more prone to worship than to simply admire ; this porous boundary between the family and the polis - to borrow a distinction from political philosophy - means that Indians are the 'world's most undemocratic people, living in the world's largest democracy.'

A bone-deep instinct for hierarchy also means that the individual identity is in thrall to the group identity - something that Indians partly share with other Asian civilizations. The individual ego, instead of being confident in its action upon the external world, is scattered by the centrifugal gravity of family. The seed of stubborn rationality that is the sword of the ego is also absent - and an Indian psychology cannot escape the albatross of superstition because rationality and the weight of the individual ego imposes a heavy burden on this psychology. A lack of individual assertion, an instinctive risk-averseness, halting progress in scientific endeavor, arts that trudge on in a fossilized state, half-formed notions bathed in a primitive helplessness of fate and destiny, and hero-worship in all its forms, come in this wake.

The inner sense of caste - a defining element in the Indian mindset - also stems from the joint family; a small, but suffusive in-group cannot but have as its inverse a large and threatening outgroup. The absence in Indian history of a comprehensive state-craft that needed to replace the microcosm with a macrocosm, has only ensured the calcification of these caste-lines. This is a key difference between Indian psychology and other ostensibly similar Asian parallels.

The caste-feeling, like the sense of hierarchy, is innate in the Indian because he is blooded into both; and here again is the mutually reinforcing boomerang of related characteristics. The Indian's relative disengagement from the external world is an imperative stemming from the joint-family myth and he is therefore prey to the disgust-reflex which is attendant on all human beings, but which he, in particular, is unable to master or even mitigate. What results, therefore, is a severely anxiety-ridden dichotomy of purity/pollution. Toilet-training, a key factor in psychological development according to classical psychoanalytic theory, is, in the Indian joint family, an endeavor invested with generational shame and uneasiness.

The Indian, however, has recourse to the old psychological standby of projection. This results in what the author calls 'reservoirs of filth' wherein feelings of revulsion against the humiliating subjection to physical reality, are transferred to readily available out-groups. This, in a nutshell, is the psychological core of the caste-fractures in the Indian cultural unit; it is not for nothing that the almost-pathological Indian obsession - not with food, per se, but with HIS food - functions as the most solid demarcation between castes. This also explains the central paradox that generations of bewildered foreigners have noted about Indians - that Indians are obsessively concerned with cleanliness, but India itself is abysmally filthy. In a concentrated milieu like the city, the intra-group dynamic of projection and concomitant relinquishing of individual responsibility for the specter of filth, are coalesced in a pitiful visual.

The problems of sexuality are also to be found in the myth of the joint family - as an ancient civilization, Indians are acutely, painfully aware of the power of sexual love as a threat to the family. The myth of the joint family imposes a central, deep taboo upon the psychology of its members - that the covenant of this myth should not be disturbed. Hence, the suspicion of interlopers as represented most threateningly by lovers in general, and, countenanced by even greater existential horror, lovers who are not even in the neighborhood of the joint family i.e. castes. This awkward homeostasis accounts for the utter void of healthy relationships between men and women in India, the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law dynamic, and, in a phenomenon that ensures the cycle continues, the misery and lack of gratification that accrues to the Indian mother; who in turn, co-opts the young son to fulfill her lack of fulfillment. People who are familiar with Alice Miller's notion of the 'Gifted Child' will recognize this dynamic.

In the Introduction to this book, the author makes clear that he will be constructing an image of Indian psychology by drawing from the well of Hindu religion. This he does because a massive majority of a massive population are Hindus- but more pertinently, he asserts that a reasonable claim can be made that Indian psychology, and the Indian cultural polity in itself is inseparable from its Hindu religion. To speak of an Indian psychology, is to speak of a Hindu psychology. He therefore bookends the text with a chapter on the Hindu answer to the meaning of life.

Moksha and dharma are two essential concepts in the Indian view of life - moksha refers to the end of the cyclical nature of life, while dharma refers to the resolutely non-universal ethical thinking characteristic of the Indian mind. Immediately, the reader picks up on the resonance with earlier-discussed psychological factors; both concepts are sublimations of the cultural unwillingness to answer for one's own individual existence. In the idealization implicit in moksha, a static immovability is honored with exhaustion. In the contortions of dharma, neither a Nietzschean 'yes' nor a Schopenhauerian 'no' is countenanced.

In sum, I enjoyed this book - it is a very close cousin of Naipaul's musings about India and Indians. The author presents a plausible psychological portrait of Indians, but plays his cards close to his chest, sprinkling his construction with mild reminders that the Western model of psychological health is surely not the only one.

The writing is serviceable, but the book seems a collection of essays rather than an integrated effort - most of the implications that I have drawn were the result of my own effort at linking the author's somewhat scattered theorizing. Additionally, I felt that the author did not cross the bridge between cultural anthropology and psychological diagnosis in an altogether neat way - there are a few spots in the book where the simultaneous eating and having of cake was attempted.

Additionally, I've come to find that cultural anthropology makes for dispiriting reading, regardless of the quality of the writing. Nonetheless, this is an intriguing book that occupies a definite niche, and should be read by anyone curious about India.

[Kathiravan Annamalai · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Cubist Canvas of India

In cultural studies, few endeavours are as ambitious as attempting to define the essence of an individual's character within the context of their cultural identity. Sudhir Kakar and Katharina Kakar undertake this formidable task in their book The Indians: Portrait of a People (2017). This work is a significant contribution to the ongoing discourse on Indian identity, following in the footsteps of scholars who have long grappled with the question of what constitutes the core of being Indian. By exploring the distinctive features of Indian thought and behaviour, the Kakars aim to paint a comprehensive picture of the Indian character.

The work is encyclopedic in its breadth, aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of what constitutes "Indianness." Their approach is multifaceted, examining various aspects of Indian life, including social structures, gender dynamics, cultural intimacies, spiritual landscapes, perspectives on life and death, and the complex religious fabric of the nation. The authors delve deep into the caste system and its evolving role in modern India, explore women's roles both traditional and contemporary, and discuss sexuality by drawing from ancient texts to modern practices. To construct their argument, the Kakars employ a diverse range of sources. For example, they draw upon classical texts such as religious epics and the Kamasutra, modern literature including Mahatma Gandhi's writings, popular culture represented in Bollywood films, and oral traditions found in folklore and mythologies. This multidisciplinary approach allows for a rich, textured portrayal of Indian identity, offering readers a panoramic view of the subject matter.

One of the book's most intriguing propositions is that individuals acquire a sense of "Indianness" before consciously identifying as Indian. The authors argue that this pre-cognitive identity formation occurs through cultural immersion from birth. This concept raises fascinating questions about the nature of cultural identity and its formation, challenging readers to reconsider their understanding of how national and cultural identities are shaped. While proposing a pre-cognitive Indian identity, the authors simultaneously grapple with defining a singular "Indianness." This apparent contradiction highlights the complexity of their subject matter. The Kakars acknowledge the limitation of seeking a monolithic Indian identity in a nation known for its diversity.

As acknowledged by the authors, a significant limitation of the work is its predominant focus on Hindu character, particularly that of the middle and upper-middle classes. While providing depth in certain areas, this approach inevitably narrows the scope of what constitutes "Indian." It raises questions about representation and the validity of extrapolating broader Indian characteristics from a specific population subset. Readers should approach the book with this limitation, understanding that it offers a particular lens through which to view Indian identity rather than a comprehensive representation of all Indian experiences.

The authors aptly liken their portrayal of India to a Cubist painting by Picasso, where the subject is barely discernible amidst fragmented perspectives. This analogy serves as both an admission of the work's limitations and a metaphor for the complexity of Indian identity. It suggests that any attempt to capture the essence of Indianness will inevitably result in a fractured, multifaceted image rather than a clear, unified portrait. This self-awareness on the part of the authors adds depth to their work, inviting readers to engage critically with the content rather than accepting it as definitive.

Despite its limitations, the book offers significant psychological insights into various Indian life aspects. The authors' background in psychoanalysis provides a unique lens through which to view cultural phenomena, offering depth to their observations beyond surface-level descriptions. This psychological approach to cultural analysis is one of the book's strengths, providing readers with novel interpretations of familiar cultural elements.

"The Indians: Portrait of a People" has several notable strengths. Its comprehensive scope covers various topics, providing a holistic view of Indian society. Drawing on varied sources, the interdisciplinary approach enriches the analysis and provides multiple perspectives. The authors' expertise in psychoanalysis offers unique interpretations of cultural phenomena, adding depth to their observations. Furthermore, the work doesn't shy away from its subject's inherent contradictions and complexities, presenting a nuanced view of Indian identity. However, the book also has limitations that readers should consider. The focus on Hindu, middle-class experiences limits the representation of India's diverse population, potentially skewing the overall portrait. In attempting to find commonalities, there's a risk of oversimplifying complex cultural dynamics. Additionally, the balance between anecdotal evidence and empirical data may be questioned in academic circles, raising methodological concerns about the book's conclusions.

In conclusion, The Indians: Portrait of a People is a significant contribution to the study of Indian identity. While it may not provide definitive answers, it certainly enriches the discourse on what constitutes 'Indianness'. The book's value lies not just in its conclusions but in the questions it raises and the discussions it provokes.

[Tanupam · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very average book when compared to his other books. The book can be used as a reference by novices and uninitiated of Indian culture/studies; however, for the experts or people already familiar with Indianness and Indian culture, etc. this will be a big disappointment. The book doesn't tell or analyse anything in a new way - it only acts as a re-statement of the known and existing theories.

[Aarti Iyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing read
Definitely a must read for someone who wants to understand why Indians behave the way they are - be it about the hierarchy in social domain , patriarchy, sexuality, religion
Loved every aspect of the book

[Mehaq Mehta · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

I really enjoyed reading this part-sociological, part-psychoanalytic and, if I may say, partly personal reflection on Indianness. I say personal because I couldn’t help but relate this book, written by Sudhir and Katharina Kakar, to the life Dr S. Kakar has shared in his memoir—his experiences as an Indian and an NRI—and ponder over what this duality would have exposed him to in the process. At the same time, for Dr K. Kakar—a German woman who also became Indian by marriage, but was already deeply fascinated by Indian religiosity (if not religion)—this perspective felt equally significant.

The book covers topics ranging from the role of hierarchy, caste, the position and role of women, sexuality, health and healing, religion, and the Hindu–Muslim conflict. One cannot deny that the book is more focused on Hinduism’s influence on Indianness, which the authors justify with two reasons:
one, certain elements of its way of life influence everyone in the country at some level (which reminded me of a not-so-subtle example, rather than their more nuanced ones, i.e., how people from most religions come together to celebrate Diwali without it becoming overly religious for every person involved);
two, for the sake of understanding something complex at a larger scale, some level of homogeneity had to be brought in, which was done by focusing more on the majority of the population, while not completely leaving out the rest.

To be clear, as much as influences of Hinduism were explored in various directions across several chapters, the book remained more focused on Indian communal identity as opposed to religion itself, using Hinduism primarily as a cultural lens rather than a doctrinal one. Something I’ve enjoyed in Dr S. Kakar’s books so far has been his approachable and easy-to-read writing style even while covering denser topics, and the same applies to this book by the couple. Anyone who is curious about the Indian mind and the role of culture in Indianness could pick it up and enjoy the read.

While some of the instances could seem dated, given that the book was written over 15 years ago, they could still be considered relevant today depending on the economic background and class position one is considering from India. Exploring these remains important, as what may appear as more pronounced examples or situations in less privileged Indian families often show their subtler reflections in more privileged families as well.

An important read. An engaging read. I would want to read more parts of it. This one covered some very pertinent themes related to Indianness, and I’d be keen to explore the next set of themes that influence and define it.

What I enjoyed the most was how the authors showed that cultural elements, even those holding unusual confounding ideas, have their own nuanced logic. This book exposes us to some of these Indian ideas and how their internal logic works, not just for the culture but also in defining Indian behaviour, Indian ideas of what is good or bad, and much more.

I feel like there is a lot more to reflect on here, but I’ll stop here for now. A definite recommendation for someone who is even mildly curious about understanding the Indian mind and way of being.

[Valentín Serrano García · Rating 4 out of 5]

Permite un acercamiento a la cultura hindú desde una perspectiva que, al menos a servidor, le resulta original e iluminadora (aun tambien arriesgada). Ello se debe a que está escrito por un psicoanalista, lo que contribuye a una visión parcial (en un sentido positivo, pues trata una faceta y no un Todo) pero situada más allá de las apariencias. Algunas de las fuentes a las que recurre, contrastando, por ejemplo, el Kamasutra con la experiencia rural del sexo (encuestas) le permiten una glosa a menudo llamativa.

Mientras que en español existen varias obras -no demasiadas- para acercarse a la cultura India (estoy pensando en la completísima guía de Javier Enterría, o en los opúsculos de "los" Pániker, Ch. Maillard, P. Bowes etc) , Sudhir Kakar consigue aquí ofrecernos una visión diferente. Los capítulos relativos al sexo, la feminidad o la familia son muy reveladores y elocuentes. Quizás otros como el de la espiritualidad sean más pobres para el conocedor.

No obstante el ensayo a menudo puede llegar a ser temerario dado que podría confundirse con un retrato omniabarcante (lo que podría molestar a muchos hindúes), cuando lo que rastrea el autor tiene que ver más con el imaginario que puebla la mente de muchos -no todos- los hindúes.

[Anjana Prabhu-Paseband · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this after seeing Devdutt Pattanaik's TED talk. I realised that most of his speech was "inspired" by the psychoanalytic work of Sudhir Kakar on Indian minds. This book has eloquently attempted to portray Indian culture in the majority Hindu aspect. This is even more important today when a Hindu nationalistic government is trying so hard to divide the national integrity.
this book also helped me - a straightforward Indian to understand the complex emotional world of an average Indian shaped by cultural conundrums and even astrology. The gender bias in the society seeps so badly into the unconscious that one can find this in one's own family being accepted as the most natural way of action.
Quite insightful. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to know the Indian way of things and how Indians rarely can say a definite "NO".

[Anisha Kumari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would recommend this book to everyone, specially those who deride Indian society without having any understanding of how this society thinks and operates, those who suffice a universality to philosophies borrowed from West, those who feel it is very intellectual to make fun of the Hindu way of life.

But, having said that, this book is meant for everyone. Every society is different in it's conception and operates on a spectrum of values, thoughts and ideas. This book will help you understand how the Indian society works and will also allow you to question your place in it. If nothing else, you would emerge wiser about how your presence in this society has shaped your 'unique' view of the world.

[Radhika Haralalka · Rating 4 out of 5]

You cannot separate psychoanalysis from anthropology and this is what The Indians, by preeminent psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar and his anthropologist wife, Katharina Kakar shows us.
It's a brilliant, bold and incisive study into the Indian character. An Indian myself, there was no new information in this book. However, the consolidation of what makes an Indian, an Indian, into a single book, along with examples, cultural and social views was an eye-opener.
If you are a therapist of non-Indian origin and work with Indian clients, this book is a must read.
Rating: 4.5/5

[Anirudas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful read, one emerges much wiser abt Indians after reading. Some things known to Indians perhaps nicely brought out

[Subramaniam · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Incisive analysis of Indian Psyche.

[Revanth Ukkalam]

Somewhat banal but pretty; in any case not for an Indian.

[MB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always a delight

[Sahil Gera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just so determined, after i read this one, to read all of Kakar's work. Such a seminal book

[alexkaley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro que leí justo antes de ir a la India y que hizo mucho más enriquecedora mi experiencia. Lo recomiendo totalmente

[Joana Canada · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an easy to read interesting book for people who want to learn more about the Indian society and culture, and also helps to understand the influences that it has on the Indian way of thinking.

[Noor Alam · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an ABCD, this book made me feel as though I had come one small step further in my quest for understanding my identity, one that I both avert and idealize. In a broad sweep, the Kakar's gave explanation to those twinges of guilt and pain I felt anytime someone mentioned family, my obligation to my family, or my lack of fulfilling that obligation. I saw in his characterizations of the highly moralistic but completely hypocritical person glimpses of many family members I knew.

While the Kakars write admittedly based on a Hindu/majoritarian understanding of the Indian mind, it does not come at the expense of being relevant to a person of Muslim/Indian heritage. Nonetheless, I did find the food explanation very interesting and not too familiar, as the dietary differences between Muslim and Hindu are the most visible. Understanding hot foods vs cold foods, why certain foods don't go together, based on the Ayurvedic sensibilities of the Indian were surprisingly new to me, though I often hear these comments amongst my hindu in-laws. As someone brought up in the states, I was happy to have words that were used to describe food sensations, such as the feeling of drinking a hot ginger tea, that are not described in English commonly.

These moments were interesting and made the book enjoyable, though I'm not sure that anything struck a terribly deep chord or provided me with a particularly strong understanding of the person that will always be a mystery to me of some sorts, the Indian.

[Avijeet Boparai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book to find out the reasons behind our inherent Indianess; i was disappointed but again, the author never claims to have delved into that area. For a foreign reader it can serve as a window to the peculiarities of Indian character traits. From a native's point of view the author just iterates what the reader might already be knowing. Kakar does justice to the title, "The Indians: Portrait of a People", as he lays threadbare the Indian culture character, for the reader to expect more than that will cause disappointment.

[Onkar Joshi]

Sensitive & very well articulated Sudhir Kakar spreading psychoanalytic wisdom for large conscious made this book cherishable for hungry soul like me.
Even though I happen to be familiar with all themes he has discussed, it was compelling organized read where I could find to some extent, the essence of knowledge I happen to gather from variety of sources!

However I would recommend his another book Indian Identity collection of Intimate Relations, Analyst and Mystic, Colors of Violence for details in similar regards as current book discuses.

[Shweta Ganesh Kumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A must-read for all those who are interested in knowing why the Indian psyche works the way it does. Insightful and crisp, the book is a study on the Indian mind. It tells us why family, food, religion, sexuality and gender are shaped in the way they are in the sub-continent.
Never generalizing or judgmental, the book is well written and not overtly pedantic.
Highly recommended for anyone looking for a deeper understanding of Indian culture and its machinations and the why and how of it.

[Lilit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before and after coming to India, I was looking for a book which could have explained how and why things are the way they are in this country.

And I found one. Some thing may sound unbelievable, but they are true...

And I would also advise to read Shantaram and The White Tiger after this. These books give you the portrait of India from all the corners and points of view.

[Viju · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read on India and its people. Mostly a generalization of sorts which works pretty neatly for the most part. It is just that as a person in the urban environment, a lot of the observations from the book are something I'll only see in book and literature and never experience them in person.

[Rebecca]

When my partner, Joe, went to India for a two-week photography workshop, I asked him to bring me back something "postcolonial." He brought this book, which looks amazing!