Why humanities matter in a tech-driven world

Ask a bureaucrat, an industrialist or even a policymaker about the kind of education we ought to prioritise in order to progress as a nation. It is quite likely that they will put extraordinary emphasis on artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning, data sciences and information technology. Likewise, if you ask middle-class parents about their preferences, it is quite likely that you will hear that they want their children to opt for STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects and settle down in life as engineers, doctors and techno-managers.

Indeed, amid this all-pervading notion of 'relevant' education, it is not easy to plead for 'soft' disciplines - liberal arts, humanities and social sciences. In fact, even if your child wants to pursue physics as well as history, or accountancy and philosophy, it is almost impossible for our schools to make it possible because of a hugely problematic and rigid classification of disciplines into science, arts and commerce.

Not solely that. It seems that to opt for humanities is a sign of defeat!

In fact, quite often, it is argued that 'soft' disciplines are irrelevant because your knowledge in history or literature does not help the market to flourish or technology to grow. In other words, a purely market-driven instrumental reasoning has become the dominant discourse in our times; colleges/universities are asked to follow the dictates of the emergent neoliberal bosses; and education has been reduced into a merely job-oriented skill for the techno-economic growth.

Is it, therefore, surprising that throughout the world, we are seeing the new trend of colleges and universities closing their departments of liberal arts and humanities because of low enrollment as these domains of knowledge are seen to be 'non-profitable'?

Yet, I have no hesitation in regarding this trend as the poverty of pedagogic imagination. In fact, the growing devaluation of 'soft' disciplines like literature, philosophy, history, sociology or fine arts will prove to be utterly disastrous for the psychic, intellectual development as well as politico-historical sensibilities of the young generation growing up in these turbulent times.

In this context, it will not be inappropriate to reflect on my own academic trajectory — from physics and mathematics to social sciences. Of course, physics and mathematics helped me to evolve what can be regarded as some sort of scientific-mathematical reasoning. But then, social sciences and humanities enriched me in another meaningful way.

First, it sharpened my politico-historical sensibilities. I could make sense of my own biography in the context of the larger social and political development —- say, modernity, secularism, nationalism, caste, class, ethnic divisions, patriarchy, feminist assertions and new social movements. In other words, it helped me to become an active and alert citizen, taking part in the process of social transformation.

Second, self-reflexivity became an integral part of this journey. When you meditate on, say, Karl Marx and Michel Foucault, Gandhi and Tagore, or, for that matter, Albert Camus and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, it is impossible to exist as a cold, detached, impersonal reader of the text; it is not like solving a MCQ riddle and finding the 'one and only one correct answer'.

You entertain existential ambiguities; you ask new questions; and you look at your own desires, confusions, moral dilemmas and possibilities. In other words, you tend to become humane, reflexive, empathic and dialogic.

And third, my love affair with humanities and social sciences helped me to sharpen my critical thinking. It is not cynicism. Instead, it is the ability to ask the kind of questions that a technocratic or fundamentalist social order seeks to hide — say, the questions related to the ecological cost of what is otherwise projected as techno-economic development; or the questions related to religious fundamentalism, neo-fascism and social conservatism. It is impossible to nurture the spirit of democracy without this sort of critical thinking.

Well, I am not underestimating the importance of artificial intelligence, robotics, data sciences, or STEM subjects. But then, if in the name of pure instrumentality and economic rationality, we deprive the new generation of the treasure that great poets, mystics, philosophers, historians, sociologists and artists embodied, it will cause a great damage to the mental, aesthetic and political sensibilities of the new generation.

Think of the world we are living in. When we reflect on the accelerated growth of right wing nationalism and authoritarianism, we realise that democracy is fast degenerating into some sort of electoral autocracy. We are also seeing the close affinity between these neo-fascists and select techno-economic elites. In recent times, the alliance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk reveals this dangerous trend.

In fact, when technocracy, right wing nationalism and religious fundamentalism tend to merge, we find ourselves in a dystopian world. Social welfare, distributive justice, egalitarian spirit, peace, ecological sensibilities and cultural pluralism — in fact, all redemptive projects are suspected or castigated as some sort of 'leftist' propaganda.

Not solely that. What this system abhors is the very idea of libertarian education: the kind of education that makes one think, interrogate the prevalent 'order', and imagine a just world free from war, militarism, climate crisis, religious fundamentalism, hyper-nationalism and a purely technocratic vision of life.

Not surprisingly, we see the growing attack on the idea of libertarian education. And even India is no exception.

In fact, if we seek to resist this techno-fascist dystopian world, we need a new practice of education — the kind of education that sees beyond the mass production of a bunch of non-reflexive technocrats or a set of compliant workers for running the prevalent system.

We need creative minds who can rescue the power of imagination from the trap of the rising techno-fascism, raise critical questions and emerge as alert, awakened, dialogic citizens for creating a humane world. And this is impossible without liberal arts, humanities and social sciences.