FOURTH REVIEW OF ICSSR

new economic systems, applied research by social scientists can be of enormous value, benefiting the discipline, the academic community, and the country or region in which it is undertaken. I have long argued that the distinction between applied and basic research creates a false dichotomy obscuring the reality that all good social scientific theories need both to be grounded in the real world and to make empirically testable predictions, just as all good applied research should both be grounded in and help further develop the theoretical aspects of the relevant disciplines. Rather alarmingly, the authors of this report suggest that the prevailing situation in India falls far short of this ideal. I cannot judge the validity of this assertion, but I fully share the authors’ concerns and fears about the risks that arise when social scientists become guns for hire, tailoring their conclusions to flatter those who commission their efforts while ignoring their professional responsibilities to place their findings in the context of other scholarly work, both empirical and theoretical, and to make it available for peer criticism, evaluation, and integration.

Work for Hire

The politicisation and commercialisation of scientific research is by no means unique either to India or to the social sciences. The misuse of biomedical research findings (including the mis- reporting of the results of clinical trials for new drugs) continues to warrant considerable concern in the UK and the United States (US), for example, where the Blair and Bush administrations, respectively, have also been criticised for mis using the results of social science research and for suppressing scholarly messages and messengers that and who raise unwelcome questions or reach critical conclusions. According to the report on the ICSSR, however, the current situation in India is more alarming and problematic because work for hire has, for many social scientists, become the “only game in town”, rather than being a potentially lucrative diversion.

In the absence of a motivation to value the approval and respect of one’s academic peers, the report suggests, the scientific quality of the analytic work can only decline further, and the credibility of Indian social

Economic & Political Weekly february 2, 2008

scientists will be damaged similarly. For this reason, the report merits careful attention, because diminished respect for social scientists and the social sciences cannot be good for India or for the academy.

Fortunately, the authors of the report do not merely identify and document the magnitude of the problem apparently facing Indian social science. Indeed, the report is distinguished also by the clarity and thoughtfulness with which it considers and recommends possible solutions to the perceived problem.

Recommended Funding

Specifically, the report identifies the need for major increases in public funding for social science research, increases that will make future funding levels high enough to ensure that the community of Indian scholars can afford to conduct rigorous research – both basic and applied – without needing to tailor their questions and answers to suit the parochial interests of their patrons. To ensure that increased funding actually serves to energise and rejuvenate the social science disciplines in India, the authors of the report also emphasise the need to make funding decisions completely transparent, determined solely by peer evaluations of research proposals on the basis of their intrinsic quality, insulated from even the appearance of political interference. The authors of the report claim (with good reason, in my opinion) that such support for investigator-initiated scholarly work will increase the quality of the scientific endeavours attempted, and I would expect it both to improve the quality of commissioned (i e, not publicly funded) research while enhancing the credibility and social standing of social scientists in India as well.

Of course, to make the case persuasively in a fiscal environment wherein the competing demands for necessarily limited public funds invariably exceed the supply, the social science community, led by the ICSSR, needs to make the case that a vibrant social science community will serve the country and its citizens more broadly, not only the narrow interests of social scientists themselves. Doing so will require not only judiciously advertising instances in which high quality social research has informed decision-making and thereby proved its value, but may also require demonstrations of a willingness to differentially reward high quality and withhold support and funding from mediocrity and failure. The authors of the report suggest that the Council has not, in the past, been at liberty to exercise such discretion in many of its funding decisions, which have always been made with an eye (or two) on political considerations. For the report to have the desired effect on the government, however, the ICSSR will be forced both to embrace the requests for increased resources, and to acknowledge the need for a new pattern of expenditure, with quality of work rather than past funding levels determining future allocations. In the absence of such a commitment, it will be difficult to justify the desirability of increased national investment in social science research.

The ESRC is seeking to build closer relationship with the social science community in India because it recognises the mutual benefits that follow when scholars work with and learn from those whose cultural and academic backgrounds and skills differ from their own. We know that the collaborations we foster between Indian and British social scientists will be most successful and productive if the Indian community is energised and enthusiastic about the scholarly and professional opportunities and rewards available to them at home, because that will give them enhanced standing in relation to their peers elsewhere. By the same token, we in the UK need social scientists around the world who continue challenging us to raise our game. Thus, we too have a stake in the quality of Indian social science and look forward to continued profitable collaborations and contacts in the years ahead.

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