Development of Psychology in India

The Indian philosophical tradition has, for a very long time, engaged seriously with mental processes and reflections on consciousness, the self, the relationship between mind and body, and specific mental functions such as cognition, perception, illusion, attention, and reasoning. Even so, this rich philosophical inheritance did not end up shaping the growth of modern Indian psychology, which instead developed largely under the influence of Western psychology, though some scholars, both in India and abroad, have since tried to test the truth-value of assertions from Indian philosophical traditions using proper scientific studies.

The modern era of Indian psychology can be traced to the Department of Philosophy at Calcutta University, where the first syllabus of experimental psychology was introduced and the first psychology laboratory in India was established in 1915. Calcutta University went on to start India's first stand-alone Department of Psychology in 1916 and a separate Department of Applied Psychology in 1938. This early experimental psychology was shaped in particular by Dr N.N. Sengupta, who had trained in the United States in Wilhelm Wundt's experimental tradition, and by Professor G. Bose, who was trained in Freudian psychoanalysis and went on to establish the Indian Psychoanalytical Association in 1922 -- meaning both of psychology's major early Western streams, experimental and psychoanalytic, had a direct hand in shaping Indian psychology from the start. Departments of Psychology at the Universities of Mysore and Patna were other early centres of teaching and research. From these modest beginnings, psychology has grown into a strong discipline in India, with about 70 universities now offering courses in the subject, and with two UGC-supported Centres of Excellence located at Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, and at the University of Allahabad. …