Sarkar's Theory of Social Change: Structure and Transcendence
Prout Research Institute
Sarkar's Theory of Social Change:
Structure and Transcendence
from
SITUATING SARKAR:
Tantra, Macrohistory and Alternative Futures
- Sohail Inayatullah
Gurukula Press (Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha – Central)
Maleny, Australia
(Brisbane Region – Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha)
Foreword
You have in your hand a book by a South Asian intellectual on another South Asian intellectual
- a giant of our times, the late Indian philosopher, P.R. Sarkar. Inayatullah will introduce you
to the fascinating world - in time, in space, and in social space - of Shrii Sarkar. My task is to
introduce you to Inayatullah.
We are fortunate to have him as our guide to the reading of Sarkar. Inayatullah brings to the
task not only his background as a Pakistani but also the cosmopolitanism of the child of an
international UN development expert.
Sarkar's philosophy was the topic of his brilliant PhD thesis at the University of Hawaii, based
on many years of in-depth study of the person, his writings and the PROUT movements.
Himself a participant, not only a celebrated and much sought-after commentator, Inayatullah
analyzes Sarkar's theories of macro-history, of the future, of culture, alternative economics and
alternative approaches to power. He also helps the reader by comparing Sarkar with others
among the great, such as Ibn Khaldun. I have had the pleasure of reading the essays and found
them provocative and deeply inspiring. The Sarkar-Inayatullah combination makes very good
reading indeed.
Two doctrines have failed miserably in this century: free market capitalism and state socialism.
The latter is counted out as dead; the former covers itself better by concealing the negative
effects better, but the victims are even more numerous. The search is on for something better
than these two 19th century europeanisms. That search will soon lead us, among others, to
Sarkar. Inayatullah makes the job easier for us all.
Johan Galtung
Professor of Peace Studies