Social cycle theory of Sarkar

Social Cycle Theory, also known as Law of social cycle, is a theory of social motivity propounded by the Indian philosopher and spiritual visionary P.R. Sarkar. The theory first appeared in his book Human Society, Vol. 2 in the late 1950s and has since been reproduced and expanded on in many books. The theory has probably received the widest publication in the West in the many books of Ravi Batra a disciple of Sarkar, notably The Downfall of Capitalism and Communism, a New Study of History. Johan Galtung and Sohail Inayatullah have also written AbOUT Sarkars' Social Cycle Theory in the book Macrohistory and macrohistorians.

Four Types of People

The Law of Social Cycles is a theory of Varna, arising out of the Indian episteme (Inayatullah, 2002). This law states that while people in any society are all relatively similar, they have GeneRally the same goals, desires and ambitions but differ in the way they go about achieving their goals. An individual's specific methods for achieving success depend on his physical and psychological makeup. Essentially, there are four different types of people, warriors, intellectuals, acquisitors and labourers, who find basic fulfillment in four different kinds of ways.

• Warriors (Kshatriya) have strong bodies, vigorous physical energy and a sharp intellect. Warriors tend to develop the skills that take advantage of their inherent gifts of stamina, courage and vigor. Their mentality is one that is not averse to taking physical risks. Examples of people in our society with the warrior mentality include: Policemen, firemen, soldiers, professional athletes, skilled carpenters and tradesmen, etc. They all achieve success through their physical skills and a deep understanding of their profession. Michael Jordan is an excellent example of a member of the warrior class.
• Intellectuals (Vipra) have a more developed intellect than the warriors, but generally lack the physical strength and vigor. Intellectuals are happiest when they try to achieve success by developing and expressing their intellectual skills and talents. Examples would be: Teachers, writers, professors, scientists, artists, musicians, philosophers, doctors and lawyers, and above all, priests.
• Acquisitors (Vaishya) have a penchant for money. If money can be made the acquisitors will find a way to make it. They are not as bright as the intellectuals, nor as strong as the warriors, but they are keen when it comes to making and accumulating money and material possessions. Such people are the traders, businessmen, managers, entrepreneurs, bankers, brokers, and landlords in our society.
• Laborers (Shudra) are altogether different from the first three groups. Laborers lack the energy and vigor of the warriors, the keen intellect of the intellectuals, and the ambition and drive of the accumulators. In spite of the fact that their contribution to society is profound - in fact, society could not function without them - the other groups generally look down upon and tend to exploit them. The laborers are the peasants, serfs, clerks, short order cooks, waiters, janitors, doormen, cabdrivers, garbage collectors, truck drivers, night watchmen and factory workers who keep society running smoothly by working diligently and without complaint.

Social Classes and Social Cycles

Groups of each type of people make up the social classes in society. Under this theory, classes are divided by their inherent disposition. In a society, the warriors defend the nation and keep the peace; intellectuals develop our IDeaS about the world, in the form of religion, art, law and new inventions; acquisitors manage the practical aspects of life, including farms, factories, financial institutions and stores. Meanwhile, laborers do the routine work, waiting tables, collecting trash, and other low-tech, low skill jobs. As should be evident, each class contributes something vitally important to society, and society could not function without all the classes working together in harmony. Unfortunately, not all classes are rewarded equally according to their contributions. Furthermore though all exist simultaneously in society, at any given time only one of the four classes is the dominant class and therefore rules society. The laborers, however, never rule, as they lack the inherent ambition of the other three classes of people.

According to Batra (1978), the West is currently in the age of acquisitors, also known as Capitalism. This age succeeded the age of intellectuals, which gave birth to the Enlightenment and the British parliamentary system. Before that the West went through the age of warriors, which was noted as the Age of Discovery with strong rulers, like King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, concentrating power from the earlier feudal lords. In fact, Feudalism, an age of acquisitors, reigned before that. It yielded to strife with peasants, a brief period of labourers. Feudalism replaced an age of intellectuals, which was marked by the rule of religious intellectuals who in the end became restrictive of intellectual freedom by inventing ever more difficult religiously inspired dogmas. This period ultimately yielded to The New acquisitive era, that became Feudalism. Interestingly, in its early benign phase Feudalism gave birth to the Renaissance period. Before that, the Rome empire ruled the West under the aegis of warriors. The might and glory of Rome was recognized throughout the civilized world. Prior to this, the Roman Republic was ruled by the landowning class. This age spawned much trade around the Mediterranean. However, as it was based on slavery, the Roman senators became caught up in the Servile Wars, which was an uprising of the slaves, the first era of labourers. Julius Caesar, who obtained his power from the military and public support from the poor, wrested control from the landowning Senators, but was later assassinated by them. Nevertheless, the senators were unable to stop the historical shift to the age of warriors, with Octavian consolidating the power as Caesar of the Roman Empire. As this overview demonstrates, excluding the history of Greece, the West has in the past two millennia completed several social cycles and the present age of aquisitors, Capitalism, is predicted to give way to another brief era of labourers, characterised by upheaval and chaos. However, the difficult time will quickly be replaced with A New Age of warriors, likely led by the USA, whereby an elected President or a military leader will likely assume leadership for life. This age will emphasise bravery, intelligence, social fairness and physical prowess dedicated to e.g. the adventure of space travel and the mastery over technology. In its early phase, Batra predicts the new warrior age of the West will truly be a new golden age.

Exploitation and breakdown

To Sarkar, each age would run its course, with the social motivity going too far, causing much grief to the majority of people (Sarkar, 1967). The situation could unchecked go on for a long time, before things got so bad that a spontaneous revolution and overthrow of the system took place. In fact, as this was the reason for social change, it was clear that no single class of people could remain dominant indefinitely. Power was destined to pass from one class to next in the prescribed order, or cycle. The age of warriors, which brings strict order to society and a return to fundamental values, essentially leads to excessive focus on strong man rule and warfare. It is followed by an age of intellectuals, which bring a sense of liberation in the mental sphere but soon replace that freedom with the yoke of newer ideas. Over time this age merges into an age of acquisitors, which brings ProgresS in the material sphere, but this is soon replaced by increase physical and mental exploitation. The Servile Wars in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE spelled the doom of the Roman Republic. Similarlily, the growing strife of peasants with feudal lords weakened the power of the latter to withstand the gathering force of the monarchies in the Age of exploration in the 15th century A.D.. Growing labour conflict is predicted to be the undoing of present day Capitalism, according to this theory. And so the social cycle moves on its endless round, until the civilisation itself ceases to exist or is taken over by a superior or more powerful civilisation.

Preventing the misery of exploitation

Sarkar's essential view was that it was necessary to develop a way to avoid the dynamic of exploitation inherent in each age, when over time the social motitivity of the ruling class becomes so self-absorbed that it not only loses its focus on contributing to but actually becomes harmful to the rest of society (Sarkar, 1967). In such cases, it falls to moralists, the sadvipras, to accelerate the movement to the next age to shorten the exploitative phase of the present age. In the age of warriors, The Primary effort is to end a relentless expansion by force that inflicts misery on society. In the age of intellectuals, the focus is on liberating people from oppressive intellectual dogmas that hold sway over socety. In the age of acquisitors, the aim is to break the acquisitive drive of the wealthy before it becomes oppressive in that it begins to inflict poverty and pseudo-culture on the majority of society, including the motivated classes of warriors and intellectuals.

Harmony and cooperation

For this, he trained nuns and monks of his socio-spiritual movement Ananda Marga and developed the socio-economic theory of PROUT, short for the PROgressive Utilisation Theory.

See also

• Other social cycle theories

Bibliography

• P.R. Sarkar, "Human Society Vol. 2", Ananda Marga Press, Ananda Marga Publications, Anandanagar, P.O.Baglata,Dist. Purulia, West Bengal, India, 1967.
• Johan Galtung and Sohail Inayatullah, Macrohistory and Macrohistorians: Perspectives on Individual, Social, and Civilizational Change, Praeger Publishers, 1997, ISBN 0275957551.
• Sohail Inayatullah, Understanding P. R. Sarkar: The Indian Episteme, Macrohistory and Transformative Knowledge, Brill Academic Publishers, 2002, ISBN 9004128425.
• Ravi Batra, "The Downfall of Communism and Communism: a New Study of History", Macmillan, New York, NY, USA, 1978
• idem, "The Great Depression of 1990", Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, USA, 1986 (#1 NY Times bestseller)
• idem, "Muslim Civilization and the Crisis in Iran", Venus Press, Dallas, TX, USA, 1980
• idem, "The New Golden Age: The Coming Revolution against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos", Plagrave Macmillan, New York, NY, USA, 2007.
• Korotayev, A., Malkov, A., & Khaltourina, D. (2006) Introduction to Social Macrodynamics: Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends. Moscow: URSS.
• Korotayev, A. & Khaltourina D. (2006) Introduction to Social Macrodynamics: Secular Cycles and Millennial Trends in Africa. Moscow: URSS.