21 Facts About Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya was an Indian Marxist philosopher.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya made contributions to the exploration of the materialist current in ancient Indian philosophy.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya is known for Lokayata: A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism, which is his exposition of the philosophy of Lokayata.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya is known for work on history of science and scientific method in ancient India, especially his 1977 book Science and Society in Ancient India on the ancient physicians Charaka and Sushruta.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour, posthumously, in 1998.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya was born on 19 November 1918 in Calcutta.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya's father was a supporter of India's freedom struggle.

At a very early stage of his life Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya immersed himself in the left nationalist movement by joining the Association of Progressive Writers, which was formed in 1936.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya obtained his academic training in philosophy in Calcutta, West Bengal under eminent philosophers like Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan and S N Dasgupta.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya taught philosophy at the City College of Calcutta for three decades.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya collaborated with some of the outstanding western scholars of the 20th century, like Joseph Needham, George Thomson, Bongard Levin and Walter Ruben.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya was fellow of the German and USSR Academies of Sciences.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya demolished the so-called "interpretation of synthesis" which sought to combine the diverse philosophical traditions of India to form a ladder that leads to the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya traced "the course of development this archaic outlook eventually underwent".

Dale Riepe in his review of this book says that Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya "combines the analytic sagacity of Hume with the impatient realism of Lenin".

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya discusses the materialist foundation of Vedic rituals, which he finds similar to the magical belief of controlling the natural forces through yajnas, etc.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya chooses the field of medicine for the purpose, because, according to him, "the only discipline that promises to be fully secular and contains clear potentials of the modern understanding of natural science is medicine".

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya tries to show in the book, how societal divisions, especially the caste system, which was enforced by the law-givers and their justificatory idealist ideologies, formed obstructions in the way of scientific development in India.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya opined "that in these grim and anxious days through which India today is passing, that which holds hope for our future is the growing awareness of our people of socialism being the only way out".

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya stresses the need to establish the historical account of Indian thought on the basis of an objective and scientific approach.

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya's pursuit, notes Prasad, was "a result of much of his commitment to values of scholarship" as to the "communist movement" in India.