Colonization of personality psychology in India: historical roots and contemporary status

The origin of present-day Euro-American personality psychology is rooted in the Western notion of individualism. It locates its history in post-industrial revolution of Europe and the post-enlightenment era of America. However, considerable evidences suggest that the study of personality, in terms of different typologies of mental and physical attributes of a person, constituted one of the core areas of enquiry in the ancient civilizations of the world namely India, Babylonia, Egypt, China, Greece, and Rome. Such contributions of ancient civilizations hardly find intellectual space in epistemological terrain of Euro-American personality psychology. India, being one of the ancient civilizations, contributed significantly in this area. But, personality studies in the contemporary India largely subscribe to Euro-American conceptual and methodological frameworks. Against this backdrop, the paper tries to revisit the journey of personality psychology beginning with its inception in the rich intellectual traditions of ancient India vis-à-vis the other civilizations of that time, its debacle in medieval period and its colonization under the hegemonic policy of the Europeans and Americans in modern time. Continuing with the tradition of decolonization movement of psychological science, the paper, using critical theories perspective, tries to delve the way the British regime colonized personality psychology India. Taking insight from liberation psychology, the paper, finally, proposes some strategies to decolonize or rather indigenize personality psychology in India.