Indigenous Psychology and Development

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine how the commonplace and academic use of indigenous or native psychology can led to the understanding of the local narratives of development. It is a known fact that the modern notion of development is very much Eurocentric in nature. The World Bank notion of
development has been inspired by the way the United States and the other Western countries perceive the
underdeveloped countries. My paper will try to trace the linkages between the notions of development that are culturally and psychologically reproduced by the people of the Third World particularly South Asia. A comparative analysis of the existing notions of development will I hope highlight the ideological contradictions and antagonisms inherent in them. The use of indigenous psychology has been opted for in this paper because of the fact that it is the branch of psychology which will help us to understand what development means for a peasant in Honduras or for a woman weaver in Manipur. The paper’s humble endeavor would be to develop a comparative scheme of how people conceptualize development around the world and with the help of a sociological perspective I will try to understand the role of social factors like that of culture, economy etc in shaping development thought. Positive structural changes and government policies should take into account the perspective of the underdeveloped populations who are the primary stakeholders of the development process.