Among other things, Western modernity, which may be roughly dated to the West’s Reformation and Renaissance, constituted the primacy of reason, and thereby the human, over anything else.

The sovereignty of the human meant that reason was fetishized. It was the ultimate yardstick against which history, human progress and so on were measured and benchmarked.

Interestingly, modernity’s onward march, buttressed by absolute certainty in it, was complemented by the First Industrial Revolution. This was also the high tide of capitalism. Both modernity and capitalism came to be conjoined twins.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, modernity became the handmaiden of imperialism and colonialism.

This found an echo at the beginning of the 21st century in the hands of a salesman scribbler, a certain Francis Fukuyama. The salesman, in a bout of post-Cold War mania-induced irrationally exuberant certitude, declared the End of History.

This manic formulation, in turn, became the predicate for one forever war, the War on Iraq.

But, from the grand sweep of history, the gale of modernity and its end might be a mere footnote.

It appears that modernity is done and over with. From the perspective of historical time, the project of modernity has run its course.

What, the question is, has replaced it? The proverbial writing is on the wall. Postmodernity is the solvent of modernity.

So, what are the contents of postmodernity? 

A Kashmiri Scholar’s Letter to a Western Mystic

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