Introductory essay to symposium on modes of production and social formations in Asian Societies

Abstract

The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars and the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars have always attempted to provide alternatives to “established” scholarship in the Asian studies field. When CCAS came into existence in the mid-1960s, the main task was to formulate a critique of the cold war inspired scholarship of the 1950s, and to attempt to counteract the prevailing views concerning the communist countries and national liberation movements of Asia. This in turn led to an analysis of the structure of academic inquiry and academic funding in the United States, and to a realization of the political character of the “apolitical” stance of the Asian studies academic establishment.