44 SOCIAL SCIENTIST extent that the study of political theory is cut off from such interaction it is likely to become sterile and alien. B. THE HELD OF POLITICAL THEORY Political Theory has been a relatively underdeveloped and marginalised branch of Political Science in India though the situation is now beginning to change.2 As a marginalised area of study it has had relatively little influence on the development of other areas within Political Science and even less on public discourse about politics, or on decision making. Among political scientists the study of political theory is often viewed as a specialized activity which need have little relevance for other branches of the discipline. It can be noticed that debates and developments in political theory only slowly feed into other studies. For instance even now a number of empirical studies of political processes are being undertaken within the framework of behavioural or even empiricist assumptions which have been discredited in discussions of political theory. An indication of the relatively underdeveloped state of political theory is that it has remained to a large extent, in a relationship of dependency to political theory in the West, particularly in the Anglo-American world, though of late there are some signs of independent assertion. This dependency may be seen in the way teaching and research in political theory tend to follow agendas set in the Western academy. Courses in political theory may parallel similar courses taught in Western universities. Moreover, there is the enthusiastic appropriation of the latest approaches and methodologies which are circulating in the Western intellectual market. Since the information flow is weighted in favour of the West,3 such theories and concepts reach within a short time and ensure familiarity with these theories for at least a section of political scientists. Thus political theorists may hope to be equipped to communicate with the community of social scientists in the West and even to compete in the global market for recognition and jobs, but they may be less successful in communicating with their own societies. However, only a relatively few political theorists acquire, or have the opportunity to acquire, the sophistication to master the latest methodologies. For the larger number of students and researchers, political theory is seen as concerned with a self-enclosed world of principles and concepts which have to be studied but which seem to have little relevance for understanding politics in their own society. This produces the *alienness* and lack of originality which has been remarked upon by a number of political scientists.4 Some tension between the goals of professional improvement and of wider communication is perhaps inevitable in our society, given the disparities that exist between universities, in terms of facilities and