The notion of individuality in India has been viewed by sociologists (Erikson, Lannoy) as well as anthropologists (Dumont, Biardeau), as a paradox, since the individual is both only recognized by means of its position qithin the social hierarchy and at the same time epitonized as the very accomplishment of the social system though the figure of the sadhu, who relinguishes worldly society in order to work on his self, highest goal in the structured hierarchy. The study, starting from the negative judgements expressed by psychoanalyst Kakar and the writer Naipaul on such a 'non-separate' subject, elaborates on the positive aspects of this conception, in the philosophical and cultural field but also in the field of social and environmental activism.
