let me clarify that modernism said, "man is asocial and ahistorical". when i say socio- economic, circumstantial and political context of situations, i mean it differently. when we analyse modern era, we put it in the contexts mentioned above. it has nothing to do with the theory of modernism.
i read something very intresting in wikipedia( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution) which put some things in perspective. it said that the belief system in Europe focused on indiviuals and that of China focused on inter personal relationships between people. the belief system in Europe were largely products of Judaeo- Christianity. lets go a step further and say that the fundamentals of Islam and Christianity are similar. Islam is people oriented religion, which tells you how to be in a society, however, the core of Islam lies in an indiviual's equation with god. therefore, Christianity is also introspective and self- reflexive.
lets generalize here. the Europe is the Occident and China- the Orient. what holds true of Europe, holds true of other continents in northern hemisphere. what holds true of China, holds true of the entire Orient, (it certainly does for India). maybe this is the reason why, modernism took shape the way it did back then. it focused solely on an indiviual's fight with the nature.
