Prout is an acronym for Progressive Utilization Theory. It is a comprehensive socio-economic system developed by the eminent Indian philosopher Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (1921-1990).

Prout's socio-economic system is community focused, decentralized and sustainable, and yet also embraces the challenges of globalization in a modern world. Prout also sets out a framework of economic development that is based on the cooperative system, and draws on the environmental, social and spiritual wisdom accumulated over thousands of years of human struggle and progress.

During his lifetime, Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar gave numerous discourses on a wide range of subjects and published many books. Human Society is one of the author’s earliest works and consists of two parts. Part one, first published in 1959, analyzes modern society from the vantage point of universal humanism; part two, first published in 1963, analyzes human history from the perspective of collective psychology. In 1982, the author published a collection of discourses that set out a new dimension in social and spiritual philosophy that synthesizes humanism, environmentalism and spirituality, which he called Liberation of Intellect: Neohumanism. Between 1987 and 1991, all of the author’s discourses on the socio-economic system Prout were published for the first time in one series, which he called Prout in a Nutshell. In 1992, the discourses on economics were also published in a separate book, Proutist Economics. An outline of the contents of each of these books is available on the Reading page.

For more information on Prout, go to the Prout Institute of Australia (PIA), pia.org.au.