Where are our Voltaires and Rousseaus ?

Before the great French Revolution of 1789 there were several decades of ideological struggle in France. Great thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau and the French Encyclopedists launched a powerful attack on the feudal institutions, customs and ideas then prevailing, which helped in the transition of feudal Europe to a modern Europe.

Similarly, in India, a powerful attack in the realm of ideas has to be launched against feudal ideas and customs, e.g. casteism, communalism and superstitions to sweep away the centuries of feudal and irrational filth and falsehood, which is widespread here, and this is the job of patriotic, modern minded intellectuals.

Before great political changes can happen in India there has to be a sustained, long drawn ideological struggle, like that waged by Voltaire, Rousseau, etc. in Europe.

But where are the Indian intellectuals today? Where are our Voltaires and Rousseaus ? There seems to be a total intellectual vacuum in India. Our so called 'intellectuals' have totally prostituted themselves, and have become almost entirely money minded, caring only for their own comforts and rozi roti. Where are our great writers today, like Sharad Chandra, Premchand, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Subramania Bharathi, Faiz, Manto, etc ?

I do not claim to be the only genuine intellectual today in India. There must be others too. But why are they silent when the country is facing such massive problems ? Is it my job alone to speak out ?

For centuries our people have been brainwashed by the caste and religious ideology of the feudal system which existed in India, and by vested interests which want to keep our country backward, with myths, irrational and backward nonsense, and falsehood. All this needs to be swept away if great changes are to take place in India

Today I find myself alone in trying to bear this burden. But so be it.

The mainstream Indian media do not publish my views, obviously because they are against the interests of the corporates who control them, and does not increase TRP ( for which lives of film stars, cricket, astrology, babas, etc are most suitable ). So my only recourse is the social media, and this is the reason I am often on Facebook and my blog.

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