The Intellectual bankruptcy of the Indian 'critical thinkers'
After reading the discussion between the self styled 'critical thinker' Romilla Thapar and Siddhartha Varadarajan in thewire.in, I thought a response is really called for.
These ' critical thinkers ' in our Universities, media, etc cry hoarse against the sins of the present regime in India, denouncing it as fascist, anti-democratic, and what not. But, to use a Hindi proverb, ' kabhi inhone apne girebaan mein jhaank ke dekha hai ? '.
I accuse the Indian self styled 'liberal',and 'critical' thinkers of totally letting down the nation, by hankering for lucrative posts and sinecures in Indian academia and elsewhere, and of being totally superficial while posing to be profound thinkers. It is indeed fashionable today to be a 'leftist' 'intellectual' in India, as long as your comfortable lifestyle is not adversely affected.
Let me ask a few questions to these ' critical thinkers ' ?
1. When I denounced Gandhi as a hypocritical, feudal minded, reactionary British agent in a series of blogs ( see the blogs on Gandhi in justicekatju.blogspot.in ), for which I gave my reasons, but for which I was condemned by both Houses of the Indian Parliament, without even considering my reasons, where were these ' critical thinkers ? '. Did anyone of them come to my defence ? Or if they thought I was wrong, did any of them consider my reasons and seek to refute them rationally ? No, they maintained the 'noble silence ' of the Buddha, probably thinking the topic too hot and dangerous for a rational discussion. But surely critical thinking means application of reason to every phenomena, even it results in personal discomfort.
2. Similarly when I denounced Tagore, Syed Ahmed Khan, Allama Iqbal, Savarkar, Tilak, Bankim Chandra etc as British agents, and Subhas Chandra Bose as a Japanese stooge and lackey, for which I gave my reasons in my blogs, where were they ? Again, maintaining the ' noble silence '.
3. How many 'critical thinkers' came to my support when I condemned the irrational, feudal laws, customs and practices of beef ban, sharia, burqa etc and called for their abolition ? Not one.
4. Have Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, or other 'celebrated' historians in India said, or even realized, that communalism in India is an artificially created phenomenon which did not exist before the Mutiny of 1857 in which Hindus and Muslims jointly fought against the British, and which was created craftily and systematically by the British after suppressing the Mutiny of 1857 ( see my article ' The Truth about Pakistan ' and B.N.Pande's speech ' History in the service of Imperialism ' online ), and by certain vested interests after 1947 ?
5. Has any of these ' critical thinkers ' ever said, or even realized, that Pakistan is a fake, artificial country which was created by the British on the basis of the bogus two nation theory, using as their agents Gandhi and Jinnah ? ( see my blogs ' The Truth about Pakistan ', ' We are one ' , and my blogs on Gandhi, etc), that we are really one nation sharing the same culture, that we were one country since Mughal times, and that we are bound to reunite under a truly secular govt. which does not tolerate religious bigotry or extremism of any kind, whether Hindu or Muslim.
6. Has any of these 'critical thinkers' ever considered what is India ?
I did, and after deep investigation found that India is largely a country of immigrants, like North America, with about 93-94% of its present inhabitants having ancestors who came from abroad, mostly from the north west ( see my post ' What is India ? ' online and on my blog), and this explains our tremendous diversity.
Now I am a man with a legal background. This discovery should really have been made by the academicians. But where were they ? Enjoying their comfortable lives ?
I have pointed out in several posts on facebook and my blog that the solutions to the massive problems India is facing---poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, lack of healthcare and goof education, etc---do not lie within the present Constitutional and political system, but outside it, and hence India is inevitably heading for a revolution.
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/…/reforms-will-not-do-india-a…/
After reading the discussion between the self styled 'critical thinker' Romilla Thapar and Siddhartha Varadarajan in thewire.in, I thought a response is really called for.
These ' critical thinkers ' in our Universities, media, etc cry hoarse against the sins of the present regime in India, denouncing it as fascist, anti-democratic, and what not. But, to use a Hindi proverb, ' kabhi inhone apne girebaan mein jhaank ke dekha hai ? '.
I accuse the Indian self styled 'liberal',and 'critical' thinkers of totally letting down the nation, by hankering for lucrative posts and sinecures in Indian academia and elsewhere, and of being totally superficial while posing to be profound thinkers. It is indeed fashionable today to be a 'leftist' 'intellectual' in India, as long as your comfortable lifestyle is not adversely affected.
Let me ask a few questions to these ' critical thinkers ' ?
1. When I denounced Gandhi as a hypocritical, feudal minded, reactionary British agent in a series of blogs ( see the blogs on Gandhi in justicekatju.blogspot.in ), for which I gave my reasons, but for which I was condemned by both Houses of the Indian Parliament, without even considering my reasons, where were these ' critical thinkers ? '. Did anyone of them come to my defence ? Or if they thought I was wrong, did any of them consider my reasons and seek to refute them rationally ? No, they maintained the 'noble silence ' of the Buddha, probably thinking the topic too hot and dangerous for a rational discussion. But surely critical thinking means application of reason to every phenomena, even it results in personal discomfort.
2. Similarly when I denounced Tagore, Syed Ahmed Khan, Allama Iqbal, Savarkar, Tilak, Bankim Chandra etc as British agents, and Subhas Chandra Bose as a Japanese stooge and lackey, for which I gave my reasons in my blogs, where were they ? Again, maintaining the ' noble silence '.
3. How many 'critical thinkers' came to my support when I condemned the irrational, feudal laws, customs and practices of beef ban, sharia, burqa etc and called for their abolition ? Not one.
4. Have Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, or other 'celebrated' historians in India said, or even realized, that communalism in India is an artificially created phenomenon which did not exist before the Mutiny of 1857 in which Hindus and Muslims jointly fought against the British, and which was created craftily and systematically by the British after suppressing the Mutiny of 1857 ( see my article ' The Truth about Pakistan ' and B.N.Pande's speech ' History in the service of Imperialism ' online ), and by certain vested interests after 1947 ?
5. Has any of these ' critical thinkers ' ever said, or even realized, that Pakistan is a fake, artificial country which was created by the British on the basis of the bogus two nation theory, using as their agents Gandhi and Jinnah ? ( see my blogs ' The Truth about Pakistan ', ' We are one ' , and my blogs on Gandhi, etc), that we are really one nation sharing the same culture, that we were one country since Mughal times, and that we are bound to reunite under a truly secular govt. which does not tolerate religious bigotry or extremism of any kind, whether Hindu or Muslim.
6. Has any of these 'critical thinkers' ever considered what is India ?
I did, and after deep investigation found that India is largely a country of immigrants, like North America, with about 93-94% of its present inhabitants having ancestors who came from abroad, mostly from the north west ( see my post ' What is India ? ' online and on my blog), and this explains our tremendous diversity.
Now I am a man with a legal background. This discovery should really have been made by the academicians. But where were they ? Enjoying their comfortable lives ?
I have pointed out in several posts on facebook and my blog that the solutions to the massive problems India is facing---poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, lack of healthcare and goof education, etc---do not lie within the present Constitutional and political system, but outside it, and hence India is inevitably heading for a revolution.
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/…/reforms-will-not-do-india-a…/
But every great revolution has to be preceded by an ideological revolution.
For instance, the French Revolution of 1789 was preceded by several decades of struggle in the realm of ideas, in which great thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau, the French Encyclopedists, and thinkers of the Enlightenment bravely fought ideologically against the feudal system and religious bigotry. in France. Without this long drawn ideological struggle the Revolution of 1789 would have been difficult, if not impossible.
Similarly, before a revolution can take place in India to establish a modern, just, political and social order in which all Indians can have decent lives, a powerful ideological struggle is needed to attack and sweep away the centuries of backward, feudal filth, e.g. casteism, communalism and superstitions which has accumulated, and which still pervades and persists in Indian society, and spread rational and scientific ideas widely
This was the job of our 'critical thinkers'. But where are they ? What have they been doing so long ?
For instance, the French Revolution of 1789 was preceded by several decades of struggle in the realm of ideas, in which great thinkers like Voltaire, Rousseau, the French Encyclopedists, and thinkers of the Enlightenment bravely fought ideologically against the feudal system and religious bigotry. in France. Without this long drawn ideological struggle the Revolution of 1789 would have been difficult, if not impossible.
Similarly, before a revolution can take place in India to establish a modern, just, political and social order in which all Indians can have decent lives, a powerful ideological struggle is needed to attack and sweep away the centuries of backward, feudal filth, e.g. casteism, communalism and superstitions which has accumulated, and which still pervades and persists in Indian society, and spread rational and scientific ideas widely
This was the job of our 'critical thinkers'. But where are they ? What have they been doing so long ?
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