Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
He tells me my forefathers were scribes, learned people who wielded the pen
instead of the sword to their advantage.
"In my experience, when people lose faith in religion and community, they strive
to repose that lost faith in something else, so-called modern science,
development and progress for instance."
For him, the gods of religion and science are alike, in that they both have clay
feet.
"Without questioning, without debate, both science and religion become dogmas
-- exclusivist, absolute and dangerous," says he.
"In fact, I believe that there is a correlation between the growing absolutism in
religion, and the absolute belief in science, modernity and nationalism."
It's time to order the food. Nandy is a small eater, but the menu at the restaurant
is enticing. We decide to share a plate of roast soft shell crab for starters.
Wine is a natural choice, for who can discuss politics, psychology and philosophy
with empty glasses?
As the wine and the crisply succulent crab arrive on the table, I ask Nandy why
he so often draws the distinction between patriotism and nationalism.
Perhaps Nandy's early training in psychoanalysis compels him to lay bare the
deep psychological roots of such sociological constructs.
I recall The Intimate Enemy in which he argues that colonialism in India has
persisted long after the British left, and in generations that were born after,
because its mantle has been inherited by the colonised.
Today, perhaps, we are both the colonisers and the colonised, as we reject our
old ways and our heritage to push the concept of 'development' upon our own
people.
Meanwhile, our server has brought back the menus so we can order our main
course. Nandy opts for buttered scallops and rawa prawns. "Like all Bengalis, I
love my fish!" he quips.
I choose lamb shanks, because Kayasthas love red meat, and probably for the
first time in years, I'm feeling like one.
Our conversation has now moved to the subject of Gandhi. Nandy is that rare
intellectual who espouses the Gandhian notion of development which accords
rightful importance to traditional wisdom, decentralised village development,
local culture and mythology.
Nandy believes that the popularity of the ideology of Hindutva and its notion of a
unified Hindu great tradition which ignores the immense diversity within it, is
because India's burgeoning but frustrated middle class is looking for something
to believe in.
"Such regimes have historically never lasted long," he says. "We've seen it with
Indira Gandhi's regime during the Emergency. Democracies have inbuilt checks
and balances for this."
"So the prevalent idea of 'development' means aiming to become like Singapore
or the USA," he says. "But if we take away our cultural and social heritage from
the picture, what sort of development would that be?"
It seems only fitting to end the afternoon with a discussion on dissent, and what
it has meant to him in his own life.
He has provoked libel cases, been attacked in public and online forums and
worse.
Discomfort over dissent is nothing new, he says as his order of mishti doi
cannoliarrives.
There's nothing I enjoy more, I realise, than mixing good food with a goodly dose
of anarchic conversation, but it's time to wrap up.