The personal essay as a literary artform is almost obsolete, just as the thinker seems a relic from another era. Whereas the finest of human reasoning has traditionally found utterance in essays. It is apt that one of India’s foremost essayists delineates what the Indian liberal stands for. Those on social media know the term “liberandu” denoting a liberal whose lack of solidarity with the strident, and whose effete philosophy counters violence, and is therefore deemed dangerous.
In The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal, Gurcharan Das reexamines his life as a liberal, defines with simplicity yet sophistication this dying breed, and questions what is responsible for its gradual decay after centuries of dominance in world thought. The insights are from deep research and understanding of the subject. “The chief rival of liberalism is socialism. Socialists generally value equality over liberty and include all sorts of collectivists... Liberalism’s enemy is fascism, a far-right political ideology that believes in a strong, ‘muscular’ state. Fascism is authoritarian and looks to a dictator to bring about militaristic order and obedience in society.”
Are liberals born or made? In an atmosphere where the secular regularly battle friends and familial relationships over majoritarian ideology, it perhaps boils down to education, values and tolerance. Liberalism is linked to refinement and rationalism, and therefore all modes of attack come in unrefined and irrational form. “My belief in liberalism has been guided by
a desire for an ethical predictable order, a Dharma compass, enabling human progress, while protecting the ordinary individual against excessive state or market power. My liberalism is informed by a toleration for all beliefs in a maddeningly diverse country where all paths seem to lead to the same divine unity.”
The thrust of the book is in 28 recollections that Das posits as milestones in his journey towards being, and sustaining as, a liberal. These are his life experiences. There’s a bloodcurdling account of the sectarian violence he witnessed at Partition at the age of five. One account of himself as a mature liberal is when he discovered, to his shock, a barefooted older woman step forward and apply vermillion on the forehead of a Shiva Nataraja bronze statue at a museum in Egmore, Chennai. Though to him it was almost a sacrilegious act, he reasons that faith expresses itself in varied ways. He realises that to some, and perhaps to himself too, god may be found in museums.
Part reminiscences and part musings, this work offers a personal dive into liberalism. Das acknowledges that this creed is often associated with the elite or excess in capitalism, and lays emphasis on individual, more than collective, values. Liberals are isolated from many ground realities and therefore their solutions to issues are perhaps impractical. The work concludes on a note of optimism. “Speaking as an Indian, it also resonates with our liberal civilisational temper. All these reasons convince me that it will prevail over the current illiberal populist, autocratic mood.”
The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal
By: Gurcharan Das
Publisher: Speaking Tiger
Pages: 206
Price: Rs 499