When Chetan Bhagat Dissects The Anatomy Of A Liberal
By Amritanshu Pandey
02 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org
A response to Chetan Bhagat’s TOI article on Anatomy of a Liberal, published 2nd November 2015 here: Let us begin our response to Mr. Bhagat’s attack on liberals by taking a look at some recent liberals and intellectuals who are no longer with us:
Narendra Dabholkar:
Studied in Satara, Sangli and Miraj (do you even know where these places are? Let me help you- there are no Doons and Mayos in these towns). Played kabbadi at state level (not polo, cricket or squash, mind you).Was actively involved in movements pushing for the equality of Dalits, campaigned in the villages of Maharashtra against superstition and black magic.Killed in August, 2013.
Govind Pansare:
Author of the best-selling Marathi language biography of Shivaji (that’s right, not the English language biography of Sir VS Naipaul or someone!)Born to farmhand parents, studied in Rahuri and Kolhapur. Encouraged inter-caste marriages, opposed superstitious rituals, and criticised the glorification of NathuramGodse. Killed in February, 2015.
MM Kalburgi
Scholar of Vachanasahitya (not Shakespeare plays!) who served as vice-chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi, noted epigraphist of Kannada. Spoke against idolatry, superstitions and casteism. Killed in August, 2015 after receiving several death threats.
If the summaries above do not suffice, a more detailed reading of these three gentlemen will show that they do not fall in the category of elite, English-educated, far-from-reality intellectuals that Chetan Bhagat places his arguments against. Why does our dear author ignore such people and direct his tirade more against a strawman of an intellectual? How can any discussion on Indian public intellectuals ignore completely the works of men such as these?
The answer? Mainstream (read safe) opinions = more sales for future books = more moolah.
Bhagat cannot afford to tirade against the actual intellectuals, mostly because he has absolutely nothing to say. A close reading of his article proves it to be nothing more than a highly-opinionated piece by a highly-ignorant writer. Cognizant of the fact that I’m now relying on ad hominems, I excuse myself owing to the fact that I am highly pissed off. I wish a writer of Bhagat’s appeal and reach spewed words with a little more social responsibility. For now, I’m unable to understand why the judge of a dance reality show finds space to air his views on liberals and intellectuals!The personal attack done, let us now move to rebuking his arguments, if they can be called that.
It comes as a huge surprise that Bhagat terms liberals as those “who grew up with a certain amount of privilege compared to their peers” when his recent tweet addressed to foreign media shows his own blindness when it comes to privilege:
“Dear foreign media, I have written whatever I wanted about either political party & have never been told to not write it. India is free.”
You can taste the irony here. An IIT+IIM bestselling graduate seeking to establish the barometer of freedom in India by assessing his own freedom. Not that of Dalits, tribals and other minorities. Mr. Bhagat, your tweet reflects what privilege actually is- something whose effects upon us we do not even realise.Privilege is feeling proud upon seeing your book sold by a child at a traffic signal, perhaps you missed it when people tried to teach you that. A thinking Indian should also have trouble understanding where Bhagat gets his data from when he says: “someone who spoke English with an Italian or French accent was seen as exotic or romantic.”Mr. Bhagat- that statement holds true for any country in the world. The French and Italian accents are looked upon as exotic by nearly everyone, not just Indians! If you’re interested in knowing more, I should also inform you that several African accents too sound quite exotic. And yes, just like the diction of a Hindi poet from Benaras sounds infinitely more elegant than that of a farmer from the same village, the English of Shashi Tharoor does in fact appeal more than yours, mine or our cab driver’s.
Bhagat’s assertion that if Modi or Shah had gone to a Doon, the liberals would have been kinder to them is revealed false by looking at how actual intellectuals (not Bhagat’sstrawmen) counter Jaitley and Pratap Rudy’s articulately delivered comments.Bhagat laments the lack of real intellectuals in our country, happily ignorant of (or avoiding discussing) the many that actually do exist (and are being killed).
Bhagat seems to think that the intellectual and liberal debate in India is simply a class-war, an opinion that can be held only under ignorance or worse, delusion. I challenge him to assess a cross-section of rich, upper-class Indians and find them all to be anti-Hindutva or anti-Modi.What truly emerges from the article is Bhagat’s anxiety to come out in support of BJP and the current Hindu sentiment, not an intellectually honest review of the liberal atmosphere in our country. But then that makes complete sense for a writer on a warpath to further his visibility through every possible forum. Do not be surprised if Bhagat’s next book on India’s future is launched or foreworded by Mr. Modi himself (unless another bestselling author with seemingly similar views beats him to it).
Amritanshu Pandey is a writer and author of the novel The Seal of Surya. He lives in Gurgaon and works for one of the many corporations that dot the city's landscape. His interests lie in the fields of rationalism, skepticism, religion and the politics of religions institutions. He is on Twitter @amritanshu_soa