Tough times ahead: Anti-Modi is the new 'intellectual'

In the last few weeks, there has been a lot of bandying around of the word intellectuals and unfortunately not in a positive way.

When I was growing up in the early 1980s we admired the intellectuals. They were seen as bright and knowledgeable people, well read and with a well-rounded worldview. My generation aspired to be intellectuals. Maybe this was because I grew up in Kolkata, where people still read Aristotle and Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy.

My first boss when I started working as a journalist at the age of 21 at The Asian Age was MJ Akbar, who I greatly admired as an intellectual. He would hand write a 1,500-word column packed with historical data and facts without scribbling out a single word and without looking at a book. I always cross-checked the facts hoping to catch a mistake. I never found any errors. I should point out that today he is a BJP MP.

But India has changed. In today's India, the word "intellectual" is used in a disparaging manner, implying that those who are intellectuals are anti-government or more specifically anti-Narendra Modi.

The Webster dictionary meaning of intellectual is "of or relating to the ability to think in a logical way" and "smart and enjoying serious study and thought". So basically in today's India being logical and thoughtful is a bad thing.

My guess is that India is being cleverly divided into the intellectual (read anti-government) and the non-intellectual (read believer in the BJP government).

This is a dangerous situation and it is slowly developing into one where public discourse is nullifying the intellectual. And once the intellectual loses its relevance, the voice of reason, the thinker will be lost.

The question becomes then why does the non-intellectual want that and what does he expect from this country and the government?

This is a question that I struggled to answer because I haven't found a verbalisation of this communities' goal anywhere.

There lies the problem. This nebulous scary thing that the "believer" wants is worrying the intellectuals. I will identify what these guys want in a bit.

To bring in economic development into this discourse seems a bit trite because no one is against that. The whole country wants alleviation of poverty, education, health care and infrastructure. The non-intellectuals are being projected as those that have faith in the BJP government and are pro-Modi. So what do they want?

They want a Hindu Rashtra. But they already have that. They are free to uphold their practices and principles in any way they want. Do they need a state order or law to practice their belief systems? Do they want validation from the government? They just might get it.

Meanwhile, the intellectuals are okay with anyone practising any form of religion as long as it is not forced on anyone. They want to ensure that India remains that way and they want assurance.

The intellectuals are worried because of the rising intolerance and because we have a culture minister who says, "We will cleanse every area of public discourse that has been westernised and where Indian culture and civilisation need to be restored - be it the history we read, our cultural heritage or our institutes that have been polluted over years."

We have an education minister who is uneducated but that's fine as long as she respects the process of academia and understands that textbooks are a result of research and not random conclusions and ideology. We have a party president who treats anyone who doesn't support the BJP as Pakistani. We have a finance minister who calls anyone with an opinion that differs with the BJP anti-national and we have a few random ministers who just about say anything and get away with it.

This is clearly why the "intellectuals" are paranoid and not the prime minister himself. They feel India is in the hands of people who don't respect its guiding principles.

Not one intellectual has said that India is intolerant. But they are worried. They see signs that worry them. And they want to be reassured.

We are at a point when the intellectual fears conversion of the ideas of a group of people into social norms and senses the end of a pluralistic society. This is a fear not propaganda or agenda or an anti-national conspiracy.

Noam Chomsky wrote in an essay in 1967 titled the "Responsibility of Intellectuals": "Intellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governments, to analyse actions according to their causes and motives and often hidden intentions. In the Western world, at least, they have the power that comes from political liberty, from access to information and freedom of expression. For a privileged minority, Western democracy provides the leisure, the facilities, and the training to seek the truth lying hidden behind the veil of distortion and misrepresentation, ideology and class interest, through which the events of current history are presented to us."

The "intellectuals" are trying to do that. They are questioning. They are speaking up. The argument that they haven't in the past does not hold because maybe the Indian intellectual had not matured in the past or maybe its voice was not so strong. One must not forget that today we live in a world with Internet. And that itself could be the difference.

But the Indian intellectual should be prepared for a tough ride ahead.

Historically, the terms Left and Right that can be used for the intellectual and other side was first used during the French Revolution when the supporters sat on the right and the dissenters sat on the left of the king. Both the Left and Right have always acknowledged the existence of the other. Today, this is what is frightening. That the two sides think the other should not exist.

I am going to Delhi for work next week and am planning to meet my friend who called me an "intellectual" on social media. Obviously, not in a good way. I want to have a long discussion with him. My humble opinion is the only way out of this divide is for the two sides to break bread in the middle and have a dialogue.

Let's hope after the Bihar elections there is a movement towards the middle by the intellectuals and the non-intellectuals.