Thread by @harikunzru

So there's a new episode of Into the Zone. It's about this guy, who was a guest in my family's home in Agra some time in the 1920's.

At the time Jiddu Krishnamurti was at the apex of a dazzling career as a spiritual guru. Since he was a young child, he'd been groomed to be the new Messiah of Theosophy, the spiritualist society founded by Russian mystic Madame Helena Blavatsky

I knew Krishnamurti had stayed at our house, and as a child I'd found some old Theosophical books in my great grandfather's shuttered study, but until I researched the podcast I didn't know the full story.

It led me to find out more about my great great grandfather, Pandit Ajudia Nath Kunzru, who was the first hipster in Williamsburg.

Not really. He was a lawyer, and in the 1880's was one of the founders of the Indian National Congress, which was, I think, the first nationalist movement to emerge in the Asian territories of the British Empire.

And one of the weirdest parts of the story of the early days of anticolonial politics in India, was the role of Theosophy, and the way mysticism got mixed up in fighting for freedom.

It's a story that connects Indian independence to the UFO culture that grew up in the USA in the 1950's

You can listen to the story of Krishnamurti, my family's role in the independence struggle, yogis, mystics and UFO's - on episode 3 of Into the Zone 'The guru of Ojai' pushkin.fm/into-the-zone