Thread by @akshayalladi

Thread: Both the left liberal and non-left in India are largely unintellectual- but in very different ways. The left liberals are largely intellectually derivative - copy pasting ideas from the west as low grade translators. BUT that gives a huge advantage (1/n)

Which is access to a body of knowledge. So from philosophy to rhetoric to even policy detail, there is an advantage of scale, of tapping into that work. And since left liberalism is anyway axiomatic derivation and context independent, the same can be used as is. (2/n)

At best one has to do low grade translation. So race = caste operation gives you a 100 rhetorical devices, policies etc. to do. Sometimes not even that. It isn’t just left that too, even other versions of liberalism are context independent (3/n)

So even neoliberal economic policies, classical liberal notions of “secularism” etc. will be cheerfully imported sans context, as Universal Truth. So the job of the liberal so-called “intellectual” is really easy - copy paste or regurgitate (4/n)

The right or non left in India has made its primary concern “Unity”. And because political unity is an end in itself, it is apathetic to discourse. In fact intellectual debate may even be seen as a threat that may wreck unity. (5/n)

There IS actually a huge body of profound and knowledge to tap into - which is Indian Knowledge Systems. But that has to be developed and used as tools to address contemporary questions (6/n)

But that requires a true ecosystem where those knowledgeable in IKS are connected to and infused in academia, media, cultural institutions and importantly the policy ecosystem. Now there is no “connect the dots”- no network, just disconnected nodes. (7/n)

New knowledge creation happens when there is such a vibrant ecosystem. When there is exchange of ideas, and ideas build on each other, recombine and cross fertilise. We have the seeds with IKS, but no gardening as of now (8/n)

And that is required because all right wing thinking is deeply contextual. It isn’t just axiomatic derivation from first principles. It is deeply anchored on context, our culture, our institutions, our norms, authority structures etc. (9/n)

So anchoring it in IKS automatically roots it in our context, though we have to address contemporary concerns. That needs the assiduous building of an ecosystem - anything other than that, and hand waving calls for “unity” leads to a vacuum (10/n)

In a vacuum - the most organised ecosystems of ideas prevail. It isn’t a surprise that the NCERT wokes issue happened. In a vacuum *someone* has to prevail, if you don’t organise, someone else will piggyback (11/n)

To summarise - the liberal issue in India is No intellectuals, but well organised ecosystem (copy pasters plugged into the west). The right wing one is Intellectuals, but no ecosystem (free radicals who the people in power are uninterested in cultivating) (12/n)

Tbf, I have seen a couple of encouraging signs of trying to cultivate such an ecosystem. But there is a very long way to go. And the persistence of a vacuum filled with nonsensical ideas makes this an urgent issue. The right shouldn’t lose a culture war by sleepwalking (13/13)