Status Updates From Indian Ideas of Freedom

altough (many people) do not follow (jp) in striving towards utopia they use his utopian vision to look upon the functioning reality of everyday indian politics with scorn and despair. the paradoxical consequence of the idealist is furtherance of cynicism.

(ambedkar) realised this much: no individual, no caste or community, no religious group could flourish in india without constructing some kind of relationship to tradition, some narrative of selfhood compatible with india's quest for its proper self, some foothold in the past to stabilise its presence in the future

rabindranath:
• experience...has led me to dread not so much evil itself as tyrannical attempts to create goodness
• tagore, almost alone in his time, insisted...that the greatest obstacle to be found on each of them was the slave mentality that characterised nationalism. that was his contribution to the indian idea of freedom.

rabindranath: whatever weakness we cherish in our society will become the source of danger in politics

Completed the new additions to the 1982 version. Visibly enough, it read more and more like an afterthought with a visible attempt to stretch the fabric of continuity of the original 4 to Ambedkar and M.N Roy. Much time spent in clarifying and justifying and less on the actual ideas of both. The read was also disjointed and dull, taking more time and testing my patience. Only conclusion left!

Completed Dalton's view of Gandhi and Tagore. By his own admission and the sheer number of sources, Gandhi's thought was Dalton's oeuvre in this book. Gandhi's concept of swaraj through satyagraha, as abstract as it was considered, is clearer to me than before. Although I enjoyed the short expose on Tagore more because he voiced reason and individualism over any blind fanaticism or even Gandhian nationalism. Onward!

I've completed Dalton's view of Swami Vivekananda and Aurobindo Ghose. Their ideas of freedom in an Indian context is the concept of internal/spiritual freedom as a precondition to a proper experience of the external freedom that the West espouses. Very interesting to see how Vivekananda plays a seminal role in the Indian Renaissance while Aurobindo flirts with nationalism before seeing the light - individualism!

I started this book to come closer to the East. A part historical, a part hagiographical and a part political evaluation of 7 thinkers who the author calls as the pioneers of an Indian renaissance - this book aspires to talk about the influence of the idea of freedom in the Indian mind - both external and internal. I went through the long memoir and introduction that sets the tone. Excited for startling revelations.