I do not agree with activist Anand Teltumbde on many ideological fronts, nor does he agree with me. That is evident from his writings about my work. He is a Dalit scholar and comrade of many upper-caste intellectuals, who do not like my work. Yet I can vouch for the fact that he is an intellectual of the highest quality. And Hindutva-based parties tend to have contempt for public intellectualism. Those in the Sangh Parivar cannot match Mr. Teltumbde’s commitment to the people’s cause.
If he is arrested for disagreeing in writing on the causes behind the Bhima-Koregaon incident of January 1, 2018, that would rank among the most significant cases of overreach by law enforcement. The unjust arrest of an intellectual may not cause the loss of votes in a democracy such as ours, but it could lead to a rebellion against the forces of elitist chauvinism. If such rebellions gather force across the nation, that might even spur a political revolution of the sort that other countries have occasionally witnessed.
Maoists, to whom the state appears to be seeking to link Mr. Teltumbde, have thus far failed to create the conditions for a true revolution. They were unlikely to succeed so long as Indian democracy operated in a manner consistent with its constitutional foundations. Yet, as there are growing incidents of unjust arrests of public intellectuals, a more potent rebellion against formal authorities may take place.
In India intellectuals are considered soft targets because of a general lack of interest in public intellectualism relative to, say, religious institutions. But French society was in the same stage at the time of the philosopher Voltaire, on the cusp of the French revolution. If not today, India may well reach that stage tomorrow. Religiously conservative governments may catalyse that process.
Mr. Teltumbde’s has been the most vibrant pen since B.R. Ambedkar, particularly from that social background in Maharashtra. He may be a public intellectual who sometimes disagrees with Ambedkar’s ideas, but he remains a member of that intellectual family.
Today the authorities are seeking to muzzle this voice and prove that they are nationalists. This kind of spiritually loaded nationalism inspires a philosophical internationalism among Indian intellectuals seeking a common cause for a bigger democratic fight. The idea of Hindutva may be Indian, but the idea of civil liberty is international. It was the common cause of Voltaire of the 18th century and Teltumbde of 21st century. The cause of Indian democracy would be better served if the FIR against Mr. Teltumbde were dropped, and we simply let him get on with his writing and teaching.
The writer is a Director at the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad
