In a pugnacious and rigorously argued article, ‘On their Marx, ready to bow’, (IE, March 27) Pratap Bhanu Mehta makes a very important intervention in the public domain. His arguments, on the practice of intellectuals and on the failure of our universities to ‘cultivate intellect’, need to be debated, particularly in a society such as ours, that is undergoing multiple transformations. While Mehta’s attention is on the doublespeak and chicanery of Left intellectuals, an attention that has not come a day too late, the larger issue that underlies his intervention about the role and responsibility of intellectuals in India, however, needs more sustained engagement.

Over the years there has been the occasional commentary on intellectuals in India. But today when we are confronted by a range of development paths, and moral choices, and when so many of us are confused about the costs and benefits of each, the guidance offered by the intellectual class is very crucial. They have an important role to play. This is based on the simple belief that intellectuals systematically investigate issues, provide unbiased explanations, give fair evaluations and offer professional advice. But do they really do so? What is the real picture? Let me, in the sceptical tradition of the charvakas, carry forward the debate. Let me describe the everyday practice of intellectual life in India by suggesting the existence of four syndromes that are prevalent and in which we are all embedded.

The first is the ‘if you are not with us then you are against us’, or what can be provocatively called the ‘camp follower’ syndrome, which divides the world of ideas into distinct camps — black and white, good and evil, right and wrong. Each side is infused with missionary zeal and its sole purpose is to vanquish the other, the enemy. All means are legitimate in this battle. There is no place for ambiguity here, no space for tentativeness, or the possibility of error, or even worse, the heretical thought that the other may actually have a point. This is the defining practice of the Left intellectuals in India and so, while it may have opened up many and valuable new vistas of understanding, it has no patience with dissent or intellectual openness. These are the enemies of an open society. It is indeed ironic that the religious and extremist Right adopts the same scornful attitude. Truth here is the big casualty. Truth is not important. Politics is.

... contd.