Rise of Anti-intellectualism

Photo credits: Anasua Basu

I have friends who train for marathon. It takes time and practice to scale up and run a full marathon. You start with a 10 kms, then move onto a half marathon and if you are sure about it, then go for a full marathon. It requires steady practice which means going for a run few times a week. It requires group training at times to pace and learn the best practices of long-distance running. It requires core workouts to manage difficult marathons with long inclines. And it requires running different marathons in different landscapes to challenge and better your timings.

In short, a marathon runner deserves our respect.

I have friends who train for intellectual marathons. I myself am an avid intellectual marathon runner. You have to read a lot and read deeply, analyse and present your findings. You pace and compare your abilities with seasoned intellectual marathoners, work harder, read more widely and deeply. You practice with multiple issues, teasing and pushing thought boundaries. As you get published and accepted in conferences, you push yourself more by working in new landscapes of thought. You begin to see what non-runners can’t. You go back to the core, the foundations of knowledge and knead them, question them, challenge and build upon them. Your mind gets a workout that non-runners can’t.

Intellectual marathoners deserve our respect.

I have friends who excel at antaksharis. They can easily belt out a song from the last consonant of the previous song. Some can sing decently, most can’t. But it doesn’t matter because they can sing couple of verses and stay in the game. And I must say, it is fun watching them go about this game.

I also have friends who are classical concertists with very refined knowledge and taste in music. They have worked on it for years, practicing on their chords, vocal or instrumental, consistently, with passion and care. They listen to their fellow musicians, learn and develop critical ability to fine tune their rendition, to push and play with the boundaries of a tune, to reinterpret a hum.

Now you can understand how frustrating it must be for a classical concertist to be patronized by an antakshari singer thus:

“Hey, I think you were offbeat. You don’t have sense of tala.” “Hey, you got the raga wrong. Try singing it this way.” “You folks are so boring. Why don’t you shut up?” “These people don’t know how to sing. They are too full of themselves.” “Tear down the music halls. We need to set up antakshari stadiums.” “In every school, antakshari is a must.” “Music diploma syllabus should be revised to make antakshari the primary focus.” “Music professors must necessarily be skilled at antakshari.”

That, my dear friends, is the process of anti-intellectualism in India.

In ancient India, in certain artistic quarters, communication was considered receiver-oriented. It was sadharnikaran. In this theory, individuals had to work on elevating their level of understanding and appreciation to be able to receive a given message. In the field of arts, they were called rasikas. They were the ones who could appreciate the nuance of an artistic presentation and critique a misstep. In presence of the rasikas, the artists could push further boundaries of art, experiment, explore and improve their work.

Intellectuals can be and must be understood by rasikas alone. Yes, it is important to convert that knowledge into public good through policy influence, social criticism, and for opening humans to new possibilities of living and being. But they need their circle to nurture their skills.

What we have today is unconstrained mushrooming of moronic analysis, written/oral presentations based on individual sniff-of-the-air and loud cacophony of views. Anybody who can croak croaks. Anybody who can put together five words in a sequence claims to be a writer. Blog world is full of mediocre thinkers and writers who blabber amongst each other and supported by vested commercial interests believe they have reached enlightenment. Book world is full of mediocre writers who churn out formulas, pat themselves endlessly in the name of “self-love” and market mercilessly. Social media is a place where everyone thinks they have arrived at the blistering truth.

The worst is to be forced to sit among those who cannot even run 5 kms argue loudly on what is running and how to run. And the only way you are allowed to respond is via a sharp elevator speech. Raga Shudha Kalyan in one breath. Inhale, exhale. Times up.

Besides the frustration, those of us who have spent years and a lot of our energy in improving our intellectual abilities, the breadth and depth of knowledge, of seeking masters and mentors to learn and grow, have begun to self-doubt.

Intellectual antakshari has its place. People need to have their fun and tease, and have their sweet/passionate but brief intellectual moments. It is the way they can stay intellectually engaged. But for those of us, who put our hearts and minds to this work, it is time to seek, filter, and strengthen quality.

Truth today seems to belong to those who are the loudest and to those who can play their versions in an unceasing yelling loop.

Opinion is not Truth. Opinions do not make you an intellectual. Opinions are just that – an opinion. Satisfying your ego is not the purpose of intellectual work. Listening to your tantrums is not in the ambit of intellectual work.

Kindly respect intellectual marathoners.

[Comments on this blog are moderated. I am not interested in any polite “Hey, you know I visited your blog” comments. Only a rasika’s comment is welcome.]