The Spirit of India: Essays

‘Jahanbegloo’s India is a dialogical India. It is in conversation not only with modernity but also with itself.’ —Ashis Nandy

The essential and enduring consciousness that animates the Indian nation has for long eluded definition. In this fascinating exposition, eminent Iranian political philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo elucidates his understanding of this enigmatic ‘spirit of India’. To him, the vital principle inspiring Indian thought and action is the spirit of dialogue and cross-cultural debate, deeply rooted in the daily practices of different communities. In contrast to many cultures that have, through history, feared diversity as being destructive, India’s plural and polyphonic forces have been a source of creative power. The significant question that encapsulates the spirit of the nation has always been: What should our behaviour towards others be to achieve harmony and solidarity? Dogmatism and fundamentalism have therefore not been the final victors in India’s functioning pluralistic society.

To illustrate his viewpoint, Ramin Jahanbegloo examines the thinking of Indians who shaped and exemplified the Indian credo—Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Vinoba Bhave, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Sri Aurobindo, Ananda Coomaraswamy and Satyajit Ray. It is their sustained faith in peaceful diversity that impassioned leaders like Sarojini Naidu, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and many others, and continues to be indispensable to the future of a humanity threatened by ever-widening schisms.

The spirit of India not only inspires dialogue and clemency between divergent—and occasionally hostile—cultural and religious units, but also counteracts all forms of political and cultural homogenization. This book illuminates why and how, in order to manage our plural world, we need to acknowledge and nurture the redoubtable vitality of India.