The great British historian E. P. Thompson once remarked that “India is not an important country, but perhaps the most important country for the future of the world. Here is a country that merits no one’s condescension. All the convergent influences of the world run through this society: Hindu, Moslem, Christian, secular; Stalinist, liberal, Maoist, democratic socialist, Gandhian. There is not a thought that is being thought in the West or East which is not active in some Indian mind.” Some may cavil at his assertion that India is (or ever was) the most important country for the future of the world. But I want rather to endorse Thompson’s other claim —
namely, that there has been an astonishing diversity of intellectual opinion in India. This is a product of the country’s size, its cultural heterogeneity, and its daring (if admittedly imperfect) attempt to construct a democratic political system in a deeply hierarchical society. Indeed, among the countries of the so-called Global South, India is notable for the vigor, sophistication, and self-confidence of its intellectual traditions. In this respect it stands out even compared to its larger neighbor China, where the scholarly legacy of the past has been brutally crushed by a totalitarian state.
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