The Truths and Lies of Nationalism as Narrated by Charvak

360 Pages·2.245 MB·English

by  Partha Chatterjee

The Truths and Lies
of Nationalism
as Narrated by Charvak

The Truths and Lies
of Nationalism
as Narrated by Charvak
Edited and with Annotations by

partha chatterjee
Cover image: Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, oil on wood,
1628, by Pieter Claesz. Courtesy of the Rogers Fund, 1949, and the
Metropolitan Museum, New York.
The Truths and Lies of Nationalism as Narrated by Charvak by Partha
Chatterjee was first published by Permanent Black D-28 Oxford Apts, 11
IP Extension, Delhi 110092 INDIA, for the territory of SOUTH ASIA.
First SUNY Press edition 2022.
Not for sale in South Asia
Cover design by Anuradha Roy
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2022 Partha Chatterjee
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may
be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in
writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Chatterjee, Partha, author
Title: The truths and lies of nationalism as narrated by Charvak
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2022] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438487779 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781438487786 (e-book)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Editor’s Preface vii
Introduction: Charvak Speaks 1
1 All Nations are Modern 5
2 All National Borders are Accidental 26
3 Princes Have No Place in a Republic 67
4 India is Not a Hindu Rashtra 101
5 India is Not a Pluralist Secular Democracy 132
6 India is a People’s Federation 179
7 People’s Alliances Strengthen the Nation 231
8 The Nation Belongs to the Entire People 274
Index 321

Editor’s Preface
n the old days, authors used to be commanded by the gods
I
to write a poetical composition or a treatise on theology.
Such things don’t happen any more. That is the reason
I find it awkward to explain the somewhat mysterious circum-
stances in which I came to produce this book.
While the Covid-19 pandemic was still raging in the au-
tumn of 2020, I found, one evening, placed outside the door of
my home in Kolkata, a sealed packet. Apparently, it had been
left there sometime during the day. It did not come by post or
any of the courier services that usually deliver mail because, if
it had, someone would have rung the bell and I was home all
day. In fact, the parcel did not bear any seal or inscription except
my name and address written in English script in a confident
cursive style rarely seen these days. My curiosity was aroused
because the package did not look like a piece of junk mail.
The thought that it might contain something more sinister did
strike my mind – after all, the times were not exactly normal.
But something in the look of the packet persuaded me that it
should be examined.
After dutifully spraying the packet with a disinfectant, I un-
wrapped it and found, within cardboard covers and neatly tied
in red string, what looked like a manuscript. On a closer look,
that indeed turned out to be the case. The text was written by
hand in prose in a widely spoken North Indian language that I
had no difficulty reading. The first page began with a heading in
two words: Cārvāka uvāca. It recalled a standard Sanskrit form in
viii editor’s preface
which a narrated story is reported, as, for instance, innumerable
times in the Mahabharata, with the words “so-and-so said”. In
this case, the reader was meant to infer that the text had been
spoken by a certain Charvak. But who put it down in writing?
Was the original language the same as the language of the text?
Was it a verbatim transcript or an edited reconstruction? There
was no way of knowing. Indeed, there was a mystery of origins
not only in the manner in which the text was delivered into my
hands but in the attribution of authorship within the text itself.
The speaker, Charvak, appears to be a person of an impossibly
indeterminate age, since he claims to have been present in places
and events separated by centuries. Perhaps the composer of the
manuscript (assuming it is a single person, which may not be
the case) intended to create a mythical persona from whose
lips might emerge the principles of a new concept of Indian
nationalism. The mode of address used in the text also suggests
that it is spoken to a young North Indian woman, possibly a
student, who is generally well informed but conventional in her
views. But I prefer not to speculate too much.
On reading the manuscript in its entirety, I became con-
vinced that, though it deals with highly controversial topics,
it has enough serious and closely argued material to be both
topical and thought-provoking for a wide readership today in
India, and perhaps even elsewhere. For this reason, I decided
not to publish the text in its original language but translate it
into English. Admittedly, this adds a further layer of separation
from the original text, whatever that might be. But I hope the
reader will, on finishing the book, agree with me that ensuring
the widest possible accessibility, including the possibility of
convenient translation into various Indian languages, was more
important in this case than fidelity to scholarly conventions.
The only editorial supplement I have added is a minimal set of
footnotes to clarify, expand, and where necessary correct factual
information contained in the text.
editor’s preface ix
I still have no idea how I happened to be chosen as a reader
of the manuscript. Was I meant to be the medium for the
circulation of this book in the public domain? Why was it not
printed and published in the way hundreds of political tracts
are put out every year, or circulated online? It is possible that
whoever was responsible for choosing me thought I might be
sympathetic to the views expressed in this text and thus might
serve as a more accredited messenger than some nameless link
on the web. To an extent, this is true. In particular, some of
the arguments made in the chapter on Indian federalism echo
what I have recently written, even though I would definitely
not endorse all of the statements made in the manuscript. On
the whole, even as I do not accept the reasoning on every con-
tention made by the enigmatic Charvak, and indeed seriously
disagree with some of them, I do feel that, despite its polemi-
cal style, the book deserves a patient reading. Of course, as is
well known, most conversation these days is peppered with
conspiracy theories. Much as I would like to believe that I have
not been unwittingly drawn into some nefarious plot, I cannot
entirely suppress the suspicion. Who knows?
As I worked during the winter of 2020–1 on translating and
annotating the manuscript, protests built up against the new
farm laws. Farmers from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh
began to gather in massive protest sites around the national
capital. I wondered what Charvak, wherever he is, was saying to
his interlocutor on how the central government had made laws
on a state subject without regard for the very different conditions
of agricultural production and marketing in the different parts
of the country – and merely to achieve an ideological vision of
a nationally unified agricultural economy fully integrated with
the big corporate business houses. Perhaps we will, in the near
future, see a sequel to this manuscript, even if I am not chosen
to be its messenger.
I had to make a few somewhat arbitrary decisions on the