Despite all the progress, the socio-political polarization is dividing societies like never before. We are moving away from any semblance of ‘fraternity’. Why is this happening? Can we do anything to stop it? Many of us are grappling with these questions.
This book offers a bold and innovative approach through the concept of a ‘meta-Tradition’. It defines meta-Tradition as a pan-Indian network of patterns connecting the diverse, local, micro-traditions, to one another. It argues that the 'Indian tradition' is in fact this ‘meta-tradition’ and observes that neither the Left nor the Right has realized this. It says that this meta-Tradition was able to create a uniquely harmonious fabric of India, over millennia, by balancing the local diversity with the harmonizing connections to the pan-Indian core. The book explores if the application of an European model based on ‘exclusivist’ identities, to India, has created a break from this meta-Tradition, endangering the equilibrium between harmony and diversity. It further suggests that the identity politics of today is systematically exploiting this situation. To build a fraternity, we must transcend both the Right and the Left, and establish a ‘Common Ground’. The book provides the initial articulation of this common ground, and that of the transcended ‘Right Liberal’ viewpoint. It implores the readers to re-discover the ‘meta-tradition’ and to reject ‘exclusivist’ tendencies, in order to end the polarization.
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Sushrut Vaidya
Sushrut began his career in technology and spent over a decade in USA consulting some of the largest corporations in the world. Now based in Pune, he heads the Business Innovation practice for one of the largest technology companies in the world. In addition to his engineering degrees, he also holds a master’s degree in Indology from Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune and another MA in Buddhist Studies from Savitribai Phule Pune University. In addition, he studies Ethnomusicology with a focus on Hindi Film Music. He has recently authored a monograph on noted composer-singer Sudhir Phadke, for the National Film Archive of India. Sushrut represents a much-needed independent viewpoint of looking at India that combines the understanding of both the ancient and the modern India, and one that is not tied to any political ideology.
