Reason and Rationality: Some Leaves from India’s Intellectual History

Krishna Mohan Shrimali’s address as the General President of the Indian History Congress session in 2017 is the lead article of the current issue of Social Scientist. At a time when dissent is being suppressed in the country by forces which claim to represent the Indian tradition, his address, a tour de force investigating the country’s intellectual history over several centuries, is a valuable reminder of the vigorous tradition of debate and discussion that characterised India throughout its past and constituted a hallmark of all religious tendencies. He also contests the presumed antinomy between ‘faith’ and ‘reason’, upon which a rejection of ‘reason’ is usually founded, citing instances, including that of Mahatma Gandhi, whose self-avowed commitment to reason was not diluted by his Hindu faith.