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Book Review
Reflections on our times
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Thematic collection of articles by a versatile figure addressing a remarkable breadth of concerns
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Venkatesh Athreya
THE STARKNESS OF IT: Ashok Mitra; Lotus Collection-An imprint of Roli Books, M-75, G.K. II Market, New Delhi-110048. Rs. 295.
This book is a collection of articles written by a remarkably versatile figure of our times, Ashok Mitra, one of the foremost Left intellectuals in the country, an economist of standing who had served the Government of India and later the Left Front government of West Bengal in important capacities, a former Member of Parliament, a prolific writer in both English and Bengali, and a fine human being whose sharp and often devastating pen conceals a warm and large heart. These articles formed part of the regular column “Calcutta Diary”, which Mitra wrote in the highly respected yet popular weekly journal, The Economic and Political Weekly. The book brings together 53 pieces, written between 1986 and 1993, and grouped under three thematic sections: “People”, “Power and Politics”, and “The Agony of Ideology”.
Unity of vision
The first thing that strikes one about the collection of articles is the remarkable breadth of concerns they represent. The breadth should not, however, blind us to another equally striking feature of the concerns the articles speak to. This is the essential unity of vision of the author that underlies seemingly disparate topics taken up in the articles. All the articles are informed by a passionate commitment to justice and opposition to oppression, inequality and hypocrisy of all hues. All the pieces, without exception, are highly readable, which is not to say that one always finds oneself in agreement with the author. In fact, sometimes the cynicism of a piece can be exasperating. There is, in some instances, a reluctance on the part of the author to face up to the complexity of a given political context or set of constraints on the ground, possibly out of an apprehension that any admission of such complexity or constraints could become, for a section of the progressive forces, an excuse for inaction or compromise with the enemy, as it were. Sometimes, the accounts get intensely personal, with the use of first names and allusions to private circles of acquaintances and friends with which the general reader would naturally not be at all familiar. These limitations notwithstanding, the pieces come through as exceptionally authentic, without any trace of contrivance.
Reminiscences
The section on “People” consists of pieces mostly centred on some significant person, and what we get are lovely vignettes, with the author invariably choosing the particular reminiscence to reflect on larger social issues of our times. The prose is endearing without being sentimental, and the reflections enable us to glimpse the expanse of Mitra’s reading and scholarship.
The 16 pieces in this section make for fascinating reading and recall to mind times gone by when proper use of the English language was somewhat less exceptional than it is now.
The 16 pieces in the second section of the collection “Power and Politics” are, unsurprisingly, rather more contentious, since they pertain to highly contested terrains. It is sad to observe that sometimes the author’s bitterness at things not turning out quite the way people sharing his broad outlook may have wished leads him to comments bordering on cynicism. But it must be added that this feeling is quickly followed by the realisation that one gets from other pieces that AM (this being the pseudonym he wrote the columns under) can never turn a complete cynic. There is an endearing, Micawber-like hope that permeates even those pieces where the author expresses his frustration at the Left — to which, for the most part, he proudly belongs — not being, in his opinion, sufficiently prepared to face the challenges of building a more democratic and less inegalitarian India.
Critique
The third section “The agony of ideology”, consisting of 21 pieces, is brilliant, and unrelenting in its critique of the neoliberal period and policies which have caused enormous distress in rural India. AM is unfailingly anti-imperialist, and absolutely on target in most of the pieces in this section. He does not pander to the new fashions of identity politics, but remains firmly rooted to an interpretation of contemporary society in class terms, without, however, losing sight of the importance of issues of gender and caste. He pillories, without mercy, those who were in government in Delhi through the 1980s and early 1990s, for their rapid abandonment of the path of economic and self-reliance, and for their rapidly unfolding capitulation to U.S. imperialism. He also notes their opportunist compromise with the forces of communalism. The other important point AM highlights effectively is the short shrift given to genuine federalism by successive rulers at the Centre, also observing in the process that the Constitution itself, based as it was on the colonial GOI Act of 1935, was highly prone to centralism.
Finally, while noting that AM’s judgments are sometimes too hasty or too easily dismissive of the complexities on the ground, I would strongly recommend this book to all concerned with the important social, cultural and economic issues of the contemporary world in general, and India in particular. The rather large number of printer’s devils, one hopes, would be eliminated in the next reprint.
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