“If an Indian or Chinese dies after living a virtuous life, he doesn’t go to heaven. He goes to New York”

He is one of India’s most celebrated and eclectic intellectuals — the dizzyingly intelligent and ever provocative Ashis Nandy.

Clinical psychologist. Political philosopher. Sociologist.

Ashis Nandy is no ordinary academic: he is a university unto himself. He has charted the country’s psychograph for close to six decades, analyzing its attitude to caste, religion, modernity, nationalism, ecology, development, cinema, and the individual self. That might seem a daunting line-up, but when he speaks, Ashis is anything but daunting: he is a delicious prickle in the brain; a sizzle of ideas; a mental wasabi shot.

In fact, he’s sheer prime-time entertainment. Every time he opens his erudite mouth, Ashis has different sections of the country in a twist, as he presses hidden buttons, exposes self-myths, and questions everything we take for granted.

Here are just one sample of what he says: if a person in India or China dies after living a virtuous life, he doesn’t go to heaven—he goes to New York. And that’s just a warm-up opening line for a major critique on the borrowed route map we have chosen as a nation.

At Algebra, he put India on the Couch, and dissected the brain and heart of the country. If you ever wanted to understand who we are at present as a people, where we are headed, and what future we are leaving for our children, trust us, this is not a session you want to miss.

On Hinduism vs Hindutva

“In the battle between Hinduism and Hindutva, I’m optimistic. My definition of extremism, particularly violent extremism of all religions, is the difference Vivekananda pointed out: those who believe their gods and goddesses defend them, and those who defend their gods and goddesses. I believe those who believe their gods protect them don’t align very long with the latter.”

On Savarkar

“Hindutva as its founder himself claimed, is not Hinduism. Some of the basic principles as Savarkar himself enunciates them are either not known or deliberately ignored. Savarkar was an aethist. He denied his wife a Hindu funeral and he did not want Hindu rituals at his own funeral.”

On the need for a new framework of development 

“The American model of development is impossible for India. America has a third of our population and uses a third of world resources. For India to develop like America would mean we use 100% of the world’s resources. All other countries must cease to exist.”

For the full wasabi-shot that Ashis served up, watch the full session above