Ideological struggle like Voltaire, Rousseau's needed in India: Katju

An ideological struggle similar to that launched by thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau is the need of the hour in India before great political changes can happen, says former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju.

"In India, a powerful attack in the realm of ideas has to be launched against feudal ideas and customs to sweep away the centuries of feudal and irrational filth and falsehood, which is widespread in the country. And this is the job of patriotic, modern-minded intellectuals," he argues.

He says Voltaire, Rousseau and the French encyclopaedists launched a powerful attack on feudal institutions, customs and ideas then prevailing, which helped in the transition of feudal Europe to a modern Europe.

"Before great political changes can happen in India there has to be a sustained, long drawn ideological struggle, like that waged by Voltaire, Rousseau, etc. in Europe," he writes in his new book "The Shape of Things to Come: An Impassioned View".

In a chapter titled "Where are our Voltaires and Rousseaus?" he asks where the Indian intellectuals are today.

"There seems to be a total intellectual vacuum in India. Where are our great writers like Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Premchand, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Subramania Bharathi, Faiz, Manto and others today?"