Calling those who question ‘dimagi Naxals’ insensitive, says Gitanjali Angmo

New Delhi: Gitanjali Angmo, wife of renowned climate activist and educator Sonam Wangchuk, on Thursday said that calling someone a ‘dimagi Naxal’ is a very insensitive way of describing a person simply asking questions.

Speaking to IANS, Angmo also spoke about what she described as a ‘slave mentality’ in India’s approach to education, science and intellectual frameworks, saying that the country often continues to follow systems developed elsewhere without sufficiently examining its own intellectual traditions.

“Definitely, there is a slave mentality. Because all our frameworks, look at economic frameworks, educational frameworks, physics, mathematics, everything, whatever theorem names are there, when the Renaissance happened in the 16th and 17th centuries, when many European scientists, physicists and philosophers put forward different frameworks, India is following those same ones today,” she said.

“Everyone knows that at that time, when the Renaissance was happening in Europe, in every university, people used to study Sanskrit as a language,” she added.

Angmo said several prominent Western thinkers and scientists had engaged with Indian philosophical texts and argued that Indians often accepted ideas through interpretations presented by others rather than engaging directly with the original sources.

“We know Oppenheimer read the Gita, Einstein read the Upanishads, and Plato and many Western philosophers and scientists read Indian texts and drew ideas from them. But many times, they presented them as their own theories, and we accepted that second-hand version. What they said after reading our texts, we accepted as the same hand-me-down,” she claimed.

On the use of the term ‘dimagi Naxal,’ Angmo said questioning has traditionally been an important part of Indian philosophical thought and education.

“To me, calling someone a ‘dimagi Naxal’ is a very insensitive way to describe someone who asks questions. In our own tradition, enquiry has never been considered negative. The Upanishads also have a consistent tradition of questioning. Nachiketa questions Yama. Throughout the Gita, Arjuna questions Krishna. Arjuna even disagrees with Krishna’s views at times. So, would we call Arjuna a ‘dimagi Naxal’? No,” she said.

“Because enquiry was part of our education system. Asking questions was a good thing. Yes, intent is important. Some children genuinely ask questions out of curiosity, while others may do so for other purposes. Therefore, it’s not wrong to ask questions; we should consider the intent behind the question,” she told IANS.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had used the phrase ‘dimagi Naxal’ during his Independence Day address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15.

IANS