ABSTRACT
The idea that human beings belong to one community irrespective of social and political boundaries is cosmopolitanism (Kleingeld and Brown 2006). Raja Rammohan Roy, a scholar and social reformer from Bengal, wrote a letter in 1831 to Talleyrand, the famous French diplomat who served under Napoleon Bonaparte. In his letter, Roy implored Talleyrand to abolish the passport system “to promote the reciprocal enjoyment and advantage of the whole human race.” He argued that religion, commonsense and science all lead to the conclusion that mankind was one great family with numerous nations and tribes as its branches (Aravamudan 2007: 11). Roy’s words encapsulate the idea of unity in diversity. Cosmopolitanism is broadly classified into ethical, political and economic strands (Kleingeld and Brown 2006). In the Indian context, cosmopolitanism can be seen as a framework that engages with and negotiates its way through the mindboggling diversity of India. In this view, cosmopolitanism is an enframing (gestell) of Indian culture as an identity in difference. The ancient Indian scripture, Rig Veda explains the idea of unity in diversity as follows: reality is one but the wise describe it in many forms (Ekam sat viprah bahudah vadanti). In this chapter, I argue that the idea of unity in diversity has permeated Indian cultural understanding, influenced pre- and post-independence debates that led to the formation of the Indian republic, and continues to influence contemporary discourse. The progression of cosmopolitan ideas has a dual motion, dialectical and antistrophical (Bloom 1991: 288–99). To the dialectical motion, I attribute the evolution of various institutions and processes while the relationship between the cosmopolitan and the vernacular is antistrophical. Both have played pivotal roles in the formation of linguistic states after independence and continue to define contemporary era of coalition politics in India.
