India: A Distorted View in Ayan Rand’s Atlas Shrugged

Abstract

Atlas Shrugged published in 1957, highlights the role of the mind in a man’s existence and exemplifies a new moral philosophy that was starting to influence mankind in the twentieth century; the morality of rational self-interest.  Since its publication, the book has been a topic of intense debate for several reasons. Rating it as one of the top ten books of twentieth-century John Bowdon considers it as the “most fascinating book of the twentieth century” (Butler-Bowdon 247).  Some reviews rate it next only to Bible in terms of popularity. The book is a dystopian allegory in which men of action from all spheres of society are found struggling against the stifling regulations imposed by an over-reaching government, which leads to the shutdown of one industry after another, arresting all production, and bringing the world economy to its knees. Rand’s philosophy, which she refers to as “Objectivism” in essence, is the philosophy of rational individualism and taps onto the American ideals of freedom, hard work and individualism. The spokespersons in the book advocating for the mystics of muscle and the mystics of spirit, representing the clash of two ideologies, communism and liberal capitalism, provide the thesis and the antitheses of her philosophy. Though the book was debated for many years, Rand’s ideas are now taken as conventional wisdom and therein lies the real fear that a distorted image of India, Indian culture and Indian philosophies, evident in Rand’s work will be established in the minds of the new readers.