ABSTRACT
This chapter brings into the discussion a neglected modern Indian philosopher, Vaddera Chandidas, who wrote a groundbreaking metaphysical text titled Desire and Liberation: The Fundamentals of Cosmicontology that proposed a radical reading that excavated the politics of non-being. In the context of discussing Deleuze’s account of Bergson’s idea of non-being, the chapter discusses different versions of non-being as available in Indian philosophy. These versions are drawn from both classical Indian philosophy, including Vedas and Upanishads, and modern Indian philosophers such as Chandidas. The next section discusses Deleuze’s analysis of Bergson on the relation between non-being and negation. While Bergson rightly traces the roots of non-being to negation, he however renders it to intuition. Extending Bergson’s diagnosis of negation, the chapter shows – using Chandidas’s work – how negation in the form of pre-existence and post-existence that negate existence is made possible by permanence. Pre- and post-existence are permanent; in contrast, existence is rendered impermanent and changing. This, thus, exposes a conspiracy of metaphysics that renders the real existence as fleeting and impermanent in contrast to the non-being that is projected by intellect as real. Extending Chandidas’s view, the chapter argues that it is permanence that makes hierarchy possible and in turn makes inequality possible. Hence, this provides a philosophical base to the political discussion regarding equality and inequality.
