Malcolm Muggeridge: A Restless Pilgrim

 Malcolm Muggeridge: A Restless Pilgrim

Malcolm Muggeridge was a man who never quite fit neatly into any box. Journalist, BBC commentator, war correspondent, editor, author—he lived a life as colourful as it was unpredictable. Born in 1903, he witnessed most of the turbulent twentieth century first-hand, and he passed away on 14 November 1990 at the age of 87.

When he died, American writer William F. Buckley Jr. paid tribute in The Washington Post, calling him “a wonderful, wonderful man, a great wit, and a brilliant, brilliant analyst.” It was praise well-earned. Muggeridge was known for his razor-sharp mind, his piercing wit, and his refusal to swim with the tide simply for the sake of conformity. As he once quipped, “Only dead fish swim with the stream.”

In his younger years, Muggeridge flirted with communism, drawn by its ideals. But life has a way of rearranging convictions. A posting to Russia exposed him to the brutal realities of Soviet rule, including the man-made famine that devastated Ukraine. Disillusioned, he became one of communism’s fiercest critics.

Perhaps his most enduring legacy came from a book. In 1971, he published Something Beautiful for God, the first biography of a then-little-known Albanian nun working in the slums of Calcutta—Mother Teresa. That book introduced her to the world, and the world has not forgotten.

After the Second World War, Muggeridge embraced Christianity, a faith that would deepen and sharpen his moral vision. In the late 20th century, he became a prophetic voice warning against the moral drift of Western society. His verdict on the media was characteristically blunt:

“The media today—press, television, and radio—are largely in the hands of those who favour the present Gadarene slide into decadence and godlessness.”

In 1988, at the age of 85, he entered the Catholic Church along with his family. His final book, Conversion, traced his life as a spiritual pilgrimage—one that led him from youthful ideologies to the hard-earned peace of faith.

India, too, had its brief chapter in his life. Muggeridge once taught at U.C. College, Alwaye, in Kerala, and later served as editor of The Statesman in Calcutta. These years left him with a lasting affection for the country, even as his restless spirit kept moving on.

In the end, Malcolm Muggeridge was never merely a journalist or commentator. He was a seeker—a man who wrestled with ideas, stood apart from the crowd, and kept looking for the truth until he found it..

I have come to know his works  closely when I got the chance to read his biography of Mother Theresa.In that book, he mentions how he became a changed man because of the time he spent with her for the short movie he made on her.I have often been  dazzled by his observations on contemporary mores and his critical reflections.

Some of his observations on faith, morals and contemporary times are the following:

"Enormous gratitude to my creator overwhelms me often.Life is a blessed gift.the spirit which animates it is one of love, not hate or indifference.Death is part of a larger pattern;it fits into a larger, eternal scale.

Faith tells me it is possible to to establish with this loving Creator  a living and loving relationship.

For me the notion of God comes from a series of the oneness of life...my past, failure , universe...It is inconceivable  to me that there could be this oneness without a One : a unitary spirit behind it.

I see in the world, this phenomenal world, in nature...this mysterious connection, this oneness which to me presupposes one being, a oneness behind all life.

Every happening, great and small ,that is to say , is a parable whereby god speaks to us and the art of life is to get that message.

 (After winter, spring will come..) Now I turn my glance from the window into my own heart,seeing there the litter and the dust of wasted years...this too--the interior of my heart seems a dead landscape.Yet faith tells me that it, likewise, can have a spring  in the rebirth promi budding with holy love;the old lusts burning with spiritual appetite...in the bright radiance of God's universal love.

for myself, i consider in all sincerity  that I have been an abysmal failure.Even qualities i consider admirable I have but poorly , if at all,exemplified."