Srinagar, Nov. 14 -- We have never had so many opinions within reach, or so little time to examine our own. Before breakfast, a screen tells us what deserves outrage, whom to admire and which controversy demands allegiance. We scroll, absorb and pronounce. Somewhere between the notification and the instant response, the quiet labour of thinking risks becoming an inconvenience.

Independent thinking is not the habit of disagreeing with everyone. Nor is it the vanity of imagining oneself immune to influence. It is the discipline of examining a claim before accepting it, distinguishing evidence from assertion and allowing uncomfortable facts to disturb comfortable beliefs. Above all, it requires admitting that conviction, however sincere, is...