Mankind, Indian society and an Individual

Mankind, Indian society and an Individual

The article does not deal with any particular issue but it is a collection of varied thoughts that derail my conscience at times and views that bring me back to life.

I act because I must

How and why to act in the right direction amidst the crises of life and the disarray in societal fabrics?

 A sane man spends a lot of his time in self evaluation. Mankind, thus has evolved from the ancient times to the one in which we live today. It is evolving towards a tomorrow that won’t be like today or yesterday. Amidst this flow of time, many a times we stop and try to see what we have been doing and try to articulate what we intend to do. Many a times we seek a teacher, a scholar or a higher soul to guide us. Many a times to fail to get such help and we tend to question our essence in the boundary less vast universe. We sometimes think of mankind and its miseries. The crises, through which we and people in different part of the world go through. Many a times we are broken and do not want to move ahead. But there are occasions when we are doubtless and truly happy. We find life enjoyable and we have an inner urge to extend our love towards others and spread love in the mankind. I have tried here, to take a walk in the vast domain of thoughts living in which sometimes we tend to map our life to some meaninglessness and loose hope. I have tried to seek and find a way through which mind can be made to stay stable amidst all the un-stability that we see around us and walk ahead in life with strong conviction.

                In her controversial novel, The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand presents her view about the mankind through one of the main characters of the story – Dominique. When asked whether she was criticizing ‘mankind in general’ when she said among other things, ‘We are all in a net, the net is waiting and we are pushed into it by one single desire.’ Dominique replies, ‘Yes.’ She goes on to claim that, ‘as a matter of fact, one can feel some respect for people when they suffer. They have a certain dignity. But have you ever looked at them when they are enjoying themselves? That’s when you see the truth.

               

                Though some might argue that Dominique’s view on mankind was not the central theme of the novel that Ayn Rand has presented in The Fountainhed, but the view of Dominique for the ‘mankind in general’ is arguable for the current contemplation. As, if she has a point then, do we need to think about the mankind – mankind that has a character such that it has a certain dignity only when it is in some form of suffering?

                Let us take the recent events in which celebrities and players were found involved in indecent acts during the IPL matches. Actor Shah Rukh Khan was accused of having used foul language, misbehavior, smoking and drinking in place where it was prohibited and also getting into a tussle with the security personnel and the staff of the stadium (which has decided not to allow the actor enter the stadium for next five years). An Australian cricketer was alleged of molesting a U.S. tourist and beating her fiancé at a five start hotel, Cricketers accused of match fixing. A video also showed millionaire Vijay Malyay’s son abusing T.V. channel reports. Surely one cannot feel great, if not worried, about such acts by mankind in its ‘affluent state’.

                There’s another picture of an ailing India. Always looking towards the unknowns Gods in the skies through spaces of their thatched houses or laying from footpaths for bread and butter among other basic necessities needed to sustain life. Even in the 21^st century any report on the poverty and deprivation in India can leave a sane person sleepless. The facts and figures on papers can be academic in nature for some, needed for statistical analysis of India’s growth, but they actually translate into harsh realities of life for millions of poor in India. According to a report by UNDP and Oxford University, about 645 million in India are poor (as on July 2010). To turn a blind eye from the deprivation of our own people and switch on the T.V. to watch glittery I.P.L. matches can itself be, in some aspects termed as indecent and unethical act for the rest of the mankind. But then comes a very valid argument of the common man who is trying to make his ends meet and trying to live a peaceful life in an environment where country’s democratic structure is itself under scanner and the report card isn’t showing good indications. The fact that out of 543 members of the Lok Sabha (2004), 128 MPs had charge sheets filed against them which in 2009, rose to 162 with 72 of them facing charges of being involved in heinous crimes like murder, rape and dacoity. The environment in the so called temple of the democracy – the Parliament, has been such that the censor board can easily rate any parliamentary debate cum spat with a rating of A considering the slangs and abuses used (well that may be a little exaggeration but the fact that the quality of debate has degraded from the times of Nehruvian ear cannot be denied). The incidents like tearing of the draft on Lokpal Bill shows the vulgarity to which our politicians can stoop down to in order to suppress the voice of the masses. The recent debate of regulating the Press is another sign of our deteriorating democratic structure.

               

                In his last speech to the constituent assembly, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had urged that the disputes in India be settled by constitutional means, not by recourse to popular protest. He had also warned against the danger of bhakti, or hero-worship, of placing individual leaders on a pedestal so high that they were always immune from criticism. We can see the present day assent of social worker Anna Hazare and his team in a similar direction. He gives ultimatums to a democratically selected government and threatens to go for fast unto death. The saddening part of the story is that this austerely man has to take these steps because the government has failed in maintaining a dignified status in the eyes of the general public. Politicians are presumed to by corrupt and lacking any sense of patriotism. When Ambedker was issuing his warning to the constituent assembly, he probably was not thinking about the ‘disputes in India’ to be of such a height where the elected government itself is seen as a villain.  The fact that there are corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and selfish corporate giants is a tragedy to this poor nation where there are innumerable great people in all sections of our society working selflessly to uplift the mankind.

                In his magisterial work, India After Gandhi, the historian Ramchandra Guha concludes by saying, ‘So long as the constitution is not amended beyond recognition, so long as elections are held regularly and fairly and the ethos of secularism broadly prevails, so long as citizens can speak and write in the language of their choosing, so long as there is an integrated market and moderately efficient civil services and army - lest  I forget – so long as one can Hindi films are watched and their songs sung, India will survive.’ Does the government’s behavior in the suppressing the public opinion by delaying the Lokpal Bill and chasing the RTI activist like enemies of the state point to near future date when all these hopes of Ramchandra Guha will start getting converted into things of the past, no longer in practice? People in India do not see politics with hope, but with contempt and anger today. Only time can tell how the political arena is made corruption free and how it evolves from the nepotism to a truly inclusive politics of ‘We, the people’. We are yet to see structural changes in the political structure of our country that will satisfy the public and make them assured that the powerful people are not robbing them when they are asleep and awake. Politics in India remains an uncommon land for the common man.

                Coming back to Ayn Rand’s point, is mankind really such? Is it really true that mankind can be seen with some respect only when it suffers? Or, should we settle with Dostovsky and believe that ‘people can be beautiful and happy without losing their ability to dwell on earth’. Are these thoughts in any way related? On one hand there is a view that says that compassion and contempt for mankind arises from their social and economic status and that there is as such no point in thinking about the mankind at all. All that matters is an individual’s freedom and his/ her self reliance. In that light corrupt Indian politicians should be not accused by team Anna and similar people, who are doing no good my showing their compassion to the mankind that is poor and ailing. Those who are rich are anyway, busy watching IPLs. On the other hand we have the view of the Russian philosopher, Dostovsky, who believes that we are not evil when in our ‘natural state’. Are our politicians in ‘unnatural state’ or are they in ‘natural state’ and thus not evil?

                With 55% of Indians living a miserable lives and a hand full of public servants found or accused guilty of corrupt acts, we cannot deny that there are evil practices rampantly practiced by the powerful and the people who elect their representatives do not deserve to undergo the miseries caused by the representatives turning into villains acting against the public good. Because of a handful of evil men in our society a vast majority of innocent people are forced to live a miserable life. Should we believe that ‘someday’ we will be free from all our problems and be able to ‘dwell on this earth’ and show our and recognize our ‘natural state’? I believe the song ‘we shall overcome someday’ lays emphasis on ‘someday’ so as to make us keep walking amidst all the miseries, crises and dark night as it is believed that only by walking at a steady pace can one day we reach better places and not by staying where we stand.

                Freedom remains a man’s beloved in all his miseries and despair. He can spend years in prison day by day looking towards the open sky and night by night talking to the ever sober and calm moon. While Jawaharlal Nehru was in jail he wrote, ‘I am too much of an individualist and believer in personal freedom to like over much regimentations’. The idea of Freedom gave the freedom fighters of different nations in different eras of History to endure unbearable pain and struggle even in toughest situations. Professor Amartya Sen argues in his book, ‘Development as Freedom’ that ‘Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development, they are also among its principal means.’ As per him freedom of some form opens the gates for the freedoms of other form. In his words, ‘Political freedoms (in the form of free speeches and elections) help to promote economic securities. Social Opportunities (in the form of education and health facilities) facilitate economic participation, Economic facilities (in the form of opportunities for participation in trade and production) can held to generate personal abundance as well as public resources for social facilities. Freedoms of different kind can strengthen one another’. The Nobel laureate clearly mentions how policy making should not only be concentrated on improving GNP of a nation but also to enhancing the effective freedoms of its subjects. Will our politicians of today come out of there petty political ambitions and look on these lines is again an answer that only time can provide.

                A look in the past shows that there was no date when the world can claim that there were no crises anywhere. But there we get to see the beauty in mankind. We have continuously evolved and grown and continue to do so with a hope for a better future. Those of us who stood for freedom went on to become leaders. Leaders - who were not afraid of crises. Most of them never got to see the ‘someday’ for which they stood and lived. Henry Kissinger rightly says that a leader, ‘assume the burden of acting on the basis of a confidence in his own assessment of the direction of events and how they can be influenced. Failing that, crises will multiply which is another way of saying that a leader has lost control over events’. The idea of having hope in ‘someday’ can be seen as an important tool to rejuvenate one’s soul and work hard for a better future without getting bogged down by the current crises as if left they will only multiply.

                The thought that working hard with a hope for a better future (when freedom will no longer be a dream) can be heard more strongly in the words of Yudhisthara, who when provoked by constant rebuke of his wife Draupadi finally tells why he acts, ‘I act because I must. Whether it bears fruits or not, buxom Draupadi, I do my duty like any housekeeper’.

                To conclude I will present two shlokas taken from the Shreemad Bhagwad, giving the torch of knowledge in the hands of mankind in the light of which it can cross the darkest of the nights to finally annihilate in the vast ocean of truth one day.

The words that came to us through the lotus lips of Lord Krishna, urge mankind to act and not yield to unmanly doubts.

O Arjuna, do not yield to unmanliness, this is not worthy of you. O chastiser of enemies giving up this base weakness of heart rise you

The last shloka of this 18 chapter long celestial poem is the conclusion that Sanjay draws from what he could understand:

Where ever there is the Supreme Lord Krishna the master of those following the science of uniting the individual consciousness with the Ultimate Consciousness and where ever there is Arjuna; there is firmly established fortune, victory, power and virtue. This is my resolve.

One can get dismayed by seeing the present day disarray in life and can succumb to one’s own selfish desire, which do not seize to exist, and in chasing these desires spend his/ her life only to realize at the death bed that one never lived. Or, one can choose to live life for high ideas and detach oneself from the pleasures and miseries of the transitory and fragile life to die with a smile and a spotless mind. As Nehru ji say, ‘There can be a God, or no God, but there surely is something God like in man’. I believe it’s worth exploring that God, that center of truth in our own selves in this lifetime.

References:

Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom

Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead,

Foydor Dostovsky, The dream of a ridiculous man

Ramchandra Guha, India after Gandhi

Jawahar Lal Nehru, The Discovery of India

Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy

Gurucharan Das, Difficulty of being Good

Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta.