Tuesday, May 29, 2007

INVITED ODIUM

In Algebra there is an obvious solution to all equations viz. all variables being of zero value. Though it is the obvious and universal solution to all algebraic equations, it is never accepted as the answer. We always look for the non-obvious solution. Fortunately or unfortunately a similar tendency does not exist in the case of History. Most of the students of History look only for the obvious conclusion. We cannot think of a better example of this than the case of Hitler and his infamous Nazism. It is almost certain that Hitler will always remain in history, stamped as an unscrupulous dictator who killed millions of people on the basis of his wrong beliefs and ideology. Even his most sympathetic biographers will not dare to look closer at the reasons for an ordinary Hitler turning into an extra-ordinary villain in his last few years. Historians and biographers will always tend to conclude with the obvious reason of Hitler being a born villain.

There are leaders who have caused the death of more people than Hitler. What makes Hitler utterly hopeless is because he turned against one of the most powerful communities in the world. The displaced Jewish community had settled in many parts of the world and Germany happened to be one of their abodes. What they did and how they behaved in Germany was totally different from how they lived in India. The case of Jews and Parsis in India is an all time favourite model for religious minorities anywhere in the world. We are still proud about India being one of the very few places where none of them were ever persecuted. But it was not the case in Germany before the advent of Hitler. The richer and more powerful among the minority community were aggressively into the risky business of financing. It is easy money and accumulation of wealth through easier means always leads to resentment. The situation is all the more risky if such resentment is building up within a majority community against a minority of migrants. How migration, encroachment and illegitimate accumulation of wealth can invite hatred towards communities is something our historians have always over looked. In the absence of such historical warnings, many such communities are busy digging their own graves in several parts of the world.

Disproportionate Demands

Migrant communities and ideologies are always treated with suspicion. Even in this twenty first century, there are nations where certain people and isms are not allowed to enter. But it has never been the case in India. From time immemorial, the native ideologies had advocated a policy of open mind and intellectual thirst for imbibing all that is good from anywhere in the world. One of the most significant Indian contributions to the world is the concept of a ‘secular’ religion, an apparently unachievable concept now. In modern context it is like having source code along with the software. Everyone is at a liberty to worship anything just like he or she can modify the software to suit his or her requirements. Freedom had a much deeper meaning in ancient India than anywhere else in the world. But several communities and individuals advocating alien ideologies, concepts and practices are changing all that in contemporary India.

In a society full of diversity as in India, the minimum expected of each group is to keep their demands and aspirations within legitimate limits. No group member can blame others for coming under physical and psychological attack, if their group consisting of merely 25% of the population in a province comes to occupy 75% of all top positions, wealth, land and facilities. The disproportionate demand for limited resources by discrete groups in a diverse society will never be tolerated whatever be the underlying logic and reasons. The social entropy that gets aggravated by unjustifiable demands of people in minority in any crowd is the spark for many bloody riots. A similar scenario is bound to emerge in any society or nation where greed for wealth and thirst for power drives an organised minority into a frenzy of seemingly unchallenged success against other unorganised minorities and the majority.

Greedy Encroachments

One of the clearest indications of a group of greedy people is their tendency to encroach into another’s or no-man’s land. This tendency is widely seen in many parts of India where demography is critically divided into powerful groups or when the ruling governments have an inherent weakness for taking tough actions. One look at the list of encroachers in any area is enough to conclude about the nature of such greedy encroachers. Many a time it is an organised attempt by an organised few belonging to an organised section. Their forefathers had tasted victory in this path and their godfathers are prompting them to conquer the land and the nation. ‘Organise and revolt’ was a noble slogan that empowered the underdogs everywhere around the world. But ‘organise and encroach’ is an ill-conceived strategy that will only fetch barren land but no nation.


Encroachments are not always limited to land alone. Desire for anything that is outside the realm of legitimacy is greed and attempting to get them by any means is encroachment. In India we can see this happening in many fields such as education, business, health services etc., etc. There is an organised attempt by organised communities to establish monopoly status in some of these key areas with an agenda to dominate others. The garb of social service for such shady attempts is an age old technique introduced by the missionaries in Africa and Asia. It was no doubt successful for a long time but not any more. The net effect of such dubious social service is the spread of same disease among other communities as well. Service with strings attached is no more paying for the monopolisers of charity. They are beginning to realise that sowing hatred will only result in harvest of more hatred.

It may be surprising but it is a simple truth that hate is easier invited than love. This logic grows directly out of another truth that it is easier to destroy than create. Creating love for you and your community in others’ mind requires that extra effort, whereas hate is easily invited by just one negative gesture. Sometimes years of confidence and love are destroyed by just one wrong step. Limiting one’s own aspirations to what is proportionately due and imparting the same lessons to the next generation are the best methods for any minor group to earn the love and respect of majority. That is exactly what we have seen in the lives of Parsis and Jews in India. And perhaps that was one of the main reasons why there was no need of a Hitler in India so far.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Philosophy of Power-Cut

Power manifests in so many forms – electrical, mechanical, hydro, divine and even political. Yet whenever we say power we mean only electricity. The importance and inevitability of power in our lives needs no elucidation. Barring aborigines and hard-core villagers in remote isolated areas, there is hardly anyone who can even imagine living without power for a few hours. Power generates the light in our life and there is hardly anyone who can survive without it. Fans, air-conditioners, electric trains, mobile phones and computers have undergone paradigm shifts from being luxury items to become part and parcel of our daily lives. Along with air and water, power and freedom (mental and physical) make up the stable-four foundations of modern life. If the first two provide tangible supports for our existence, the next two represent the intangible pillars of modern life. It has come to such a stage that the development status of any nation can be directly measured in terms of per-capita power utilisation rather than income.

It is quite common in a philosophical sense to understand a concept by realising the absence of it. As an example, the best way to understand the value of life is by imagining its absence. In spite of all the difficulties in our lives, it is still a boon from God to be alive. Death is always painful and it puts an end to all possibilities that may exist for an individual. But life is exactly the opposite. Every minute is full of possibilities, good or bad, and carries with it the power of creation. Same is the case with freedom. We can realise the value of freedom only when we go through times of slavery and bondage. Freedom of thought and expression is an invaluable luxury that we in India enjoyed since time immemorial. We realised the value of it only when we lost it temporarily for a few hundred years. The same holds good for power as well. Most of us realise the value of power only when there is a power-cut. The philosophical angle of power-cut sound trivial but it is a symbolic signal that forces us to realise the stark reality of modern times.

Taken for Granted

One of the most dangerous mistakes we make in life is taking things for granted. We learned from our forefathers that refreshing sunlight, drinking water and clean air were here in abundance during their times. And we have also been seeing and enjoying these ever since our birth. But do we realise the current and predicted status of these vital elements in the not so distant future. Many people have read and heard about it. But very few people bother to ponder over the impending catastrophe. Instead, they look for ways & means to save the day at least for them and their own children. It might sound outright selfishness, but it is still good for the world if everyone does it. If every one of us keeps our body, our home, our street and our town clean and tidy, the whole world would become clean. A physically clean and tidy world is the only guarantee for continued abundance of vital elements for life. Equally important, if not more, is the necessity for a mentally stable and accommodative set of human beings.

If air, water and sunlight were taken for granted much earlier, the current generation is doing the same mistake with regard to generation of current. Our dependence on power has already reached alarming proportions. The so-called urban people are the most dependent on power. A simple listing of the number of electric current consumers and their consumption in a few representative areas of any few cities in the world is enough to bring out the ever growing dependency on power. The growth would be unbelievable in your own city. And what is the corresponding growth in the generation of power and its cost of production. Except for the oil rich countries, all other nations are struggling with the Herculean task of arranging power to those who want it. Power generation capacity from the renewable sources of energy represents the ‘eligible power limit (epl)’ for any nation in the world. Greater the departure from this golden ‘epl’ figure, steeper will be the fall of those nations in the days to come. The only way to avoid this would be a remarkable breakthrough in the power generation technology from the renewable sources of energy viz. wind, sunlight, waves etc.

Develop Philosophically

Side by side with the laboratory research for technological breakthroughs, it is much more important to carry out re-search in our conscience for an appropriate philosophy to live with power-cuts. The rich and affluent have a lot to learn from the poor in this regard. Many learned people have observed that at the end of the day they see more happiness in a slum than in a rich colony. When they said this, they were definitely not overlooking the unhappiness and misery in the lives of those who go to sleep without food and water. The physical aspects of life are definitely not comparable in the two cases. Yet many among the slum dwellers develop a certain philosophy of not taking anything for granted. They are not sure of the next meal as much as they are of the next day. Nothing is taken for granted and nothing is ruled out either. Everyday life is an open ended game for slum-dwellers.


It is this unattached attitude towards life that is worthy of replication in our own lives. Development of any new attitude in life is achieved easier by wilful practice or by subjecting ourselves to trying times more often. The frequent power-cut in the urban areas is teaching a lesson to those who are trying to run away from realities. Youth today are getting increasingly used to comforts which are far above their legitimate right as human beings in this overcrowded world. One look at the lifestyle of youth in the oil rich countries is enough to conclude this. Many of them are totally cut off from the stark realities of life in other parts of the world. Many aspects of everyday life are taken for granted and abundance of money seems to remove all obstacles in life. Everyday life is a pleasure game in these parts of the world until an occasional power-cut wakes them up.

Thus power-cuts are providing the much needed wake-up message to a new generation which is walking away from the basics of nature. Loss of a whole day’s effort on a computer (if you have forgotten to save the file) is the best example in this study in philosophy. Just like a human body, a computer can also crash at anytime and a power failure is just one of its reasons. More frequent the power-cuts, more reminded we are about the uncertainties in life. Every second is pregnant with possibilities of losing anything in our possession. We cannot take anything for granted in life and that is what a power-cut highlights to the arrogant youth of today.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Temple Tamperings

The Temple Entry Proclamation by Maharaja of Travancore in 1936 is a shining episode in the history of our nation. The best part of this episode was the lead taken by top leaders from the so-called higher castes in Hinduism. At one stroke it abolished all restrictions on the so-called lower caste Hindus from entering any of the Hindu Temples. However, the next campaign for letting in non-Hindus as well (even those who believe in temples) did not get the desired support for those who wanted it. But the demand has never died down completely and it keeps resurfacing once in a while. Religious fervour in Kerala has peaked again in the last few weeks with the open demand by one of the ruling Marxist ministers for the entry of accomplished singer K.J. Yesudas, a practising Christian, into the Guruvayoor temple premises (where the temple customs prevent non-Hindus from entering).

The minister’s opinion (or direction) has been picked up by the issues-hungry multi-channel Malayalam media and ensuing debates have already started breaching all acceptable levels of religious tolerance and moderation. One such interesting debates involved two political leaders (Sebastian and Thomas), moderated by one John with ‘expert’ comments by two atheist ministers. While the panel and participation symbolised the pathetic condition of Hindu community in present day Kerala, the firm message emanating from most such debates is one of determined intimidation. Some people and certain ideologies have tasted blood in their design to push out the native beliefs from the soil of Kerala. And the ones to defend the eternal beliefs are disorganised and unprepared for any form of resistance. If the evil designs of interested parties follow the charted course, Kerala will soon pass into a different set of Gods’ Own Country very soon.

Real Purpose of Temples

Temples have always been contentious premises in Hindu society. This is partly due to the requirement of a minority and ignorance of a vast majority. For anyone who has bothered to study about the concept of God in Hindu religion, it is crystal clear that temples are not the only abode of God. How can something that is infinite in every sense confine itself to an insignificant area? God is an energy that is all powerful and all pervasive. The only attribute that we can undoubtedly assign to it is its uncompromising discrimination in favour of whatever is positively righteous (dharma). Life could not have started and evolved itself to the vast variety as we see today but for this unique aspect of godly energy. All other attributes and forms that we see now for God are born out of Man’s imagination, desire and convenience. Temples can never fully contain God but they can be definitely become special places from where we can focus our mind on God.

Then what is the real purpose of temples in Hinduism? It is nothing more than a place for thinking about God and doing something good for the community and society at large. To do something good for others we have to be good ourselves and that is what is attempted by going to a temple. The idol and ambience in any temple provide the right mix for those who want to focus their thoughts on the ultimate source of positive energy. Heat, light and sound energy charges up the confined space in all temples for the devotees to imbibe from. Modern science has reconfirmed the ancient Indian concepts of our body being an insignificant vehicle for the soul eternally dependent on the sources of energy (we burn off our dead bodies only because of its insignificance). In addition to providing the positive energy, temples also have the more important function of being the hub for distribution of wealth in the community connected with it. The flow of temple wealth must be towards doing something good for the underprivileged devotees and not into the pockets of temple authorities and priests.

Realise Temple Purposes

Realisation of the real purpose of temples is the only way for the survival of native beliefs. If we continue to hold onto distorted beliefs of benevolent gods in certain forms, shapes and sizes being resident only in specific temples, our enemies (within and external) will come again and again to loot them for the gold and diamonds. We have read about it in history and we are seeing it in front of our eyes in almost all the temple administrations. Even atheist politicians are interested in temples only because of the wealth accumulated in it. If there are systemic and systematic provisions to make use of it for the well being of a deserving society of devotees, the real threat to our temples will vanish in no time. There should be no business for non-believers in Hindu temple matters, just like in any other religion in a secular and democratic India.

It is quite surprising and saddening to note that much adrenalin is wasted for non-issues like entry of a particular person into a particular temple. In the current issue, the person who raised the issue is a self-proclaimed atheist speaks volumes about his intentions. In a way it is good that the famed singer himself called off the politician’s bluff. Any normal person in his senses would decline from visiting a house where he is unwelcome, for whatever reasons. Temples are private institutions and like all private institutions it should be the sole privilege of the limited public in that private community to decide about who should enter and who should not enter. In a non-communist country like India, the state has no business whatsoever in interfering in non-public institutions, especially religious ones. The very existence of state run religious institutions like Devaswom and Waqf Boards undermines the secular credentials of Indian nation. It is high time the government got out of temples and mosques, leaving them accountable only to Judiciary and a responsible public media.

All said and done, there is nothing new about the constant intimidation on the concepts, beliefs and rituals of native religions in any part of the world. Attempting to disprove the beliefs, ridiculing the rituals and threatening the believers are the normal ways for external forces to weaken an existing religious system in any country. The real strength of any system of belief will be tested during such external onslaughts. Money, muscle and manpower can bring about some momentum in any proselytization exercise. But the ultimate test of any belief system solely depends on the strength of its logic, rationality and conformance with Nature. No belief that cannot rule the minds of man can rule mankind. This has been proven many times and it is good for the temple aggressors also to remember this. In the meantime, we should definitely keep the temple gates locked for those who do not respect our beliefs.