Celebration of Ideas

We have just finished the 6^th edition of the D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas. It is good that the event continues to be organized even after the change of government.

Change, innovation and progress begin with ideas. Ideas move the world. One man with ideas can be a great force in bringing about change. It is fortunate that Goa was a pioneer state in starting a celebration of ideas. One of the speakers at the festival has said that she would like to do something similar in her own country.

Politicians have so many opportunities to address the people to the extent of boring them, and it was wise to have kept them out of the first five editions of the festival. The inclusion of the national spokesperson of the ruling party in Goa could have been avoided this year.

Recently President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, a think tank set up at Delhi by the publishers of The Hindu, an excellent national newspaper. In his inaugural speech, he said, “we were taught that the essence of democracy is the three Ds:  debate and discussion, dissent and finally decision. We were told by our teacher of political science that the three Ds are essential for democracy… When I retired from Parliament… I found there is another D which has been injected, that is, disruption.”

Disruption of parliamentary proceedings has almost become the order of the day in our parliament and in some state assemblies. It is not the voice of reason but the strength of the vocal chords that carries the day at times. It is not the raising of hands to exercise your vote but the raising of hands to strike and to disrupt.  This has become the common spectacle for the television viewers. 

Disruption is on the rise. Debate is on the decline. Where’s the place for ideas?

The decline of debate in our legislatures is fortunately not so much reflected in other non political forums. The letters to the editor in our newspapers and periodicals are a shining example of good debate. The panel discussions on television channels are a good example of exchange of ideas, except that they are too much controlled by the moderator or anchor, and the expression of a full point of view is curtailed by taking the mike away. Public lectures, memorial lectures, seminars, symposia, etc. are being organized by various NGOs. All these lead to dissemination and exchange of ideas, deepening of understanding, and broadening of outlook.

The ideas expressed by Prof. Lord Bhiku Parekh, on the third day of the Kosambi Festival, are worth recalling. While speaking on the topic “The Indian Tradition of Public Debate”, he said that protest and debate “form the heart and head of democracy”.  True. But in our country, like in a rising number of others, dissent is throttled and protest suppressed. Rulers, even those democratically elected, are becoming more and more intolerant. Dissent is sometimes treated as  not patriotic, and protest as anti-national. Not true.  The greatest danger to the future of the nation comes from those who are intolerant of others and other viewpoints. They confuse unity with uniformity. Unity is good and desirable. Uniformity is suffocating, stifling and most undesirable. Creativity happens in a free atmosphere. Uniformity produces a herd mentality and a copycat following.

The danger of uniformity prevailing over diversity arises with the ascendency of dictatorial tendencies. Mind you, dictators can rise from a democratic setting. When we become obsessed with just one idea, we become so blind that we choose to be followers of one strong leader and put him up on a pedestal, a pedestal so high that we may later find it difficult to unseat him from the throne.

In the last century it happened in Germany. Powerful orator. Demagogue. Mask. Hitler.

Those who do not learn from history repeat the mistakes of the past.

India, as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru so often said, is a country where unity prevails in the midst of diversity. Variety, not uniformity, is our defining characteristic. Party based parliamentary democracy, not leader based polity, is the best form of government for India to grow in progress, peace, prosperity and happiness. It is slow but steady growth. One man show may look fast and attractive, but it will be a disaster.

Ideas. Collective leadership. Diversity. Democracy.

All the above mentioned four concepts are interconnected. By celebrating ideas let us promote them all.

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 10.02.2013