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

The Moral Compass

Mahatma Gandhi was a moral force, the like of whom India has not seen after his martyrdom, which we commemorate annually on 30th January, five days after the Republic Day celebrations. I was born many years after Gandhi’s assassination and I still remember the one minute silence we had to maintain on this day for many years during my schooling. Our teachers, who had experienced the dark shadow of the day when Gandhi migrated to his eternal abode, used to remind us of Jawaharlal Nehru’s immortal words of the light having passed away. Gandhi was more than a great leader. A moral force. A saint.

Having gone through President Pranab Mukherjee’s  eve of Republic Day address to the nation, I found these words most relevant and worth pondering: “It is time for the nation to reset its moral compass.”

It is long since we have heard such words from any leader of eminence, official or otherwise. On the contrary, every contemporary leader seems to be reluctant to speak of morality. The only references are to moral policing, moral brigades and moral hypocrites. True. No one speaks of moral authority because there is hardly a public leader with moral authority in India. In the absence of any, we only pay lip service to the Mahatma. Our powerful media also forgets him on the Martyr’s Day when the nation should be reminded of his sacrifice.

How can we reset our moral compass if our moral authority is on the decline?

Is there a moral force?

Does our religion, whichever it may be, give due importance to morality?

The rituals, customs and traditions of our religions, with the support of technology, hold sway over the followers while the voice that upholds moral teachings is almost lost in the dust and din of our festivities with glittering lights and deafening sound.

The voice of morality is a voice in the wilderness.

The President said: ”There is the law of the land. But there is also a higher law.”

When we break the law of the land with impunity, we weaken our Republic. When we break the higher law, “we wound the soul of our civilization.” As it happened when six men brutalized a young woman in a moving bus in our capital city last December. As it happened when a seven year old girl was sexually assaulted in a school in our port town in Goa. As it happens every day, every night with increasing frequency in our modern India.

Where Is the moral compass? And how are we going to reset it?

The Mahatma spoke of seven deadly sins: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, religion without sacrifice, and politics without principle.

Our religious texts are full of teachings about the ideal life that we should live. All religious directives can be reduced to a common maxim: Do unto others what you expect others to do unto you.

Instead of searching for the common truth in our religious texts, we are busy misusing our religions to divide people, build prejudice and hatred which results in blind violence. As Gandhi said, an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

The preamble of our constitution is an inspiring document which enshrines the soul of our civilization: equality, liberty and fraternity.

What better guidance can we seek than that which is encoded in all scriptures and our own constitution of India? 

The code of morality is already there in the compass. Are the pointers missing? Or are the pointers not sharp and clear? What is it that can drive the pointers to move?

The moral force. The moral authority. This force, this authority is different from the mere authority of the state or government. While law enforcing authority is very much required and derives its power from the laws of the state, the moral authority derives its power from the soul of our civilization and culture, from a higher power. Mere pious talk will not do. Example is better than precept. The person who inspires others to practice the moral code, should also be an inspiration himself or herself.

We need morally tall persons to be the pointers in the moral compass.

We don’t have to look at others or at established leaders to fill this vacancy. Each of us - whether parents, teachers, executives, directors, legislators, ministers, physicians, engineers, writers or priests (list not exhaustive) – has the potential to rise up to the occasion. 

Vacancy not advertised. It is the need of the hour. It is the cry of our civilization.

As James Q Wilson says it: “Crime is the price society pays for abandoning character.”

Published in The Navhind Times, Panorama 03.02.2013