Disturbing Thoughts on a Disturbing Week goneby

 The week that had gone by has left us with thoughts too disturbing for anyone with a desire for fairness, justness and an optimistic bright future for the nation. The news and events that made headlines during the last few days cause anxiety and worry as to the shaping of India in the next few years. The worrisome news as listed under create a sense of unease and disquiet with regard to the direction we are heading that looks more Orwellian now than at any other time.

1. The current logjam in Parliament paralyzing all legislative business in much the same way that saw BJP’s repeated disruption of the Parliament during the UPA’s second innings.

2. The targeting of the social activist Teesta Setalvad (who with her single-minded devotion to the cause of justice for Gujarat’s Muslims provided legal support to the victims of Gujarat riots of 2002 and thus offended those in absolute power today) for alleged violation of FCRA

3. The new book by the Pakistani writer, Nisid Hajari, Midnight Furies: the Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition,

4. The (im)possibility of breaking the Indo-Pak jinx

5. The great oratory of Shashi Tharoor at the Oxford Union Society debate on British reparations for their colonial looting of India, and

6. A couple of  articles in different newspapers highlighting the absence of right-wing intellectuals in  the present Modi regime  that have got the  hackles up of every thinking and well meaning person.

Of the six mentioned above, the most disturbing factor is  the last one that shows India to be a post- idea nation where ideas and intellectualism are neither present nor desired by anyone-in particular the legislators who have been elected to be a part of the supreme legislative authority of  the country. The left leaning intellectuals who had  held sway for more than six decades in Independent democratic  India except for a short period when the right wing was in power have yielded to the right wingers whose intellectual efforts stop at freeing India of left winged intellectuals, without finding adequate replacements with equal if not greater intellectual vigour. It is this lack of intellectualism that is at the root of the stand-off in the parliament and in the hounding of all those who had dared to challenge the mighty and the powerful for “crimes that no decent human being should even contemplate.” – (Julio Ribiero in the Indian Express).

I do not want to apportion blame to the Congress or the BJP for the current imbroglio in parliament for both are playing the same game with roles reversed.  Unlike the Congress which was forced to make its ministers resign on charges that did not stick beyond the date of their resignation, the BJP is brazen to close its eyes to acts that attract legal sanction for corruption on the strength of its numbers in the Lok Sabha and its lung power to out-talk the opposition. The tit for tat game, the attempt to pit one scam against another of the opponent has exposed the bankruptcy of moral and intellectual fibre of our law makers. The argument is your scam is not smaller than mine and mine is not bigger than yours and therefore let us wear our scams on our sleeves. The PM who had promised a scam free government would have really gone high up in esteem had he –known for his  strong man image- got the resignations of the three ladies in one go and prevailed upon the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister to resign till such time all of them proved their innocence. The Congress could have done the same to get back into people’s favour by asking the Chief Ministers of the Congress ruled state, allegedly involved in scams to resign on high moral grounds. But Namo (he represents the BJP and the NDA)and the Congress have let go of an opportunity to rise up and redeem the sagging fortunes of their parties.  The sad truth is that we lack both intellectual and moral virtues.

What are these two kinds of virtues? According to Nicomachean Ethics, Man has two parts- the rational and the irrational. The rational part is divided into the contemplative part that deals with truths obtained from knowledge that includes a study of Science, Mathematics and Humanities and the calculative part that deals with practical matters of life. Right reasoning with respect to the contemplative intellect gives us permanent and eternal truths. With the practical intellect, right reasoning corresponds to proper deliberation that leads to making the right choice.  The wise person is one who combines knowledge that gives eternal truths with practical wisdom to pursue good life for oneself and for one’s society. This is what is expected of political leaders who should cultivate prudence that combines knowledge and practical wisdom. Socrates in Ethics 6 said “as long as knowledge existed in man, he was unable to sin and that if anyone sinned, he sinned in ignorance.”

In today’s political system, there is hardly a thought bestowed on education, learning and prudence. A majority of our political leaders do not feel the need for books and knowledge. They are well versed in the art of promises and persuasion to garner votes during election. How the promises can be fulfilled is of no concern as that question involves a good knowledge of society, economics, state of the nation, principles of right and wrong, understanding  of what is equitable and just and arriving at all  these through a process of good deliberations. The intellectual virtues help us to know what is just and admirable, and the moral virtues help us to do just and admirable deeds. It is the lack of wisdom that is the cause of the drift that we see in governance. It is also the cause of vendetta politics that is practiced by all parties when they come to power. It is also the cause of irrational anger that is spewed on those who are perceived threats to those in power. The political arena is not a bull ring where the fight is between the matador and the bull-each trying to kill the other. It is not a battlefield to settle personal scores but it calls for intellectual debate on national and international issues shorn off false claims, prickly innuendoes and vengeful ire. The debates that we see on the TV involving the spokespersons of different parties are not intellectual discussions but descend to the level of cacophony ending with high decibel shouting and counter shouting. Parliament and TV studios where such debates take place resemble the Tower of Babel with argumentative Indians verbally slicing one another.

Hence there is hardly any scope for engaging in any meaningful dialogue with anyone with a different view point. Though there is a lot written about the lack of intellectuals among the Hindutva or the Indian right groups, the sad truth is the decline of the left intellectuals in the country.  There was Nehru-Rajaji-Sardar Patel trio during the first few years of post -independent India. The one was a humanist, the second was an intellectual and the third was strong in practical wisdom.  They steered the nation during those turbulent times that witnessed the gory bloodbath of partition soon after independence.

Today questions are raised as to why there is no one of such exalted stature to put away the Midnight furies that continue to simmer even after seven decades. Nisid Hajari’s book explores this unresolved question as to why Indo-Pak relations are jinxed. There may be many readers in India who will frown at the US based Pakistani writer’s  psychological portrayal of Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah whose personal frailties and foibles, according to him,  were responsible for the partition that ended with blood curdling genocide of the worst kind of both Hindus and Muslims. This paranoia continues as the fanaticism of Pakistan is equally inflamed by the fanaticism of the Hindutva brigade.  One does not have to be judgemental about Hajari’s criticism of Jinnah, “the hot-tempered Muslim bania”, Nehru, the equally “hot tempered  Brahmin aristocrat” and  Gandhi who appealed to the Hindus in their idiom of Ram Rajya, causing disaffection to Muslims. That is a new perspective he has brought in from his reading of the partition history.  But to the uninitiated minds that have either willingly or unfortunately been denied learning and scholarship, this new perspective is likely to make matters worse.  I will not be surprised if a fanatic group   ironically moulding itself as Gandhi brigade will resort to boycotting Hajari’s books and compelling the Indian government to proscribe its sale in India. The point to be noted is the question Hajari raises at the very beginning of the book as to whether we shall remain “handcuffed to history”. Again the root of the problem on either side of the shadow line dividing the people of India and Pakistan is the absence of the contemplative and the calculative part that gives the strength to free themselves of the handcuffs that history and Britain have left behind as our legacy. 

In this bleak scenario where ignorance, fanaticism, ego and rigid stances prevail, we had the good fortune to listen to the oratory of Shashi Tharoor, who is known for his sophisticated  thought and expression.  His analysis about the rise of Britain as an industrialized nation on the wealth and industry of the colonized Indians was not aimed at pleasing the Hindutva brigade which is opposed to all that is West or inciting the erstwhile colonized and the present independent India to strike back, but to present the facts of history in a new light. To the simple minds, unschooled in the history of nations and history of human thought and psychology, his words do sound heavenly as though they highlight the greatness of India that was impoverished by the loot of the British. But Shashi’s oratory was not to extract compensation from Britain for its acts of marauding, but to make the humanist point that Britain should genuinely feel a sense of remorse and guilt at what it had done to India. The legacy that the British left behind include the all India railway transport system, the steel frame,-the Indian Administrative Service ,modelled on the Indian Civil Service of the British Raj, the exposure to western thought and culture through the greatest gift of English language. Even if all of them had been  planned to serve the cause of the British, the legacy stays with us today and has contributed enormously for the growth and development of the nation.  The understanding of the core truth of Shashi’s speech  and the missing of it shows the vacuity of  intellectual power. One has to avoid being a jingoist with a cry “all hail, Shashi,” for attacking the British and seek the kernel of his message. This is possible only if we are educated and well trained to be liberal and catholic to accommodate differing points of view.

I had started with disturbing thoughts on a disturbing week gone by,  but I do see some silver lining- in the book of Nisid Hajari and in the oratory of Shashi Tharoor both of which demand nuanced minds to cultivate prudence that could free us from the handcuffs of history.