Every Individual is Different
My nephew in US, a young boy around ten years, asked his mother to
request her writer-uncle to write a book on “Every individual is
different”. While I was stunned at this
strange request from a ten year old, I realized how the fact of being
individually different is for us, the adults, more of a facetious remark than
an acknowledgement of an indelible truth. Obviously this young boy mustv have
viewed with awe and surprise the variation and differentiation that he saw
around him, but we grown-ups accept it as the bald truth and so does not merit
too much discussion. Very likely, the boy’s query must have stemmed from his being
constantly chided that he is different and not being like his parents or like
any of his friends who are toppers of their class.
The boy’s natural acquiescence to the prevalent difference among individuals
brought to my mind Henry Higgins famous lines in MY Fair Lady:
Why can’t a woman
be more like a Man?...
Why does everyone do what the others do?
Can't a woman learn to use her head?
Why do they do everything their mothers do?
Why don't they grow up, well, like their father
instead?
While Higgins is at his sarcastic best attacking women for not being
like men(which he would have disliked if there was no gender disparity), he
fails to appreciate the truism:
Women are women,
men are men
And the twain
shall never meet .
All of us like Higgins insist on sameness or identicalness as against
distinctness or individuality. The reason for insistence springs out of our
sense of superiority that should serve as a model for others to follow. It
flies in the face of existential reality of diverse species co existing in our
planet. On the wider expanse of the
universe, we see different planets and
stars present in the sky, despite their
structural and qualitative differentials. Sun releases light and heat, but moonlight
is cool and dusky. All that we see around
us is variety. Even our five fingers are not alike. But each one is
pre-programmed to do a particular task. The middle finger cannot be a
substitute for the thumb or the thumb a substitute for the ring finger etc...
Look at our physical structure. The eye can only see, it cannot hear. The ear
can only hear but cannot see. The food pipe lets the food go while the windpipe
is for breathing. Heart cannot do the kidney’s function and vice versa. Every
organ has a specific assignment to keep the body functioning. If anyone of them
deviates from its assigned path, the body collapses.
Before we came into the world, we had no clue where we came from or the
purpose for which we are born or the nature of our self. We don’t even have a
voice to refuse to be born or to express a wish to be born in a particular
country or family... It all comes down to the indisputable fact that we were
pre- programmed even before we were thrown into this world. Our life moves along
a pre- designed programme. What we call ‘I’ is not an ‘I’ that we want it to be,
but an ‘I’ that has been set in motion before it came into the world. Each ‘I’ is unique and it is never replicated.
This is the best evidence of the presence of God , the Master designer who
alone can programme many billions of
billions of ‘I’s where no two ‘I’s are similar. What is given to every
individual is a unique ‘I’ and it is that uniqueness we have to discover and
live up to its potential. It is patently absurd to expect interchange of ‘I’s. We have to constantly bear in mind
‘I’ is ‘I’
You is ‘You’
and the two shall
remain forever different.
The world will be a better world if we accept its built-indifference
and not seek conformity. But deep within we all desire conformity. Parents want
their wards should be in their mould. They beam with pride when their children
are complimented as chips of the old block. Then there is the family pride,
caste affinity, racial distinctness, cultural congruence, national identity –
all these fundamentally militate against acceptance of difference, giving rise
to chauvinism, hyper-nationalism, insularism and isolation. Hitler’s call for
united Germany incited xenophobic nationalism under the three rules he
promised-one people, one Reich, one
leader. Hitler fell and so did Napoleon, Mussolini and many dictators who
in the name of uniformity, ethnicity, homogeneity and racial identity attempted
to obliterate all differences among people.
The world is witnessing a hark back to an era of authoritarian rule,
different and distant from rule by democracy.
All over the world, we see a forcible thrust of hyper-nationalism that has
given rise to intolerance of differences. No ruling party wants opposition and
there is a constant attempt to stifle any form of dissent. Plato recognized the
consequences of the rule of a single, powerful leader that would degenerate
into tyranny. The rise of a strongman will breed greed based self-centric rule that
will gradually descend to anarchy.
India has followed till recently the principle of unity in diversity.
Hinduism has never been a proselytising religion and it is famed for its
syncretism- fusion of differing
systems of thought or belief in religion,
philosophy and ideology. That is why we love argumentative discourses. The
other great democracy is US, which was till recent times known for its
acceptance of cultural mosaic. The salad bowl culture of US has been its
juxtaposition of different cultures that are not forcibly turned into a
homogenous culture. Each culture keeps its own distinct qualities. And has made American society one of many individual cultures and has
brought about a mixed culture that is modern
American culture. Today both India and US are in danger of losing the essence
of pluralism that made it possible to accept democratic rule of
governance respecting difference.
.Democracy based on liberty, equality, and fraternity is the only form of governance that is in line with the universal concept of diversity, plurality and multiplicity that are genetic to the created universe. Disturbing the differences is disturbing the order of the universe. Respecting individual difference in family, society and the world is key to establishing order and harmony.The Master Designer has created the universe with differences. Let us keep it that way for we cannot outrival Him.
La de’mocratie semble mort; vive la de’mocratie (Democracy
seems dead; long live democracy)
