What an Individual deserve ?

Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self. ---B. R. Ambedkar

Individualism will loose its meaning if it becomes part of the crowd or even ignore society. Because we have to recognize the complex inter dependencies of modern life.

To become rebellious, one needs a certain understanding, a certain alertness, a certain unprejudiced mind. Even life itself is a lesser value than our individuality and our rebelliousness. When one is sacrificing oneself for something far greater and more beautiful -- for freedom, for individuality, for expression, for creativity; one is sowing seeds for future generations of liberty.

Rather than only contempt for authoritarianism, one needs sufficient wisdom to architect new system. Discontent with current regime is a sufficient, but not enough requirement for a successful revolution. More than challenge to establishment, the minimum condition for bringing new order is the necessity and importance of political and social rights. It needs a profound and thorough conviction of the justice.

One needs to exist as a person whose voice matters precisely because it can't be easily pigeonholed or ignored into a particular ideology. Values of liberty and justice are building concepts but not present the architecture and position of the designed system. But what it leads us to a basic yet profound question : What do we deserve in the life ?

Here, I will take a sudden break and redirect article to What Do We Deserve? By Namit Arora to understand this complex topic. Also, I have been advised by the author to start with his excellent Harvard undergrad lecture : Michael Sandel on Justice

Waiting for Ayodhya Verdict

Using Hinduism or Islam as a badge of cultural identity rather than acting from the tenets of humanism has sown seeds of bigotry and hate in us. We misguided look at the past for golden age to prototype our utopia of the future. Faith dilutes the rational thinking of the people and the destruction of Babri Masjid was one shameful incident of independent India based on such blind faith.

Under the evil ideology, people lose humanity & descend into organized homicidal insane savagery. I sum up the religious glorification concept in this line. One has to unsubscribe to our polite cultural belief of respecting religions. There is a circle of violence in the name of religion going on and there is no pinpoint for me to mark the origin point. Sometimes we evaluate history using contemporary reasoning and perhaps misrepresent the events in our minds. But, the overall look on the development of religion as institutions will help in seeing the corrosion of its principles. Religion must mainly be a matter of principles only. It cannot be a matter of rules. The moment it degenerates into rules, it ceases to be a religion, as it kills responsibility which is an essence of the true religious act.

Repetition, a lack of awareness around sound practices, and varying degrees of commitment inevitably create different rates of success. We don't have to go for the entire cycle of suffering before we look for relief. Crisis gives chance to innovate and make a society seek and make fundamental changes in its thinking and policies. There is always an alternative route to social justice that is more sustainable than the other societies chose. Reforms require key controversial steps but without compassion and love, all the efforts will go in vain. This judicial verdict is the moment in our history that will shape up the future of this secular country.

There is a fear of reasoning in faith issues as it is the fear of hearing two voices in our head while submitting blindly to the authority for protection is easy. Understanding gives us more reason to co-exist together than to falsely pretend of respecting each other. Unity in diversity has to be the principle of those who genuinely wish to build a country of a variety of languages, cultures, and beliefs. Only a society that tolerant opinions and attitudes different from its own will be able to create a where people of diverse traditions and aspirations can breathe freely in an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding. We have to give way to love and reasoning than to go for easy labels, stereotyping, and violence. Stereotyping has to go away otherwise how much I raise the voice, it will be dismissed as pseudo-secular and veiled middle class and upper caste opinion rather than a sound view of the citizen.

The ability to empathize is directly is to put yourself in the place of another through consciousness and share the sadness and joy of fellow humans. This random virtue will pull you into the category of revolutionary. I am a revolutionary due to my love for deadly truths than noble lies. In the words of Che Guevara - “Above all, try always to be able to feel deeply any injustice committed against any person in any part of the world. It is the most beautiful quality of a revolutionary.”

Today, Indians think as partisans, not citizens. Today Ayodhya verdict will be delivered by the judiciary. I don't know the future of the nation, but it heavily depends on our reactions and wisdom. We have to be right than righteous in shaping our attitudes towards each other. We all want the world to be free from the conflict and wars haunting us from nomadic times. Let the peace prevails...

"For a successful revolution it is not enough that there is discontent. What is required is a profound and thorough conviction of the justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights." -B. R. Ambedkar

Idea of Justice

This article give my crude ideas on justice at this point of time. For clarity, I have neither read the book "The Idea of Justice" by Amartya Sen nor "A Theory of Justice" by John Rawls.

Justice is both personal and social in every aspect. Both of aspects are interdependent and produce effects that change the path of society and individual respectively. The rule of law is directly taken by man from nature. Hence, it always go in hierarchical structure rather than equality for all. Hence, providing justice to all is a complex phenomenon.

We have to know the difference of revenge and justice. People want a scape goat as the front face to accuse swiftly and get a justice. One can certainly defend domination in the name of freedom, but those oppressed by such a view or practice of freedom would say that not all freedoms are equal or equally worth defending. Oppressed has more sense of justice than oppressor, hence concept of justice should be studied always from the victim and the neutral point of view.

Social justice needs to be fought against and an absolute value needs to be accorded to human dignity the realisation that my own dignity cannot exist without the dignity of others. The struggle for social justice is against those that produce resentful domination in power distribution in society. Moderation and tolerance are essential prerequisites of development of the just society.

Nasir Aslam Zahid, the former judge in Pakistan said that the common citizen’s view of justice was not formed by the superior judiciary’s decisions in constitutional cases as much as it was based on an innocent man’s failure to obtain bail from a magistrate, or another innocent person’s inability to escape illegal detention for his failure to bribe an SHO, or when he sees a privileged person enjoying a facility that is denied to all others.

So even steps done in the name of development can lead to the violence. That is better discussed Development and Violence: Some Clues? by SouthAsianIdea.

The usurpers and dictators don't like any form of justice. They view justice in the terms of and judge persons or ideas on the basis of loyalty. The contents of which the authorities are totally ignorant of, is terned as treasonable.

Christopher Hitchens summarises dictatorship governance as : The true essence of a dictatorship is in fact not its regularity but its unpredictability and caprice; those who live under it must never be able to relax, must never be quite sure if they have followed the rules correctly or not. (The only rule of thumb was: whatever is not compulsory is forbidden.) Thus, the ruled can always be found to be in the wrong. The ability to run such a "system" is among the greatest pleasures of arbitrary authority,

I had already given my points on the concept of justice in the democratic system long ago : Justice and Democracy. The religious and cultural background of the country affects the lawmaking and judicial process. With the migration and increasing diversity, the idea of justice changes drastically. Today, I have not clue what will be the idea of justice in a future pluralistic society.

Partly, I assume to conclusion that Justice can be easily achieved in democratic form of governance than a dictatorship. Yet, there is no sense in retaining a regime that had lost a democratic legitimacy and operated based solely on violence and deception. The social norms will be violated and evolve gradually.

Law and order forms the backbone of the Justice in the society. Prevailing justice through laws is essential part to maintain justice in the society. How worse may be the order, prohibition laws doesn't solve problem in any field, be it literally, religious, political or economic sanction. So justice done in the name of prohibition will give rise to perpetual cycle of violence and injustice.

The core value of the liberal society to get an idea of justice is free speech, critical thought and tolerance. It will enable an individual to stand up to the dictates of power and to the embrace of wealth, even to the seduction of popular prejudice. And, then the society cope with its problems and rule of the wild is tamed by the civilized world. In any time, I am only asking you to be critical of authoritarian power to get an idea of justice.

Ten Issues - 2

I am not interested in sensationalism in these sensitive times. I talk about phenomenon in the state of cultural stagnation and political apathy. Reading and education is do ours bit to build democracy as effectiveness of democracy depends on the awareness of its citizens.

1- Indianhomemaker tells us: What do men need liberation from ?

2- Half of India doesn’t even have access to the judiciary. what do courts mean to them? Lawyer Prashant Bhushan speaks to Amit Sengupta of Tehleka on Who is a public intellectual, who can pass for one in India?

3- Amrita Preetam Imroz : A love Story of a Poet and a Painter. Just read to understand the intimacy of the love and poetry.

4- Dubai for a common purpose: to make money as smoothly and painlessly as possible, even if that means turning a blind eye.

5- Greg Satell explains: The Difference between Social Media and Social Networks.

6- From fields to a BPO in 6 months : A first-of-its-kind women-only BPO started by 'Harva' in a Haryana village is all set to harness the rural talent while changing the rigid mindset of the people, transforming rural economy, writes Hemlata Aithani.

7- Author of this post said - If truly good cinema is what survives the test of time, then these three were my first encounter with good world cinema that subsequently attracted me into the good world of cinema! Go on and read - World Cinema : Dark is Mine.

8- By mollycoddling their charges and telling them how to fix each problem, coaches end up creating players who can't think or act for themselves. Is that what has happened to RP Singh and Ishant Sharma? Go figure it out yourself by Harsha Bhogle

9- The Envelope, Please: From Eight Great Innovative Tools, Which Ones Are the Winners? published by April 22, 2010 in India Knowledge@Wharton

10- Who is easily manipulated? A valid question asked by Seth Godin on advertisements.

I don't walk Left

Question- How do society cope with its problems ?

Answer- In the first step, Intellects of the community discover the malpractices going in the society. They are noticed by all but not viewed as problem in the general conscious of the group in the authority (monetary and political in charge). Intellects present the problem so that its long term ill effects can be understand by the individuals. Then in final step, they modify or replace the practice with the new one. Hence, society moves from one processing system to other till the existing one corrupts. But this minority of intellect of the society breeds in the environment where rational voice is not suppressed by the fear of violence of authority or extremists. Thus how society evolve and their idea of justice expands. All human rights & social equality movements have given value to this freedom and democracy of the human life.

The basic condition of the peaceful co existence in diverse society (each group is diverse in the nature) is the free flow of the knowledge. The society barred from the information flow is doomed to rise in confusion and paranoia. Conspiracy theories arise in the closed community and dissent is taken as disloyalty. The state will try to push only single voice with false propaganda through news network, intelligence agencies and rewriting history books. The environment of fear soon spreads epidemically and vociferous supporter of new propaganda theories become associated with the party.

The reality will collide with the narrow closed assumptions of state and religion. A state governed by too much closeness wants to avoid terror of 'globalized world under capitalism' in name of protecting the weakened. The deep belief that everything—especially anything pro western (capitalistic)—is already and by definition an intervention is part of the very identity and ideology of the Communist and Islamic theocracy. So even moderates are regards as corrupts and betrayer in their own society.

An abolished censorship, tolerated artistic freedom, eased travel restrictions and allowed new civic movements to come into existence, they merely created a virus that threatened the communist system. The absurdity of the ruling system could be counted on; what was necessary in the meanwhile was the refusal of the lie and the willingness to display civic courage. Theocratic or communistic regions are absolute in the nature. Communist regimes become oppressive with the time. The gradual transfer of Bolshevik revolution into Stalin's dictatorship regime destroyed the spirit of revolution in the name of itself. And in theocracy, Iran is the prime example of progressive society and stone age thinking political authority.

There is a deep link, not only of shared experience that people share a view of the world, the commitment to social equality and freedom. Leftwing intellectual mafia still hangs on the theoretical aspect of communism instead of falling to see why communism fall in the trap of dictatorial type governance. Unfortunately, loyalty to an idea rather than its purpose is a recipe for disaster. And that's why the Communism fail to solve the problems. Communism is an institution works best in opposition. It checks the absolute concentration of capital in the hands of few individuals. It is an instrument of distribution of wealth but not the generation. That's why It fail to generate money or to encourage entrepreneurship skills in the people.

I think that it's the responsibility of those writers and intellectuals who are still alive to talk about the past openly so to avoid the dangers in the future. The tendency of outside analyst like me should not be to focus excessive around state sponsored person or religious clerics, rather than consulting the writers and poets of the country. Analyst has to learn and avoid sensationalism in reading the issues. And the issues should be seen as an happening phenomenon to observe and re mediate the problem in the society.

Mera Bharat Mahaan

Frederick Douglass had written over a century ago. “Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them … . The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

Naxal problem is making up a civil war like situation in India. And we are talking the losses in the terms of loss of life in encounters. The big picture is going beyond our imagination and tales of exploitation of dalits, labours and adivasis is echoing the real India.

Shoma Chaudhary examines the tricky and dangerous terrain of Operation Green Hunt, the offensive against Naxals, might blow up in our faces: "Dalits and adivasis comprise a staggering one fourth of India’s population, yet are disproportionately destitute and low on the Human Development Index scale. Worse, they suffer the most humiliation and indignity: the proverbial insult on injury. Our country represents a show where 77 percent of Indians live on less than Rs 20 a day while 5 percent enjoy lives that border on obscene excess. For most urban Indians, the lives of tribals and dalits has no meaning, no face, no flesh. Our books no longer write of it, our films no longer evoke it, our journalists no longer cover it. It’s not just the poverty; it’s bumping into a face of the Indian State you have never seen before: brutal, illegal, rapine, pimped out to serve the interests of a few. "

Study CPI Maoist booklet on Salwa Judam Movement for understanding the root cause of the movement termed as Naxalism. Still want to know about hidden reality of Salwa Judum movement, for the seekers of truth: The Inconvenient Truth -- the real face of Corporate governance. And below written is my naive idea about our 'Swades' with little reasons and more emotions.

The struggle for social justice is against those that produce resentful domination in power distribution in society. Sociopolitical change is best when organic—rising from the bottom rather than imposed from the top—the odds of assimilation improve dramatically. Populations that are better informed and better connected to opportunities, in societies where information and access are widespread tend to marginalized between few people. India has low social mobility, and say that in villages in two Indian states where 300 children had graduated from high school, only four had found well-paying, white-collar jobs. Advancing information and enabling access are as much a critical part of enhancing development success. The sacrifice of human beings on the altar of abstractions or the subordination of the realities of individual happiness or unhappiness in the present to glorious dreams of the future has stopped us from achieving our dream of just and liberal society.

History and journalism is the inquiry through medium of story telling of past and present respectively. Journalists living and reporting from the grassroots are more vulnerable than those based in the cities. Things are pretty savage at the grassroots level and the fear of police and the vested interests is quite high, a fact quite neglected by armchair journalism by news channels in India. Journalists who investigate and uncover the truth take enormous personal risks – This is precisely why local journalists need greater support and protection to continue their good work.

The chaos in the society is always caused by group of persons who had hardly travelled, and relied for information on policy documents and the reports of media personalities sitting interviewing elite or middle-class contacts in big cities. Hence, their narrow idea of the world never captures the whole scenario. Despite the Internet and the revolution in communications, there is still no substitute of foot soldier work needed for journalism. The medium of Internet is used for distribution of information but there is always need of 'primary' who can record the voices of dissent or support of each person of the society. India today is diseased with propagandist journalism. Corroded with corruption, the death of idealism, communalism and deep casteist divisions which has resulted in a steady degeneration...

The young generation of seventy's inhabited a Nehruvian world. After a few wars and riots, India was witnessing a decline of idealism, there was disillusionment with socialism. Baba Amte, J.P. ,Vinoba Bhave and others are now gone in the past. Their followers like Shyam Benegal, Vijay Tendulkar, P Sainath, APJ Kalam and Mahasweta devi are on the verge of last years of their lives. I am looking into the empty space where there are no heroes or protectors to idealize life for. The youth icons are now Shahrukh or Sania. Its not the insult of star actor or player but showcasing of their dwarfness in comparison to previous set of role models. Practical mentality how good can be, have never been as inspiring as idealistic personalities.

An escapist culture of consumerism is fast replacing the tradition of mass struggle and writers, cinema and media is obsessed with the loves and lives of the urban middle-class. There is a loss of ideology in the wake up call of globalisation and India Shining. Handful of people are there working for the people but the sense of closeness among community is dissolving with time. The distances has reduced but the alienation among people is spreading. The rise of individualism with the fall of social values is changing the scenario. The feudal mentality, caste superiority feeling and religious divisions are coming to surfaces from the deeply rooted consciousness of new generation. The 'dalits' are searching for new myths and symbols for reworking of community histories and mythology. This ecstasy of rising and shining India should be shown the face of ground realities of India. And this need lot of work at ground level by media and citizen journalists. For, to quote from Mahasweta Devi's essay The Seventies and After: "These are bad times, these are the times to work. "

Justice and Democracy

The seed of post was sown when Joie de vivre commented in mine recent post that we live in the country where Logon ko democracy ka D bhi nai pata. She was absolutely right that Indians have a long way to go to understand the values of rights and duties of citizen. Personally, I don't have very strong belief in democracy but have a faith in swift and vigilant justice. Yet democracy seems to me as best way of giving voices to myself and the people. This is my naive attempt to understand the complex relationship of justice and democracy.

Democracy is ethically right but intellectually void.-- Max Kislanski

I once asked my father why people rate parliament above supreme court running on constitution. He replied me that constitution is made for serving the people not the vice-versa. When representative of people at Parliament veto supreme court verdict, they are abiding the rule of people only. I was silenced then. After many years, this memory resurfaces in studying Shahbano Case. I got my reply that while voting in Parliament just supports majority, it may or may not be the right voice. A wrong decision by majority may lead to injustice and may provoke decay of values and law in the society.

Justice is wisdom on merit and democracy is the choice to take different opinion. Too much democracy is like free market without any control. This is what Fareed Zakaria (former editor Newsweek) calls the tyranny of the majority. He argues that democracy, overwhelmingly, has had wonderful consequences. But the construction of a rich, diverse and complex social order needs a multitude of ideas to flourish. Democracy as a single ideology across politics, society, arts and business is akin to religious dogmatism where faith dictates every aspect of life. This is a very important argument. Democracy has proven itself to be the most acceptable form of political governance where the will of majority forms the basis for legislature. Still mindless ‘majorityism’ is dangerous. A journalist and novelist Pankaj Mishra points out this flaw of democracy ---

"When last week in Ha'aretz the Israeli historian Tom Segev judged Israeli "apathy" towards the massacre in Gaza as "chilling and shameful", he brought on deja vu among Indians. In 2002 the Hindu nationalist government of Gujarat supervised the killing of more than two thousand Muslims. The state's chief minister, Narendra Modi, who green-lighted the mass murder, seemed a monstrous figure to many Indians; they then watched aghast as the citizens of Gujarat - better-educated and more prosperous than most Indians - re-elected Modi by a landslide after the pogrom. In 2007, a few months after the magazine Tehelka taped Hindu nationalists in Gujarat boasting how they raped and dismembered Muslims, Modi again won elections with contemptuous ease. Though prohibited from entering the US, Modi is now courted by corporate groups, including Tata, and frequently hailed as India's next prime minister. As the Israeli right looks likely to be the latest electoral beneficiary of state terror, it is time to ask: can the institutions of electoral democracy, liberal capitalism and the nation-state be relied upon to do our moral thinking for us? "Trust in the majority," they seem to say, but more often than not the majority proves itself incapable of even common sense. " [Origin]

Our society is driving towards consumer culture and lack of awareness about ground realities is hurting our chance of progress. People aren't dumb but they take time to retrospect its decision. Impact of popularism is like mob madness. Each person involved in the mob takes his own time to return from the state of hysteria. People deserve better but they don't know about other options. A balancing act is done by media by providing voice to the lost causes and people living on periphery of society.

A sense of power to control is what the media is in turn giving to public in reality shows. It’s the manipulation and unreliability of methods media use to determine what people want. What media should fix is error in the systems, not the society. A democracy should encourage a person to tell the truth as it is, the truth about the truth. The freedom and liberty are more greater than the idea of democracy or theocracy or dictatorship.

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable. --- Aldous Huxley