Dream of a Nation : Understanding our country's aspiration

We as a country were fortunate to have had a constellation of thinkers and leaders possessing wide opinions in our freedom struggle. No matter from which background they came, found themselves united for a common goal.

While fighting against imperialism a parallel ideological contest was taking place among our leaders to decide future form of government. Among the contenders were communism, socialism and democracy. Democracy was chosen considering the pluralistic nature of our society and dissent from communist party and socialist party demands at that time. 

Again it should be noted that a internal struggle for religious and social reforms was undergoing in India for past centuries. Be it saints like Tukaram and Kabir or activists like Jyotirao Phule, Dhondo Keshav Karve, Gopal Hari Deshmukh, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Vittal Ramji Shinde and many many more.

That was the reason why Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar during drafting of the constitution in front of the Constituent Assembly on Friday 25th November 1949 said 

"On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which is Assembly has to laboriously built up.

The second thing we are wanting in is recognition of the principle of fraternity. what does fraternity mean? Fraternity means a sense of common brotherhood of all Indians-if Indians being one people. It is the principle which gives unity and solidarity to social life. It is a difficult thing to achieve. How difficult it is, can be realized from the story related by James Bryce in his volume on American Commonwealth about the United States of America.The story is- I propose to recount it in the words of Bryce himself- that-"Some years ago the American Protestant Episcopal Church was occupied at its triennial Convention in revising its liturgy. It was thought desirable to introduce among the short sentence prayers a prayer for the whole people, and an eminent New England divine proposed the words `O Lord, bless our nation'. Accepted one afternoon, on the spur of the moment, the sentence was brought up next day for reconsideration, when so many objections were raised by the laity to the word nation' as importing too definite a recognition of national unity, that it was dropped, and instead there were adopted the words `O Lord, bless these United States." There was so little solidarity in the U.S.A. at the time when this incident occurred that the people of America did not think that they were a nation. If the people of the United States could not feel that they were a nation, how difficult it is for Indians to think that they are a nation. I remember the days when politically-minded Indians, resented the expression "the people of India". They preferred the expression "the Indian nation." I am of opinion that in believing that we are a nation, we are cherishing a great delusion. How can people divided into several thousands of castes be a nation? The sooner we realize that we are not as yet a nation in the social and psychological sense of the world, the better for us. For then only we shall realize the necessity of becoming a nation and seriously think of ways and means of realizing the goal. The realization of this goal is going to be very difficult – far more difficult than it has been in the United States. The United States has no caste problem. In India there are castes. The castes are anti-national. In the first place because they bring about separation in social life. They are anti-national also because they generate jealousy and antipathy between caste and caste. But we must overcome all these difficulties if we wish to become a nation in reality. For fraternity can be a fact only when there is a nation. Without fraternity equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint.These are my reflections about the tasks that lie ahead of us. They may not be very pleasant to some. But there can be no gainsaying that political power in this country has too long been the monopoly of a few and the many are only beasts of burden, but also beasts of prey. This monopoly has not merely deprived them of their chance of betterment, it has sapped them of what may be called the significance of life. These down-trodden classes are tired of being governed. They are impatient to govern themselves. This urge for self-realization in the down-trodden classes must not be allowed to devolve into a class struggle or class war. It would lead to a division of the House. That would indeed be a day of disaster. For, as has been well said by Abraham Lincoln, a House divided against itself cannot stand very long. Therefore the sooner room is made for the realization of their aspiration, the better for the few, the better for the country, the better for the maintenance for its independence and the better for the continuance of its democratic structure. This can only be done by the establishment of equality and fraternity in all spheres of life. That is why I have laid so much stresses on them. "

A visionary indeed.

Today every agitation that we see in India filters down to the crude differences between oligarchic/plutocratic/kleptocratic & Democratic forces. (Socialism aside)

Which puts tremendous pressure on our democratic institutions to uphold the basic rights of our citizens. Our democratic institutions is the last line of defense, wherein if it fails one day we would lose our democracy. May that day never come but reality on ground seems alarming.

Which puts us one step behind our goal to become a true nation. First we need to strengthen our democratic machinery, restoring faith that every citizen is equal in front of these institutions. Second implementing honest socio-economic reforms which serves the common masses of our country bringing every citizen on a common psychological conscious. Then only we could dream of a nation truly in every regard.

Thoughts of a hungry sage

M.S. Swaminathan with Norman Borlaug

“To those who are hungry, God is bread” – Mahatma Gandhi’s words during Bengal Famine during 1946 inspired young patriotic Swaminathan to change his directions of interest from medical to agricultural research.

M.S. Swaminathan is popularly known as the Indian father of green revolution. Defeating predictions like "Indians will die of hunger by 1970"during 1960’s, Swaminathan increased our wheat production from 10 Million Tons to 17 million tons during 1963 and 1968. His insights of plant genome and plant architecture changed our farming and fed millions of hungry Indians.

A man of his character still serves our nation with the same excitement and force. During the period of 1996 to 2010 India has experienced the highest farmer suicides allegedly due to genetically modified varieties and failure of ecosystem by the government. His reports with details of how to address the biggest problem/Solution of India ‘Farming’, has been completely ignored. A link to the last NCF report.

Apart from his expertise in developing specific variety of high yielding seeds he also has a great understanding of government programs and its effective channeling mechanisms. He always focuses on very poor farmer and women empowerment, believing that they are the core influencers for change in the society. He is worried of Farming as a profession and a way of life, as no one these days want to do it. Also believes that the true genuine majorities of India, Poor and the youth should not be ignored but guided to create a great nation.  

Concluding by his own words, “Future belongs to nations with grains, not guns”.

Picture above shows both M.S. Swaminathan and Norman Borlaug (Global Father of green revolution) together in one frame.

Moral Universe of Press has shifted from Democracy

First starting with acknowledgements, I would like to thank respected National Rural Reporter of our country Mr. P. Sainath for enlightning us on such a important issue. The media is considered as the forth pillar of our proud democracy (Ideally). The nexus of Politics, media and corporate is turning down the dream of our forefathers, of free speech and liberty to all. The title of this article comes from Indian Vice President's speech.

         This post is just to share you a file which is unavailable on Press council of India's website due to high pressure from corporate in media. Instead you have a 13 page summarized article. This report talks about the paid news nexus in politics and media and which in all favors the black money market in India. In the last Maharashtra Assembly Elections media houses were targeting 30% of candidate election canvasing expenditure. Corporatization in media has been a boon for business houses but a shame for democarcay where a non millionaire or billionare candidate cannot even think of winning the elections. Tailored artivceles, supplements that look like news celebrating these milllionare candidates paved their way to electoral victory. This generation's opinion  are completely turning into a media driven exercise.
           
             I would not end this by giving you a happy ending  or a sarcastic note. Infact I will re-utter P.Sainath's words:  Both states fake optimism (Every thing is changing) and cynical pessimism  (Nothing changes nothing will change) will comforts you for non action. Instead he urges us to land in the center ground called hope and act. I hope our media understands its vital role to make our democracy the land that our fathers dreamed of.

FYI
PCI Report on Paid News

We can’t just sweep it under the rug !

Disclaimer: Please don’t be judgmental or hypocritical while reading my words. I do not support or try to promote any party or religion or even revolutionist. My words are directed to my fellow countrymen who I believe one day will regain their own rational, loving and pure selves.  

The Psyche of the nation is corrupted.  Total hypocrisy has been our tool to safeguard our conscious mind from raw reality. When it comes to showing fake patriotism, extremism of our religion or believing irrational facts, we top the charts. This brings me to the center stage of Indian Media at least for following weeks to come: Delhi Elections. I really felt provoked to write this after seeing Ravish Kumar’s Report on unauthorized Colonies in Delhi (http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/prime-time/prime-time-conditions-of-unauthorised-colonies-in-delhi/355240?hphin&video-featured). I am a really big fan of him and have great respect for his dedication towards a better and neutral media. I would really recommend you to watch this report and see for your own the real India.

65 Million People live in slums according to the latest census which is on a verge to rise up to 107 million by 2017. Forget about the ground reality. Surprising report says that child sex ratio of these slums is better than urban India (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/65-million-people-live-in-slums-in-india-says-census-data/article5188234.ece). This is where the hypocrisy comes in. So called urban population looks at gender in a barbarian manner. Another example is regarding clean India. Forget about cleaning the streets, people just don’t want to change their habit of littering them. You get the same reflection from the government side; they will run big cleaning campaigns and not talk about sewage systems, waste water management or solid waste management. Now these unauthorized colonies have been allowed to legalize for political gain, and then the infrastructure provided is totally ridiculous. Unplanned suburbs and slums will act as a blockage for equal distribution of wealth and health. Our bureaucracy is of attitude to sweep everything under the rug.

Uncertain Complexity

Guys I’m not pessimist, I’m optimist but, there are few things that bother me this is one of it.
Every time every moment is different and always is, it could be because we humans think a lot to find a pattern, certainty which could be predictable but, nature will always prove us wrong, it could be paradox, quixotic and contradictory. From a small talk with a friend to severe hurricanes every thing in the space is chaotic, whimsical and random with always unseen jacks popping out of the box. Talking with a person we know can be different every time, the amount of data generated and analyzed by our brains during such a talk is humongous.  And it will differ at every meet, even though we don’t feel it. There is this chaos theory (popularly known as butterfly effect) which states that butterfly flapping wings at a remote place could be the reason for a hurricane at another place.(Sounds too remote?)There is another one, a ball placed at summit of a hill has many possibilities of rolling down or not, but countless  factors such as wind, initial position ,gradient etc. can produce infinite possibilities as of where will the ball land if landed. The space is abstruse, esoteric or transcend. What is the limit of data of all experiences, feeling, findings, abstract ideas, etc. and that till our times in every field of study we have drafted? Forget the undiscovered, but only revisiting existing known can startle us with countless new discoveries. What is the end to this?
Infinity^Infinity

Think Childish!

Around years we are pressing hard on innovation, so what exactly does it mean. It isn't easy to innovate, to bring an idea (which people often joke off) into reality. The results are a product of long hours of failure, of which we are often feared. The first flight by Wright bros. lasted just 12 sec and covered 111 feet which is so nano of what we do today. There is always this failure factor playing around to screw us out, but also possibility of a new world of ideas uncovered.

RANDOM -A child is always what he/she is. The approach he (assuming it is a small boy) has is always random, always new. There aren't any rules set for they are free to do any thing in any way. That is the think that lands them to discover new things.

NO FEAR AND QUESTION- Also they don't have any fear of failure not even a bit of it. Our approaches to things should be in such manner, always, why is it so? Why not this way? A good example of such approach is : Chinese alchemist in medieval times, were searching for and elixir and they like a small child's play mixed things randomly. They almost tried everything, but one combination surprised them, shit of bats + charcoal + sulphur. Which resulted not in elixir but gunpowder (Shit of bat was full of potassium nitrate.) Which opened a new array of inventions such as rockets, guns etc. Which ultimately changed the course of human history and as they say, the rest is history. Such an attitude needs to be encouraged and inculcated in young minds. Eventually young scientists will fearlessly contribute.

UPDATE AND ENCOURAGE IDEAS- We should always be welcome to new ideas and updates as a child does. Guns were invented in the 16th century and British came in the 18th, if we had guns and we would had done R&D for 2 centuries, India would never had  been under British rule instead the opposite would have been true.

OBSERVE- Another quality a child has, is keen observation. Small children often sit staring at one thing continuously. They are really good at it.

 DOCUMENTATION – Collect, analyze and interpret. This is a process that child carries out mentally.
 
India had, has and will always have good brains but there is a need for the right approach. India needs, and can achieve tremendous growth in science and technology, and I think such approach will multiply it. Naturally, everyone was a child once.

 So think childish!

2nd Father of Nation

     This is the 2nd time in the history of this great nation called India, that citizens have united for an revolutionary movement which would change the fate of this nation for times to come.

      People of India are basically friendly, loving & peaceful by nature. It is this that our history reflects. India as a nation has never ever invaded any nation for the past 10,000 years. Non-Violence has been an structural element in our psychology.

     Weak transport systems, weak media network, no online social network, more poor & illiterate people, above all ruled by a foreign unjust nation , these were the circumstances through which our father of nation “Mahatma Gandhi” lightened a torch of non-violent protest to free our own nation. A unlimited source of energy & inspiration for humanity to achieve equal rights for living by an non-violent way.

     64 years after freedom India as a nation has gone through little ups and more downs. The torch that our father passed us by has diminished in intensity. Self interest has broken its boundaries creating more wider unequal Indian society. Co-operative societies have been deteriorated & now operated by only a few. Our feeling of unity, equality & responsibility for our nation has been faded. Administrators, politicians, bureaucracy, law and order system & people themselves are moving towards a dark side.

     It was this moment of time that all circumstances conspired for an 2nd greatest revolution which lightened every Indian mind with same old thought of unity, equality, co-operation, social responsibility & above all humanity.
     Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of non-violence Anna Hazare was the one who pushed the drafting and sanctioning of RTI (Right To Information) Act. firstly in Maharashtra & then all around the country. This started a feeling of involvement & confidence in every citizen towards fighting injustice.
     It was this beginning that unfolded many scams. It was RTI Act. That uncovered the Adarsh scam. Biggest scams such as 2g, common wealth also were uncovered recently. This made people think for nation. And at this perfect time Anna Hazare has raised against the government to push them for drafting civil society’s lokpal bill.
     People are erupting to support him for his good cause with huge support from media networks, social networks & the Indian youth. This will take us as a nation towards a good new prosperous shore, towards a nation which we all dream of. And if this happens Anna Hazare will surely be our “2nd Father of Nation”.