India’s role in restructuring the ideology of progress, development and growth to create a new world of peace is immense. It must remember what its ancestors had said
The third decade of the 21st century has begun with a challenge of immeasurable magnitude. Practically, the entire productive human activity has come to a screeching halt as nations have been under lockdown, forced as they are to confront an invisible enemy that makes no distinction between the rich and the poor, colour or creed, national boundaries, religious distinction or any other aspect of diversity/similarity. For the Coronavirus, every human being is just a target, nothing more, nothing less.
For the first time, nations across the world are on the same side in the war against Coronavirus. Never before in contemporary times of great scientific and technological advancements had human beings found themselves so inadequately prepared to tackle an unprecedented situation. Never before, the daily routine of the people changed so much as the compulsory social distancing, which has been necessitated to curb the spread of Corona, has done. Children find it so restrictive, people are worried, concerns and apprehensions are being shared. Helplessness is even being experienced among mature and seasoned people. While nations have come together to confront the disease, we have not been able to arrive at a universally applicable counter strategy.
History may not record the Corona war as World War-III but its debilitating effort may be far higher than the combined losses and sufferings inflicted by WW-I and WW-II. Though everyone is busy struggling for survival and minimising the losses and impact, realisation is already dawning upon the concerned and knowledgeable that it’s time to have a fresh look on the epistemological strategies being implemented in the human pursuit of “progress, growth and development” in the post-colonial era. It ushered the era of globalisation, concentration of wealth among the top few, enhanced measures of violence and wars among nations and gave rise to an unprecedented armed race. The outbreak of Caronavirus has made sensible people realise that no nuclear arsenals, no weapons of deterrence, military agreements or defence treaties are of any use in every war.
The Corona interlude has created an environment of tension, turmoil and turbulence across the globe. The only ray of hope is that finally, human ingenuity would triumph over the venomous virus intrusion but the world after this victory shall no more be the same, nor should it remain the same. Learning from these times, nations and people must think of alternative strategies. Interestingly, spending rare undisturbed kinship with close ones in the confines of their homes, people are already pondering seriously over the shape of a post-Corona world. One could be sure that after the return of normalcy, new ideas and thoughts would emerge at the national and international level. The world must realise that the relationship between man and nature stands shattered; that man has failed in discharging his/her responsibility to maintain this sensitive life-giving bond with care and caution.
Instead, it indulged in wanton destruction of natural resources. Clear warning signs appeared in terms of climate change, rising pollution levels and temperature, environmental degradation, depletion of the ozone layer, among others. These issues were never seriously responded to. And now, there is no way out but to devise long and short term strategies to restore the vital link. It should be a survival strategy to ensure the very survival of human race on earth and also of the planet itself.
After WW-II, it was realised that brutality is no answer to human advancement. Consequently, global organisations like the United Nations (UN), United Nations Security Council (UNSC), UNESCO, International Labour Organisation (ILO), the World Health Organisation(WHO) besides others were created. All of these institutions were supposed to derive their ethos and ethics from the Preamble of the UNESCO, which said, “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.” It is very well known that in spite of appreciable contributions, the structures so created could not construct “the defences of peace in the minds of man.” In essence, the crux of the challenge before the nations, which are under the clutches and claws of the enemy, is: How should we restructure the ideology of progress, development and growth to create a world of peace? This, to ensure equality of access and success to one and all and bestow human dignity on each human being without any distinction or diversity.
But what would be the role of India, its people, traditions and its ancient civilisation in accepting this global challenge? Expectations would be very high from our country as we are the only civilisation which conceptualised/comprehended the criticality in sustaining the man-nature relationship and the role in reshaping human life. Mahatma Gandhi was convinced that India is essentially a land of duty and not mere that of enjoyment. This articulation is very relevant in a globalised world that has played havoc with nature and continues to do so with unscrupulous plundering of natural resources only to satiate its greed of accumulation.
Here again, it was MK Gandhi who summarised the essence of Indian philosophical perception when he wrote that nature has sufficient resources to meet the needs of everyone but not the greed of anyone. The hope for a future beyond Corona emerges from another visionary statement, “I feel that India’s mission is different from that of others.”
He elaborated further, “India is fitted for the religious supremacy of the world. There is no parallel for the process of purification across the globe that this country has voluntarily undergone. India is less in need of steel weapons; it has fought with divine weapons… History supplies numerous instances to prove that brute force is nothing before soul force.” Is this not the time for a global resolve that weapon of steel and brute force may just be of no consequence in some of the toughest situations? Something more may be necessary. Can India take a lead?
First, it must accept this as its moral and ethical responsibility, as the inheritor of a culture and the most illustrious civilisation in the world. To ascertain its emerging global role in evolving new global strategy it must revert to Gandhi, who gave a “call for adventure” in the Young India of May 6, 1926, which very clearly articulates how to proceed ahead: “If we are to make progress, we must not repeat history but make a new one.” We must add to the inheritance left by our ancestors. We must ask: If we may make new discoveries and inventions in the phenomenal world, must we declare our bankruptcy in the spiritual domain? Is it impossible to multiply exceptions so as to make them the rule? Must man always be brute first and man after, if at all?
The UN was created after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a classic example of “brute force.” The sincerity of purpose and commitment to the cause was not there at any stage. It needed a spiritual bent of mind, a genuine desire to stick to the word and spirit of the global resolve. We must learn from history of the recent past.
One may like to recall why such expectations emerge from different groups within India and also from those abroad who “know our country.” The ancient Indian civilisation earned global appreciation for some of its philosophical foundations of eternal nature. These include Yavadjeevait Adhiyate Viprah; Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu; Sarva Bhuta Hite Ratah and several others. Once one internalises the basic import of ancient Indian civilisation, the aspects of essential unity of all human beings, in spite of visible diversities and variations of numerous kinds, emerge very clearly in practical terms.
This universal vision paved the way for acceptance — not mere tolerance — of all religions and faiths, respect for the faith of others. It was also realised very early in the Indian civilisation that human beings must establish a lasting kinship based upon the basics of respect for otherness and resolve to move ahead together, to live and let everyone else also live a better, decent, dignified and satisfying life.
To comprehend universal human obligations, three debts that every human being were destined to repay were articulated in clear terms: Debt to the parents and ancestors; to the learned and knowledge creators; and to the forces of nature.
Human beings have persistently faltered on all the three. Hence, they are forced to face the fury of the nature. This is the right time that India, the originator of these eternal values, relearns its lessons, accepts global responsibility to make others comprehend it and create a new world in which spiritualistic pursuits would determine the extent of materiality acquisition that human beings need, not greed.
(The writer works in education and social cohesion)
