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An Idea for India

Our Solar system has all the necessary resources to support life on Earth for
billions of years. Life is a mysterious miracle going on and on through geological
upheavals and cosmic blasts. We do not know exactly how life began. But we know
that all life support systems are instinctive. From sex to conception to birth and
later breathing, eating, digesting and expelling waste are all involuntary. As a
beautiful icing on life’s cake, only one species is endowed with a rational brain that
can reason and imagine- us, the homo-sapiens or wise men.

Nature’s bounty is so plentiful and organized that we invented a Creator to explain


it and started fighting over His name. Though we mistook ourselves to be God’s
deputy on Earth we acted more like Devil’s agents. We forgot our primary identity
of the most rational species and made numerous divisions based on gender, race,
class and caste and enforced it with brute power at our command. Subjugating the
creative half of humanity, our women, was a grave sin against nature. Indian sages
had said that gods dwell where women are respected. But we did the opposite. Now
we are killing female fetus in the womb itself. The material poverty and misery we
see in the world is mostly due to mental poverty of the privileged class down the
ages.

India is the repository of very lofty thoughts and ideals, but, in practice, it is the
most hypocritical society in the world. A large population of our society was
declared as untouchables though the Scriptures say that everyone is a shudra by
birth, only the deeds of an individual categorize him/her as a Brahmin, Kshatriya or
Vaishya. The Vedic vision of spirituality in all aspects of human affairs is
conspicuous by its absence. It is, therefore, no wonder that we suffered
foreigners’ rules for so long in our recent history. Now we are trying to imitate the
fundamentalism of revealed religions, Islam in particular in stark contrast to our
ethos and culture of peaceful co-existence and tolerance.

This issue brings us closer to another lofty idea gone horribly wrong. Hinduism or
its older nomenclature Sanatan is not a religion but a way of life with complete
individual freedom in matters of faith. We can worship any god or opt to be an
atheist or agnostic. There are three well defined paths to choose from – bhakti,
karm or gyan, in keeping with our inclination. Now, bhakti path is being peddled as
the only path available to us. Ram Janm-bhoomi and Rama Sethu testify to our
hardening stand in favour of mythology and fundamentalism. Ideally, Hinduism or
Sanatan has no issue with any religion as it gives pride of place to Spirituality over
and above all religions and rituals.

It is relevant to say something about the Muslims too. Every fourth human being on
earth is a Muslim and every fifth Indian is also a Muslim. Greater the number the
greater is the responsibility. Who is discharging the responsibility of educating the
followers about Islam? In most of the cases they are the orphans who get trained
as maulvies and mullahs in madarsas, devoid of science and current affairs. Isn’t
deen or religion meant for duniya or this world? No wonder that triple talaq in one
go was legal till a few years ago in India, but nowhere else in the world including
Islamic countries. Islam is supposed to guarantee the rights of women and girls in
society. Is it available to them? Terrorism is giving a bad name to Islam yet the
liberal Muslims are afraid to speak their minds. Why the Muslims aren’t better off
in a liberal democracy with the advantage of separate criminal and civil codes for
them? The Catholic Church has accepted the biological evolution. Who will decide it
for Muslims? Not the Taliban, we pray and hope.

India is a unique land on Earth as all ideas, old and new, co-exist here peacefully. No
single idea could ever replace others as it did in China, Europe, or USA. This rich
heritage of cultural diversity is facing a serious threat from cultural police of
various sorts. They may cause breach of peace here and there but cannot succeed
in painting the whole of India in one colour, be it saffron or green. It is time that
gyan yoga took charge to guide the society on rational as well as spiritual path.

A very tall talk and task indeed. The global village is already overflowing with ideas
and ideologies; one more idea can hardly make any difference or impact. Yes, it is
worth investigating why this plethora of ideas and ideologies failed to deliver us
from imminent extinction or continuous strives and sufferings of one kind or the
other. What went wrong and where? We have been constantly at war for
establishing OUR brand of social, political, economic or religious ideologies but we
are amazingly indifferent to its right implementation. The disaffection and unrest
may lead to revolutions sometimes but the end result is always pathetic. One set of
rulers is replaced by another under the garb of a newer and supposedly better
ideology. The all powerful system remains as oppressive, corrupt and exploitative as
before or even worse as in tin pot dictatorships.
Who can deliver true implementation of any ideology? Yes, the emphasis is on
implementation. Some monarchies, in history, were better than many democracies
of today. Right implementation holds the key to transparency and dynamism of an
ideology and puts it on a self corrective course. Extraordinary situations demand
extraordinary solutions. With the environmental disaster looming large on the
horizon, we need a radical change in the quality of leadership that we can elect or
select. We need the leaders who value earth and nature more than a nation or a
race or community. Self serving army of politicians of all hues must go if we want to
save ourselves. Now, the question worth 7 billion human heads arises. How do we
find such leaders (ah, the Plato’s dream of a saint-philosopher)? How to test them?
Could a lie-detection test be the first step or can we think of a better option? The
voters may decide to vote the candidates who volunteer for and pass this test.
Such MPs can amend the Constitution to bring bureaucrats/babus into its ambit.
We need to think, discuss and debate these questions; otherwise we will lose
everything including our freedom and self respect.

It is a given that our present lot of politicians will oppose its enactment into a law.
But, voice of the people is the voice of god (nature for atheists and agnostics). We
can demand that a simple lie-detection (polygraph or f MRI or both) be introduced
in public life to eliminate corrupt leaders, bureaucrats and criminals. Without
intruding into their personal lives, the social servers can be picked out and the self
servers left out. Those selected will face stringer tests (narco analysis?)for
involvement in any irregularity or scandal. The best part of this shift towards
quality of leaders and other public servants is that some people may dislike it, but
none may condemn it publicly. If taken to people the idea may catch people’s
imagination because its time has come. There is no time really for vacillation or
procrastination. Good implementation should take care of the ideology and will
usher in peace and prosperity so that we begin to live like wise men and the Indian
workers are as happy and secure as their counterparts in developed world.

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