Culture, counter-culture and human rights Tagore’s famous cry for freedom needs to continue ringing in the ears of all India-loving citizens S nel Johnson made a fa mous pronouncement ‘April 1775, that patriot- fam ig the last refuge of a scoundrel, Patriotism is not to stifled with nation or love for one’s birth place, a dedication to make one’s land asource of well-being for alts habitants. Unfortmatebs the humans have inherited the benefits and the evils of the evolution under the Darwinian law of natural selection, the survival of the fittest ‘n imate tendency to sur- vive and prosper at all costs leads same to silence the oth- ers and submit them to one’s individual or class interests, denying them their right to share the fruits oftheir labour and livein dignity. In the name of “national culture” the dam- nant groups try to impose their politcal willand thought upon the rest of the population to keep them subservient, ‘The laws of nature as stud- ied and defined by Hegel as di- alectic of thesis and antithesis, and by Isaac Newton as laws oF plysies, every action generates its equal and opposite reaction These laws of nature help to maintain the equilibrium and boalanee, which unfortunately the homo sapiens is unfit and tnable to respect, That's when revolutions become necessary or unavoidable, ‘There can be no such thing as undifferentiated rules fora and wisely enough the form of justice or dandaniti in ancient India followed adharmabased the wistom ofits sages, but 0 achara, the traditions of al and local com- ies, respecting the diver- process of the freedom strug fle from the colonial rule, but they are misplaced in the mod= erm democratic India. Any stubborn pursuance of any such ideology, ignoring all counter-cultural wamings of the sincere and wellewishing nationalists, is bound to be counter-productive and lead over time to an implosion be- yond repair However much the political leadership of a modern nation ‘may think of itself as legitimate authority the globalisation and intemationalism has come to stay and human rights of na- tional citizens can no longer be violated with impunity. India should be proud ofits Amartya Sen, anobel prize winner, who contributed to the world eom- ‘munity the criteria for human dlevelopment index. In his magisterial writings about The Idea of Justice (2009) Amartya Sen chal. lenges any national violation of fhuman rights, reminding the nationally “patriotic” violators that such rights are not any constitutional gift that can be taken away or limited by any dictatorial or elected state au thorities, “Amartya Sen is not the frst Indian to reflect and teach about the perils of nationalism, He isan heirto similar thought defended and expounded by the creator of Indias national anthem, the first Indian Nobel ‘winner, Rabindranth Tagore, the ‘Gurudev. Mahatma Gandhi's first refuge, earlier to Sabarmati in Gujarat, was Tagore's Santhiniketan, It is be- jeved that it was Tagore who first called Gandhi a mahatma ‘Both knew what they ‘wanted forthe people of i and shared their ideals, but re spected each other's different paths, Such healthy respect for diversity of views reinforced the struggle and led it toa hhappy conclusion. Now more than ever, itis im portant that Indian leaders should read Tagore’s Ghore Dhaire written in 1910, a novel that conveys Tagore's ‘own transition from Hindu re Against this proud back: ground of Indian enlighten- ment we need to dispel any ‘clouds of patriotic chawinism and nationalistic imprison- ment that fears and. feels threatened by the wings of freedom which the Indian peo- ple so amsiously dreamt, de- sired, and fought for under the foreign colonial dispensations. “Tagore's famous ery For free: dom needs to continue ringing in the ears of all India-loving citizens. In the age ofglobalisa- tion it should be India's gift, just not for its own people at home, but to the entire hu- mankind still in bondage of various kinds the world over Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Wheretheworld has not been broken up into fragments ‘By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of ruth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards per: fection Where the clear stream of ‘reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desertsand of dead habit Where the mind is led for- ward by thee Into ever-widening thought andaction Into that heaven of freedom, imy father, let my country Obviously, the ideals will never correspond to the evils of the real world, and we will still see sporadic ugly viola- tions of the ideals, Petty indi- vidual and clase interests will continue to find place in the local and national politics. Ten dencies to demonise minori- ties and to find faults with dominant and domineering majorities in democratic poli: ies will never entively disap- pear. But none of these blemishes, however grave, should not blind the nation: loving citizens s0 much as to throw out the baby with the bath, endangering the gains we have achieved (The author is Founder- Director ofthe Xavier Centresity of community customs ‘The recent ideologies of smatana-dharma are a politi cal subversion of the classic vedic dharma. They could have gained some support in the vivalism to universal brother- hhood, from nationalism to internationalism, from the ac> ceptance of rigid Brahm of ttistorical Research (Coa) 1979-1994; Retired Cathedratic Professor of the Universidade Lusofona de Humanidades e Teconolgias (1996-2014)