HOW DO IDEAS SPREAD?-3

A WIDE  CANVAS

HOW DO IDEAS SPREAD ? -3

Literary ideas

Ideas about literature are usually confined to the academic world. They spread through or stagnate in the academic system. General public  may read literature- even serious ones like poetry; but they have no idea how such literature is treated or interpreted in the academic community. The post college generation- those who left college 20 years ago, say- would have a certain view of some great works of literature or literary figures, like Shakespeare and Milton.But the current academic stress may not be on them. More than that, they may even question the relevance of such figures today! This poses a great danger to the cohesion and cultural traditions of a society. Ideological gaps between generations may develop due  to this. Figures considered icons for two centuries are dropped without a debate! One link between generations and a value are quietly lost! It is one thing to change one's opinion consciously after due consideration; it is quite another for something to get dropped, just like that!

This is not speculation. This is what is happening in the Academic world in the US. Today, students of literature are taught a theory called deconstruction. It says (if it says anything sensible at all) that no piece of literature  has a cohesive or inherent meaning. The meaning is what we "construct". So, it can be dismantled. Multiple interests can be identified in any text or piece of literature, and alternative, or even opposite meanings developed.Thus it is possible to view the works of Virginia Woolf as expressing her anger at paternalistic society. It is possible to view Othello or Macbeth in racial or feminist terms etc. It can be shown, on the basis of the writings themselves that such views are totally unfounded; but once an academic power point decides something on the basis of a theory, nothing else would be allowed in the university. This is actually happening. The public is not aware how the old works are interpreted. One day they wound find Shakespeare is no more read, no longer wanted. A recent survey in the UK indicated that most students do not want to read Shakespeare because his language is not spoken today and cannot be understood. This in the land of Shakespeare! At this rate, newspaper would be the only 'literature' the younger generation  reads! Thus, literary ideas do not spread at all except in closed circles, and that due to institutional fiat! For that very reason, only some ideas spread or rather,are circulated deliberately by vested interests.

All other important ideas would be found outside the system!

General Ideas

It is really strange where we get our ideas from. Most of us do not indeed bother to learn anything new, one we leave school or college. When such people become leaders- in any field,not necessarily politics- they become not only the spokesmen or guardians of the old theories; they become immune or hostile to new ideas. Their mind is closed. They really become senile.

Jawaharlal Nehru

Perhaps, the greatest  example of this in modern India is Jawaharlal Nehru. He visited Soviet Union in the 20s and was shown around by officials. He listened to what they told him, he read what they gave him, he saw what he was shown. On this basis, he became a convinced socialist, fanatical believer in their system of planning. He continued to move with Gandhiji for another 20 years, and was even anointed heir by Gandhiji who said that 'Jawaharlal would speak my language'.  Yet, when Nehru became Prime Minister, he did not adopt or implement a single program of Gandhi, but went in for wholesale imitation of the soviet model.The great violence unleashed by Lenin and Stalin, the suppression of the peoples and nations of Eastern Europe by the soviet military machine, the suppression of even the basic human freedoms- none of this made a change to Nehru's mind. It was as if he had no mind- it was only a receiver, with a line only from Moscow! We got slogans in his regime: Aaram haraam  hai, non-alignment, Panchsheel, Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai,  Socialistic Pattern of Society, Mixed Economy, etc. But was there anything new in any of them? And how did they all end up? Politicians and bureaucrats did indeed work without rest (aaraam) to make  themselves rich by corrupt means; non-alignment brought us two wars- with China and Pakistan; Panchsheel  and  the bhai-bhai slogan were shown bye-bye  by China when they invaded us; mixed economy became mixed-up economy where nothing worked-except shortages and high prices; the socialist pattern led to total bankruptcy of the economy by 1991 so that the country's gold had to be pledged with IMF for a loan! All because Nehru as a leader had no capacity or will to learn new things and absorb new ideas!

Indeed, read his biographies. In all his public life- he did not do a single constructive thing! He is indeed one who has had greatness thrust upon him. 

RAJAJI

In contrast, look at Rajaji- you don't have to agree with him.
After leaving active politics at 70, he returned to our itihasas and started writing on them, interpreting  along the way. After the Avadi congress (1954) where the socialist pattern resolution was passed, he became its main and strong critic. He found that the govt. was turning statist and authoritarian  and commented on that. He found that planning was leading to economic distress and he wanted people to be given freedom to work and progress. He found that it was leading to the politician-bureaucrat-businessman nexus, resulting in the 'permit-licence-quota Raj' and raised his voice against it. Finding that isolated voices would not be effective against the huge establishment of vested interests, he started the Swatantra Party, collecting some brilliant minds as colleagues. He was already past 80 then! And he opposed the imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking people!

But his thirst for knowledge, quest for new ideas did not abate. He found time to read the latest novels like Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and review it in Swarajya! He found time to be in touch with serious political thinking and writing: he was the one to bring to the notice of Indians the brilliant truths of Parkinson's Law: work is elastic in its demands on time ie work expands to fill the time available; officials make work for each other, expenditure rises to meet the income available etc.. The bureaucracy keeps bulging and grows not only unresponsive, but uncontrollable! He wrote his columns regularly in Swarajya week after week- till the week he was admitted to the hospital and died, at the age of 94. And in the 'Dear Reader' column, he wrote on every subject on earth, including on Tamil grammar and English idiom!

The leaders of Madras state decided to name it Tamil Nadu.This is incorrect according to Tamil grammar. There are certain situations in which the last u sound is not fully pronounced or elongated, but shortened. Nadu is one such word. But if the U is added at the end, non-Tamilians, and even half-learned Tamilians would be pronouncing the word wrongly! (This is a problem non-Bengalis face now in pronouncing Kolkatta!) This rule is called in Tamil grammar: KUTRIYALUGARAM ( where the u sound is somewhat shortened in pronunciation.)Rajaji pointed this out. That the bigoted Tamil chauvinists did not listen is different .

Rajaji at a meeting, with three local leaders who became Chief ministers1968
MohanV Raman CCBY 2.5 in http;//creativecommons.org/licences/by/2.5/in/deed.en] via wikimedia commons


The matter relating to English idiom is interesting. During the election campaign in 1962, Rajaji addressed many meetings. He was 84. In one meeting, he used the expression: catch the blackest crow. The chauvinist Tamil newspapers, which circulate mainly among 'the pit' went on overdrive  and overkill mode. They alleged that 'black crow' referred to Kamaraj who was dark in complexion and Rajaji who  was fair, and a Brahmin at that, was thus abusing Kamaraj. The view spread like fire among the people and there was great resentment. Not a single newspaper cared to understand the meaning. Finally Rajaji himself had to issue the clarification: 'catch the blackest crow' is an idiom, where  the true meaning is not what the words normally convey individually. It means when you aim at opposition, aim at the strongest opposition. At that time, Congress was in power, and the strongest party, and every opposition party had to aim at them.It did not refer to any  individual or his skin colour at all!

Thus, till the very end, Rajaji was intellectually active, learning and teaching all the time! And his legacy lasts! The socialist regime was thrown out in 1991 and a new era of liberalisation was ushered in- by a Prime Minister who did not belong to the Nehru blood-line! Rajaji proved right!

 Yes, it is important to remember that good leaders always teach, but not necessarily in word. What can be a better lesson than a life well lived! I salute Rajaji!


Swami Ranganathananda

From a book cover in LKAdvani blog.


A monk of the Ramkrishna Order, we expect him to talk of religion, philosophy, Gita etc. And he did that. Most monks do that, any way. In fact they are meant to do that. But what Ranganathananda did was something more, something different.

In a newspaper article in the mid-70s ( I think it was Indian Express), he referred to a book: "TAO OF PHYSICS   by an unheard of (then) scientist: Fritjof Capra. The book dealt with the latest advances in subatomic physics. The author was a leading researcher in that field. But he was something more.

He kept his mind open to areas other than physics (which most scientists do not do). He found that the findings of subatomic physics seemed to accord with some of the mystical insights found in the Eastern religions: Tao, Yin-Yang of China and Vedanta. Of particular interest to Hindus is the fact that he understood the movements of and in the universe as the Dance of Shiva! I cannot refrain from quoting him:

Five years ago, I had a beautiful experience which set me on a road that has led to the writing of this book. I was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing,when I  suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance. Being a physicist, I knew that the sand,rocks, water and air around me were made of vibrating molecules and atoms, and that these consisted of particles which interacted with one another by creating and destroying other particles. I knew also that the Earth's atmosphere was continually bombarded  by showers of 'cosmic rays', particles of high energy undergoing multiple collisions as they penetrated the air. All this was familiar to me from my research in high-energy physics, but until that moment I had only experienced it through graphs, diagrams and mathematical theories. As I sat on that beach my former experiences came to life; I 'saw' cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created  and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I 'saw' the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and  I 'heard' its sound, and at that moment i knew that THIS WAS THE DANCE OF SHIVA , the Lord of Dancers worshipped by the Hindus.

From the preface to the first edition: Tao of Physics, 1974.

Eight years later, in the preface to the second edition, he wrote:

When I discovered the parallels between the world views of physicists and mystics, which head been hinted at before but never thoroughly explored, I had the strong feeling that I was merely uncovering something  that was quite obvious  and would be common knowledge in the future; and sometimes, while writing the Tao of Physics, I even felt that  it was being written through me, rather than by me. The subsequent events have confirmed these feelings.

.......the connection between physics and mysticism is not only very interesting but also extremely important. It shows that the results of modern physics  have opened up two very different paths for scientists to pursue. They may lead us....to the Buddha or the Bomb......at a time when close to half of our scientists and engineers work for the military, wasting an enormous potential of human ingenuity and creativity  by developing even more sophisticated  means of total destruction, the path of the Buddha, the 'path with a heart', cannot be overemphasized.

From preface to the second edition, 1982. There are many editions in the market. 

Some of the words here are worth noting, He felt he was merely "uncovering". The facts were there. And he felt that the book was being written "through'" him!. If we think deeply about it,we will realise, with a pleasant shock, that this is exactly what our Vedic Rishis did: they 'uncovered' the mantras which were then revealed through them!

For my part, I will only add one thing: today, the choice is not only between the Buddha and the Bomb_- there is also BUSINESS! Modern economic and industrial arrangements are thoroughly destructive of Nature ( which people celebrate as "development" and human nature  ( which people celebrate as 'progress")!

The manner in which this book spread in the world without undue publicity and promotion, almost entirely by way of mouth, is an instance that an idea cannot be stopped whose time has come! And good people spread good ideas. Such was our Swami Ranganathananda!

Ranganathananda is interesting in other ways too. He was the one, after Vivekananda, among our Swamis who was always explaining our religion in a scientific spirit and always sought to connect it with modern science. In his exposition of the Gita and the Upanishads, he cites numerous modern scientists and explains the true basis of the theory of evolution: it is evolution of consciousness/awareness. This he has argued with Huxley himself.( This is an aspect on which Sri Aurobindo wrote long ago- nearly a century ago! But somehow, RK Math swamis will not acknowledge Sri Aurobindo openly or wholeheartedly.)

Thus we see great leaders in all areas are open to ideas and are themselves purveyors of great ideas. They make people think. They don't  create or head mobs. They work silently, and it lasts.

Knowledge has many dimensions. But true knowledge has only one direction- towards Wisdom, Unity, God. That is where both science and mysticism have to converge. Rather, mysticism is already there: science has to catch up!

Shiva Nataraja at CERN, European Organisation for Nuclear Research, Genvea Switzerland.

By Kenneth Lu (Flickr. Nataraja at CERN)[CC BY 2,0 http://creativecommons.org.Licences/by/2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

 Another view of the  image. 

OUR INTELLECTUAL BANKRUPTCY-1

A WIDE CANVAS

OUR INTELLECTUAL BANKRUPTCY-1

The Western tradition traces its intellectual history from Classical Greece. When the rise of Christianity obscured this tradition, Europe entered the 'dark ages'. Its intellectual life was revived after the recovery or rediscovery of its Classical foundations during what is called the Renaissance.(14th to 17th centuries.)

 The spirit of free enquiry that it engendered, out of the clutches of church dogma, led to Enlightenment, scientific advancement and great intellectual ferment. The US joined this movement rather late, after its Independence, but it soon assumed the leadership due to force of circumstances.

India rivalled and excelled ancient Greece in the splendour of thought and intellectual inquiry. The range and depth of its philosophical enterprise are still unrivalled. India was also an economic power, contributing about 30% of the world GDP in the Christian era, up to mid 18th century, when together with China it dominated the world economy. India was not traditionally poor, as idiots and vested interests make it out to be. India had never known an official church, had never curtailed free thought and inquiry and had never known any dark age. Except during the modern period!

Just when the the American colonies threw away the yoke of colonial rule (1776), India was enslaved by a mere English trading company (battle of Plassey,1757) and eventually became England's greatest colony- the brightest jewel in the crown! But, in 1836 a new educational system was introduced which sought to kill our genius and has nearly succeeded in it.In the last two centuries, India has lost its intellectual vitality and any trace of originality. It has become an imitator in everything.It was in 1776 that Adam Smith wrote his monumental Wealth of Nations and chartered a course for the economic domination of England. Ironically that is also the time our own economic damnation began, signalled by the famines in Bengal,(1769-1773) soon after the company took over the administration! It caused the death of 10 million Indians, mainly in the areas covered by the Company administration, and it was even reported that there were not enough people left to bury the dead.[ Is it a mere coincidence- that the British rule inaugurated the era of famines in India, and one such famine, in the same Bengal in 1943 signalled the end of the British rule in India? See 'Churchill's Secret War' by Madhusree Mukerjee for details.)

I will just give two examples. Once our people took to English education, it did not take them long to be affected by the ideas of democracy, liberty, revolution which were then current. Some clever civil servants sensed this and to humour the Indians, they created the Indian National Congress to enable the English educated Indian gas bags to air their imitated ideas and petition and pray for token participation in the process of administration. Real national leaders saw this tamasha, and demanded full freedom 'Swaraj' and raised the cry Vande Mataram! Sri Lokamanya Tilak and Sri Aurobindo were the real leaders then- in the first decade of the 20th Century. The British govt was alarmed, unleashed brutal repressive measures, sent Tilak to Mandalay and kept him there for 6 years (1908 to 1914). It kept Sri Aurobindo in solitary confinement in Alipore jail for a year, implicating him in a false case. Tilak's health broke down, and after his release, he had mellowed, diluted his earlier nationalist fervour,and he passed away in 1920. Sri Aurobindo was freed by the British court, the charges against him not proven. But he had had  Yogic realisations  and soon left politics and left British India and settled down in Pondicherry in April,1910.He remained there till his Samadhi in December,1950. He did not yield to calls to return to active politics, once by Gandhi himself, firm in his conviction that Indian freedom was a given and that his work lay elsewhere.

 During the short period he was in active politics (1903-1910), Sri Aurobindo was a terror and even the Viceroy acknowledged that he was the greatest danger to the empire. It was simply because of the intellectual vigour of his writing, which the best of British brains could neither match nor answer! They only sought to silence him, by hook or crook. The originality and daring of his writing is breathtaking. His political writings have been brought together in a huge volume titled "Bande Mataram" and no student of Indian affairs can call himself truly educated unless he has read this. And any one who reads this will realise that all subsequent Indian effort is like the squealing of rats, against the roar of a royal lion. It is entirely fitting that India became free on 15th August, the birthday of Sri Aurobindo, the original leader of true Swaraj!

But alas! All our originality ended with Sri Aurobindo.Gandhi entered the scene, and a period of imitation began. He spoke initially of 'Hind Swaraj' but soon settled for routine political agitation. His non-cooperation movement was actually borrowed from Sri Aurobindo's 'Passive Resistance', but Gandhi claimed moral authority from Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. But Gandhi did not fully succeed in this- he abandoned most of his agitations in the middle. Sri Aurobindo had called for "Swaraj"- complete Independence, and not dominion status in 1905, but it took Gandhi another 25 years to accept it! Swadeshi and  Boycott of British goods was again Sri Aurobindo's device, adopted by Gandhi in the guise of Swadeshi. Sri Aurobindo had thought of 'national education', and Gandhi had his own quixotic version of 'nai talim' later on. Sri Aurobindo had also spoken about settling disputes without resort to British courts. And uplift of the downtrodden was an important aspect of his national programme. Gandhi adopted all these, without openly acknowledging the role of Sri Aurobindo- an act of intellectual dishonesty. With the arrival of Gandhi on the scene and the ascent of his anointed heir Nehru, all intellectual originality in Indian public affairs ended. Nehru simply continued from where the British had left. And when he did something different, as in economic planning, it was in imitation of Soviet Russia! Gandhi's one and only original contribution had been in respect of the economy- the revival of the economy- but it was effectively buried by his self-chosen heir, Jawaharlal Nehru!

Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo presides, while Lokmanya Tilak delivers his speech- Surat, 1907.
Tilak and Sri Aurobindo broke up the Surat Congress, demanding bolder nationalist approach.
Photo from  Sri Aurobindo Ashram sources. Acknowledged with thanks.

Our imitative mentality did not end here. When the American colonies had become Independent, and made a Declaration of Independence, this was a document containing an original vision, of momentous spiritual import, though no ordinary sectarian religious sentiment. Thomas Jefferson, on the recommendation of John Adams, drafted the Declaration and included this fantastic sentence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Historians have called this the 'best known sentence in the English language'. While the colonies declared their Independence from colonial rule, they also declared a moral standard for their own governance! It is so thrilling to any one who takes time to reflect on the true import of these golden words.

 Thomas Jefferson

The portable lap-desk on which he drafted the Declaration! This was his own invention.
Both images from Wikimedia, Public Domain.

But what did we do when we started drafting a Constitution for us? All those who were involved were products of English education, long exposed to colonial ideas and methods, soaked in the spirit of British jurisprudence and practices, and often their admirers, and were unconsciously guided by that spirit. Like a committee inventing a horse, they went about borrowing from every where. Perhaps the only piece of originality is the word Bharat that they used to designate India! The Constitution contains an unresolved conflict between the President and Chief Executive, it contains innumerable points of friction between the Centre and the States, it has no solid stand on fundamental rights, it has no enforceable vision (the Directive Principles are not enforceable). Above all, it has imposed Hindi imperialism on all non-Hindi speaking people and made them second-class citizens by birth! It is already losing shape, having lost its soul by several sinister amendments.

Just think about the monumental stupidity! India has been one of the greatest civilisations, having had a continuous existence of more than 5000 years in record, while all others like Greece and Rome, ended up in Museums and ruins. We had village republics functioning in complete autonomy centuries before Christ, which even the emperor Asoka could not ignore or bypass. India withstood many invasions, and  nearly a 1000 years of Muslim onslaught, but did not become Muslim- only one such example in the whole world in 1300 years. Yet our worthies could find not a single idea from the native soil for our constitution! It is as if Chanakya and Manu, Vyasa and Valmiki, Kalidasa and Tiruvalluvar had not existed at all!  What shining example of collective educated unwisdom! The Indian Constitution is a prime example of a product of dull,uninspired, mercenary clerical minds, not capable of any intellectual effort beyond imitation.