I don't remember how, today I bumped into a video clip in you-tube of the song "rangde basanti chola", a patriotic song from an old Hindi film. Then I browsed through a few more such songs. The songs are amazing. The lyric with awesome music makes your blood run amock! You feel like doing something!! Then I thought about the condition of the Jehadis of Kashmir or the Naxals of Koraput. I think they are also running a rebellion with no less ernestness. If we shun those efforts, lets also shun the effort of our Indian patriots. If we call them terrorists, then lets not hesitate to brand Rajguru and Sukdev as terrorists. If we call theirs as unfair armed moment, lets also call the "freedom struggle of 1857" as "sepoy mutiny". Why this hypocrasy, why this discrimination?
Then I wondered about the reason for which such songs and ideas make our blood boil? As Nietzsche put it,"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how". May be such songs are trying to inculcate in our mind that "why" to live. I feel we human beings are always in search for a higher thing, a higher being, a higher goal, a higher aspiration, a higher spirit... And if we can be made to believe in any such "higher stuff", we are actualy in a hurry to do just about anything for that!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Armed rebel, war and liberty: physical ahimsa!!
Last month I was in one of the tribal districts of Odisha. I met people there from whom I got some second hand accounts of what's happening in the land in the name of Naxal moment. All these days I am also reading a book named "The Guns of August", an excellent account of the happenings of the first world war. With all these things in mind, suddenly I came to realise something:
It has become utterly futile these days to wage a war or an armed revolution. The days of heroism and martyredom are gone. The races which realise this sooner will be the winners! Days are gone, when you could by arms and force occupy a foreign land and get loots. This may still happen today; but its a very short term benefit. Days are gone when people would rise with a new idea, take up arms and get liberated from the old rules. This may still happen these days; but these again are a waste of time and lives. Now has come a time of globalization and commercialization. If you think you are free, then you are. If a race thinks it ought to be liberated, then it has to fight its own stigma and establish itseld economically. If you think of occupying a foreign land, then sutly control its economy. The way its happening these days. Foreign companies, invest in India. Its Indian resources, Indian manpower and Indian consumers. But the profit goes to the foreign lands. So they have made us work for their purpose and made us give them money as well. And it all is happenig so smoothly! You wanna reverse it, then you gotta make a better company with better strategies!
Similarly, the naxalites who want to liberate their land and get the benefit of their own resources, have to rise beyond the level of money and oratory. They have to think big, use their own resources, invest in man-power and skill enhancement, generate public openion and force the government to start developmental programs, and in a few decades they can beat any damn developed state of the nation. May be this is neo-Gandhism? Dont know. But it certainly is not physical-violence. So it can be called physical-ahimsa!
It has become utterly futile these days to wage a war or an armed revolution. The days of heroism and martyredom are gone. The races which realise this sooner will be the winners! Days are gone, when you could by arms and force occupy a foreign land and get loots. This may still happen today; but its a very short term benefit. Days are gone when people would rise with a new idea, take up arms and get liberated from the old rules. This may still happen these days; but these again are a waste of time and lives. Now has come a time of globalization and commercialization. If you think you are free, then you are. If a race thinks it ought to be liberated, then it has to fight its own stigma and establish itseld economically. If you think of occupying a foreign land, then sutly control its economy. The way its happening these days. Foreign companies, invest in India. Its Indian resources, Indian manpower and Indian consumers. But the profit goes to the foreign lands. So they have made us work for their purpose and made us give them money as well. And it all is happenig so smoothly! You wanna reverse it, then you gotta make a better company with better strategies!
Similarly, the naxalites who want to liberate their land and get the benefit of their own resources, have to rise beyond the level of money and oratory. They have to think big, use their own resources, invest in man-power and skill enhancement, generate public openion and force the government to start developmental programs, and in a few decades they can beat any damn developed state of the nation. May be this is neo-Gandhism? Dont know. But it certainly is not physical-violence. So it can be called physical-ahimsa!
Sunday, January 03, 2010
AAll izz well
Its precisely the point when I was looking around for the writings of existential philosophers like Sartre and Nietzsche, that I came across this movie "3 idiots" and its song "all izz well" (AIW). Outwardly they seem to be two different principles. The AIW philosophy professes that try to relax and put up the fake notion on your psyche that all is well! It wont solve the problems, but will just make you relaxed. Its like taking a peg of whiskey to feel relaxed! At the other extreme are the existentialists who tell you to face the truth. They are too blunt to handle... to the point of making you bleed. They try to free you from the effect of any tranquilizer and force you to think logically and then try to conclude that life has no higher or greater purpose! There is no morality, there is no right-n-wrong, there aint anything! Its just a show, with no prelogue no dialogue and no epilogue.
On my second thought I realized that though these two ways diverge in the beginning, at the end they give you the same experience! You are relieved of any tension. In the AIW philosophy, you forget tension for the time being because you are self-mesmerizing yourself to believing that all is under control. In the existentialistic way of thought also you finally are void of any tension or excitement, not because they don't exist, but because they no longer pose any importance. It becomes a part of the game, just to be enjoyed, not to be taken seriously!
Very interesting, how different routes lead to similar conclusions!! But there are subtle differences as well. Its like a poor man eating simple food because he cant afford anything better; while a rich man taking simple food because he cant digest anything different :)
On my second thought I realized that though these two ways diverge in the beginning, at the end they give you the same experience! You are relieved of any tension. In the AIW philosophy, you forget tension for the time being because you are self-mesmerizing yourself to believing that all is under control. In the existentialistic way of thought also you finally are void of any tension or excitement, not because they don't exist, but because they no longer pose any importance. It becomes a part of the game, just to be enjoyed, not to be taken seriously!
Very interesting, how different routes lead to similar conclusions!! But there are subtle differences as well. Its like a poor man eating simple food because he cant afford anything better; while a rich man taking simple food because he cant digest anything different :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)