INTELLECTUAL CRUSADES
For a Better Society
WHAT has gone wrong with India? Before Independence, everyone had high hopes of freedom, but now they feel that something more is required to fulfil their dreams. Our most pressing need is to discover this missing element and re-plan our strategy accordingly. This is the most urgent task before us. The genesis of the problem is that we failed to differentiate between pre-Independence and post-Independence India. The failure in recognizing this situation is the basic cause of all our problems. We are the victims not of any kind of internal or external conspiracy but of our own misguided planning.
In pre-Independence India our struggle was based on our political rights rather than on our social duties. The whole struggle was centred on rights-activism. This strategy made the whole society a rightsconscious society, while a better society is one whose members are duty-conscious.
In the pre-Independence period, the equation was between Indians and foreign occupiers. At that time, rights-based action seemed to be a valid form of activism and therefore, it worked naturally. But in the post-Independence period, the equation was between Indians and Indians. Now it has become essential to change our strategy from being rights-based to being duty-based. But, in this regard, we have failed completely. No single movement has produced duty-conscious people. The Constitution of India was drafted by India’s best brains. When it came into effect all its clauses were about rights: no single clause referred to duties.
In pre-Independence India our struggle was centred on rights-activism. This strategy made the whole society a rights-conscious society, while a better society is one whose members are duty-conscious.
There is no use in blaming others; it is better to blame ourselves. Now is the time to launch a new struggle, under the banner of ‘intellectual crusades’. By intellectual crusades, I mean educational crusades, not in terms of formal education but in the sense of informal education.
Formal education is not going to help us with this, because it is totally based on professionalism. Anyone who seeks formal education knows that this is the age of professionalism and that he should gain professional qualification to secure a place in the job market. The whole structure of formal education is based on the concept of making oneself qualified for the professional market, rather than on making oneself a good member of society. To build a better society in India, we need a parallel intellectual campaign. It is this campaign that I have termed ‘intellectual crusades’.
If you ask me about the model of intellectual crusades, I would say that I have dedicated myself single-mindedly to this very task. We use various means of communication for this purpose, such as the print and electronic media, conferences, seminars and other places of intellectual activity.
‘Intellectual crusades’ means giving an intellectual dose to people at every opportunity, which makes them better human beings, and consequently better members of society
I would like to share an incident here that illustrates my way of working. Once, when I was at Geneva airport, I met an Indian woman. She had been working on a cultural project for two months and was now returning to India. While sharing her experiences in Switzerland, she immediately took to complaining. I intervened and politely said that in spite of our best efforts situations do occur in life that lead to negative experiences. At such times instead of responding negatively we must follow the ‘cow culture’. You consider the cow a sacred animal in the ritual sense. But you have to follow the cow culture in your real life. The cow is a natural ‘industry’ which converts what is non-milk into milk. This is a demonstration by nature telling humans to adopt the cow culture by converting negativity into positivity. She instantly understood this concept and said that she would abandon the complaint culture and maintain positive thinking in every situation.
So ‘intellectual crusades’ means giving an intellectual dose to people at every opportunity, which makes them better human beings, and consequently better members of society.