Vijay Kumar Gaba

 I find nothing more disturbing than demolition of a long preserved and much cherished image or belief. Occurrence of this often gives rise to cynicism, shaking the core of the belief system. The recent act of violence in Japan is one such event.

People of my generation have known Japanese people for their politeness and commitment to non-violence. The pictures of Japanese crowds showing remarkable patience and calmness during adversities have been much cherished by post WWII generations. The assassination of the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, last week, while he was addressing a public meeting has shattered many images I was carrying in my mind. This is perhaps first of its kind of act of violence since assassination of Inejirō Asanuma, the then Chairman of the Japan Socialist Party. However, in the pre-war era, political assassinations were rather commonplace in Japan. Japanese people took pride in their martial and imperialistic traditions. Many believe the 1945 nuclear attack on Nagasaki and Hiroshima overwhelmed Japanese society, burdening it with the guilt of being one of the main characters in the two disastrous world wars and losing its pride to the USA.

In fact, after decimation of the manifest fascist forces (e.g., Germany and Italy) and imperialistic forces like Great Britain, Japan and Austro-Hungarian empire post WWII, the world has been a rather peaceful place as compared to the preceding 2000yrs. The conflicts post WWII have mostly been contained. Even during the height of the cold war between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, and shenanigans of star wars, there had never been a threat of escalation to the scale of larger World War.

However, if we correlate some of the recent events and trends, the picture that would emerge is not very comforting. For example, consider the following events and trends:

·         Assassination of Shinzo Abe.

·         Numerous acts of violence across USA and Europe, apparently perpetrated by random people who are not radicalized.

·         Blatant violation of international laws by Russia in invading Ukraine, as energy starved Europe overlooks the devastation of a sovereign nation.

·         China is threatening its neighbours’ territorial and economic integrity.

·         USA handing over Afghanistan to Taliban.

·         Communists (or socialists) winning elections (re-elections) in many jurisdictions, e.g., US, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Bolvia, Peru, Honduras, and Columbia, etc. Polls are indicating that Bralians are most likely to lecet a leftist eader in October election, as Chinese premier Xi Jinping further strengthens his position at 20^th National Congress of CCP later this year.

·         Reliance of population on governments for meeting basic needs rising exponentially along with the rise in the ffinancial and fiscal vulnerabilities across the globe.

·         Frequency of mass public protests rising in various jurisdictions.

·         Tendency of governments to overregulate and over govern increasing across jurisdictions.

·         Expansion of NATO.

When I look at these events and trends and many other similar things happening around, I get a feeling that people of the world are tired of pretending politeness, being democratic and practicing non-violence. They appear eager to get over their guilty conscience and establish supremacy of their respective races. We may in fact be close to the return of Vikings Age 2.0.

In the past 6-7 decades, we have seen many countries being invaded in the garb of restoring or establishing democracies or people’s rule in these countries. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ends that façade. This will perhaps re-establish the legitimacy of colonialism and imperialism. We shall see multiple such instances in the coming decades.

Before we reach a stage when the new Roman, British, Ottoman, Qing empire would rise, we need to cover a long distance. Who covers this distance fast while conserving enough energy and stamina to occupy the post would decide the new world order, maybe 40-50years from now.

More thoughts on this later.

Our Children must be given strong reasons to believe that if central Asian and European invaders did not plundered us, we could have created much better roads, railways, ports, monuments and social infrastructure what they created to further their objectives of plunder, oppression and exploitations. 

 As we celebrate the 74^th anniversary of our independence from the British rule, we appear to be even more resolute in our persistence to deny some of the unpleasant facts, that allowed Europeans to conquer and brutalize ancient and wealthy civilizations, such as ours. We refuse to accept the answers and explanations to the uncomfortable questions, that are relevant today, more than ever. For example, consider the following:

1.         How did Europeans, whom we believed to be primitive, become so powerful in the Middle Ages, especially 14^th and 15^th century, that they were able to conquer and enslave ancient civilization which had mastered art, science, mathematics, and philosophy?

Most of us refuse to acknowledge, it was the Renaissance, total break from the past dogmas and acceptance of a new paradigm, that helped Europeans reinvent themselves as a great political, economic, and scientific power that shall rule the world for many centuries and continue to materially influence it even today when their physical rule has ended.

It was the resolve to, inter alia, confine the power of the Church to the matters of religion; bring the art out of paintings on tall walls of Churches and Palaces on the street, in the realm of common people, by constructing larger than life liberating sculptors on the “ground”; add hitherto prohibited colors to the art; allow students to question the teachers; liberally welcome and adopt the knowledge from foreign cultures, including number system developed by Hindus and evolved by Arabs; venture into far off seas; allow the women equality that unshackled the Europeans and allowed them to conquer the world.

2.         Why, even after 74years of the end of, what was one of the most exploitive and brutal colonial rules, the legacy of British rule is not only surviving but thriving in India?

The policy makers and businessmen in India still prefer the same colonial economic model which British used to enrich their less endowed lands at the expense of richly endowed colonies; our politicians prefer to act and behave in the same manner as the European feudal lords would do in 16^th Century; and divide and Rule is still the most preferred political strategy.

3.         Why do we as a society appear to be suffering from a bi-polar disorder?

On one hand we aspire to be the great power that once dominated the global civilization through indigenous industry, art, literature, science, philosophy and spirituality for a significant part of the human civilization; while on the other hand we prefer to emulate the relatively nascent western cultures in every aspect of our life, including governance, education, culture, food, etiquettes and even personal relationships.

We cannot even accept that formal attires of Europe (Jacket, Pants, Neck Tie, non-cotton skirts and blouses etc.) and Central Asia (Long coats, Sherwani, overall cover ups like Burqua) is suitable for extreme climates and is mostly unsuitable to Indian climate. Adopting this as our formal work place and social attire we may have created avoidable demand for millions of tonnes of air conditioning, and added to warming of overall temperature.

I regret to note that today my social media timeline is full of signs that indicate to our dismal state of denial. It highlights that freedom is something that we really may not be wanting.

The government has notified 14^th August as “The Partition Horrors Remembrance Day”, on the 75th Independence Day. This is a clear signal that we do not want our predominantly youth populace to be free from the pain, misery and failures of the past. It is pertinent to note that less than one third of the Indian population directly suffered the horrors of the partition. One must be at least 5yr old in 1947 to remember the horrors suffered during partition. I am sure only a few thousands of those who are 80yr old and suffered or witnessed the horrors of partition may be physically alive today. Why do we want to enslave 1.4bn people to the thoughts of the horrors of partition, is beyond my comprehension!

A judge in the Indore Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Courts, recently observed in a rape case that "India are a conservative society, it has not yet reached such level (advance or lower) of civilization where unmarried girls…indulge in carnal activities with boys just for the fun of it, unless the same is backed by some future promise/assurance of marriage”.

#BoycottRadhikaApte is trending on Twitter. Radhika, a young film actress has essayed some critically acclaimed roles. She is globally acknowledged as a good actress. Radhika famously acted in a nude scene in a movie few years ago; and recently acknowledged in a media interview that she finds acting in nude scenes liberating.

“Fifty Shades of Grey”, a bold movie, with abundance of nudity and sexual conduct, has been trending in top 10 watched movies in India, for past more than 4months at least.

A society, in which a senior judge would decide on the carnal desires of all the young women, and public supports the call to boycott a brilliant actress for acting nude, while repeatedly watching a near pornographic movie, is certainly not Free.

If Renaissance was ever needed more, it is in India today. We need to bring out the traditional liberated Indian Idea about a just, equal and evolved society from the walls of the temples and ancient revered texts to the ground and exhibit it on every street and crossing.

To attain freedom, we need to reinvent ourselves as a new progressive society that is free from all legacies of slavery and bitterness of the past; encourages children to ask uncomfortable question; avoids dogmas and promotes pragmatism; true to itself and to the world.