Salvation lies in the temple
I had written this earlier also. I
am reiterating it, as I strongly believe that the roots of Indian economy shall
remain weak if not reinforced and guided by our ethos - religion, traditions
and culture.
Many years ago someone told me "believe in your strengths and
weakness". I emphatically said, "I do!" He paused for a while
and said calmly, "my son, knowing is different from believing.
For example, you know that you will die someday. But do you really believe
it?"
Years later, mingling with the crowd at the Haridwar Kumbh, I
understood the meaning of what that person was trying to tell me many years
ago.
We all, especially our politicians and social media activists,
know the strengths and glorious past of our country. But do we really believe
in that? In my firm opinion, no, we do not!
I firmly believe that religion is at the core of our society. The
Indian political and economic paradigms therefore must be constructed around
religion. (Anyone who has doubts, must carefully notice the thick red threads
tied on the wrists of all the secular, socialist politicians and read the
matrimonial advertisements of IT professionals.)
Even a cursory study of Indian history, whether critically proven
or mythological, would suggest that the best economic and political periods in
the history of the sub-continent were when a righteous king was at the helm and
he protected and promoted the Religion. Conversely, the worst periods, economic
and political, were those when some tyrant attempted to destroy the religious
beliefs and knowledge.
Traditionally in India, education, research, arts, architecture,
science, and the State itself, have all developed and prospered around
religion. Religion is also intertwined with agriculture, which has been the
primary profession.
By adopting secularism as a major social construct, especially since
1970s, the Indian State has unfortunately equated religion with bigotry. This
has not only made religion a divisive (instead of bonding) force, but has also
led to the degeneration of strong traditions of pursuing spiritual, scientific
and material knowledge for the larger welfare of human kind.
In past four decades we have reached a stage where religion is
used to evoke fear & violent passion in people's mind and manipulate them.
Money & power, and not the knowledge & evolution, seem to have become
the primary aim of religion. Ignorance and superstitions are destroying
people's life. It is commonly seen that the gullible people borrow money to
feed illiterate and dirty persons, whose only quality is their surname.
Intelligentsia and academics are scared to explore and propagate
the tremendous wealth of knowledge stored in traditional scriptures for the
fear of being labeled "communal and bigot". Politicians are scared to
promote the traditions of knowledge seeking, scientific enquiry and spiritual
evolution.
The consequences are that the entire nation bothers about winning
one medal in any global supporting event but does never bother about winning a
Nobel in mathematics, physics or medicine.
Start ups are good. But we need to believe that Apple, Facebook,
Twitter and Amzon et. al. are outcome of a Society that promotes and cherishes
knowledge seeking and freedom of thought. It is not the other way round.
In a country where most Magistrates and senior Judges seriously
believe that God can be disparaged and insulted, something urgently needs to be
done.
I have been hearing the phrase "21st century belongs to
India" for past two decades. Many politicians and analysts have used this
cliché to emphasize the tremendous economic opportunities that India could offer
in next few decades, given its young demography. The list of investors and
global States seeking strategic partnerships who have been excited by the
potential is long and impressive. The list of investors and Statesmen who have
been disappointed in past two decades is also not small.
The point to evaluate critically is whether India sans its core
ethos is viable as an economic and strategic power house! In my view, it is
definitely not.
Religion has been a major force in core Indian ethos. Traditionally
it has been the influence of religion that has brought the concepts of
scientific inquisition, righteousness, moral rectitude, social responsibility,
environmental sustainability, debt management, HR management, and just &
fair taxation, etc. in the trade and commerce.
Post Independence the State has been over focusing on
micromanaging businesses and ignoring key social issues. This has weakened the
core fabric of Indian society, inasmuch as that taking pride in our rich
heritage has become synonym with bigotry for all - the so called
"nationalist" who takes pride, the so called "secularist"
who is too scared to take pride, and the so called "rationalist" who
find nothing to take pride in Indian heritage.
Consequently, places of worship have degenerated from being center
of learning & spiritual evolution to shelters for hatemongers, fearmongers,
power seekers, and wealth hoarders. Many of these promote superstitions and
block scientific inquiry to the detriment of society at large.
In my view, if we want to make this century belong to India, then
Indian State—
(a) should leave business
completely to private enterprise;
(b) play a much larger role
in social awakening and create an enabling environment of mutual trust, self
motivation, and compassion;
(c) make the Temple (of
course including Mosques, Churches, Monasteries, Gurudwaras, Mutts, Agiyaris,
Derasars and others) play a larger evolutionary role in progress of the
society, rather than continuing to de-generate further and stay a stumbling
block in the path to socio-economic progress; (Taking their gold for managing
current account deficit is not sufficient!)
The State must realize and accept that politicians and bureaucrats
are naturally and seriously handicapped insofar as their understanding of
business is concerned. They should just secure borders, maintain law &
order and promote social harmony. So far they have focused on the former at the
expense of the latter for the disastrous consequences.
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