Casteism in the age of science

Faith begins where reason ends. Faith, at times, is eulogised as epitome of human virtue for being the mother of patience, perseverance and hard work required for success in any field. But it also poses a very real danger to reasoning, logic, quest for truth and fact-based approach to life. This too is detrimental to human growth.

From the beginning, the man has been engaged in search of ultimate truth. Earlier it did not have the tools, resources and knowledge that it has now. Because of lack of these resources; religion, another kind of faith, had the opportunity to intrude into almost all kinds of human activity, be it agriculture, morality, war and trade. Religion was based on imagination. And imagination is as endless as the universe itself. Religion dictated the shape of earth, moon and sun. And their positions. Religion defined morality, agricultural practices, social conduct, occurrence of festivals etc. As things improved, thanks to martyrdom of Giordano Bruno et al., boundaries of religion have started to shrink. In 1992, famously Pope John Pau II is said to have stated, ‘the clerics in times of Galileo mis -judged the boundary between the realms of faith and science.’ He also noted the incompatibility between the methods of science and religious faith.

Religion has also defined a person’s station in life. Sadly it continues to do so even in modern times, in India. It is the ‘caste system’. Earlier it used to restrict a person professionally. It did not allow a person to utilise his/ her full potential beyond the caste based trade he/ she was born into by just a quirk of fate. It confined a person’s avenues of profession miserably to the caste he/ she was born into. Thanks to modern legacy of the English, a robust democracy and fore vision of our leaders at helm, no trade, no profession, no sport is now restricted according to one’s caste.

And yet it thrives in the mindset of population. It is the cause of social strife. It is the cause of vote bank politics. It is the cause of honour killings of young loving couples. Surprisingly, at the bottom of our mind we all are aware that the caste system has no divine sanctity. It has no scientific sanctity too. The genes of a Brahmin are no different from that of a Mahar or that of any other caste. When will my motherland be free from this malaise? When we will start thinking and behaving like humans and not like caste based animals? One way may be to stop recognising caste in any form at any forum by the government. As it happens, government is, desirably or undesirably, very powerful influence in ordinary life of an Indian. Because of the vote bank politics, the political parties are not expected to make a beginning. Yes, judiciary can initiate and lead the way for this reform. Many a reforms in India have come through the rule of law. Like, abolition of ‘sati’, child marriage and untouchability. Like abolition of ‘triple talaq’ etc. Yes, judiciary can do it.

I Believe in God

अर्श पे तू, ज़मीं पे तू। जिसकी पहुँच जहां तलक, उसके लिए वहीँ पर तू।

(Realm of God begins where our limits end.)

The word “Faith” is the ultimate way to stop wondering. Faith is considered a virtue, perhaps the highest virtue of all, and as such “I just have faith” is a proudly virtuous way of saying you’re done wondering, stopped reasoning, stopped thinking logically. We don’t feel or experience faith, we have it, as though it’s a permanent possession. Your faith is with you always, not in waves of certainty amidst your doubts, but a conviction made and held once and for all.

Unlike other animals, we are gifted with the power of imagination. And we can imagine there are unlimited possibilities (in a way it negates the assumption that other animals cannot think)- we can imagine a ravan with ten heads, a Devi (Mother Nature) with eight arms, a bhim with strength of ten thousand elephants. This 'unlimited possibility' is imagined and personified by us the God. At the same time we are aware of our own physical, mental and perceptual limitations. This gap between the limits and the limitless is our God and our prayer; our faith is directed towards bridging this gap. Now we begin to realise that 'faith', after all, is not so unreasonable.

According to Wikipedia, “Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, deity, or in the doctrines or teachings of a religion or view (e.g. having strong political faith). It can also be belief that is not based on proof. The word faith is often used as a substitute for hope, trust or belief.  In religion, faith often involves accepting claims about the character of a deity, nature, or the universe. While some have argued that faith is opposed to reason, proponents of faith argue that the proper domain of faith concerns questions that cannot be settled by evidence.”

I’m a bit of an outlier here, but from what I can tell, not many questions can be settled by evidence.  In other words, you simply can't do without faith in this life. Evidence doesn’t speak for itself. It must be interpreted, people deciding what it’s evidence for and how far to extrapolate from the evidence to a general certainty.  Even if all of us agree that the evidence points a certain way, we may later come to a different conclusion.  Even science, that most stubbornly persistent form of wondering, never proves anything. It only comes to today’s best guesses, to be beaten tomorrow perhaps, by better guesses.

To me then, bounded rationality isn’t just a function of our limited time to wonder about things, but uncertainties inherent in the universe. That's how the universe has been designed. Even if we gathered all the available evidence, and had all the time at our disposal, we couldn’t settle decisions by means of it and always be right. To me there’s a leap of faith in every decision we make. We work from the evidence at hand to confidence in a bet we think will work.

Without our leaps of faith, we’re unfocused, un-reliable, our effort too diffuse to yield anything of lasting value. Without faith, we would expend our energy every which way and never get anything done.

Faith constrains the directions our energy goes. It’s like an engine cylinder’s hardened walls, which focus the otherwise omnidirectional gas combustion so the piston moves straight out in one direction.  Faith is like the insulation on circuits that keeps electrons from sparking every which way, forcing them instead down particular channels.  Faith is the river bank that keeps water flowing in only one direction, a force that can be used to generate electricity.

We all have faith, bets we live and work by. Faith is just a highfaluting name for our level of commitment or confidence in a bet or prediction on certain conditional outcomes. We should celebrate faith as means to our ends, but not as an end in itself.  And we should wonder more about faith, how it works, how much to have, where to direct it and what happens when our faiths conflict, as they often do.

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते, मा फलेषु कदाचन

I have read many books, both religious and secular. I have read many technical, engineering and science books. I have read many spiritual commentaries but not in the traditional sense like Vedas, Puranas, the Gita etc. I am not a literary kind of person but reading gives me pure joy, or so it seemed to me till recently. Because I have not experienced genuine peace of mind. I have felt happiness, elation, love for relatives and friends, anger, jealousy, competitiveness, but not real peace. That is, freedom from emotions and feelings, the state of being स्थितिप्रज्ञ. I feel at times, all my reading has been useless. Simple ignorant devout persons are better than myself. Unless mind becomes calm, all book learning is of no avail. I have heard from so many people that Shri Sai Samarth of Shirdi easily gives peace of mind to so many people by mere a glance or some playful word, that I desire Him to be my Guru (सद्गुरू), and come to Him in the hope that He will take pity on me and bless me.

In this regard, one advice from our scriptures that fascinates me beyond words and want to be my guiding principle of life is-

"कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते, मा फलेषु कदाचन"

What does it mean? The Ishopanishad, in its very opening words, tells us that God pervades everything. As a corollary, from this metaphysical position, the ethical advice it offers is that, a person ought to enjoy whatever God bestows on him/ her in the firm belief, that, as He pervades everything, whatever is bestowed on the person by God, must be good. It follows naturally that, we are forbidden from coveting another person's property. In fact, we are fittingly taught here a lesson of contentment with ones own lot in the belief that, whatever happens, it is divinely ordained and it is hence, good for us. Another moral advice is that we must spend or lifetime always in doing action, specifically the Karmas enjoined in the scriptures, in a mood of believing resignation to His will. Inactivity would be the canker of the soul. It is only when a person spends his/ her lifetime in doing actions in this manner, that, he/she can hope to attain the ideal of निष्काम कर्म।

I wish to feel it, experience it first hand and imbibe in my daily routine.

Assimilate to Annihilate AAP

My suggestion to BJP to counter threat of AAP in coming Lok Sabha elections is to adopt the good points of AAP agenda. The public wants it and BJP should not be seen on the wrong side of the need of the public. This approach is similar to the one adopted by Adi Guru Shankaracharya against Buddhism in India. First they should stop criticizing AAP so frequently. They should at once adopt two most critical agenda of AAP, ‘no tolerance for graft in public life’ and ‘eliminating the distance of the government from the poor masses’. People want corruption free society and the VIP culture must end/ be reduced drastically.

To work on these agenda, the strategy should be two-pronged. One, to get immediate visible results, like sting operations, quick suspension of erring officials etc. This will enlist support from masses. Second, bring about permanent changes in the system/ establishment that will encourage the government/ public servants to remain honest. BJP should outline these action plans very precisely and promote it in their election campaigns in addition to agenda of progress.

An ideal political system

“Voulez-vous avoir de bonnes lois; brûlez les vôtres, et faites-en de nouvelles.” - Voltaire

A political system is a system of politics and government. It encompasses but is not limited to the legal system, economic system, cultural system and other social systems. It is a complex system of categories involving the views: who should have authority, how religious questions should be handled, and what the government’s influence on its people and economy should be. Anthropologically, political systems can be un-centralized like bands or tribes, or centralized like chiefdom or state. Supranational political systems like empires or leagues too crop up and then lose relevance from time to time in the history of man. The sociologists consider three types of political systems- authoritarianism, monarchy and democracy.

This discussion sprouts from observing apparently far too many aberrations occurring in almost all components of the Indian political system. Criminals and corrupts have infested our legislature, judiciary and executive to a very great extent and are influencing the functions to serve their petty interests. Therefore, interest to which this discussion addresses is, with specific reference to India, figuring out who should hold the power in the relationship of the government and its people and how the government’s power should be used.

India suffers, or, apparently chooses to suffer from the burden of huge population and technology lead onslaught of globalization. We have too many and too lengthy rule books which we fail to enforce. We do not have public figures that can inspire us. Our so-called leaders sitting at the helm of affairs, for short term and quick gains, tend to play upon the parochial sentiments of language, region, caste, creed and ethnic groups. And all this happens in the name of democracy.

We also suffer from the problem of succession- choosing the right heir to the retiring incumbent. We do not have an effective system of succession in place. We display a strong liking to rule of families- be it Thackerays, be it Pawars, be it Gandhis, be it Karunanidhis, be it Yadavs, or be it Abdullas. Many a time incompetent persons in terms of vision and dedication to nation get appointed to high posts of judges, ministers, bureaucrats through nepotism, manipulation, money power, or even criminal record.

We also betray utter confusion at the top most level about the functions of state- like inconsistent and rudderless taxation regime, blood-sucking (pubic money) PSU, too many ministries and controls, white elephant of a bureaucracy, etc.

As a student of general management, I borrow some concepts into this discussion to present my views.

Growth of the nation is synonymous with how well the society manages and keeps changing. I will prefer not to use ‘evolution’ in place of ‘change’ as I believe one thing can lose its relevance sometimes and become relevant again when the situation demands. The change is an eternal thing and as a nation we must learn how to effectively manage the changing times. The change should be extremely relevant to the needs of the times, it should be popular and acceptable, it should be sponsored by an inspiring figure, it should be led by a competent person, and it should be guided and advised by a totally unattached scholar or researcher or theorist. This last concept of an unattached scholar is very much akin to the old concept of a ‘Raj Guru’. It is very essential to detach the doer from the guide. In the given system and times, the problem is who should play which role and how to ensure that the suitable person is appointed to each role?

It is quite obvious that our President should be a figure who inspires and commands respect. As head of state he should lead, or, rather lend credence to all that a state does. We should carry out a one-time, nation-wide activity to choose the most respected citizen of India as our president and authorize him to choose his successor after a five year term. This will, no doubt, mimic monarchy but will eliminate election manipulations, nepotism and puppet presidents.

Next we can elect our Prime Minister directly and not through the members of Parliament, to free him from any pressure of regionalism, caste-ism and communalism. To maintain balance of power, Parliament can act as veto power to the Prime Minister and vice versa. This will be similar to US constitution. The main function of the Parliament will be to generate consensus across the nation so that the actions of the executive led by the Prime Minister are whole heartedly adopted and accepted by the masses. The Parliament should not have any say in the day-to-day functioning of the executive. However, it should play the role of a detached consultant to the executive through framing laws. Judiciary should not be allowed to interpret the laws. It should just ensure compliance of the laws and rules, and interpretation of the rules framed by the executive. The judicial establishments may extend their advice to the executive on the formulation of policies, but it should not be binding on the latter.

Last but not the least, following the adage, “that government is best that governs the least”, our central government should not have more than four ministries- defense, equality and justice, foreign affairs and trade, and education and research. These functions should be the exclusive domain of the centre and should not overlap with state governments and all other remaining powers should rest with the state governments. This will weed out any possible dissentions in the center-state relations, while common education and defense will ensure the retention of nationalistic values. In addition to this, a professional consulting firm should be hired to oversee the process of demolition of old laws and creation of new rules and constitution.

Such a system will not only minimize graft and dishonesty in the corridors of political power, but will also produce a future crop of citizens that is sensitized and well in sync with the needs of the nation. I hope that India, by working on the lines of the aforementioned changes, climbs out of the pit of corruption and misery it currently finds itself in.

Corruption in India

Just now I read a joke that an innocent fourth grader classifies 'one day India will be corruption free society' an example of 'future impossible tense' and gets caned by his too serious a teacher. But it set me thinking. I feel and think best way to judge a happening is that it's happening justifies it. I don't mean to say that a dacoity or a rape or a murder or a scam is justified. It is just that we deserve it. All such crimes and undesirable happenings are culmination of a series of events, actions ( or their absence) which we allow or perpetuate. No man is an island, so says the wise but all the time we act and behave otherwise. Some of the right thinking persons wish for a revolution to take place and set everything right instantly. It is just like wishing for an incarnation to descend on earth and correct everything for us. Therein lies the biggest flaw of our society. Our history is replete with such instances. We seldom do anything in our power and just sit back and dream for a miracle to happen and cure us of all our malady.
But, instead of leading or participating in an agitation or public demonstration, it will be better if we try to contribute our mite in whatever space or situation or position we are. To be effective is the name of the game. In trying to improve or contribute we should not become so impractical that system throws us out- like Arvind Kejriwal. We should learn from the likes of Gorbachev or T N Sheshan how to survive the system and at the same time improve it- till such time a revolution happens.
Jai Hind!!

I have a sister named Shubha

She is 4 years younger. She is a university don. She is tall and impressive. She is know for her erudition in literary circles. Yet I severed my relations with her. She is not comfortable maintaining relations with me. She is not at ease thinking of me. She feels threatened from me. Of what? I do not know.

I recall in growing up years she was adversely compared with me by one and all. She was at times publicly humiliated also. I was good in maths and was able to do justice in languages and social studies too. To her, maths and science were torture. She is not submissive. She is brave. Therefore any scolding for poor show in science subjects made her bitter and rebellious. She had her own ways and skill sets not exactly conforming to the values of our family. Now she shows no signs of outgrowing childhood misadventures/ mishaps. She must find relief from the bitterness she carries in her heart. Only by grace of God can her mind turn in positive direction. I can only pray.

It is a feeling of severing one's own hand because of gangrene.I do not want to leave this world carrying dues in any form. Only God can help me achieve this.