Monday, October 21, 2013

WHY SUFFOCATE UNITY IN DIVERSITY?

(What of honest answers? We do not even ask honest questions.)

1. Human nature and physical world both are dynamic systems individually. Their interaction is all the more so. All static social theories are meant to stagnate and become obsolete. Those who stick to them without necessary flexibility and fine tuning, popularly known as reforms, are sure to degenerate.

2. Unity devoid of adjustment and tuning becomes a threat to progress as well as others who are outside that specific circle of unity. The moment a group's unity turns into a dogma and threatens others it provokes violent reactions or counter-attack and is ultimately destroyed. That is why, ideally, long term unity should cover only broader themes like humanity, culture, and nation. For restricted and limited themes only short term and purpose-specific unity is healthy; the moment the purpose is attained it should be disbanded. Diversity is in fact the long term healthy concept to be pursued in a constructive manner.

3. Indian seers realized the importance of the intrinsic dynamism of social organization and so they evolved subtle methods to inculcate a feeling of tolerance for others. This diversity-conducive tolerance gradually evolved into a multi-faceted ethno-spiritual culture almost exactly on the model of a rain forest that lives and thrives in a dynamic symbiotic equilibrium. Though it is difficult to appreciate if evaluated on short term parameters of few decades or few generations, Indian culture has successfully done so for past few thousand years. Why suffocate it now in the name of political unity (or vote-bank unity)?


*****

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

भ्रष्टाचार: कुछ दोहे
Corruption : Some couplets
 by Surendra Bothra 'Manu'

किससे दुखडा रोइए, कौन सुने तकरीर,
राजनीति तो अब भई, गुंडों की जागीर।

Whom to complain? Who will hear the appeal?
These days politics has become the domain of rogues.

मंत्री-बाबू-द्वारपाल, सब करते हैं मांग,
किस-किस को समझाइए, पडी कुए में भांग।

Including minister, babu and peon, everyone puts forth demand.
Who all can be redeemed when the source of drinking water itself is drugged?

शासक शोषक बन गए, नेता हो गए नीच,
लूट रहे अब बेहया, हया सडक के बीच।

Administrators have become exploiters and leaders unscrupulous.
As a consequence the brazen are plundering honour in the middle of the road.

नेता वोटर से कहे, माता तेरी भूल,
ठगने पर भी चुन लिया, हिली देश की चूल।

Leader says to the public, ‘Mother! Fault lies with you not me. In spite of my swindling, you have reelected me and see, now the foundation of the country shakes.’

उनको मत चुनिये कभी, जिनके भीतर खोट,
संतति-सुख हित दीजिये, सोच समझ कर वोट।

Never elect those who are unscrupulous.
For the wellbeing of the progeny think before you vote.

संविधान की आड जब, शासक करते घात,
क्रान्ति ज्वाल तो जलेगी, बुरा मानो तात।

Brother! Don’t mind but when rulers resort to striking under the guise of constitution, the flame of revolution is sure to burn.

-----

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The Bombay rape : An appeal to women



Once again a heinous rape….

The wailing of the past rape victims has stopped. But what of the inner agony that inflicts in silence every passing moment? The soundless suffering of the innocent is for life and even beyond. And for what? No plausible purpose at all. It continues to happen simply because the system, which was created and fed and nurtured with hard earned money of the masses to protect and support the masses, has been made blind by hunger for wealth and power. Try to realize that if this state of inefficient governance continues, time is not far when no one will be safe, no matter how highly placed or tightly secured he or she is. History has ample evidences of this.

Once again a heinous rape….

Try to understand that the survival and health of human society depends on the survival and health of its women. Man has miserably failed on this count; as such it is time women of the country took over the responsibility. Rise and unite for the cause of the family, society, country and humanity. Forget all differences of colours, shades and hues, political or otherwise, and put this issue of survival and health of human society on the front burner. The existing trend of divide and rule will do all it can to divide you and keep you divided on one pretext or the other. It is you who have to remain firm and unwavering.

Once again a heinous rape….

Remember you have the strength to punish man. You have the power to reform the society. If you stop your son or brother or father or husband when he commits first mistake, reprimand when he repeats and punish if he still does not change, you are sure to rejuvenate the society. Look around and you will find yourself occupying seats of power and decision making in every field but are still under some unseen yoke of attachment. You have an overpowering influence over man. What is needed is the will to exert and the dedication to persevere. You are wise and sharp enough to devise the right methodology and you are also patient enough to implement effectively. Shed the prolonged slumber and step ahead with the awareness that the dastardly crime is not against that single innocent victim but against your collective dignity.

Once again a heinous rape….

Once again statements and counter statements. Once again, maximum noise with minimum results. Even the recently promulgated stringent laws have failed to curb rape incidents. The number of such incidents remains same if not increased. Giving statements acts like a safety valve for release of pent up anger. Those responsible and those who turn a blind eye love such statements and speeches of anger and protest. They at once jump into the fray and effectively shift the anger of masses from action to hollow diatribe. Those in power have enough experience to extinguish the fire of vocal threat to their power.

Once again a heinous rape….

Enough is enough. It is time some new and radical ideas were tried. Instead of high decibel sound why not try silence. Those who genuinely want to protest against rape may stitch their lips and join protesters with a resolve not to reply to any question or give any statement. The bang and echo of silence is impossible to dissipate. Let all women, specially those in power and those related to and associated with men in power, any where and in any walk of life, take a vow that they will protest with threatening silence. Why not resort to this silence? Why not all women of the country unite and hit the system with silence, a complete and resounding silence? Why not hit with chilling silence even their own men, particularly those responsible for running the system efficiently?

Yes, the bang and reverberation of silence is impossible to dissipate. 
*******

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Are we producing noble and able citizens?

No matter what the system of education is, the measure of its success should be just one and that is — ‘is that system producing noble and able citizens’. If a system fails to produce good citizens, irrespective of all its other achievements, it is inappropriate to call it a good education system.

In order for a human to be humane the two essential qualities are intellect and vivek (sagacity; discerning attitude; reason; rationality). These two are beyond sentiments; beyond, not in context of importance but in context of field or realm. Sentiment belongs to the inner realm and wisdom to the outer realm. Vivek plays the role of a guide in both the realms. It also plays an important role in coordination and assimilation of these two.

Education comes within the scope of wisdom or intellect whereas creativity falls within the scope of sentiments. Thus in growth of a child an assimilation of both is required. As sentiment is the controlling power of humanity and human beings it is very important to pay attention to its direction and development. This microscopic division is not being done for the purpose of developing or controlling these faculties. It is just a part of the effort to properly understand these. First we will have to understand the pieces than the whole and then think of control and development.

Sentiment is the primordial power. Its direction is vitally important. We will have to first understand the expectations from a human being in context of society and then the direction of sentiment will have to be evolved accordingly. This is the field of samskar (intrinsic attitude). The combination of samskar and education helps create a humane human being.

Education facilities have three basic components -- primary or basic infrastructure, teachers, and curriculum. Once these three facilities are available the institute comes into existence. After this the popular yardstick of the performance of the school is the examination results. The primary requirement for a healthy change is that this yardstick has to be changed. There is no dispute about the importance of passing the examination. But the popular or prevailing form of examination is the written examination. We have to understand that education is not limited to the written mode. Education is the endeavor towards all round development of the student or the receptor.

Our educational institutions will have to change the yardstick of measuring their success. It should be the number of able and upright citizens produced by the system. The conventional examination results should form only a component of this scale.

It is the responsibility of the managing organization of the school to ensure that disciplines that have no direct bearing on the examination results but are certainly useful for all round development of the student should be taught with the same zeal and sincerity. And at the time of evaluation equal importance should be given to them.


*****

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Why Blame Religion?



Today it has become a fashion to criticize religion and brand it as the root of all evil faced by humanity. It is more common in groups that we know as intellectuals and elite. Even among them the leading group is made up of those who take pride in calling themselves secularists. Most of these people have only superficial and not in-depth knowledge of the religion they deplore or for that matter any other religion. To them Dharma is the Hindi rendering of the term religion. In their hands the term secular has lost its true meaning and secularism has turned into a cult that can be called another dogmatic form of religion.
In their mission of mudslinging aimed at religion they avoid the use of simple logic and prudence. They forget that for the misdeeds they blame religion for are, in fact, committed by the religious leaders who use religion for their self-interest. These selfish, ambitious and power mongering leaders play at the hands of politicians and other power mongers to distort religious principles and codes at their convenience. The fault lies with these self-proclaimed representatives of the almighty of every hue; and it is they who should be blamed and punished, not any religion. Punishing or redeeming of these criminals in the garb of religious and other leaders is the responsibility of law and order machinery, state administration and society.
Blaming religion or hiding behind religion has become an easy escape route for perpetrators of all kinds of crimes. The unending inter-religious and inter-sectarian bickering has made it all the more convenient. The high point of this lopsided mindset is that the moment a thief or a criminal or a murderer is apprehended, instead of his crime and evidence, his religion is discussed. Masses are mobilized and polarized to blame religion and defend it. The root cause and crime are conveniently put on the back burner and ultimately forgotten. Mind you, those who thrive on deluding masses will never find solutions to this problem. It is only we, the suffering common people, who should sincerely search for solutions and free ourselves from the influence of these religio-political leaders.
Here are two honest questions we should ask — 1. The atom is a source of unlimited energy. This is a scientific theory established by Einstein and other scientists. Based on that Atomic bomb was made by Openheimer and other scientists. On the command of politicians it was used by US army and an inhuman destruction followed. Who is to be blamed — politicians and army or scientists and science? 2. A doctor prescribes a high potency analgesic for relieving pain to a patient. The patient starts using it as intoxicant for enjoyment; gets addicted and dies. Who is to be blamed — patient, doctor or medical science?

*****

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Politics and Religion



Any of the projected fights between any two communities is never a fight between those communities; it is always a fight between the leaders who have forced themselves on simple innocent masses taking advantage of their simple daily needs and benign ambitions.

It is surprising that in all the debates going on for decades about secularism and communalism everyone decries the communalization of governance through communalization of politics. This, if not absent, is not certainly as widespread a phenomenon as the leaders and media claim it to be.  They conveniently ignore the real evil which does not require any special effort to be seen — the politicization of every facet, every walk, every level of Indian life.

Why the ground reality faced by common man is not appreciated? The politicians have a motive for that — their political power and ambitions. But why the class that proclaims to be intelligentsia also conveniently forgets the simple desires, needs, and ambitions of the man on the street. These are the people who pose to be the champions of the cause of the down trodden. They should ask themselves a very pertinent question -- why the common man has to become down trodden to get their attention?

No, to this humble citizen, it appears that most of the activities of a majority of these claimants of altruism are mere facades or intellectual games they play. In fact the intelligentsia is not at all bothered about the common man. It is interested only in the religious leaders who can hardly be called religious. They are just another hue of politicians. The poor common man is fodder to all shades of these politicians. He is least interested in big talks and debates about communalism or secularism. He becomes concerned about these issues only when he is drawn into the entailing turmoil. He is faced with the frustration that these champions of secularism and communalism keep on coming to him with their uncalled for advice through their accomplices in the media and drag him into the fray.

The true role of religious leaders is to discipline masses and politicians and impart moral and ethical values to them. Today we find the role reversed. It is the politicians who govern the religious leaders and inject selfish and partisan values into them.

Why, for getting rid of religious-fanaticism, we are told to discard religion not fanaticism? It sounds as if in trying to rid of toxicity of medicine we are told to discard medicine and not its toxic ingredient

*****

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

आतंकवाद


My poem partially publihed in Rajarthan Patrika (10-3-2013)

पंखहीन हो गये परिन्देअर्थहीन हर शब्द होगया,
कहीं एक पशु जागा होगाधुंधला हर प्रारब्ध होगया।
कंकालों ने करवट लीपन्ने पलटे इतिहासों के,
आर्तनाद गलियों में गूंजाहर चौराहा दग्ध होगया।
पहन मुखौटे भोलेभाले बारूदी आतंक फिर रहे,
मंदिरमस्जिदगिरजे का हर हरकारा संदिग्ध होगया।
ईद-दिवाली-बैसाखी पर साझे उत्सव स्नेह भरे थे,
प्रेत फासले के जागेअब पनघट भी निस्तब्ध होगया।
देहरीसीढ़ीछतचौबारे जाकर जो सहला आता था,
भाई को भाई का वो ही संबोधन अपशब्द हो गया।
धड से बिछुडे सर की आँखें व्यर्थ खोजतीं उपचारक को,
खंडहर जैसे शासन का हर गलियारा निःशब्द हो गया।

--सुरेन्द्र बोथरा ‘मनु
****

Friday, February 22, 2013

हैदराबाद धमाके: कुछ दोहे Hyderabad blasts : Some couplets


हैदराबाद धमाके: कुछ दोहे
Hyderabad blasts : Some couplets

एक धमाके ने किया, कैसा सत्यानाश?
जहाँ दुआ को जाइए, वहाँ पडी है लाश।
Just one blast and what a ruinous fate?!
You go to pray and find a corpse in wait.

रक्त राह पर बह रहा, हाथ टंगे दीवार,
बोलो राम-रहीम क्या, यही स्वर्ग का द्वार।
Hands hang on the wall and blood flows on the street,
Tell, O Rama-Rahim! Is that how gates of heaven greet?

तुमने जिनकी जान ली, वे सब थे इन्सान,
पूछो अपने आप से, कौन बना हैवान।
All those whom you killed were human,
Ask yourself now, who turned into a demon?

भूख लगे तब मारना, यह अरण्य की रीत,
रब के बन्दे रक्त से, लिखें धर्म की जीत।
Way of jungle is to kill only when hungry,
But in blood write soldiers of faith their victory.

पाप पुजारी कर रहे, नहीं धर्म का हाथ,
जो पूजे शैतान को, मत दो उसका साथ।
It is priests who are sinners, not any religion,
Never support anyone who worships the demon.

’’’’’’’