....... I think the answer cannot be found in terms of any single current ideological perspective. (contd.)
It is quite difficult here to pinpoint the primary actors involved here. Somewhere it may be culture and the state, somewhere it may be tradition and ideology, somewhere it may be modernity and tradition or it may be state and civil society elsewhere. The shifting of primary actors is a challenge that has confused everybody a lot. Had John Rawls been alive, he would have been of some help to us. Perhaps, he would have suggested us to go back to original position i.e. a position with a veil of ignorance about the current social, economic or any cultural identities. Though everybody conceptualizes it differently but the practical need is to derive the lowest common factor among our millions of acquired features. Any individual can be and is a theoretician at least in his/her realm where theory and practice are in immediate collusion. Can Rawls be repeated individually here? Perhaps, it is the time to forget that we have any straight forward analysis out of current diagnostic tools. Perhaps, it is time even to forget that we are even Indians or even Asians. Perhaps, it is time to forget that we carry the logo of singular spirit of Homo sapiens. Perhaps, it is the time to identify the organic whole that makes the lowest common factor among all living beings. This organism has an in-built drive to live but has only one threatening challenge to face i.e. the death. If any basic equation of primary actors prevails, it is here. All other equations erupt from this root equation where living is an inherent right not a constructed right and death is a pre-historical rival. This equation lived then, keeps living till now and shall live till humanity becomes immortal.
Now if we relocate this equation in the series of identities that we have acquired, we shall find this operational function active right in the spirit of Home Sapiens, in the Asian identity, in the Indian identity or any other identity we have chosen to embrace. All other made-up universals may crash but this fundamental interface between right to live and death never ends. Such a kind of approach to the issue does create problems for the existing tools of analysis but relocating the depth of our memory is more important than simply sticking to the present pathological techniques. It is a general menace that our thinking does not go beyond an immediate context which is more or less accepted as given but the existence of a primal time scale cannot be erased so easily.
Now, it is the time to keep track of this equation and review the variety of actions that post-independence India has produced. The notion of death was quite a prominent building element behind these varied and even contradictory forms of actions but there was a very important change in the notion of death that was created by the history. The pre-historicity of this fundamental reality of life never died but it was definitely made almost opaque by the layers of history. It is very important to mention that time and history are totally different processes because time maintains the transparency of human relationship with death but history is marked by the intervention in the defining process of death. It was a rival which needed to be eliminated. As a sheer solid force of undeniable superiority, it could not be eliminated but death was more than that. It was a point of creative construction for every living soul; a kind of conceptual tool which defines the life-world of communities and individuals. It was here that the constructions of denial were built and hence the resultant effect was the transformation of life both in a singular and plural sense. Indian history, like others, too participated in this megalopolis of denial. Who cooperated and who rebelled in it, is a different question but the basic point is that with respect to death, Indians definitely tried to eliminate it from the conceptual tools of past and future generations. A nuclear bomb, hi-tech state machinery or secular curriculum tried to save Indians from death but all promises of eternity fell flat both for a top-notch CEO of Indian multinational and a poor and starving farmer. The partial or full disillusionment with the process of nation-building process is prevalent every where but its visibility is transformed in the many genres of actions that Indians chose to embrace during this learning period.
Now if we relocate this equation in the series of identities that we have acquired, we shall find this operational function active right in the spirit of Home Sapiens, in the Asian identity, in the Indian identity or any other identity we have chosen to embrace. All other made-up universals may crash but this fundamental interface between right to live and death never ends. Such a kind of approach to the issue does create problems for the existing tools of analysis but relocating the depth of our memory is more important than simply sticking to the present pathological techniques. It is a general menace that our thinking does not go beyond an immediate context which is more or less accepted as given but the existence of a primal time scale cannot be erased so easily.
Now, it is the time to keep track of this equation and review the variety of actions that post-independence India has produced. The notion of death was quite a prominent building element behind these varied and even contradictory forms of actions but there was a very important change in the notion of death that was created by the history. The pre-historicity of this fundamental reality of life never died but it was definitely made almost opaque by the layers of history. It is very important to mention that time and history are totally different processes because time maintains the transparency of human relationship with death but history is marked by the intervention in the defining process of death. It was a rival which needed to be eliminated. As a sheer solid force of undeniable superiority, it could not be eliminated but death was more than that. It was a point of creative construction for every living soul; a kind of conceptual tool which defines the life-world of communities and individuals. It was here that the constructions of denial were built and hence the resultant effect was the transformation of life both in a singular and plural sense. Indian history, like others, too participated in this megalopolis of denial. Who cooperated and who rebelled in it, is a different question but the basic point is that with respect to death, Indians definitely tried to eliminate it from the conceptual tools of past and future generations. A nuclear bomb, hi-tech state machinery or secular curriculum tried to save Indians from death but all promises of eternity fell flat both for a top-notch CEO of Indian multinational and a poor and starving farmer. The partial or full disillusionment with the process of nation-building process is prevalent every where but its visibility is transformed in the many genres of actions that Indians chose to embrace during this learning period.
No comments:
Post a Comment