Needed: an Epistemological Overhaul

India is on the move. It has emerged as a powerful nation capable of withstanding international pressures. Yet the journey remains uneven. Reforms are resisted more often than they are welcomed. The government may be willing to push reforms forward, but the very people meant to benefit from them frequently display reluctance. The path to national power and prosperity is, at its core, an epistemological enterprise, but the custodians of thought act in contradiction to it. Collectivist and leftist underpinnings remain deeply entrenched. Nearly a millennium of alien rule has distorted the collective noetic framework. There is little recognition of the need for an epistemological overhaul. Some voices now argue for functional ideas, but their efforts remain a contestation with the established framework rather than a comprehensive reconstruction of it.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Technology as the Cornerstone of National Power

Technology has become the single most critical factor in shaping national power in the 21st century. Countries that lead in advanced fields, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and the Internet of Things, enjoy a significant strategic and economic edge. This technological advantage is rapidly reshaping global dynamics, with serious implications for geopolitics.

In this fast-changing environment, a nation needs to invigorate its key institutions, particularly universities, research centres and corporations, so they function at their highest potential. These institutions form the backbone of a nation's innovation ecosystem and are vital to building resilience against the often abrasive and unpredictable forces that characterise international power relations.

Entrepreneurs, especially techpreneurs and edupreneurs, also play a pivotal role in driving innovation and societal progress. Their efforts should be met with streamlined procedures, supportive policies and easy access to resources. Creating a facilitative environment that encourages agility and responsiveness will enable both technological growth and wider societal benefit.

To protect its sovereignty and ensure long-term prosperity, a nation must regard technological leadership not as a choice but as a strategic necessity. This requires a unified vision that brings together education, research, industry and entrepreneurship into a strong, forward-looking framework for national development.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Knowledge: Organic, Mechanical, and Pretension

Knowledge, as I have said earlier, is not about knowing but about living. It becomes true only when it is lived. True knowledge is organic: it integrates livelihood with a congenial social life.

Mechanical knowledge offers a solution for everything, but rarely solves anything. For moral crisis, for instance, it prescribes a course on moral education, without realising that it is precisely the mechanical imparting of knowledge that fails to nurture genuine moral values in learners.

Worst of all is the pretension of knowledge. Amid ignorance, a certain class of people, or those who assume the role voluntarily, take up “knowledgeing,” parading the act of making others knowledgeable, as a lofty mission, often with a touch of mysticism. They glorify “knowledge for knowledge’s sake,” which serves no real purpose and often does more harm than good. More often than not, such pretension flourishes under public patronage.

I wonder if I belong to this last category. Yet, by pointing out this very tendency, I may be spared the charge of pretension. What I seek, in truth, is not abstraction but the real, knowledge that speaks to life as it is lived here and now, even as I strive to think of it on a larger canvas.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Cinema and Reality

A cinematic narrative typically identifies a problem and resolves it. Yet, as the demands of the medium dictate, the problem is often exaggerated and the resolution unrealistic. Cinema transports viewers into a world where desires are fulfilled and grievances avenged. It offers an escape from reality, something troubled minds may need to recuperate, but it cannot, by itself, bring about meaningful social change. On the contrary, it can create the illusion that justice has been served. It may also lead people to believe that their fantasies and prejudices are real and justified. This, in turn, can drive them towards inappropriate behaviour. Ultimately, cinema often exacerbates problems rather than resolving them. The responsibility of engaging with reality rests with academia, which must work in concert with other institutions and agencies to shape and improve actual conditions.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Shifting Balance

Mr. Trump is, in fact, harming the U.S. economy itself, rather than strengthening it as he projects. He is not only damaging his own national economy but also destabilising the global economy in ways that erode America’s strength. By disrupting an intricately interwoven global supply chain, he weakens the very foundation of U.S. preeminence. The United States has the capacity for far more subtle and effective strategies to safeguard its position. But every reckless slip, every inch of lost ground, will be swiftly claimed by its principal rival and other nimble economies.

For India, the lesson is clear. Citizens must be enthusiastic supporters of governmental measures to enhance the ease of doing business and foster an environment conducive to technological innovation. Only then can India remain competitive in a changing world. After all, the strength of a democracy lies in its people—thinking clearly, acting responsibly, and rising to the occasion.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Reimagining Democracy in the Digital Age

The founding fathers of America institutionalised a democracy mediated by elites, people of standing and knowledge. This was necessary when education was limited and distance posed a serious constraint, with horses as the fastest means of travel. Ordinary citizens could seldom be aware of national or international affairs, and elite mediation helped to bridge that gap. For its time, this arrangement served America well.

Democratisation, however, carries its own momentum. Over time, the commoner’s sense of knowledge and worth has grown stronger. With distance no longer a barrier and information more widely available, elite filtering has lost the weight it once carried. Elitism no longer commands the influence or credibility it once did. The task now is to democratise excellence by removing the obstacles that prevent individuals from becoming knowledgeable and responsible. What is needed is a more horizontal world in which responsibility and knowledge are widely shared, rather than vertically controlled by a few.

A new democratic model must rest on three pillars: universal access to quality education, digital literacy that enables citizens to navigate the information age, and participatory structures that give people a genuine role in decision-making. Scholars, too, must shed their elitism, leave their ivory towers, and utilise new tools, such as social media, to engage directly with the people. To cling to monologues, closed academic circles, or unread papers is to mock the spirit of the age.

Here, Gandhi’s principle of Oceanic Circles offers a guide. He envisioned governance not as a pyramid with power concentrated at the top, but as widening circles, each individual forming the centre of a village, each village part of a wider community, until the whole world became an ocean of cooperative responsibility. Though his imagery was rural, the principle can be adapted to an urbanised and digital world, where neighbourhoods, communities and networks serve as circles of shared responsibility. In the digital age, this vision can be realised on a scale that Gandhi could only have imagined. Digital democracy, if embraced fully, can make governance more horizontal, empower citizens with knowledge, and weave them into circles of shared responsibility. It offers the promise of a more substantial democracy, a better quality of life for the common citizen, and perhaps a more peaceful life for all.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Trap of the First

It seems to me that whatever comes first becomes an organic part of our brain. It is as though the brain, as an organism, awaits the first wave of information to complete its being. Strangely enough, the cognitive makeup of the mind repeats this process. To expand its grasp of the world, the mind once again internalises whatever ideological inputs it receives first. The mind’s template is thus formed by these initial inputs, and everything a person encounters later is processed through that template. Powerful organisations often develop sophisticated mechanisms to alter such templates, yet even they prefer to recruit people when they are young, before the first impressions harden.

I have come to understand education as the transfer of culture to the next generation. Ideally, education is not only about transmission but also about renewing and rejuvenating culture. Yet its true task reaches deeper: liberating minds from the fixations imposed by those first inputs. Perhaps this is why the Vedic seers made it mandatory to pray daily to Savitr—“We meditate on the adorable glory of the radiant sun; may She inspire our intelligence.” The prayer itself is a reminder that the mind must remain open to inspiration beyond its earliest imprints. It pains me, therefore, to see many academicians—supposedly the guiding souls of society—still repeating the ideological rubbish they absorbed during their college days, unable to free themselves from the very templates education should have helped them transcend.

Niraj Kumar Jha