India as Vishvaguru: Reviving Civilisation for Humanity

India has incipient civilisational values which, if brought substantially to life, can transform the world. Even in places where humanism is claimed to be at its highest, we often witness disregard for human dignity and life. India can once again be a Vishvaguru, guiding humanity to be genuinely human. The legacies of the Vedic seers, Vyasa, Valmiki, the Buddha, Mahavira and Ashoka are in the very genes of Indians, and if that spirit and ethos can be reawakened in the light of present times, the world can indeed be transformed.

This is proven by modern Indian history. In the first half of the twentieth century, when leaders such as Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Stalin, Truman (who ordered the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), and Churchill (whose policies led to the Bengal famine) condemned millions to death, India gave the world Mahatma Gandhi, an apostle of truth and non-violence. Today, we must rise above the mundane and rescue an imperilled world.

Where will this begin? It must begin with reviving Indian education to its true purpose. We must build institutions at their finest, nurturing minds towards excellence in the service of humanity. The colonial system, which produces graduates haughty and insensitive, must be reoriented. Good and knowledgeable people must be encouraged to take charge of education and be allowed to work according to their own genius. Civil society must come forward. What we need are institutions with a soul, which come from people of integrity and vision at the helm.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The UN System: An Apology of Democratic Order

The UN system was designed to function only in a perfunctory democratic manner. In reality, it was built on domination and patronage by a few over the vast majority. What was required, instead, was for it to evolve into a fountainhead of ever more refined versions of democracy for humanity. A mechanical and surface-level democratic form scarcely addresses human sensibilities, aspirations, and the uniqueness of individual beings.

Democracy, as a universal value, as principles guiding governance, and as norms grounding community life, could not have progressed without the democratisation of the global order. However, this never occurred; indeed, it was never intended to happen. From the charred landscapes of World War II, what should have germinated was a genuine global constitutionalism. It did not. Instead, we were left with a mechanism that, far from being a true order, amounted to little more than an apology for one.

Today, that mechanism has fallen entirely into disuse, as barbarous geopolitical conflicts and crass coercive unilateralism overwhelm humanity. Yet, there is still no compelling voice calling for a global social contract that might bring harmony and fairness to international affairs.

Niraj Kumar Jha

हिंदी : रंजन अथवा रणनीति

हिंदी दिवस एक वार्षिक आनुष्ठानिक आयोजन है। प्रत्येक वर्ष गणमान्य जन भाषणों और लेखों के माध्यम से हिंदी के गौरवमयी अतीत, वर्तमान में उसकी विश्वभाषा के रूप में प्रतिष्ठा और उज्ज्वल भविष्य के दर्शन कराते हैं। मनभावन और लोकलुभावन वक्तव्यों की अपनी उपादेयता है, परंतु एक अन्य प्रासंगिक तथ्य यह है कि आज तेजी से सिमटती दुनिया में हिंदी को व्यावहारिक विश्वभाषा की स्थिति में लाए बिना हिंदी को लेकर हमारी उद्घोषित आकांक्षाएँ पूरी नहीं हो सकतीं।

पूर्व में भाषाई विविधताएँ दूरियों के द्वारा पोषित थीं, किंतु अब मानव-संपर्कों के अनेक आयामों में दूरी शून्य अथवा अत्यल्प हो गई है। विश्व में वह दिन दूर नहीं जब कोई एक ही भाषा पूरी मानवता की मुख्य अथवा औपचारिक भाषा होगी। अन्य भाषाएँ उस महाधारा में मिलने वाली लघुधाराएँ बनकर रह जाएँगी। प्रयास इस दिशा में होना चाहिए कि हिंदी उसी भाषा के रूप में स्थापित हो। इसके लिए सोद्देश्य, लक्ष्याभिमुख, नियोजित रणनीतिक प्रयास और निवेश की आवश्यकता होगी।

इस प्रयास से, पूर्णरूपेण फलीभूत न होने पर भी, इतना तो सुनिश्चित है कि भविष्य की विश्वभाषा कोई भी हो, कैसी भी हो, वह हिंदीभाषियों के लिए अधिक बोधगम्य होगी और उनके अनुकूल भी।

इसके साथ ही, हिंदी की वैश्विक स्वीकार्यता की संभाव्यता का आधार तभी बनेगा जब हिंदी क्षेत्र वैश्विक स्तर पर सुसंस्कृत और सम्पन्न हो; वस्तुतः वही भाषा दुनिया सीखती है, जिसके बोलने वालों का विश्वव्यापी प्रभाव हो।
जो भी हो, भावनात्मक रंजन का महत्व तो है ही।

नीरज कुमार झा

The Shrinking Western Dream

The Western world’s material edge is slipping. Its dominance was built on intellectual drive, entrepreneurial daring, and the hard lessons of conflict, which together powered innovation and global supremacy. Today, that advantage is waning, not only because manufacturing has shifted elsewhere, but also because its lead in the knowledge economy now faces intense competition from emerging powers.

Immigration, once the gateway through which ambitious outsiders rode Western surpluses, is being redefined. It is no longer about attracting the best and brightest but about filling the gaps left by demographic decline. Over time, such inflows could resemble a form of reverse colonisation, provoking resistance within Western societies. Even short of that, these migrants are unlikely to be the high-value innovators who once reinforced Western dominance.

For the wider world, this means dwindling opportunities. The West will still import labour to keep its systems running, but the stage it once offered for talented individuals to flourish is shrinking fast. The Western dream, once expansive, is now a narrowing prospect.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Intellectuals

Being accountable is different from being held accountable. The latter does not behove intellectuals well. Therefore, they must self-examine the worth of what they profess and propagate, so that nobody may think of questioning them unnecessarily, because their self-appraisal should also be public, open to scrutiny and dialogue.

Most intellectuals follow some ideological or philosophical tradition, many of which have been in practice for considerable periods. They must closely examine the trajectory of their chosen tradition as it has unfolded and affected human life. The past reveals itself through many sources, and if one has the knack, one can know history. They will then know what their tradition has done to people, whether good or bad.

Beyond this diachronic consciousness, intellectuals must also have a synchronic concern. We know that road accidents are rare in Germany, crimes are fewer in Japan, and civic services are excellent in Scandinavian countries. Such examples can be multiplied by citing different nations and even regions within nations. There are places where people wish to go and live, and others from which people want to escape at any cost. These conditions are not given but achieved through the application of human intellect and agency. A Hobbesian state, where life is “poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” reflects the poverty of collective intellect.

Human good is not as subjective as some claim, that what is good for one may be bad for another. History gives us clear evidence. Desperate people once risked their lives to climb over the Berlin Wall, fleeing the side that promised the slogan, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” What was proclaimed as a system of justice sounded heavenly, nay, an earthly heaven, but in practice it was a hell. When people seek only to escape, no rhetoric can conceal the failure. What is truly good proves itself in lived life, not in abstract proclamation.
The point is that intellectualism is a nuisance if it does not serve the general good in concrete and comparative terms. People are not meant for experimentation, least of all for an unending type of it. It is the duty of intellectuals to pre-empt the unsavoury and to rescue people from quagmires. Nobody else can take on this task.

It is a tragedy that many indulge in frivolity, often unable to figure out what they intend to do, and in self-justification throw around vacuous concepts, irrelevant name-dropping, and ideas they themselves are not at home with. Their hallmark is a lack of conviction coupled with a fanatical display of passion. For them, intellectualism becomes a matter of performance; they appear one way on the dais and another in the gallery.

Many professional intellectuals are funded by public money, which includes the filtered sweat of workers engaged in backbreaking labour. They ought to care for all, seek proven ways to help everyone, and avoid self-exaltation by invoking exotic names, miraculous-sounding concepts, and mind-blowing ideologies while trying to force realities into their modular imagination.

May God bless.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Each Day a Renaissance Day

I read in a newspaper that artificial intelligence cannot bring about a Renaissance. For that matter, the Renaissance was a singular historical epoch that gradually spread throughout the world, either as influence or effect, and none could remain immune from it. It was humanity’s recovery from unexamined beliefs to grounded reason. In fact, that scale is not required today. We now live in a world where we need renaissant minds in the streets, and that is quite possible through the networks which seamlessly connect people.

If the knowing ones avoid this task and remain immersed in defending their lofty positions, which bring them unearned or viciously earned perks and privileges, conditions may gather to necessitate a rather violent renaissance, as the original one was in Europe. The Renaissance opened the way for the Reformation, which unleashed another epoch marred by violence.

If we wish to renaissancise common thinking and living, artificial intelligence can facilitate and substantiate our efforts very smoothly. Thanks to those big corporations, gifting us artificial intelligence, which not only ease our daily lives and noetic endeavours, but also enable us to make each day a renaissant day.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Imagining a More Human Life

Autonomous intelligent machines, operating with increasing independence through artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT), and the rise of tamper-resistant data systems such as blockchain, which displace the need for traditional registers, record keepers, and even the authorities that sanction them, are rendering a great number of human beings redundant; neither their skills nor much of their labour will be required, and even their creativity risks being overshadowed. A stark example can be seen in today’s conflicts, where drones, precision missiles, and internet-based technologies are reshaping warfare in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, displacing both traditional combatants and the decision-making roles once reserved for human beings. Smarter economies, with their immense corporations of scale and efficiency, will further imperil the people of poorer and less agile nations.

The result is already visible: swelling numbers of individuals are left without meaningful work, struggling to survive without adequate support. This threatens to wreak havoc on social life, and the signs of unrest are writ large in every corner of the world. Left unchecked, these pressures will fuel deepening discontent, destabilise democracies, and create fertile ground for authoritarian regimes, under which human beings inevitably become expendable.

The most critical challenge of our times is to keep human beings relevant. The challenge, and the opportunity, lies in reimagining their roles. With vision and innovation, every individual can be repositioned to contribute more effectively to the common good. What we urgently need are people of imagination and intellect at the helm to guide this transformation, so that technology does not diminish our humanity but opens the way to a more human life.

 
Niraj Kumar Jha