Liberalization

Liberalization is the process of undertaking measures for expanding the scope of freedoms so that all individuals are more individual and more human. It is the decollectivization of economy and life. Some societies take a long course from its state of being feudal to becoming liberal. The prolonged slavery makes the folks to accept the collectivized state as normal. Contrarily and the least appreciated fact is that unhindered and unlimited play of private property, individual enterprises and voluntary initiatives only ensure substantive freedom. All other systems are makeovers of the bygone order of feudalism wherein people are forced to feel that they are free.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Indian Democracy

The fact I underline here is that India’s is the truest democracy despite of so many of its grave flaws. And it is so because of the values the Indic civilization inheres. The Indianness is the belief in the essential unity of the existential, and more importantly, it is the celebration of the diversity as the manifestations of the One. This is the belief which translates into India’s commitment to democracy. The difference between India and other democracies is that democracy in India represents its spirit whereas at other places this has been the product of historical circumstances. It is true that India adopted the methods of democracy from elsewhere but the way it has advanced transcends the legacy of all such foreign sourcing. 

However, the present problem is that democracies are facing crises and freedoms are under threat worldwide. The main reason for this is that democracies are facing competition from ruthless autocracies or treacherous fake democracies as well as non-democratic ideas and traditions. Such regimes or the adherents of such ideas work with total impunity whereas the democratic regimes have to follow some norms of accountability. This puts democracies at a disadvantageous position vis-à-vis non-democracies. 

Democracy needs to be defended and expanded. It is a question of our dignity and so of others. India and we Indians must do this globally. The spirit of India, which could be resurrected out of the deep abyss after the lapse of so many centuries and rather recently, needs to be reinforced. However, such an endeavour does not need dramatic things like alliances, missions, movements, wars, sanctions, persuasions, so on and so forth. India can devise levers for lifting democracy without challenging anyone. These are simple things like promoting internationalism in all walks of life and supporting free and fair trade. If India sets the standards, these would be the global standards. The humanity needs a reliable pivot. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

Liberating Libra

Technologies facilitate and necessitate seamless transactions throughout the world. The new and fast advancing technologies create templates which automate scripting of ever renewed internationalism, and so of humanism. There are indeed regulatory issues but for that the need again is to institute international regulatory mechanisms empowered enough to enforce the rules of global good against the gigantic powers, political, economic, and of their combinations. The negative part of the story is that all the big players seek to curb any new thing that negates their role. The answer is a new Comprehensive Global Social Contact having provisions harmonizing the interests of the individuals, of all sorts of groups and of the global community. The sovereign entities must cede some portions of their powers to create a space for the sovereignty of the global community, and for the global citizens. The sovereigns of the world must allow another sovereign to come up, though of a different genre.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Constitutional Formality

Constitutional formality is of worth only when it conforms to the spirit of constitutionalism. What basically helps us is not the labyrinth of laws, fundamental or otherwise, but our adherence to dharma, which combines truthfulness, justice, and the sense of empathy emanating from the idea of oneness of all beings. And at the same time, dharma is also a call for rescuing the human beings who have fallen to adharma. Any issue must be judged from the viewpoint of dharma and the passing emotions and ideas, or formalities, must not hold us.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The History and the Social Conflicts

We have histories not the history as past is ideologically accounted. The quest for the history has ever eluded the humanity. Can there be only one history? There cannot be one but we can approximate as Max Weber does in the Protestant Ethic. Yet, people in general would not recognize the best approximation as being so. One way of determining is the democratic way. Where does the larger world stand? The statement smacks of majoritarianism or the sway of superior power but there is another test, which clarifies the issue at least to my satisfaction. Does that majority view allow the contesting view to co-exist; does the view respect the other view? If yes, then the first view is correct to me and I hold them as the acceptable purveyor of history. But the contesting view may not be benign. We must judge their worldview on the same parameters and if that does not meet the standards then the venomous part of the view must be neutralized.

Niraj Kumar Jha