It seems that almost every person is highly annoyed by ignorant people. And, add insult to injury, the person feels the others being stubbornly resistant to learn. What appears to me is that people are more knowledgeable or less knowledgeable. And it is the same thing as being less or more ignorant. But, it is all contextual. In fact, the real test for being learned, as I can see, is not about the quality or quantity of knowledge one possesses but is about the approach. Kabir had put it very succinctly, and irrefutably, that knowledge is love. And as it is ontologically, so it is epistemologically. Knowledge is valuing knowledge and the continuous drive for knowledge. On the mundane level or on the practical plane, knowledge and ignorance is a critical issue as it may be a matter as grave as the occurrence of avoidable large-scale deaths. And in general, it involves the quality of life, which may be unnecessarily quite abysmal for a larger number of people in a given society. And the reason for the tragedies and the abysmal living, intriguingly maybe the very successful implementation of the operating ideas held as knowledge by the society. What is the way out? Again knowledge, more than about knowing, is one's commitment towards it. One must engage with other people with love and respect in order to enable the person to avoid ignorant ways and go for knowledge-based options. When such engagement takes place with affection and respect, there is an equal chance of realising that what one considers knowledge is wholly or partially fallacious or irrelevant. And, there is no other way than the shared civic pursuit of knowledge for improving our living experience.
Niraj Kumar Jha
