Science

I learnt that science is the systematic study of a phenomenon. But what I realise is that science is about honest and intelligent pursuit of knowledge, and the methods follow. There is another dimension too, i.e. science being applied against human good. And thus honesty, as put in the context above, must mean to cover morality, the commitment to human good, along with objectivity.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Online Education

I am not aware of the ongoing debates on the online education but I can say that it is the future of education. The brick and mortar educatonal institutions would remain there as the lived centres of education parallel to the virtual mode of learning. The longer we remain in denial,more we are going to lose. And more readily we adopt and adapt, more we are likely to remain in the race for everything globally today.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Social Dynamics

Social dynamics is a very long term affair; the causative factors may span over millennia. The focus on the current conditions and actors helps little in understanding and in managing social affairs. And more profoundly, it is the intellectualist state (operative epistemology) over time which determines the unfolding social phenomena. We often overvalue great calamities or upheavals. The plague epidemic in the 14th century triggered a chain of movements bringing modernity to Europe but hardly affected Asia, from where it originated. The Arab Spring, mostly an ICT generated movement, sank the Arab nations more in obscurantism and authoritarianism. We may also talk about a completed project of recent history, the Soviet one. The promised egalitarianism never materialised and it reduced into a very dehumanising totalitarianism. And yet, the desirable changes within a foreseeable future are possible, provided we realise that wishes are not horses. They need a scientific understanding of the social organism and commensurate policy measures to materialise. A proper probing of the current must move beyond the contemporary.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Democracy Mechanism

You know the law of gravity and you also know that the rocket science is a different ballgame. You know democracy as a principle but the democracy of order, constitutionalism in operation, is a different ballgame. Most of the probems we perceive, face, or suffer as such require repairs or upgrades of the democracy mechanism but the problem is that the same elements, deficient in skills, who script malwares cry hoarse at the machine's malfunctioning. And the problem ironically afflicts even the developed democracies. We need proper knowledge and skills first.

Niraj Kumar Jha

On Entertainment

The stuffs we use for entertainment exploit our psychological vulnerabilities to the hilt. And in turn, these vitiate our mentality. This is the malady of the times that entertainment overwhelms our being and cognition (socialisation process) and thus we become the prisoners of the vilest of the minds. We mock our lives by caricaturing the make-beliefs and the fakes. The conduct of the US policeman is not a different case. By pressing the neck of the captive with his knee, hands in pocket, he was trying to create an impressive visual. None of the political commentators noted the impact the Bahubali duo made on the political dynamics of India. The entertainment contents need intellectual scrutiny, and intellectualism needs to be vested with intellect.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Business of Knowing

One who is in know, knows that knowledges are illusive. Thence, when wise persons speak and act, they think of and are watchful of the effects, the counter-effects, and the after-effects of their words, decisions, and actions for long term. Such people are very alert readers of the past and of the contemporary social processes, and when they speak up or take up anything, that is a studied measure. And they are always ready for course –correction and even reversal of any measure. Constant watchfulness is their credo. If one judges, the person rarely finds many of the wise men so designated and more so of their followers fitting this criterion. Over generations, great numbers of human beings have been sacrificed or violated in the name of the wisdom, which turned out to be or remain misconstrued. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

बहुत सारे हैं,

बहुत सारे हैं,
डाल को सही जगह बैठकर काटते हैं.
गिरते हैं,
पूँजीवाद को कारण बताते हैं.

नीरज कुमार झा