Understanding an Unfolding Phenomenon

An unfolding phenomenon, if understood only through externalities such as the name it goes by, the label it carries, or how it is propagated, branded, marketed, supported, or opposed, fails to reveal its real import. Rather, it should be understood by how it actually unfolds, how it affects people within its fold and beyond, how others shape or respond to it in making what it is, the ecosystem in which it operates, and the motives and conduct of its office bearers and followers, both within their particular collective contexts and in their private capacities.

A label is a matter of choice, often serving mere identification; substance, by contrast, consists of real persons in action, processes, or things with tangible consequences. In the case of social phenomena, this substance is also dynamic, manifesting and operating differently across persons and contexts. Here, I am reminded of a doha by Kabir:
रंगी को नारंगी कहे, मूल तत्व को खोय।
चलती को गाड़ी कहे, देख कबीर रोय॥
(Rangi ko narangi kahe, mool tatva ko khoy; chalti ko gaadi kahe, dekh Kabira roy.)

This confusion persists in public discourse as well. In many cases, Indian social science scholarship complicates matters by superimposing ideologically loaded, foreign-origin terms, concepts, and categories onto Indian conditions. These are frequently ill-suited even for description, let alone analysis or theorisation; the use of the term religion for dharma, and concepts such as secularism, communalism, fascism, or the binaries of right and left, are stark examples.

It also demands a self-assessment of one’s own role, whether as a viewer, a participant, or an affected individual.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Earning Humanity

Humanity comes through training. A human being is born as a biological entity, but becoming human requires cultivation; humanity does not simply come to people; it has to be acquired. Humanity is an evolutionary achievement of the species, yet it remains external to individuals as mere biological beings. Every generation must therefore earn its humanity anew, and the human condition at any time depends greatly on the care and quality devoted to education.

People must be trained even in basic capacities: how to see, how to listen, and how to review and process what they gather through their senses. Without training, perception remains elusive, and judgment easily falls into error. The good of humanity rests on how well a society trains itself at any given time.

Humanity must allow its members to be human in a substantive sense. This requires arrangements for a pedagogy that trains people to say neti, neti to deconstruct what they experience and reconstruct it into an intelligible order for their imaginational training project.

This is the lesson of our times: the toxic fumes around us choke not only our nostrils but also our conscience.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Civilisations?

Barbarism could never truly be relegated to the past. It is a travesty of humankind’s evolution that the most barbaric practices have often been refined and dressed up as civilisation. One is left with the lingering suspicion that what we call civilisations are civilised only in name, the term itself masking enduring geographies of barbarity. Century after century, as human knowledge expanded, brutality too became more methodical and efficient.

The great wars of the twentieth century witnessed what was called “carpet bombing,” a cruel euphemism that concealed the agonising deaths of millions. Strangely, the very nations that speak of human rights, environmental protection, gender justice, and free trade now exult in human slaughter.

The conflicts of today are rarely battles between good and evil. In motives and deeds alike, greed, grievances, perverse hedonism, and supremacism are so entangled that truth is pushed out of nearly every sphere of human striving. Through acts of aggression and injustice, the present generation places humanity in grave danger and sows a legacy that will haunt generations to come.

Niraj Kumar Jha

In the Name of Humanity

Natural resources are for the whole of humanity; a nation or corporation acts only as a trustee. To choose to destroy them is an affront to the whole of humanity. The environment, too, is now strained beyond its capacity to sustain human life; wantonly harming it is a serious crime against humanity.

Likewise, the dignity and autonomy of every person represent the dignity of humanity as a whole. Any violation of that dignity diminishes us all. Even an individual does not have the free choice to demean their own humanity. A person who deliberately demeans his or her humanity demeans humanity itself. Such a proclivity should not be acceptable to fellow human beings.

Nowadays, agencies meant to speak for humanity are either defunct or silenced. In such a situation, individual members of humanity must find ways to express their anguish and to contribute to the good of humanity as a whole.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Lost in Information

We are in the age of information glut. It is a downpour from every side. And, frighteningly, we still do not know what is happening to real people in different corners of the world. The information overflow, instead of bringing clarity, creates a fog around us and envelops our consciousness. We are too much absorbed in some particular things and not in most other things, and are also oblivious to the general.

The world is connected seamlessly, but we have lost connectivity, the human connection, and, more disturbingly, we have lost the sense of interconnection. The absurdities of the age are many. When chatbots inform and explain things better than any human being, or even an assembly of scholars, and when that knowledge is easily accessible to anyone, people nevertheless appear dumber and more disoriented. There appears to be a disjointedness in people in what they think, what they speak, and the way they act.

Even seemingly wise people, when confronted with a problem or a question, tend to reason it away as unavoidable or inevitable. Aggression, resistance, and surrender appear indistinguishable. People relay, but they do not relate. Most people prefer to pronounce rather than converse and to denounce rather than engage. I always suspect people, even those with high credentials and standing, whether they mean what they say, whether they know what they articulate, and whether they stand for what they proclaim.

Some people do things without a care, with serious repercussions; the Dunning–Kruger effect appears endemic, while others are mortally afraid of doing even the right things. Information excess numbs the faculty of judgment, and overexposure weakens the agency even of the sagacious; the rest is then left to their baser instincts, which may turn either predatory or submissive.

Queer times. I wish I were alone in experiencing things around me.

Niraj Kumar Jha

A Fair Order: Heed Humanity’s Cries

Nations must reunite to build an order that is fair to all. Order protects; disorder spares none. Even a large and seemingly powerful nation can be reduced to ruin within days. The core of an apparently almighty state may rot from within, consuming both the innocent and the vile.

For this reason, nations must urgently work toward a fair, rules-based international order. The process must begin at home: states should design their own systems around fairness as a primary principle. An autonomous and responsible human individual is the best guarantee of any durable order. Only then will nations be capable of advancing a just and stable global order.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Living Civilization

A civilisation lives through its people. A flourishing civilisation retains its core values, takes pride in the deeds of its ancestors, preserves its legacies in art, literature, culture, and architecture, and continually renews itself with time in order to remain resilient and relevant. At the most basic level, a civilisation requires its people to remain alive to it, to be engaged with its traditions, enthusiastic about its future, and mindful that its inheritance is shared by all. It must cultivate a sense of belonging so that no section of society feels excluded or alienated from the civilizational whole.

History also reminds us that civilisations are not immortal. Many lands that once hosted great civilisations now bear little trace of the values, institutions, or material achievements of their past. Some survive only in fragments, in ruins, texts, and memories, while in other places, tradition and modernity stand at cross purposes rather than working in harmony. Civilisations decline or perish in many ways, through their own follies and internal decay, or by being weakened and sometimes destroyed by external aggressors. Dead civilisations serve as reminders that civilizational continuity cannot be taken for granted.

A true sense of civilisation must reside in every individual, accompanied by a critical awareness of both its strengths and its weaknesses. Blind reverence does not serve the cause of civilizational continuity. Reflection and honest appraisal are essential.

We Indians may take pride in belonging to one of the world’s most ancient living civilisations. Yet pride must be accompanied by vigilance, an awareness of past mistakes and a readiness to respond to the exigencies of changing times. Every generation carries a responsibility toward its civilisation, a duty owed to the ancestors who built it and an obligation to the descendants who will inherit it. Each generation must therefore preserve what is valuable, correct what is flawed, and carry the civilisation forward.

A civilisation may display dazzling grandeur to the observer, but it is also inherently vulnerable. Its survival ultimately depends on the consciousness, effort, and stewardship of its people.

Niraj Kumar Jha