The Public and the Private

Being public and productive are two essential features of political affairs. The political domain is public, and its purpose is to be productive. Private is private, whether it is the domain or its outcome. It comes under public scrutiny only when it forcefully involves others or affects them adversely. A healthy society devises tests for determining their domain and constraining their overreach. Evil is the result of their careless overlap. In a medieval context, or from such a perspective, the adherence to this division appears anomalous or even outrageous. It is a state of affairs reached after crossing a threshold of development, but if a mechanism for progressive differentiation between domains is not in place, it severely impedes development.

Niraj Kumar Jha