History Takeaways

The colonial enslavers deployed history to better effect than they could do with their troopers. They devised a history to cement the servitude of the race. The irony is that the same historiography flourishes in different garbs. Though many ommissions and commissions of mainstream historiographies denying dignity and agency to the people are now exposed, the citizens have yet to have a history which offers them takeaways to facilitate their well-being and national good. Things are happening for good, but without the intellectual support history could have provided.

Niraj Kumar Jha

On Democracy

Though it is least understood, the crux of the matter is that democracy is a collective mechanism for guaranteeing individual autonomy and dignity. In other words, it is a broad agreement in a polity to secure every member of their person, possessions, and worthwhile pursuits collectively. And, any democracy to be true to its name, does not rely on periodic elections alone. Rather, its bedrock is constitutionalism, a working legal mechanism for keeping government powers in check through the separation of powers and checks and balances At the same time, it obligates the government to guarantee a set of rights. In fact, SOPs do exist, but mechanisms need to be put in place properly.

NIraj Kumar Jha

On Understanding

Great gems of wisdom, which we see plastered on any writable surface, real or virtual, mean nothing. Mostly these are useless pieces of information serving no purpose.

Understanding is not something which comes on a platter. Knowing is doing, experiencing, suffering, and to be precise, it is efforting. It is basic and basis without which no understanding can accrue to one.

Nonetheless, it is not sufficient. The structure of understanding comes from the eyes of the mind. One must have an informed and trained mind, and efforting must not exhaust that mind. Thereafter, the furnishing comes. That is articulating, expressing, and sharing ideas, and thus examining the validity of the idea.

Constructing the structure of understanding is a professional job. However, it is their job to go into real-life situations and feel the intensity of existential reality, and then only share their understanding with the addressee. Understanding is a conscious, enabled and collective effort.

Niraj Kumar Jha

On Bureacracy

Bureaucracy is a form of organisation or authority. It is Weber's conceptualisation: bureaucracy is the rational-legal authority. Unfortunately, bureaucratism has turned out to be a pejorative term owing to how it is practised. The irony is that bureaucracy owes its existence both to rationality and legality. It means it is the most reasonable and agreed-upon form of organisation. In fact, all the ills of bureaucracy have their causation from two sources: first, there is the bureaucratisation deficit, that is to say, it lacks rationality and laws backing its functioning are not well-framed. Secondly, it is a deficit of quality personnel. Bureaucracy being a superior and complex organisation needs educated, intelligent, well-trained personnel.

Niraj Kumar Jha 

Doom or Boom

In this networked world, nations work their doom or boom with immediate effect.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Nemesis of a Commanded Market

Newspaper reports suggest that the Chinese economy is losing steam. It is a delayed predicament happening now. An authoritarian project of augmenting growth is done by administering steroids. Naturally, times come when the economy loses its organic strength, and organs become unresponsive and even dysfunctional.

The command system of the economy does not work for long even if it holds a market economy.

It is highly imperative that there is a wider understanding of the algorithm of a functional economy among the citizenry so that they are not taken for a ride.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Understanding of Human Phenomena

The composite of social processes is composed of, among others, how they are in general comprehended. Understanding of a phenomenon is a crucial component of that phenomenon. In other words, how a phenomenon is understood goes into shaping what a phenomenon is. Here, the point to underscore is that the core of a phenomenon is how it is viewed. It is the human mind which processes what comes as social processes. Science in the context of human phenomena is not only an approach but also a factor.

The takeaway is: be expressive and argumentative and partake in the making of the world.

Niraj Kumar Jha