Indian Democracy

India remains a robust democracy. Sections of citizenry freely exercise their right to oppose what they choose to do so and the government shows remarkable restraint in negotiating its way. The majoritarianism, which is spoken about ad nauseam, is apparently not a reality as all possible views are in the public domain, no matter how much one grudges the other view. All these have few parallels in the world.

At the same time, we cannot ever be complacent. National unity is a critical issue, and we must do everything possible for strengthening it. We must counter the designs which seek to disrupt social harmony and economic growth and simultaneously must nurse an ecology that inspires all to partake in the national resurgence.

Further, this is the time we must come up with great ideas: ideas which get not only our country but the whole world, every inhabitant of this planet, to one's best ever. Only we Indians can play this role, who from the very beginning have ideated about non-othering, which is exceptional as ideas are mostly about othering.

Here, I reiterate: India's strength is its democracy. And, yet another reiteration: only de-disempowered individuals and de-incapacitated personal or private agency can give the Indic democracy the vitality it needs to rescue the world from the chaos it has degenerated into. The world after defeating the devilry of Bolshevism got somehow inattentive towards global commons and gradually it is again in a morass. Only India has the momentum now to steer the world to its good.

India is a global cause: a cause of human good. We with the rest of folks of all the continents must contribute to the cause with unwavering conviction.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Real-Virtual Mixes

The real virtualized, the virtual realized, hold your breath, do it virtually as it is going to be a long haul, and watch the revolutions (or disruptions) stream.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Liberty

Liberty, in essence,  is not about doing what one fancies, even with the caveat that such acts should not cause harm or discomfort to others, as it is generally assumed to be. It is also not as it is generally defined that it is the availability of conditions which make people be at their best. Would not a requirement of such conditionality cast the state of so many people as unfree though they may be living quite comfortably, untroubled by others?   The essential liberty lies in one's consciousness of human worth and dignity. And it manifests as the state of liberty in mutual recognition of the same - human worth and dignity. Liberty is more of an attitude than about some conditions. Liberty is thus a cultural state.

Niraj Kumar Jha 

The Way to Common Good

Most of the people, more so if they are educated, are not equipped to know the common good. The educationists often dress doctrinaire ideas as educational topics. The best thing is that people should talk about their personal interests, their inconveniences, problems, and expectations, and in this way people may reach a good equilibrium. The tragedy is that most people do not know even their personal interests, and they end up often ideating an ideal model of society. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

About Teaching

Today, I heard a policy advisor advocating flipped classrooms and sharing the idea with a godman that students should be made to learn from the recording of lectures delivered by the best expert in the world on a topic, and teachers and students only do activities around the topics. 

I too thought like that earlier, but I realized during these devastating times that this cannot be the best method of teaching and learning. I summarise the whole idea in one sentence first. Teaching and learning can not be other than a lived experience that necessitates the presence of a person before you who lives the knowledge he or she disseminates.

A classroom is a unique place. The teachers come to know of their students and the students of their teachers and the classrooms build a rapport, which brings in education there. The milieu, the cultural consonance, and the connection are the crucial components of education. 

And the teaching is not about repeating things, as the godman was suggesting, but it is about evolving in the role and the evolution manifests in the very first class of a teacher. And gifted teachers seed the ethos of evolving at their first engagement. Teaching cannot be separated from its magical aspect, it cannot be fully mechanical. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Poor Fella

Oh, my dear!
You deify almost every human role,
one or the other every day.
But I think that
on one day in a year,
or, at least, once in your lifetime,
invite your humanity to your place,
and be in the company of the poor soul,
forgetting all the divinities for a while.
Not a burden on the earth,
let the fella feel this on that day. 

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Poor Fella

Oh, my dear!
You deify almost every human role,
almost every day.
At least one day a year,
or once in your lifetime,
invite your humanity to your place,
and be in the company of the poor soul.
Not a burden on the earth,
let the fella feel on that day.

Niraj Kumar Jha