Hailing the vision of Rabindranath Tagore: Human over mechanical

I was recently reading Rabindranath Tagore’s essay on Nationalism and that was when the enormity, farsightedness and the sheer genius of his thoughts stuck me….and stuck me hard. While we are busy today, coming to terms with a whole new dimension that is being provided to the term ‘nationalism’, while we are busy defining and redefining the ways in which a ‘nation’ needs to be respected, while we are busy internalizing the code of conduct we need to follow at each and every of our movie outings in order to prove that we are deserving and true citizens of our nation, the man who wrote what came to be our national anthem, had, almost a century ago, laid bare before us the contours of a world that would idolize ‘nationalism’. And so accurate do his insights seem today that one could only be awestruck and gasp in admiration at the unmatched vision of the man.

His writings on Nationalism repeatedly warn about the possible threat that humanity faced from patriotism, and he always remained an unequivocal supporter for the triumph of humanity above all else. About a century ago, Tagore believed that nation as a political concept was something alien to India, and that India’s strength lay in not letting the mechanical concept of a nation rule over our hearts and minds, as had already happened in the West.

Today, a century later, the concept of a nation as a political entity has become so entrenched and omnipresent throughout the world that even a passing thought about an alternative world is treated as a thought crime and penalized. Yet, for those who wish to pause and reflect, the distant voice of this man in warning one and all of the dangers and pitfalls of blind and unchecked nationalism, could not be clearer and louder.

Nationalism, in today’s times, is enjoying unprecedented triumph over humanity, which lies bruised and battered, pushing hard at its vocal chords to be heard, craning its neck to be seen. The entrenchment of the nation state as a separate political and legal entity, apart from the living entities that compose it, has been made so completely unquestionable that humanity has been slowly and steadily strangulated and buried under the huge weight of this all-pervasive concept.

The political entity that is the nation reigns supreme. The boundaries that crisscross the entire physical mass of the earth today are more important than any number of human lives that may be inhabiting this physical space. The fact that this huge landmass with all its precise and well-defined lines, is still only that, mere flesh and bones with no heartbeats to make it alive, to make it meaningful, is only incidental. It does-not matter in the actual scheme of things. These heartbeats are easily dispensable, because there are so many of them, because there is an unending supply. What does one life matter in this whole big system that has been so meticulously developed and entrenched over ages? What difference does it make?

If this is the thought process that is behind the glorification of the mechanical over the human, if it is believed that hiding behind systems and processes and procedures is possible, to the extent that the human is totally extinguished from the face of the earth, if it is believed that individual human lives are mere cogs in the wheels of the huge machines in the shapes of the nation states, then this hubris is going to lead to a disaster with no precedent, a disaster for the mechanical though, not for the human.

Why I am confident of this is because every time a Liu Xiaobo is refused acknowledgement from this monster of a machine, every time an Irom Sharmila is forced into oblivion, every time a human life, and all the human emotions, dreams and aspirations associated with it, is thought worthy of sacrifice in the name of the absolute sanctity, inviolability and supremacy of the rule of mechanical over human, on each and every such occasion this machine will lose some of its cogs. These cogs will choose to break away from this giant machine and reclaim their humanity. The more the machine will try to run them over and accelerate its speed, the faster it will proceed towards its destruction, for that very acceleration will be the signal for more and more cogs to break away and reclaim themselves. The process from human to mechanical was a long drawn one, the reverse might be even more so, but howsoever gradual or lengthy it may be, the process of reversal is inevitable.

 

India: That what we make it

The Madhya Pradesh police has very magnanimously withdrawn the sedition charges against 15 men for allegedly celebrating the victory of the Pakistan cricket team over Team India in the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy. The men have now instead been booked under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code, for disturbing communal harmony. As profoundly unbelievable as this seems, it is undoubtedly true. Furthermore, the Karnataka police arrested three persons for bursting crackers while allegedly celebrating Pakistan’s victory, and booked them under non-bailable and stringent sections, so that they remained behind bars. The clinching argument purportedly put forward is that the ‘accused’ had hurt religious sentiments. Again, as incomprehensible as this sounds, it is undoubtedly true.

I would like to quote a third instance here, that of a rape of a Dalit girl in Gujarat. The girl, having been first raped on June 10, and then further abused and beaten up by the police officials for seemingly trying to register an FIR against the accused, has failed till date to get a FIR registered. Instead, the case of rape has been converted into one of eve teasing and a complaint of eve teasing has been registered. In a fourth incident, Zafar Hussein, a CPI (M-L) leader in Rajasthan was lynched to death by the state employees for allegedly objecting to their taking photographs of women relieving themselves in the open, those women who do-not have any other option, what with one public toilet, with no water and flushing facilities catering to 3000 households in their basti! The gruesome story however does not end here, after lynching the man to death, the state employees also registered a case against him for trying to interfere with them in their official duties! Just for information here, public naming and shaming of people, especially women, forced to defecate in the open due to lack of facilities which the authorities are duty-bound to provide, is being used as a legitimate means of creating a clean India, under the Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan, in some states!

The first two incidents are a grim reminder of the overzealousness of the state in trying to redefine nationalism for all of us. A nation and the people that took pride in their unique heritage and culture, that was tolerant, receptive, large-hearted and absorptive, is being given a rude jolt. A nation with unmatched potential, both in terms of physical and human resources, would do much better to realize that potential completely if utilized its creative energies for some constructive purposes rather than whiling them away in arriving at a creative definition of nationalism. Would that not be the best way in which we could serve our nation? Would it not be proof enough of our love for our nation?

The latter two incidents are exemplary of the attitude that the authorities exude for the weak and the dispossessed. The basic human rights of the marginalized are being destroyed under the weight of authority and political intrigues. The very same people who are desperately keen on providing us with a rejuvenated version of their nationalism, somehow completely forget that these people who are being meted such shabby treatment, are legitimate parts of that very nation itself, which they are attempting to redefine.

The above instances and innumerable such instances which keep on repeating with a frequency that would have been unbelievable had it not been true, send shivers down my spine and leave me with a nauseating feeling. Yet, if the redefinition of nationalism needs to continue abated, then can we not define it in a way that actually takes the nation to glorious heights, rather than lead it towards unnecessary and unrewarding pursuits? Will the nation feel loved if its people raise it to the heights of glory that it truly deserves, by putting in their best in whatever they do, or will it feel loved if its own people actually inflict it with numerous cuts and bruises, such that it is forever bleeding?

These questions cannot be answered by anybody else for us, nor can they be ignored or wished away. Each and every one of us will have to answer it for ourselves, sooner rather than later, and will have to have the courage to live with all the consequences of that answer. I really hope that all of us are up to it.