The need for Awareness

At the beginning of the 21st century, India has often been described as a “developing” country. To see where we stand on this whole issue, it would be interesting to try and define what a developing country actually means. Though it is hard to provide a single definition of what a developing country could actually mean, it is justified to define it in the following way to help in the understanding of the term: - “Developing country is a term generally used to describe a nation with a low level of material well being.”To any rational person, that would seem impossible. Is it possible for a country with such a rich heritage and culture and such diversity to have low levels of material well being? It is time for a reality check and this point in time and accept the fact that India does actually come under the defined term. It is interesting however to trace the events in history and see how we arrived at where we are now. Leaving statistics apart, all of us know that more than half the people in India are living below Poverty line. To a layman, that would mean half the people in the country do not get the three basic necessities of life viz. Food, Water and Shelter. That is not all; India is constantly the target of external aggression as well as internal aggression. Corruption, Religious violence, Low standards of living for half of its population, Serious slack in the Justice system of the country are all flaws we are aware of. However for time immemorial we have been happy by just adjusting with the way things are and moving on with our own small silly lives. What we don’t understand is the fact that we are all a part of an Ecosystem. Though not directly affected today, we are more likely to be affected sometime down the line. Is it fair then to say that we will stand up then? Would it be a little too late? Would others stand up for us at the time? Is it fair for us to expect others to stand up for us? Aren’t we all selfish?
Though setting everything right would take an infinite amount of time it is necessary to make a start. As said by Lao Tzu: “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”So how do we take this all important first step? It would be useful to see what efforts have been made to bring about change. People have often said that the “youth” of the country play an important role in taking the country forward. That logic somehow does not hold well. The very term youth is ambigious.It allows one generation doing all the damage it wants and then saying, “Well the youth of our generation will set it right.”That would mean we enter a never ending cycle with the present generation doing all the damage and the next generation setting it right. (The next generation would never come however as we are all people who love living in the present!!).How then do we set things right? Is it even possible to try and rebuild our country? Not so that the world sees us as a “developed” country, but for our own good. There have been suggestions made that education would take the country forward and education alone is seen as a tool to try and set everything right. At this point however, I beg to differ. Somehow educating the vast majority of India seems a really daunting task. It requires ultimate dedication from the entire “educated” population of India and again it leads to a lot of ambiguity. How does one get characterized as educated? Does knowledge in the Sciences or the Arts mean you are educated? Sadly however education itself has been limited to certain classes of society. Yet again only certain classes enjoy the benefits. What happens then to the other classes? Their standard remains the same. I would at this point like to quote an example. I was in a city bus on a Saturday morning when I saw a few people buying a day pass from the conductor. Fascinated as I was with the journey, I was making a mental count of how many people bought a pass. The shocking thing however was that out of eight people who bought the pass, none of them knew how to sign. Let alone English, they could not write their names in their own language and the conductor had to do it for them (The conductor however seemed very annoyed. I don’t blame him, he has to give tickets and NOT sign on people’s passes).On a small scale, I realized that I had just seen 100% illiteracy. More than illiteracy itself, it was the attitude that bothered me. Sheer ignorance and they seemed proud of it. Being illiterate is not a crime but being proud of your ignorance surely is. This tells us that formal education in India has not been implemented in the right way. The education system in India believes in a “ONE SIZE FITS ALL” philosophy. There is more to education that just getting a job. Hence formal education in India has just not helped in bringing about much of a change. What then are the options we have?
Here is where I believe that the most important tool to bring about change has often never been thought of. It is true that very often we look at high levels of complexities and tend to miss out on the most obvious of things. Even in the concept of bringing about change, we have missed out on the obvious. The tool I believe will be instrumental in bringing about change is a concept called “AWARENESS”. Awareness is not to be confused with education. Both are two separate entities. Awareness means “having knowledge of”. Awareness is the state or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects or sensory patterns. It basically means knowing what is happening in the world around us. Awareness has quite a few advantages. For one it involves explaining the concept that we have to deal with in the simplest of ways. At this point, it would be important to consider an example. Let us say that we need to explain the concept of Global Warming to a group of villagers. It would be impossible to explain the technicalities involved with a concept like this. However what we could do is to ask them if in all the years they have stayed in the village, have they found it hotter or colder in the last few years? It is an evident change and is there for everybody to see. To quote another example, if we need to explain to people the importance of voting, it is important to make them understand that voting is probably a process that will benefit them in the long run. It may ensure better standards of living. However not voting might mean living with the poor standards. Awareness is basically a sense of consciousness. In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding. This is perhaps the biggest victory for awareness as a tool. Awareness is a transparent medium. If we take the example of education, there might be a few sections in society that oppose education. Nobody however can oppose awareness. Awareness is merely another form of curiosity (Be it any class in society, be it a person from any religious faith, the bottom line is that we are all humans. The curiosity in us is what makes us different from all other species).Awareness in another sense is simpler to implement. For example, it can be administered in any language. No particular prerequisite needs to be fulfilled to be aware. In a sense awareness transcends all boundaries. The very boundaries that prevents us from growing as individuals and as a country. Also awareness would mean individuals would realize that at some time in the future, they too would be faced by a similar crisis and hence it is important to act immediately. It would also be important to get people to reflect on their personal experiences. This is another very important concept. What can help us understand something better than when we have been a part of it? However, awareness alone cannot bring about the change that all of us want to see. It has to be supplemented after the initial stages by education. (Education cannot be the first step towards change). Awareness may also make people take up education willingly and that is another positive. Education can then cater to an individual’s need or to the need of a small section in society. Making people aware of the problems we are faced with and how to deal with it is perhaps a minute way of bringing about a change. It is probably the smallest of things that could be done in order for us to change as individuals and as a society. As Neil Armstrong admitted: “This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”. We have to make a start and where else to make a start but by knowing what we are up against? The role of the media too (if put to use in the right way) is not to be forgotten. Here is where technology is our biggest boon. Within a few minutes vast majority of people can get an idea of what is happening around us.It is important however that technology is not misused (Comes back to the point made earlier, we need to be aware of where it is to be used and NOT educated on how it is to be used, at least in the beginning).
There are however a few things that act as positives for India as a country. One being the people of India show extreme dedication towards the country when required. “The never say die philosophy” of Indians has seen us through the toughest of times. If the cause demands it, we are always up to it. Secondly India has always been a centre where mass organized movements have taken place successfully (Quit India Movement and Swadeshi Movements being the most important).If anybody can make a change, it cannot be one individual but India on the whole. It just requires one individual to stand up and we can be rest assured that the others will follow. I strongly believe that at this juncture in time, India could surely use a second Mahatma Gandhi. A man whose actions surely spoke louder than his words. It has taken us quite a bit of time to wake up to the crisis we are faced by. Sadly the slumber we have been in has taken so long that it requires us to act as soon as we can. In the words of Prince Pritchett: “Change always comes bearing gifts”. If we make a change, we will surely feel the change. That surely would be our biggest gift. The permanent nature of change is what makes all of us strive towards it.

My Take on Nationalism

In recent times, the feeling of one nation’s superiority over another has come to the forefront. The term given to such a concept is ‘NATIONALISM.’ This feeling has often had adverse effects in a broad sense. Nationalism has replaced Patriotism as the ideal up to which all governments strive. This however has not had much of a positive impact. Patriotism is often having respect for one’s own country and symbols whereas Nationalism is more to do with proving one country’s superiority over another viz. a method by which another country and it’s individuals are seen as inferior. This has led to a feeling of mutual hatred between countries and its inhabitants. It is important at this juncture to analyze what we have brought upon ourselves.
The whole concept of a nation and national boundaries is imaginary. Very often, in an attempt to simplify things we tend to give nomenclature to concepts that are beyond our perception. The concept of a Nation is one such concept. Physical landscapes know no boundaries, why then do we as a ‘superior race’ try to simplify things according to our convenience? This is one of the important questions that need to be addressed while dealing with the concept of Nationalism.
Nationalism has effects with far reaching consequences. Time and again, Nationalism raises its ugly head which usually results in violence of high proportions. The instances where Nationalism has propagated violence are numerous and the effects are there for everybody to see. If an ideal or concept generates violence, why then is it practiced at all?
Another major problem I see with Nationalism is that it causes loss of identity of an individual. In giving prominence to the country, the individual’s identity gets merged into the country’s identity. This is not a good thing as individuals are an integral part of society and their identity is as important as a country’s identity. Surprisingly however, not only does Nationalism create a loss of identity but also becomes the cause of identity crisis. Modern day Terrorism and Fundamentalism are living testimony to this. There is a fear amongst a group of people that their country’s culture is under threat and that they are the ‘chosen few’ who are to uphold the country’s traditions and its culture.
In a ‘developing’ country like India, it is tragic to see the extent up to which Nationalism is practiced. India still faces problems in feeding her entire population. At one end of the spectrum, there are people going hungry while on the other end, there is violence generated by people practicing their country’s superiority. In an attempt to colonize, prove our superiority and develop, we as a race have pressed the self-destruct button way too often. In today’s world, there is a rising feeling that the thing humanity values the least is human life itself. Sadly, all other things have been given higher priority. It is important for us to wake up as a race. The deep slumber we have been in has blinded us to our own atrocities. The time has come for us to swear our allegiance to the human race and develop characteristics of generosity and compassion towards one another. Else, the ‘supreme race’ would become the one that inhabited the planet for the least amount of time.
The latter part of the 20th century and early part of the 21st century are witnessing violence of high proportions. We live in fragile times. Bloodshed happens at the slightest of provocation and with the huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction at our disposal, we are indeed plunging into disaster. The signs are ominous, but probably there still is a last ray of hope. Being a part of this bloodthirsty era, it would be safe to say that the quicker we let go of Nationalism, the better it is for us as a race. After all, Peace is not merely the absence of War.