28. HEROES: SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW

28. HEROES: SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW

History as commonly taught and understood celebrates the hero. Alexander and  Caesar are the heroes of ancient history, universally admired. Then we have Napoleon , the founding fathers of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln, Churchill and  Franklin Roosevelt. Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao - they were also big names with huge following; but today only lunatics will consider them heroes. A stage was when the leader was, ipso facto, accepted as a hero ; today we have become more critical  and sensible, and have more facts and information. Not all the above heroes will pass muster today. 

It is not only in political history that we have heroes. In every field of human endeavour, we have men of vision and action who can be considered heroes. Most original scientists like Einstein or  Max Planck are surely heroes. Many people consider Darwin to be a hero.


Heroes and Hero worship

In 1840, Thomas Carlyle gave a series of lectures in which he propounded the idea that history is the result of the work and vision of heroes and so they deserve to be worshipped. And among heroes, he considered mythological figures, prophets, poets, priests, men of letters and kings and revolutionary figures. Carlyle lived at  a time when England was at its height as an imperial power, and the idea of 'progress' pervaded the atmosphere. The Industrial Revolution was progressing, but Carlyle was critical about its impact on society. He was not impressed by materialism and was more transcendental in his views, like Emerson in America, whose friend he was.

Carlyle did not talk as a research scholar , as modern scholars tend to do. He was not critical about those he considered heroes! He merely gave expression to a broad idea in the spirit and manner of old scholars whose liberal education enabled them to be proficient in different subjects. Modern research has shown that most historical figures whom we have admired as heroes for long had feet of clay. Few stand critical scrutiny. Heroes were achievers in some fields, but were not necessarily great as human beings or even as leaders.

 We know now that John Kennedy, for all the loyalty he evoked, was certainly not another Abraham Lincoln. Yet, we should not fall into the trap of discounting   greatness itself , just because we have some  cynics among us who raise doubts.





Anti-hero wave!

But on the whole, the  world trend is the opposite today. While we have any number of "instant celebrities" as Alvin Toffler once wrote, there are no lasting heroes! We live in an age of equals, and greatness is not easily admitted; and even when once admitted, it does not take long for 'research' to unearth new facts and call the whole enterprise into question. The modern age has shown that anyone can hold any high office without being personally great in any way! Could we think of any great men among the Presidents of India other than Dr.Rajendra Prasad, Dr.S.Radhakrishnan and   Dr. Abdul Kalam?


India's unworshipped heroes

Sri Aurobindo, 1907

We in India are great hero worshippers. Our history is full of heroes, though most heroes of the Hindu period are not given due recognition under the pseudo-secular dispensation. During the freedom struggle, we had many great leaders with all India following. But after Independence, when the country was divided on linguistic basis, the youngsters are not even aware of the old heroes. How many now know of Lal-Pal- Bal, Sri Aurobindo, Netaji Subhas Bose and their contribution ?  How many even know of Bankim Chandra, Vivekananda, Tagore, Jagdish Chandra Bose, C.V.Raman, P.C.Ray, S.Ramanujam? The heroes of the present generation of youngsters are some sport or cine stars. Fortunately, politics has sunk so low that there are no heroes among them anywhere. There may be local cult figures so long as they are in power, but their appeal is mostly limited to their community. In India, it is so easy to raise a crowd in the name of language or community or some petty local issue.

Lala Lajpat Rai- Bal Gangadhar Tilak- Bepin Chandra Pal. Lal-Bal-Pal.

Gandhi-Nehru Maya! 

Post Independence, the Congress ruled for long and so has made Gandhi- Nehru name the standard. And Nehru's daughter started dynastic rule with the 'Gandhi' name! In the name of secularism. the leftists have captured our  institutions of higher learning and they have obliterated or marginalised the earlier great names. Our educational institutions are so thoroughly controlled by  leftist doctrinaire elements that a critical perspective or objective analysis  with regard to Gandhi-Nehru era is still not possible. The irony is that even the leftists who detested Gandhi  when he lived and ridiculed his ideas and did not follow him in any manner take his name as a shield to smuggle in their own baggage! Gandhi and Nehru are taken to be like demi-gods, beyond critical scrutiny. And those who shout their names do not follow any of the teachings of Gandhi!

Role of media

This demi-god  image is reinforced by our educational system, the governing cliques and the media. The media today plays a dubious role. It can boost anyone it takes a fancy for, suppress vital information, project a bad image of those it does not like, and generally acts in a partisan manner. We witnessed this recently in the US where in days leading to the Presidential election, leading newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post openly bad-mouthed Donald Trump, painting him as the very devil! The problem is that it is all done in the name of 'freedom of the press' or freedom of expression. To find the truth amidst the (mis)information explosion in the media is like finding a needle in the haystack. Even the leading newspapers do not provide complete information on any issue, do not provide space for dissenting views or even acknowledge a factual error when pointed out. This is especially so in India. Our mainline newspapers never report the negative aspects of figures like Mother Teresa or Sonia Gandhi, while the whole world knows them! See how our media suppressed the facts about the Bofors deal or other Scams during the Man Mohan Singh era !

Problem-ridden India

Since India was ruled for so long in the name of Gandhi-Nehru combine, we have to hold them accountable for the major ills that the country suffers from. And a list of such ills can be easily drawn up by any well-informed person, without dispute. It will include, for instance:

- poverty
[ In 2012, Govt of India said that 22% of the people were below the official poverty line. The World Bank estimated it at 23.6% in 2011. About 27.6 crore people.]

- education
[ Education has become costly, quality has declined. 50% of the graduates are reportedly unemployable. The system has become unmanageable, with Universities unable to even conduct exams and evaluation of results properly, reliably.]

-  public health 
[ Govt has abdicated its responsibility. Private hospitals are fleecing the public. Health care is proving beyond the means of vast sections of the people]

Both in education and public health the govt has a vast formal presence, which is totally ineffective, counter productive, burden on the public exchequer,  and only benefits the bureaucracy and the politicians, whose pocket boroughs they have become.

- state of agriculture 
[ India has compromised food security. The ( American inspired ) Green Revolution has flopped and back fired. Chemicalisation of agriculture, benefiting MNCs immensely, has led to diminished returns, long term health hazards, heavy increase in the cost of inputs, heavy subsidization which burdens the tax payer, uneconomic returns for the farmer- especially the small and marginal ones. Thousands of farmers have committed suicide, unable to bear the burden. The govt has succumbed to the pressure of the MNCs in the matter of GMO crops, and farmers have lost their traditional right to their own seeds. The soil has lost its natural fertility, and water is polluted. Biodiversity is seriously threatened. Thus our food security is seriously compromised. Even educated people do not have an idea of the gravity of the situation.]

FARMER suicides in the country spiked by over 40 per cent between 2014 and 2015. While 2014 saw 5,650 farmer suicides, the figure crossed 8,000 in 2015, government sources told The Indian Express.

Indian Express, August 19, 2016.

Wikipedia notes:

As of 2017, one Indian farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes, due to a number of reasons including inadequate prices at the market, lack of government support, an extremely low government MSP (Minimum support price) and the vicious spiral of private money lenders and loans that the farmer is unable to pay back due to the above. In May and June 2017, this resulted in near civil war conditions in India with the government turning to shooting its own poor people.

The intensity of distress in a country where about 65% of the population depends on agriculture can only be imagined! 

In the last 20 years, nearly 300,000 farmers have ended their lives by ingesting pesticides or by hanging themselves. Maharashtra state - with 60,000 farmer suicides - tops the list.

Al Jazeera, 18 May, 2015

[Modi govt talks of development but is absolutely muddle headed on agriculture. The nationalised banks are worse than the traditional money lenders. When industry fails, they write off loans; when the rains fail and crops fail, they have no sense to understand this. Absolute rascals. And yet these same banks lose thousands of crores in bad loans in other sectors and the senseless govt pumps in more money at public expense!]

Things are seriously wrong with our agricultural policy. How many Indians care?

- Kashmir problem - Article 370.
[ The Kashmir problem was created by Nehru alone. He stopped the process when our troops were successfully repulsing Pakistan invasion and referred the matter to UN. He bypassed Sardar Patel who was the Home Minister. And he brought in Art.370 to please Sheikh Abdullah. Its clauses were drawn up secretly, in consultation with the Sheikh,  without the knowledge of Sardar Patel.]

- Border disputes with China 
[ Entirely due to Nehru's foreign policy. China still occupies large tracts of Indian territory.]

- Imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking people [ Pet idea of Gandhi. Nehru's assurance on the subject remains without Constitutional backing. Non-Hindi speaking people have naturally become second-class citizens.]

- Linguistic states and consequent linguistic jingoism and chauvinism 
[ Pet idea of Gandhi . Patel integrated India, Nehru destroyed it.]

-River water and border disputes among States. (These have existed for over half a century.]

- Corruption
[ Nehru and Indira Gandhi encouraged it. Indira Gandhi even justified it saying it was an international phenomenon. It is as natural to us now as breathing. It pervades every aspect of Indian life.]

-Loss of economic independence under WTO dispensation. 
 [India was outwitted and fooled in the negotiations. Our participants went without preparation, and gave in  without muscle.]

India: multi-organ failure

 All these issues  are based on undisputed facts. Political parties  are not even aware of the full dimensions of the issues. How then are they going to find solutions? If we reflect on them seriously,  we find India resembles a patient with multi- organ failure, with the doctors having lost their wits. India seems to have lost the secret of its vitality.

The policies advocated by Gandhi-Nehru combine and their dynasty is responsible for all these problems. How can we then accept Gandhi-Nehru as heroes, really? Critical re-evaluation of their role is necessary.