Illiterate  Literate Vs  Literate  Illiterate 

When India became independent in 1947, the literacy rate was just under 12% of the total population and today, it has grown up to 75.06% of the total population, a six-fold growth. Among the states, Kerala, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and some other states boast of the literacy rate they have achieved over the years. Congratulations and well done! This is a lesson to be learnt from the success stories of these states by the states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh etc. who are still pulling on.

This is one phase of literacy. On the other hand, are these literate people really literate? What decides literacy? Is it the ability to read and write? Is it the reasoning out and answering the things and issues of the common man? Is it the ‘common sense’ knowledge of the ‘common man’ that makes the person literate? The fact that one is literate, should he/she not able to take up or own responsibility in society? The society here I mean the whole totality of our existence which includes religion, civil society, social aspects, political field, cultural dimensions etc.

Illiterate Literates

Let us take our political system itself. Who is our political leader? He is the person chosen by us, elected by us and therefore, he is supposed to know us, work for our good, and the good of the Nation. Most of them know to read and write. Some are good orators, writers and social workers. But when the issues like FDI, Minority protection Bill, Farmer's Bill, Education Bill (NEP) came, why were the mixed reactions? I find such ‘dum’ people illiterate.

Let us examine at the grass-root level. Who elects them? If one analyze the polling percentage in the cities, rural areas and villages, the percentage usually higher in villages and in the rural areas. Most of the literate people in cities and towns abstain from casting their votes. For some, it is the clash of their ideology, for some, the candidate is from the ‘other side’ and for many, it is a waste of time.  They are the  ‘Illiterate Literates.’

Literate Illiterates

In my younger days, on the day of the election, I have seen the elderly people who cannot even walk, leave aside their literacy, are eager to cast their votes. Most of the aged people not even have seen the classrooms. When the pension comes, or when they have to sign some documents, they show their thumb. But their knowledge of democracy is unmatched with the present-day learned generation. They were convinced of what and why they vote. Are not these illiterate people more literate than we literate people? Of course, they are!

One may take any other value system. They may not have attended any seminars or leadership training programmes, but most of them are born leaders, thinkers and guides. Most of our freedom fighters, even those who are not recognized are the true saints in this regard. They have not lifted any trophies or carried any medals around their necks, but have taught us more than the present day ‘Social Organizers’ and ‘Masters of Ceremonies.’ They are indeed ‘Literate Illiterates.’

Literating the literate

There is a pressing need for us today to evangelize the literate. One may say, what we need is ‘motivation.’ It is true that motivation is necessary. But, the educated who are already having the torch in their hand and know to use where and when do not want to use it. They have already put a full stop in their learning. To motivate them is to make them to rewrite what they have already written or to begin a new one altogether. Therefore, such people need to ‘re-learn’ what they have learnt.   This re-learning is a liberation from the ideological clutches and values systems they are adhered to.

Blinding the Blind
Crowd mentality is a common thing of the present. When something is said by the leader, the people who follow them blindly believe it to be 'gospel truth'. They believe without examination. Someone has rightly said, "the unexamined life is not worth living." When the leader himself/herself is blind, he/she will not be able to show the path of light. Today's Tuglakh rule is another example. RBI heads know very well that India is not yet ready for a cashless economy. Yet, the leaders want it. Unreflected demonetization demonizes the poor! The hard-earned white money of the ordinary people is termed as 'Black'. What a paradox! 

Delanding the Land
Land is ours, we are the owners, we pay the tax, we are the land owners. But government has the right to alienate from us! Century old CNT and SPT Acts of Jharkhand-Bihar speak volumes about the political acts. For them, change is necessary, like Heraclitean dictum, 'change is real'. what is hidden behind the agenda is , 'to sell the state to the multinational companies' in the name of development, for it says, 'for the development of the country land can be alienated.' If the government really want the development why can't it sow the seeds of education, health and social development programmes? Why does it want the MNCs to open schools, hospitals and build roads? Why does it hinder the activities of NGOs and minority programmes? We are being alienated from our own culture and rights. Should I call such behaviour as mature and literate ones? I cannot pose a positive answer.  

As India is celebrating Her Republic Day, it will be apt for us to think, whether we are really literates or carrying the certificates of our diplomas, degrees and still remain illiterate? Today the country needs literate people who can think ahead of time, who can see beyond what is being seen, who can act beyond what is being acted upon. Only then as an educated person, one can sing, “Asato maa sadgamaya, tamaso maa jyothirgamaya, mrutyor maa amrutamgamaya. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.” Lead us from falsehood to truth, from the unreal to the Real, from darkness to Light, from death to Immortality. Om peace, peace, peace.

HAPPY   REPUBLIC   DAY

Literacy leads to rationality which in turn leads to intellectual growth. This is the beginning of economic, social and political development. Spiritual illiteracy leads to doom of anyone who doesn't recognize Divine knowledge. One may be religious for years, or maybe the most successful person in an institution, but if he/she doesn't recognize God in life, is an illiterate literate. In the kingdom of God, an ordinary person who is not trained in theology or philosophy can be the most spiritually literate person. Who am I, "literate illiterate or illiterate literate?"

Fr. Raju Felix Crasta

Statues and Statutes: Critique of a Propaganda

Years ago, I attended a psycho-spiritual integration seminar. Every day the seminar began with a meditation at the dawn, followed by what they called ‘processing,’ a special technique of knowing one’s own inner self. One of the meditations that shook my entire person was, “The Statue Meditation.” The meditation was very simple: falling into the meditation as usual, imagining that one is a statue, becoming one with it, and finally coming out of it. At the processing, one is asked to draw in a sheet of white paper with crayon pencils in the non-dominant hand the picture of the statue that we became with all the background and structure. Certain questions were asked by the guide and we just answered them in the same sheet. This opened our inner being. I am not further going to describe what the image I became or how I portrayed ‘my-self.’ What I want to critique is the recent phenomena of statue desecration in India.

The phenomena of erecting statues have been an age old tradition to immortalize a certain ideology. It is not seen just in one particular tradition, culture or ideology, but a world-wide phenomenon. The kind of statue one erects portrays the kind of philosophy it upholds. For example, the statue of Jesus the Crucified points out that one should love unto the last drop of blood for the good of the other without condemning anyone, even the one who wants to destroy you; Buddha’s mediation statue of shows his serene mind and invites us to be peaceful in all the circumstances; Tīrthankara Gomaṭeśvara or Bahubali’s statue teaches us not to have any attachment, even to the clothes, and face all the difficulties with courage and one-pointed devotion (ekāgracitta bhakti); Ambedkar’s statue with a book reminds us of the Holy Constitution of the Republic India and its significance for each citizen of the country; the statue of Gandhiji with a spinning wheel inspires us to be self-sufficient and self-reliant with things that we own, and so on. Thus, statues remind us what they boldly stood for something earlier.

Statue and busts of Vladimir Lenin, EVR Ramasamy or Periyar and Syama Prasad Mookerjee

But the recent phenomenon of destruction and desecration of existing statues in the democratic country is an undemocratic act. It is a condemnable act. The unceremonious demolition of the statue of the communist leader Vladimir Illych Lenin in Tripura after the landmark victory of BJP, the desecration of Periyar statue in Tamil Nadu, statue of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in Kolkata, Ambedkar Statue in MP, and some reported and unreported cases about Christian religious statues elsewhere in the country speak much about the new trends of statue vandalism in the country.

However, this trend is not something new to this time. In the olden days the kings after winning the war, the victorious king either desecrated or destroyed the chief deity of the rival kingdom. Partly because of the treasure they contained like gold and silver, and partly as a sign of defeat of the morality of the enemies. When the deity is destroyed, the identity of a particular kingdom associated with it is also understood to be destroyed.

What do these vandalized statues stand for? Lenin (1870-1924), the Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist who unified the Soviet Union stands for the “Marxist ideology.” Though Marxism is not the philosophy of India, the Indians are very much influenced by the philosophy of ‘classless socialist society.’ We do not find ‘class struggle’ like that of Russia in India, but we do find struggle for equality, struggle for social status and such issues which force people to accept this ideology. Erode Venkata Ramasamy, was commonly known as Periyar (1879-1973) is a Dravidian pride of Tamil Nadu who launched movements against casteism. Being oppressed by the Brahminism, launched a political party to uphold the voice of the voiceless. Today, irrespective of Dravidian parities, he is hailed as a savior figure. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (1901-1953) was an Indian politician, barrister and academician, who served as the Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. After falling out with Nehru, Mukherjee quit the Indian National Congress and founded the right wing nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a predecessor to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in 1951. He was also the president of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha from 1943 to 1946. Mukherjee strongly had opposed the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gives autonomous status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Thus, Mukherjee stands for ‘one nation, one constitution, one chief and one symbol’ theory. This theory was also reiterated by L.K. Advani latter.  Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956), popularly known as Baba Saheb, was an Indian jurist, architect of the Constitution of India, economist, politician and social reformer who inspired the Dalit Buddhist Movement and campaigned against social discrimination against Dalits, while supported the rights of women and labour. He is the face of Indian democracy, and justice and equality.  

The present vandalism seems to be an attempt to replace the constitutional statutes with ideological statutes of the perpetrators. The demolition of statues obviously is a violation of democratic statutes. The democracy gives ample space for individual and community rights. It upholds the freedom of speech. Diversity is the culture of the democracy. Singularity is alien to the democracy. In a democratic country like India, people have the right to form parties, social institutions, follow the creed of their choice, and practice and  propagate the faith one adheres to. Debarring this and attempting to follow one culture and one tradition is not the philosophy of Indian Constitution.

Often, Marxism is understood to be an atheistic tradition. But, in India this is not so. Indians are very much theistic and so too are the people who profess the Marxian ideology. Secondly, Marxian ideology is a socialistic one, which respects every tradition and culture. The pulling down of Lenin statute in Tripura amidst “Bharat mata ki Jai” slogans cannot be justified by any means. What Tripura Governor Mr. Tathagata Roy said, “A democratically elected government can undo what the previous government has done” is nothing but equaling apples with oranges. Does this statement approves such acts or at least condemns it? First of all, going against the sentiments of people even if they are minority, is morally wrong. Secondly, one cannot destroy other’s property, be it of an individual, or organization or of the public. Thirdly, in the democratic situation, even renaming a road, a heritage site or any other places has a process. Taking law upon oneself as a right to do anything is not freedom.

A sudden outburst of anger or destruction in any psychological situation is understood to be an ‘unconscious act’ of the person. Unconscious never errs. What we infer from the vandalism of the Lenin statue therefore, is the eruption of lava of fundamental ideology of the perpetrators and the people who poisoned their minds. The fascist forces were on work ever since CPM ruled the state. The only way they could make their presence felt was to divide the community, and spill the seeds of vengeance and hatred. It is often said, a repeated lie can make a person believe it to be true. Similarly, a repeated hatred towards someone can make people accept the other to be an enemy. But, I strongly believe, that the truth has the ability to withstand any communal or psychological aberrations. Only the truth will set the world free.

The vandalism that we saw could be an expression of cumulative anger over a dissatisfaction of a fraction of society. The dissatisfaction could be towards the previous regime, or caused by an indoctrination, or a fundamentalist weltanschauung. Cumulative anger could also due to unfulfilled promises of the past or the failure in keeping with the pace of the total growth. A group of people think that this way is the only available alternative and there is no other alternative ways. This way of thinking is not only wrong politically, but also morally.

History reveals us that those acts of felling the memorials are not pleasant to the ears. Though the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled on 9 April 2003 in Bagdad, the memory of the dictator is still alive with people in various forms. Though the Taliban militants dynamited the world renowned 1700 year old Buddha’s statue in Afghanistan, the memories still linger on. This kind of vandalism only proclaims the type of philosophy such people are propagating. No civilized culture of accommodation can approve this. Indian culture, which we proudly say as “sanātana” was known for accommodation. It welcomed every culture, tradition and philosophy. It has no dogmas or heresies like any other religions. It can accommodate both theistic philosophies (like Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika) and atheistic philosophies (like Sānkhya) without any tension. From the kind of unbecoming wave that is being witnessed today, we cannot but affirm the death of Indian values and culture in the near future.

Could this be a strategy to re-write Indian History? Looking at the vandalism of statues of Periyar and Ambedkar, it seems to be so. These two figures symbolize equality and justice. The thing to be suspected here is the rewriting of the Constitution and the history of India in favour of Hindutva to make the country a “Hindu Rashtra.” This re-writing is possible only then when these saviour figures are systematically established as anti-saviours. The Reuters reports, “The government of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi had quietly appointed the committee of scholars about six months earlier.” The idea is to make a “holistic study” of the evolution of 1200 years of Indian culture, though the government has vehemently denied about the re-writing of history. RSS spokesman Manmohan Vaidya said in an interview, “The true colour of Indian history is saffron and to bring about cultural changes we have to rewrite history.”  If this happens, no doubt, the democracy will be a thing of the past.

India was a country of accommodation and it should be maintained by all means today and tomorrow for the good of our new generation. For this we need rationalists and thinkers, socialists and activists, educationists and scientists. Integrity and peace come before religious ethos.  Above all, being human and teaching others to be so, is to be divine. Let us strive for this.  

Raju Felix Crasta

Professor of Philosophy and Religion

Picture source: 

http://www.sirfnews.com/communist-monstrosity-larger-than-their-fallen-statues-governments/

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/on-vandalism-of-statues-home-ministry-asks-states-to-check-such-incidents-1820589