Heartless Goddess – Reality

It is the fervent wish of all right-thinking people with compassion, concern for others and generosity to wish for a perfect world where everyone is a bleeding heart wishing for universal goodness for all the people in the world. Where there are no class, caste, religious or other differences and everyone is treated fairly and impartially. They also wish for a benevolent leader who upholds high values and has the ability to rule in a just manner.

Is it all wishful thinking? It seems so because of not taking into account human frailties such as greed, ambition, hunger for power and utter selfishness. The Goddess of Reality brings us down to the ground. It is an utterly chaotic, imperfect world filled with people having me-first attitudes more common than you can wish for. One needs to keep one’s feet on the ground and keep looking over one’s shoulder. There is enough evil in the world. Politicians will use caste, religion, money and influence to stay in power, come what may.

Here are some reality checks:

1.   Perhaps the greatest human being of recent past, Mahatma Gandhi showed great leadership and courage of conviction to take on the British rulers and their injustices and get us independence using Satyagraha and Non-violence as tools. He has no parallel.

Reality: Partition with Muslims not subscribing to Ram Rajya and establishing a Religious state and causing unprecedented horrors of genocide in the sub-continent and continuing terror. Gandhi himself fell to a bullet of hatred filled, bigoted section of the nation.

2.   Ambedkar was a giant of an intellectual and his contributions to the Indian Constitution are a class in themselves. He advocated a classless society.

Reality: His embrace of Buddhism was a failure to reform Hinduism from within and led to another political class, of Dalits with their Bhim Senas.

3 Basavanna was a brahmin who fought against orthodox religious practices and strove for a casteless society where work was worship.

Reality: His followers, Lingayats are today a powerful caste and not only that, they want a separate religion for themselves.

4.Seventy years ago, we adopted our classic Constitution which recommended a classless, casteless society, banned untouchability among other ideals.

Reality: Caste is now a major factor politicians and officials use to their advantage. There are still Two Tumbler systems in many of our villages. Housewives keep separate plates for their maids even in cities.

5. In a developed country like the US leaders like Abraham Lincoln ensured abolition of slavery hoping for a just society.

Reality: A bigoted, self-serving person with questionable business practices becomes the President and seems to have a sizeable following. Blacks are yet to see justice leading to Black Lives Matter protests.

If a well-meaning, compassionate citizen would like to have the caste ridden, ritual oriented Hindu religion(not really understanding its essence) banished from the country, is it likely to be effectively implemented? How can we do away with the faith and traditions of our millions with the passing of an order?

Ideals are something. Reality is something else.

Only checks and balances of a well-informed population can prevent misrule by self-interested, greedy politicians. The only platform for that is Democracy. As has been happening with better education, communication explosion etc. increased awareness among the citizens is our only hope.

Activist, Cynic, Layman

An activist is essentially a concerned citizen with the right moral values who seethes in anger at seeing the apparent and unmistakable injustice around him in society in general and in governments in particular. He is so worked up that he feels that it is his duty to do something to set right matters to the best of his abilities regardless of the thankless nature of his actions. For him, the right way is the only way. However, the political structure and the use of power coupled with his own lack of power makes him an unsuccessful individual tilting at windmills.

A cynic is one who thinks that we live in an imperfect world and that it is natural for greedy men to try and grab whatever they can. For him might is right and means always justify the ends. Using the influence of money, caste and religion for power and personal gains is all but natural. Given the selfish nature of men, it would be naïve to expect a value based, dharmic society. It would also be naïve to apply a moral yardstick to politicians and businessmen.

A layman is one who is completely immersed in his own affairs and least bothered about what happens outside his sphere of activities. He believes that what is destined to happen will happen. A firm believer in fate, he is convinced that everyone will suffer or prosper as per one’s Karma which explains the disparity in the fortunes of people. Worried about his near and dear ones, he is least concerned about the shenanigans of people in power and influence.

All political systems (not necessarily rulers) have the same basic goals. Welfare of citizens, eradication of poverty and sufficient production of goods and services required for a reasonably comfortable life for everyone. But the means to achieve these goals differ vastly from system to system. We are not too far removed from the times of monarchies and feudalistic societies. Democracy and governments of the people, by the people and for the people are recent phenomena. Burdened with limited universal education, awareness, gender bias, we are far removed from an ideal system of governance.

All systems are founded on the fact that there are two major essentials to be able to achieve anything. Power to govern and Resources. It is ironical that if a country has sufficient resources like Saudi Arabia, people do not really care about the type of Government as long as their needs are met. Power is in the hands of monarchy but nobody seems to mind.

If you ask the communists, they will say power flows through the barrel of a gun. Authoritarian governments like Nazi Germany can lead to unmitigated disaster like the holocaust. Or for instance the horrifying aftermath of Cultural Revolution under Mao in China. On paper, democracy seems the best possible solution and would be ideal if only everyone is committed to serve in a selfless moralistic manner, which is asking for the impossible. Communists and socialists seem to overlook the innate selfish and greedy nature of men resulting in corruption, scandals and what not. They also tend to forget that all men are not equal and that each has his own strengths and weaknesses.

Can anyone name a single Indian politician in the past 70 years who hasn’t seen his fortunes increase exponentially during his period of service? Or for that matter, not used caste, influence and money to get elected? Idealism unfortunately has very little space in politics.

The silver lining is that if things go too much out of hand, a politician will be voted out by the collective wisdom of the electorate. It is therefore imperative that education, awareness and righteousness would spread far more widely than at present in the population to act as checks and balances against immoral politicians.